Aragorn
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I recently went through a personal exercise that brought me some inner peace when it comes to daydreaming about modifying my new Ranger, and controlling my impulses to pull the trigger on buying too many mods too soon. Since it really did help me, I feel compelled to share.
My solution: Create a formal, running list of the goals (short and long term) of what you want your truck to be able to do, and your desired truck modification goals (short and long term), and then make sure the goals and mod plans align temporally.
I used my phone's Notes app so that I can look at it when I'm daydreaming, move things around, and amend the list as time moves along and circumstances change. The list should contain the following sections:
The "Mods" sections is meant to help you with a few different things:
Taking the time to assemble this list really did give me a level of inner peace, as silly as that may sound. I had been spending too much time on the internet vacillating over what to buy, when to do it, thinking about how to go about it, and everything else. I feel better now that I have a plan, even if it subject to change. I hope perhaps creating a list like this can help someone else, as well.
My solution: Create a formal, running list of the goals (short and long term) of what you want your truck to be able to do, and your desired truck modification goals (short and long term), and then make sure the goals and mod plans align temporally.
I used my phone's Notes app so that I can look at it when I'm daydreaming, move things around, and amend the list as time moves along and circumstances change. The list should contain the following sections:
- Truck Purposes - Short Term
- Truck Purposes - Long Term
- Mods - Current
- Mods - Short Term Goals (<1 year)
- Mods - Medium Term Goals (2-3 years)
- Mods - Long Term Goals (3-5 years)
- Mods - Pipe Dream Build
- Truck purposes - Short Term: Daily driver, payload hauling for DIY projects, and car camping.
- Truck Purpose - Long Term: Off-road toy and the ability to tow other toys and trailers.
The "Mods" sections is meant to help you with a few different things:
- Current mods:
- Provide yourself a way to personally track what you have already modified.
- I found that I derived satisfaction from just looking at this section and being reminded of what I have already done to make my truck my own.
- Short term mod goals (<1 year):
- What helps you accomplish what you use your truck for now: Force yourself to consider what mods actually help your truck accomplish the short term truck purposes that you specified. I.e. if you plan on hauling 18' lumber soon, you need to buy gear needed to haul 18' lumber before you buy anything else.
- Personal example - daily driver purpose and ceramic tint mod goal: I listed "daily driver" as the very first short term truck purpose on my list. I live in Texas, drive a black truck, and do not have a garage. Thus, adding heat-rejecting ceramic window tint would likely significantly increase my enjoyment levels while using my truck as a daily driver (i.e. no longer a summer oven) and protect my interior from UV rays, so I bumped ceramic window tint to the short term mod goal list.
- Medium term mod goals (2-3 years):
- What can wait, but you still want relatively soon: Force yourself to ruminate further about mods you want right now, but that admittedly can be postponed until later while you focus on making your truck capable of what you need or want it do now (i.e. you don't need an overlanding rack yet if you aren't planning to overland anytime soon).
- Personal example - Buying recovery gear before I lift my truck: I am itching like crazy to add a Fox or Icon leveling kit, even though I previously made a deal with the family CFO that I would wait until I needed new tires to buy my desired lift kit. Once I listed out my desired mods on the list and compared them side by side, I realized that I arguably need to install a towing receiver (to use as a recovery point) before I even think about taking my truck off-roading, not to mention a kinetic rope and some soft shackles. I.e. I should probably make my truck capable of recovering a friend's vehicle from a ditch--or being recovered by someone else--before going off-roading at all. Moving the receiver/recovery gear up and the lift kit down also gave me useful projects to start researching, planning, and working toward while I bide my time waiting to go hog wild and lift my Ranger.
- Long term mod goals (3-5 years):
- Make realistic goals about your Ranger's final form: Force yourself to really make some tough decisions about what you want your Ranger to be in its final form. Formulating this section is going to include making some painful cuts (but the "Pipe dream" section will make that less painful, as explained infra).
