CoffeeGoat
Active member
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2020
- Messages
- 137
I finally bit the bullet and purchased a new truck a couple of weeks ago to cover all of my families "truck" needs. We're reducing the fleet from 3 (an SUV, small car, and minivan) to just the minivan and a truck as I end up going to home depot far more often then hitting the trails. I picked up a new Nissan Titan Pro4X, crew cab-short bed, and it's entirely stock at this point and I'm trying to maximize it's general usefulness both for fun stuff (hunting, camping, etc) and every day stuff like driving to work, going to home depot, etc and since this is the first full size truck I've owned I wanted to make sure I'm not making any grave mistakes here.
Thing One - Pick up a locking bed cover, haven't fully decided between a rolling one (like the Bak Revolver X4) or a folding (Bakflip MX4). I've used toppers before on my old nissan 720 and while they were great when you needed a ton of lockable storage they sucked the rest of the time. You couldn't easily pick up loose material, you had to crawl around to get stuff to the back, and while they lock - either you get terrible visibility all the time or you display all your gear behind a thin plexiglas window. I could remove the topper in the off season but then I need a place to store it, and they are a bit of a hassle to install. It seems like a rolling/folding cover is a good happy medium between lockable/weatherproof storage and convenience the rest of the time.
Thing Two - Build a custom contractors rack out of t-slot framing aluminum. Because we're always working on the house it seems like getting a rack to hold long items is a no brainer. It might affect overhead clearance a touch, but being able to hold 12' boards is pretty valuable. It doesn't affect vision, I can easily add custom gear mounting points as necessary and it's cheaper to build one exactly like I want then find one off the shelf.
Thing Three - Tires or chains maybe get some new ones? The Pro4X comes with General Grabber APT tires, which are a pretty good in between all terrain/road tire that are quiet, get good mileage, and are three peaks snow rated. However, they're P rated and hence I'm a bit worried about longevity and survivability of them while out hunting. This year I'll be around Craig CO, so I wouldn't expect anything really nasty and I drive a fair bit for work so I'm leaning towards just picking up some chains and hoping they survive the year and when they wear out, replace them with something better. I'm worried if I jump head first into some meaty AT's I'll pay for it in mileage/noise in my commute all year long...
Thing Four - Get a bed Tent. One of the major advantages of a full topper is the ability to camp in the back - but I don't think it overwhelms the disadvantages. This won't be a "this year" purchase but one of those cool truck bed tents seem like the way to get the best of both worlds - camping comfort when you need it, but light, inexpensive and easy to remove when you don't.
What do you think, does it sound like a reasonable approach this year? Anything else I should be considering?
Thing One - Pick up a locking bed cover, haven't fully decided between a rolling one (like the Bak Revolver X4) or a folding (Bakflip MX4). I've used toppers before on my old nissan 720 and while they were great when you needed a ton of lockable storage they sucked the rest of the time. You couldn't easily pick up loose material, you had to crawl around to get stuff to the back, and while they lock - either you get terrible visibility all the time or you display all your gear behind a thin plexiglas window. I could remove the topper in the off season but then I need a place to store it, and they are a bit of a hassle to install. It seems like a rolling/folding cover is a good happy medium between lockable/weatherproof storage and convenience the rest of the time.
Thing Two - Build a custom contractors rack out of t-slot framing aluminum. Because we're always working on the house it seems like getting a rack to hold long items is a no brainer. It might affect overhead clearance a touch, but being able to hold 12' boards is pretty valuable. It doesn't affect vision, I can easily add custom gear mounting points as necessary and it's cheaper to build one exactly like I want then find one off the shelf.
Thing Three - Tires or chains maybe get some new ones? The Pro4X comes with General Grabber APT tires, which are a pretty good in between all terrain/road tire that are quiet, get good mileage, and are three peaks snow rated. However, they're P rated and hence I'm a bit worried about longevity and survivability of them while out hunting. This year I'll be around Craig CO, so I wouldn't expect anything really nasty and I drive a fair bit for work so I'm leaning towards just picking up some chains and hoping they survive the year and when they wear out, replace them with something better. I'm worried if I jump head first into some meaty AT's I'll pay for it in mileage/noise in my commute all year long...
Thing Four - Get a bed Tent. One of the major advantages of a full topper is the ability to camp in the back - but I don't think it overwhelms the disadvantages. This won't be a "this year" purchase but one of those cool truck bed tents seem like the way to get the best of both worlds - camping comfort when you need it, but light, inexpensive and easy to remove when you don't.
What do you think, does it sound like a reasonable approach this year? Anything else I should be considering?
here’s what I’m planning if it’s helpful:
