Modding addiction...I think

Why is it I can never buy a vehicle and not mod it? And not just mod it, but mod it so it can absolutely handle anything.
Even things I know I won't go looking for .......but what if I stumble upon it? Then the money I spent was worth it, right?

Hmmmmmm anyone else on TW have this issue? Lol

 

I can never leave anything alone, always look at each vehicle as a blank canvas.

 

Pretty sure you're the only one.

You might want to seek out some help or something

 

When I was younger I did that same thing. Over time (and becoming and engineer) I slowly realized two things that cured me:

1. The absolute most reliable and durable your vehicle will ever be is when it is stock. No electrical or suspension or performance mods. Tires and stuff like that are fine.

2. No matter how much you mod it to be ready for anything, something will break it or stop it. A rock, a wall, snow, another vehicle, whatever. You cannot mod for every situation. For example, if you install a steel bumper to protect from deer strikes and you hit a moose... you mount $3K worth of Rigid light bars and the weather turns foggy...

Those are the two hard taught lessons I learned when I was younger. Now? I just buy a vehicle suited for my lifestyle. If I want to go hard off road I take my mountain bike or a four wheeler. The Tacoma, in stock form and decent tires, will take most people further than their courage will allow.

 

I did . I talked to a therapist who owned a jeep. He said I was perfectly normal !

 

There's a good trick I learned. I've sworn I'll never heavily modify a vehicle again. Look at my Tacoma. It doesn't work.

What does work is buy something you can't modify. My dad is a huge Land Rover guy so I bought a used Range Rover. There are basically zero mods for those.

So I sold it and bought a Tacoma.

 

I think it's in our nature to want to build things in and around us, in order to overcome and achieve....

..so we can be ______ magnets.

 

Mod-free mod for the win!

 

i feel the same! always influenced by TW and social media lol. but its worth it!!!

 

I've been clean for 2 months. Bought a lift and camper yesterday. Damn addictions always come back.

 

It's funny... in my 20+ years of car and motorcycle ownership, I never modded any of my vehicles. I left them all 100% stock (minus some stereo upgrades as a kid)

However, my Tacoma is a different story. I've owned it for two months now, and I've already tinted, added katzkin leather, swapped for a scooped hood, added bed racks and various accessories. I plan to get T4R Pro wheels and BFG KO2's this week, and a pro grille a little later.

I have a bad, bad disease!

 

Yeah and penicillin does not cure this disease.....ask me how I know!

 

O RLY. I beg to differ.
Even stock isn't perfect (cue the TSB list)
Would you consider it "modding" when I fix or rather improve on a factory problem?

 

What Range Rover can't be modded???

 

Ah, I didn't say "perfect," I said reliable and durable!

If you were improving on a known defect from the factory (diff gasket for example) then no, it wouldn't be a mod. However, if it is subjective (ride quality, body height, ground clearance, acceleration times, stereo sound, color, comfort, etc) and you change it for your liking, then it's a mod lol.

Technically, I have modded my truck... I installed the Hondo radio knobs! My reasoning? My hand and fingers are too big to turn the stock little baby knobs... while the Hondo knobs are great, the little ones that come from the factory work fine too. As a matter of fact you can run the stereo without even touching the knobs. I guess they call that backsliding...
I used to be bad 30 years ago though. I would buy a new vehicle for $25K and spend another $20K on mods. Then I would be sad. Then I would buy a new stock vehicle and be happy! Then I would spend 2X the cost of the new vehicles on mods and be sad...

Now for 15 years I just stop at buying new vehicles and am happy!
Seriously though, there is truth to the fact that a stock vehicle is the most reliable and durable.

 

got to make it your own

 

I modded - tonneu (spelling) tri-fold, little rubber "rings" for the radio knobs. Got that idea from the forum!! Oh yea, rear seat cover for dog & kiddo. I really don't want to spend the cash to mod my truck. Most of it goes to saving for kiddos future.

 

I'll disagree. Mass produced vehicles are designed to achieve the maximum reliability possible while constrained to a specific budget to keep manufacturing and production cost within a defined window.

I'm sure if you gave the Toyota engineers free reign of the budget like most of us do around here with mods, the stock Tacoma wouldn't look like it does now.

Try to convince anybody that the Hitachi shocks on the Sport are more reliable and durable than throwing on a set of Fox.

 

Ahhh. Don't confuse performance with reliability and durability! A shock's simple job is to dampen the spring right? That's all. The Hitachi shock will do that for 100K miles or so and you then throw them away. The Fox shock will dampen the springs BETTER (performance mod) but, even if you never took it off road, will require maintenance and rebuilds long before 100K miles. So in that case you are adding performance, nor reliability and durability. Same for a new radio or new lighting or new suspension or any mod really. Mods almost always are for two things: 1) Add performance or capability or 2) For looks. I still maintain that a stock vehicle is the most reliable and durable configuration.

Now, if you told Toyota engineers they could spend an extra $20K to make the Tacoma MORE reliable and durable, they could! Also more efficient! But for weekend warriors or small shops, they only can add capability and performance, not reliability and durability. And truly, it's no fun to add those things. Much more fun to add that cool looking wheel or those blue shocks with the reservoirs than adding another millimeter thickness to the bed floor... or changing the alloy a tiny bit to get another 100K miles out of the oil pan flange, or changing the spec on the wheel bearings to gain 50K more miles before failure.

 

I would agree to some extent that many features are more reliable but people generally don't mod those. I would disagree with durability. My steel skid plates speak for themselves. Most of the upgrades I have made are specifically for durability.