What are the best 4x4 mods for remote area driving?

A standard 4WD wagon or ute is not going to be good enough if you plan to take it into remote country and expect it to come back out unscathed.

There are certain accessories and equipment improvements to ensure your vehicle handles tough terrain and be safer for you in the process.

Here we’re going through the starting list of modifications or gear to take.

If you’re serious about travelling Outback or deep into the Aussie wilderness, there will be a long laundry list of things to do to your 4x4 to make it a truly capable remote country expedition truck.

Ideally, you would have everything on our list sorted before your first off-road foray.

There are also many other preparations for such a journey that you will need to know about, which you can go to from other articles in this series (see links below).

In this case, we’re simply listing the gear you should have in terms of priority, and give an estimate of costs involved.

Before we get to the 4WD gear you need, there is another requirement for enjoyable remote bush touring that you must have.

It’s one thing to start making your 4WD bush-capable, but another to be bush-capable yourself. If you are a novice to four-wheel driving, do some 4WD training and/or join a 4WD club and do a first-aid course.

The Outback is a stunning, beautiful place to visit, but also a place where things can go wrong very quickly if you are unprepared.

When buying gear for your 4WD, go for quality items as much as you can. There is no point saving money on equipment that leaves you stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Having said that, prices have dropped a lot for some equipment over the past few years and there are also plenty of brands to choose from.

With the basics covered, you’ll then be able to pick and choose additional gear according to what you’ve realised you need.

Long-range fuel tank/s, lifted suspension, driving lights, cargo drawers, roof racks, rear tyre/jerry carriers, underbody protection plates... The list of 4WD touring gear is endless.

It’s also important to be aware of your 4WD’s legal payload with all this gear.

All you need to know about Outback trip planning

Nothing will influence your off-roading more than tyres. If your 4WD stock wagon has passenger-construction highway-pattern tyres, they are the first thing that has to go.

Keep the highway terrain tyres if they’re still good, as you may still want to fit them for urban driving.

Good off-road tyres of a Light Truck construction will set you back roughly $1200-$1500 a set of five.

Don’t skimp on the fifth (spare) tyre, thinking that if you need it you can whip out the never-used H/T spare – it will likely be punctured in no time.

It’s not a must-have but if can afford the money and space in your vehicle for it, get a second spare wheel and LT tyre. You’ll be glad you did if you’re unlucky enough to shred two tyres on rough Outback tracks. It can and does happen.

A tyre plug kit is a cheap and simple item that’ll keep you going out bush where otherwise you might have run out of tyres. For less than $50 you’ll get a basic kit with a  T-shaped implement to plug the tyre, some plugs and a hole roughening tool. For under $200 you’ll get a quality kit with loads of plugs.

There’s no point repairing a flat tyre with the plug kit and trying to find a servo to pump up the tyres on top of the Victorian High Country, for example. You’ll have to spend about $200 to get a decent 12-volt air compressor, which can be mounted and wired into your vehicle or used as a stand-alone item.

What off-road tyres do you need?

Sooner or later, every off-roader gets their vehicle stuck; it’s just a matter of time. So if you’re travelling in remote areas, you’ll definitely need recovery gear.

A full, quality recovery kit with everything you’ll ever need – recovery tracks, a snatch strap, two shackles and tow strap plus drag chain in a bag – costs up to about $600.

You can get away with a snatch strap and two shackles for about $100-$150, or a pair of recovery tracks from about $250.

You should always carry a winch when traveling solo in difficult, remote terrain. You could argue that it’s not really necessary if you have another vehicle to recover you with a snatch strap, but what if that vehicle has also become bogged? It does happen…

A hand winch is the cheap option, costing up to a few hundred dollars but it’s usually heavy and takes up a fair bit of space in your vehicle.

An electric portable winch mounted on a hitch is an ideal unit but one that again requires dedicated secured load space and also hitch receivers front and rear to be truly effective. Electric winches have become incredibly cheap, and we won’t go into the pros and cons of buying the cheapest.

However, a winch that can be installed on a bull bar and powered by an auxiliary battery set-up in the vehicle is the most common fitment. This set-up (winch and aux battery) will set you back about $2500 (fitted), depending on the winch quality and AGM battery you choose.

What 4WD recovery gear do you need?

Having some sort of frontal protection is vital when travelling Outback. The chances you will strike wildlife are high in the bush.

While the most dangerous time is the dusk-to-dawn period, wildlife can randomly find its way onto the road in front of you at any time. The resulting damage to the radiator and (if fitted) the transmission cooler will make your vehicle undriveable, easily leaving you stranded in the middle of nowhere.

That’s not even mentioning the rest of the potential damage, such as bent front guards and bonnet and broken grille and headlights.

The main choice is either aluminium or steel bull bars and these range in design from a small single-hoop tubular bar fitted in front of the standard bumper bar through to a full steel replacement bull bar. The smaller (typically aluminium) bars do not offer much wildlife strike protection.

Check that the bar has tabs to fit auxiliary lights and an aerial mounting point as you may want to fit these accessories later on.

A full replacement steel bar will ideally have hoops protecting the radiator and lights to offer the best frontal protection in remote areas. Don’t forget to try to get a bull bar that has winch compatibility, if you decide to fit a winch later.

Note that there are legislation requirements regarding protrusions to bull bars (such as light mounting).

Depending on the bull bar brand and the vehicle fitment, it will cost you from about $500 for an aluminium hoop bar that fits in front of the standard bumper to around $2500 for a full steel bull bar.

An aftermarket suspension lift kit might seem like an unnecessary cost but if you’re bouncing your way over dune after dune in a fully laden 4WD you will soon see its value for remote Outback travel.

The thing is that while a lift kit that typically offers a 50mm suspension lift sounds like a lot, you actually only get about half that over standard with a fully loaded, bull bar-clad 4WD anyway.

Nevertheless, it still helps reduce the chances of grounding your 4x4 on gnarly terrain and reducing momentum at the very least and damage at worst.

Because factory-standard suspension is always made to a price, a quality matched aftermarket suspension spring/damper set should also see a marked improvement in ride quality on the rough stuff.

This is not a cheap bit of gear; expect to pay around $3000 (fitted) for a 50mm lift spring and damper kit.

Everyone has a mobile phone but they’re not much chop in remote areas. A UHF CB radio for vehicle-to-vehicle communications will cost you about $80 for a quality hand-held CB, and from about $400 for a quality vehicle-mounted kit.

You get what you pay for with these, so only buy the cheap packaged hand-helds as a back-up or second radio for when range is not so important, such as undertaking a recovery operation.

Try to get as much grunt as possible; 5 Watts is the norm for in-vehicle units and make sure you have a good whip aerial fitted, which will cost from around $80 for a quality item.

Hand-helds are typically 0.5 to 1.0W although 5W units are also now available.

A UHF offers only limited range and is not the go-to comms for an emergency. While there are several Outback communications options, if you’re travelling in remote regions buying or hiring a sat-phone is very good idea.

A sat-phone will set you back about $1500 (plus usage costs).

All you need to know about navigating in the bush

Before you go into remote country, the basics you’ll need are:

• Off-road All/Terrain or Mud-Terrain tyres, tyre plugs and a 12V tyre compressor
• A full recovery kit and, if possible, an electric winch
• A bull bar, preferably a full steel unit with winch compatibility and tangs for driving light and aerial
• Aftermarket 50mm suspension lift kit
• UHF 5-Watt radio and whip aerial installed on the vehicle