Pickup Truck Accessories

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Getty Images/Don Johnston

With the right accessories, you can turn your pickup into a virtual Swiss Army Knife on wheels that’ll work harder, last longer and might earn you a few bucks to boot. I know you spent plenty on the truck already, but even a few low-cost add-ons can increase an outfit’s value as a workhorse and offer a bit of self-reliance in the process. For example, the money we saved pulling our daughters’ car from a snow-filled road ditch completely covered the cost of installing tow hooks on the pickup, and we didn’t have to wait for the wrecker to show up from town. The hooks came in handy again after I put the truck into the same ditch. Our eldest daughter came to the rescue that time with a tractor – I was thrilled to be able to hook the tow-strap to the truck without having to swim in the mud.

To use your truck for other more specialized work, you’ll need accessories to match the job?– like the 350-gallon plastic tank we bought to haul water for cattle in a remote pasture. The tank’s cost was small compared with the expense of running plumbing to that outpost. Thanks to our trusty little gasoline-engine-powered transfer pump, filling the mobile reservoir with creek water took less than five minutes, which made the chore simple enough that I never ran the waterlines. Tow hooks and water tanks are just the tip of the accessory iceberg though. No matter what you need to pull, push, haul, build or fix, add-ons can turn your truck into a working partner.

Cable winch