mods you wouldnt do again ...

[4x4x4doors]

I guess you could say that im pretty well finished with most "mods". And as luck would have it you eventually find yourself dumping tons of time, effort, and money into a vehicle that's on the fritz anyways. Then you end up losing out not only the value of the vehicle but all the parts you installed. Case in point, my old dodge. Purchased for $7000, spend $400 on new alternator 2 weeks after buying (used), spent $210 on lift pumps, spent $1500 on new injection pump, spent $3500 on a full transmission rebuild/build up. Then spent $500 on a programmer, $200 on an extra set of wheels, $400 on exhaust, $200 on aux lights. I spent more in parts + accessories than I did for the purchase price. Not counting basic maintainance and including the cost of the vehicle itself I put ~$14000 into the truck. Know what I got for it at the dealership? $1,000.

Oh, and dont mod your DD!

I usually drive my DDs until they aren't worth much to anyone but me anyways. When I bought the Colorado, I had a BlaZR2 to sell. I plugged it into the NADA oline to get an idea of trade-in price and discovered it was actully LOWER with the winch bumper on it than without. It may be my metro area or it may be the assumption that it has been beat to death but trade-in value (per NADA) was higher without the mods including $1000 worth of bumper and winch. I promptly went into the basement and reinstalled every stock part I could find.

 

[mustangwarrior]

yea i agree with you on that, but i had them run dual exhaust out the back, custom bent with 45's out each side, i shoulda either ran a single tail pipe or dumped it in front of the axle and saved a bunch of money, my other regret is not buying a stainless muffler, i;ve had this one for about 2 years and its just about shot, gonna look into a new one later on

 

[Erik N]

Both my Suburbans have Magnaflow mufflers, both installed by the PO's. I wish they both had stock exhaust.

They are way too droning. My wife says she can hear the truck coming for a whole minute before I show up. And it has a 454, it's not like it revs to 7000rpm and needs all that breathing room.

Lame mod IMO.

 

[Seeker]

My 89 FJ62 has a confounded Magnaflow. The thing drones in the power band and sets off harmonic vibrations at various RPMs. Drives me insane. I get that the PO probably had to replace the exhaust at some point, I just wish they would have selected something quiet.

 

[7wt]

What I find interesting about this thread is that it makes me realize all the things I wanted for my truck over the years were just window dressing. I have kept my truck as stock as I could for several reasons, the biggest is that I just couldn't justify spending the money on mods that I absolutely did not need. I kept my mods very simple. I added all the needed recovery gear along with a place to put it, a 2.5" lift, better tires and a lot of seat time. I would venture a guess that my truck is one of the few of the old crowd Tacoma's still on the road. It's getting a little long in the tooth and needs some new tires and a bit of TLC but after that it should be good for another 100K or so. It still is my daily driver, my fishing truck and my personal escape pod. It has been all over California, Florida, Texas and New England. It's been over trails I never thought it could and some I actually feel bad about asking of it. All in all my default plan of keeping it simple has really paid off. Last week on a beach in RI,

 

[zukimoo]

Biggest issue I ever ran into was trying to keep the "bigger tires" ball rolling. From having issues with parts, cops and insurance company when I finally decided to take it all off I ended up having a lot more fun and following the "big" rigs almost everywhere they went. No mud for me so tire size comes second and I now employ the Kiss method...keep it simple stupid.

 

[sourdough]

Air Bags I added to help haul my camper. Waste of money and time when one developed a leak on a trip. I don't recommend.

 

[Regcabguy]

Air Bags I added to help haul my camper. Waste of money and time when one developed a leak on a trip. I don't recommend.

I've had Firestones and now Carli longtravel airbags on my Dodge. No issues with either but in my case uninflated only drops the body maybe 1". I could still drive home fine.
I went to replace my stock clutch and was talked into a Chinese made Valeo one. It started slipping @ 11 months. Could have gotten a replacement for free but the labor...went with a quality Southbend this time around.
Deaver's hard to beat for a rear springpack if the camper never comes off.

 

[TireTracks]

I can think of a few.
Cheap aux Lights. I got the lights free, but I sunk a ton of time into wireing them. Went with a relay, couldent get it to work. Massive 50amp switch later and I have never used them. The lenses have fallen off now. I might replace them with better, but Not sure if it's worth it.

