TOP 5 EASY & CHEAP Overland Vehicle mods everyone FORGETS!

welcome back to another episode of road pick me today. I'm going to talk about a bunch of small

vehicle

modifications that are absolutely essential for driving around the world, but that

everyone

seems to forget again in all these four-wheel drive and

overland

vehicle

s. shows I went to last year, people are interested in wheels, tires, suspension and LED light bars, but they didn't cover the essentials, they didn't cover the things that really make the difference between having a great ride or have difficulties as you progress. so if you're wondering what those little things that stick around are, I'm going to deal with them right now, so the number one item that no one told me about before driving from Alaska to Argentina.

Take a look at my jeep in that photo. What do you notice about him? front of the vehicle now take a look at a photo of this jeep before you send it, what do you notice too? That's right there is no front plate so where is it registered and where was my last jeep registered in those jurisdictions they don't issue a front plate and I actually tried to get one and they told me it wasn't possible they just wouldn't make me one and that's perfectly legal here, but the thing is when you're driving into Central America when you're driving through Africa, I mean. a big reason why the police are going to stop you and try to extort money from you, so I would say that more than 50 percent of the times I was stopped in Latin America, the police would take a quick look and check my documents and then they would tell you that you don't have a front license plate, that's a hundred dollar fine and if you're really breaking the rules in your country, you can't do much about it and you'll be stuck, so what?

I recommend going to a sign writer, a place you know makes signs for businesses, and asking them to make you a plaque. I had this one made, it's nice and small and doesn't say you know the details if you want. take your original license plate and simply have them copy it, say do the same to me so it looks exactly the same and stick it on the front of your vehicle while you're at it. Bonus tip for the front and urea plate, attach them with bolts they are not

easy

to remove so use twist bits or better yet I have this riveted and I put a rivet on my back plate and it also says something funny like Yukon or California, I mean, there's a real chance someone will go to If you want a souvenir, they might snatch your plate, although it's probably not a big deal in your home country.

Imagine you're in the Congo and someone suddenly steals your plate, that's a big deal, so stick them on with bolts or rivets so people can't take them off easily, another thing people often don't think about. It's about installing a kill switch in your vehicle so I put one in my Jeep here and it really gives me peace of mind knowing that even if someone took the keys away. They're going to jump into the driver's seat even when I put my foot on the clutch, nothing happens, so the reason is that I bypass the clutch safety switch and I actually have a switch somewhere here on the driving cabin.

I'm not going to tell you where it is and it's a momentary switch. I have to hold it down to get the starter to turn on and since it's hidden and a secret, no one knows where it is. I mean worst case scenario if someone plants a gun. my face and wanted the keys, I would absolutely give them the keys, but they still won't be able to start the vehicle and I would probably play dumb and say, "Oh, you know, it's overheating or the starter isn't working properly." I'm going to have to push it to start it or jump start it or, you know, try to get out of this and pretend like it's not my fault and you don't know there's an off switch and since it's just a momentary switch, I just have to hold it. pressed to make the starter turn and then when I release it again everything is normal but the kill switch is active so even if I'm sitting in traffic or something if I turn off the engine I don't have to do anything further. but the kill switch is active, the engine won't start again immediately unless you hold it down, so it's a reasonably simple mod depending on your vehicle.

I did a great article for this jeep on how you can do it. There is a link in the description, but search Google to find out how you can make a kill switch work for your vehicle. Another one here on the front of the vehicle is the daytime running lights, so I know they've become super popular. It looks great for a magazine. photos or you want your LED light bar on because you spent all that money you might as well have it on and in fact this jeep is a Canadian spec so by law every time the engine is running the Headlights are already at half power, which means they are on. always on, I can't actually turn them off, maybe this isn't technically illegal in many countries, but again, a lot of cops will try to bribe you.

