Got out of the wheeling, for the sake of wheeling, crowd a while ago. Got rid of the jeep. Now I'm traveling more, to see more. Bought a fullsize. Upgrades will only be for the task at hand, and our trails are easy.
My pattern, every time I start over:
Armored tires. IE thick sidewall MT's made for rough use. Certain tires just don't fail and leave me stranded. Cooper STT's are my tire of choice. 35x12.5r18 fits my truck stock and gives me a couple extra inches of clearance under the axles. This also means wheels, because I'll keep a set of cheap skinnys on the oem wheels. Don't care about noise, appearance, or whatever. One tire has air in it, the other has a giant gaping hole. I'll stick with the ones that work.
Fender flares. To keep gravel off the sides of the truck. And/or your windshields.
Hood mounted ditch lights. Making tight right turns, my headlights miss the apex of the turn, if I need to swing wide for a 25' trailer or so. I point these lights out sideways, not over the hood. Handy for ready addresses, or camp sight numbers as well.
Recovery points for winching with a highlift jack. Electric winches aren't really needed until I start running a slide in camper. Truck has these stock now.
Radio. Nope, not this time. If ya'll can't make up your minds what type of radio to comm with, you'll just need to use hand signals. I know ''go to the surface'', ''out of air'', ''shark'', and the middle finger. I'm not buying twenty different radios just to hear ya'll yap absolutely nothing constructive.
GPS on a tablet. Garmin on the windshield. Not a fancy overlanding type, just a cheap road version.
Basic skidplates. Protect the xfer case and plastic fuel tank. Nothing stupid strong that can support the trucks weight. That's not needed. Just something to make a loud scraping noise to let me know to back up and take another line. Truck has these stock.
Shocks. American cars have terrible shocks. I'll upgrade to Bilstein ASAP. Most likely will add a BDS 4" lift for a smoother ride on gravel roads in the near future. There's only so much you can do with limited suspension travel. If a kit nets room for an extra inch of shock compression, that's priceless.
I just carry my recovery gear and tools in one tote, and my camp gear in another. I don't currently overland with much more camp gear than a backpacker for now. Ground tent for now. Will look into Bundutec slide in campers for open spaces in the near future. An RTT and rack will just eat up the camper budget.
Recovery gear is usually, Hilift for winching, winch kit, chain, winch rope extension, shovel, Tireclaws, tire chains (optional). Enough room in that tote for a blade removed chainsaw as well.
Spare parts as the truck ages: Alternator under rear seat. Starter under rear seat. Air filters x2. Wipers, TS bulb. Gallon of oil. Brake fluid.