- This section is meant to crystallize your practical, prudent goals of what you will likely do, rather than your dream build if money were no object. Consider this section a baseline of what, barring unforeseen circumstances, you will definitely do to your Ranger when it is all said and done.
- Personal example - realizing I probably don't need UCAs: My mod daydreaming turned into mod creep (like lifestyle creep). I went from originally just wanting a stage 1 coilover leveling kit...then wondering if I would enjoy the benefits of beefier reservoir shocks...then wondering if I should add an entire new leaf spring kit to add more capability and some extra rear rake...then wondering if netting an extra 10% suspension travel from new UCAs would be worth it...and on and on. When I really think about my future Ranger plans with a shrewd eye, though, I know I mostly just want to be able to confidently take my Ranger down some fun off-roading trails, as opposed to becoming a baja racer and going on jumps. Consequently, over and above a coilover lift/levelling kit, I probably don't need UCAs at all to do what I want to do, and an add-a-leaf system for $150 will suffice at a fraction of the price of a $650 full rear suspension replacement from OME. Is it better? No. Is it sufficient for my purposes? Yes.
- Committing to waiting 3-5 years to lift my truck also gives me time to watch the market, let new products be developed, and learn from others' experiences with those products before I purchase. It also gives my vision structure and a plan to follow in a financially responsible manner.
- Make realistic goals about your Ranger's final form: Force yourself to really make some tough decisions about what you want your Ranger to be in its final form. Formulating this section is going to include making some painful cuts (but the "Pipe dream" section will make that less painful, as explained infra).
- Pipe dream mod goals:
- Build and assemble your dream Ranger, on paper: This section gives yourself a creative outlet--and a bank of ideas to possibly draw from later--for all those things you want to do, but probably should monetarily abstain from buying, or at least sleep on before you commit to it. This is where you place the mods you would add if money were no object, as well as mods you cut from the list above in a moment of frugal clarity. You can always move things from this section of the list to your concrete mod goals above if you decide they are not just a pipe dream after all!
- For me--for whatever reason--the act of simply writing down the names and prices of the mods I would love to add but likely will not (e.g. a front bumper with a winch) in an orderly manner gave me some inner peace. I now have a structured vision of what my truck would be in my dreams, and I've memorialized that vision in case I ever decide to make that dream a reality later on.
- Personal example - I don't need rock sliders, but I would love to have them if the stars later align: I hate running boards, but my vertically challenged wife needs them. My solution was to buy rock sliders with a top plate, because they look better and have a really cool functional purpose. However, the ~$1k price tag galls me, and it galls her--the family CFO--even more. When I slept on the idea for a few days and thought about all the other mods I want that are higher on the list...and how I could spend that $1k on those mods instead or on something else entirely...I now have come to terms with the notion of just keeping the running boards, getting over myself, saving $1k, and not dying on that marital hill just to get rock sliders instead of my current running boards.
- Build and assemble your dream Ranger, on paper: This section gives yourself a creative outlet--and a bank of ideas to possibly draw from later--for all those things you want to do, but probably should monetarily abstain from buying, or at least sleep on before you commit to it. This is where you place the mods you would add if money were no object, as well as mods you cut from the list above in a moment of frugal clarity. You can always move things from this section of the list to your concrete mod goals above if you decide they are not just a pipe dream after all!
Taking the time to assemble this list really did give me a level of inner peace, as silly as that may sound. I had been spending too much time on the internet vacillating over what to buy, when to do it, thinking about how to go about it, and everything else. I feel better now that I have a plan, even if it subject to change. I hope perhaps creating a list like this can help someone else, as well.
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Too many wants out of a vehicle. I just go with all short term goals. No matter how big or small they are. If I'm not using it to it's fullest potential then the truck goes underutilized. You have a great system down for showing some self control though. However, you never know what tomorrow brings so you may as well live it up once in a while and make one long term goal into a short term goal. That way you get to use the truck just the way you want to without waiting and without listening to reason. Live Life!