It happened to me many times in Latin America where they say it is illegal to drive with your lights on during the day you have to give me 50, so whatever vehicle you have, get a programmer that turns off the daytime running lights. I turned mine off when I sent mine to Africa and then use that programmer again now that I turned them on. turn them back on so I'm legal here in Canada not only is it about avoiding extortion but having daytime running lights is really painful because tons of people around the world are not used to seeing them and so when You drive through their little town they want to tell you that you left your lights on so they are trying to be helpful but the problem is they do this and they are like pointing at the front of your vehicle and you start to worry and I think it's because my lights are on or because there's actually something wrong with my vehicle and I should go out and take a look and you know, the first time it happens, the first 50 times, you know it's no big deal.

Believe me, when it happens ten times a day for three years, it gets really annoying and really makes you feel a little anxious that something is wrong, so if your vehicle has daytime running lights, have a programmer turn them off before you arrive. to Latin America or Central America. Asia or Africa are simply going to be more trouble than they're worth. I get asked all the time how I was able to sleep in the intense heat and humidity once you're in Panama or Colombia, you're in the Congo. In northern Australia the humidity is intense even at night and what makes a huge difference is having a bit of air moving so I bought this little fan, it's about £15 on Amazon.

I'll add a link in the description. This thing runs on a battery and it's USB powered and it charges via USB and it has this little clamp on the bottom which means you can hold it anywhere you want, so at night I take it upstairs with me, I hold it to my little hanging wire and then I have it even on the lowest. set up just having this small amount of air, you can probably hear it on the microphone, having that small amount of air blowing on me makes a big difference in how well I sleep and in fact once I realized how good it was , I put a USB cable on top, so Now I plug this thing in at night and when it's really humid, I put it on full noise and put it directly on my face, it helps me fall asleep.

The white noise is nice and the air moves, and then at some point in the night. I always wake up and turn it down or turn it off. A simple small 15 fan doesn't take up much space. It will change your world. How well you sleep once you reach humid parts of the world. One last piece of little kit that I have that makes a huge difference to my happiness is my little shower bag, so it's called msr drummond milk. I'll put a link in the description. It's not expensive, but it's a very durable black bag that works perfectly as a shower.

At the end of a long day of driving, I put this on the hood or hang it in the sun and in about half an hour you'll be surprised how hot the water gets and, at the end of the day, when you want to rinse off. Dusting before climbing into bed in Africa. This one thing made a huge difference in my happiness. Another reason I really love having it is because it has about 10 liters of capacity, about two and a half gallons. I carry this thing full. time and it's not filtered water so I never drink it but I can use it to wash my hands or feet when they get dirty and then if I run out of drinking water I can easily pump it through my filter into drinking water. system and now I have emergency drinking water, so it's really nice to have the same extra water capacity on board and a big advantage of having the pop-up roof is that when I'm ready to shower, I have a big carabiner in the bag to just I hang up like this and then when I turn it on, here's my shower, right here, I know it doesn't look glamorous, it doesn't look like much, but this makes a big difference in getting rid of the dust. take off at the end of the day and after rinsing like this your body temperature will drop, go upstairs and you'll be ready for bed and I know this won't work in the Arctic in winter. but you know, I'm going to tell you a secret, not many people land in the Arctic in winter, believe me, I've been there at minus 48 degrees, it's something really special and it's not something that many vehicles or many people are doing. interested in doing it, you probably want to go somewhere warm, you want to go somewhere nice and nice, a shower like this will be perfectly fine as soon as the weather is above 25 degrees Celsius, maybe around 65 or 70 degrees Fahrenheit, this works great. and it's all you need, it's very simple and it works, that's why I love it.

There you have it. I know they're just little things, but they make a big difference in how much you'll enjoy your trip overall. I'd love to know in the comments if you guys knew about these things, if you've already dealt with them on your vehicle, or if you're going to go out now and modify your vehicle this way, so let me know in the comments. Like, subscribe to the channel, make sure you don't miss future videos and as always there will be many more like this, see you next time.