Bear with me for a sec while I write about women’s fashion. I’m no authority in this field, of course, but I do have a wife with enough clothes, shoes and seemingly never-ending accessories to fill a 3m Flexibin or two. 

In women’s fashion, an accessory is anything that’s not a dress, underwear or shoes. Or so the nice ladies in the office tell me. It’s stuff like handbags, jewellery, hats, gloves, scarves, belts, etc, etc; the kind of items I often stand on in the night on my way to the bathroom. I do have a point.

‘Products and accessories’ is a pretty broad area for a magazine story, so we decided to put together a snapshot of what’s available out there to help you make the most of your ute. We’re focussing on utes because it relates directly to the comparison test in the issue. Most utes need extra bits and pieces to set them up for your needs, with some more practical than others. 

 

If we think of tyres as ‘shoes’ and everything else (aside from engine and running gear parts) as accessories, then we know we’re talking about a fair raft of stuff. And this is where the comparison with women’s fashion is useful for us: a vehicle accessory often isn’t there to simply make it look better, it’s there for a purpose and most people, particularly commercial users, wouldn’t buy an add-on product if it didn’t improve the practicality and versatility of their vehicle. 

The other day I spotted a plumber’s new Ranger, fully accessorised for the tasks at hand, which I could only assume involved off-road access: bull bar with side rails, tow bar, canopy, snorkel, bonnet guard and full length roof rack with ladder rack at the back. We’re interested in finding ways to make a ute – or any 4WD, for that matter – even more useful than it is when you finally decide which one to buy.          

 

Having done a bit of relatively serious off-road driving in utes a while back, I can appreciate the benefits of a rear bull bar or decent tow bar. These are ideal for utes if departure angle is an issue and you want to protect panels (and make sure the tailgate can keep working). You’ll see from the ute comparison test that these angles can be as little as 22 degrees, not much better than a soft-roading  SUV (although the ute’s ground clearance is likely to be better), and a decent tow bar or rear bull bar can be the last line of defence against rocks – remember, though: a rear bar can reduce your departure angle. Ranger’s departure angle is decent at 28 degrees, while Colorado’s 22 degrees is the same as a BMW X1’s, which is not what you’d call an extreme off-road machine. The Land Rover Defender 110 and extra-long wheelbase 130, by way of comparison, have a departure angle of 35 degrees, while on the other hand, the soft-roading Kia Sportage boasts 27.

We can’t look at accessories for every ute in the space we have, but most of the items we’re discussing here are available for most or all makes. We’re going to have a quick look at Ford Ranger accessories to start the ball rolling, and also the very extensive range available for Toyota Hilux. These are currently the two biggest sellers in NZ, which is why we’ve chosen to highlight them. This should provide us with a good way to begin examining what kind of products are available to make a versatile machine even more versatile...