Modding the exaust, Went from stock( too quiet for a 15 year old me) to A single flowmaster on the stock pipe( did not sound like I wanted)I think full duel's with Flowmaster 40's are what I need. Sounds sexy at idle. 20 year old me thinks they resonate and Drone Like hell on the highway and wish I hadent wasted all that money.

14" round air filter. 15year old me strikes again. Decide to replace good stock filter and snorkle seltup with a $$ polished aluminum edelbrock filter cause it "looks Kewl". Waste of money. Going to go back to stock and sell of the other one.

 

[HotrodSmurf]

I really wish 17 year-old me could have seen the wisdom of this thread. I felt I had to modify EVERYTHING. I wanted more power, bigger transmission, stronger axles. When in reality my f150 was a damn good little truck that went everywhere I pointed it. I figured jeeps have huge aftermarket support, traded in the ford for my wj just to find out I can't go the places I used to. Asking jeep guys only gets me the reply "you'll never have fun in a stock rig". I still fail to see the point off sinking an unknown amount of $ into a jeep that has already cost $7000 just to keep up with a $1500 pickup. I never even had to do the crazy mods to learn a lesson. Don't believe all the hype, or the off road magazines, I'm not rock crawling. Keep it simple and spend the time enjoying it for its purpose rather than on a computer looking for ways to change it.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

Buy once, cry once. I had an engine built by the cheapest shop. Oh, she's strong as hell, but hasn't been the most reliable. If I could do it over, I'd drop a simple old 12 valve Cummins 6BT in her.

 

[RMP&O]

Mods I wouldn't do again? Hmmnnn....

Making a truck to heavy. I honestly can't think of many mods I have regretted. I usually spend a ton of time thinking things through and do a ton of research before doing mods. So the biggest mistake or what I wouldn't do again is take a truck with a small GVW and toss a bunch of mods at it. Next thing you know it is 1,500lbs over GVW and no mods short of selling it or making it light again will fix it.

IMHO, this is the biggest overlooked and biggest mistake made in the overland upgrade, mod, build world. IE, increasing GVW above what the truck is designed to do and built to do. People don't seem to realize bumpers, sliders, winches, skid plates, electronic gizmos, bigger tires and wheels, overland platforms built in back, camping gear, a fridge, ect ect ect adds up fast. A very heavy truck not designed for the weight is going to be harder to control on and off road, components wear out faster and it shortens the overall life of the truck. All that seems to defeat the purpose of an overland truck to me. On top of this you have the crowd that thinks stock is best in an overland truck. Well, stock suspension or brakes or bearings and axles and transmissions or whatever are not going to do well in a truck that is at GVW 24/7 or way over GVW.

Cheers

 

[clang]

GREAT informational thread. I have always been a proponent of mostly stock except for very specific specialized applications - rock crawling, desert racing etc.

Mod I would not do again - 15K Warn winch on my Ram 2500 Cummins. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but it was mostly a waste of money. The winch, bumper, reinforcements to actually make a 15K winch safe and usable on a 4 ton truck, electrical etc. was expensive, and I do most of my own work. I can't imagine what it would have cost to have a shop do it.

In over 7 years of owning that truck and taking it some nasty/hairy places, I never needed the winch. I used it less that a half dozen times over the years, and always to help someone else. The only time I ever actually needed a winch, I was on a motorcycle in the middle of BFE, but that's another story. I do have a PTO winch on my 88 LC, but it came that way, and hey, PTO winches are cool, right?

As for mods in general, my go to mod for all my vehicles is a quality set of the correct tools for the vehicle, including a portable welder, and the knowledge/ability to use them. Along with that, a solid storage solution for said tools that can be securely mounted, but easily removed. It has saved my ***** more than once while off the beaten path.

 

[4x4junkie]

I looked over the first few & last few pages of this thread... Maybe I'm one of the oddballs here... Of numerous mods I have on my current rig, about the only one I really regret is the Magnaflow muffler (for reasons others have already given). Fortunately this one isn't too real overly difficult to undo, however I've still yet to get around to doing anything about it lol.
Removing the OE secondary muffler probably didn't help either.

Oh, also my egg-shaped Goodyear MT/R-Ks have out lived their welcome as well.

 

[01tundra]

Making a truck to heavy.

This is the #1 on my list and I lived this mistake in a major way. And it's a very accurate statement saying once you go there it's practically impossible to go back the other direction.

I tried to go in the opposite direction with my Tacoma, but it's still a little heavier than I had hoped for.......but still in way better shape weight wise than the Tundra was.