The wide world of off-road racing and general motorsport is daunting for someone who is new. If you’ve ever been on a UTV, then you no doubt must know how exhilarating and even scary it can get. Most people who have experienced it would like to repeat it, save if they’ve gone through some accident or another.

And so this leads enthusiasts and wide-eyed amateurs to purchase a UTV, with fanciful visions of roaming through their local woods in glory, either with speed, accuracy, or theatrics abound. That’s a natural fantasy to have, although some will find that their recently purchased stock vehicle doesn’t perform as they’d expected.

There’s a lot more to going off-road and off-trail than buying a vehicle, getting some experience under your belt and starting the engine. Those are the bare essentials, yes, but what happens when your UTV bumps against a rock and dents your front bumper so badly you fear it’ll come off?

That’s what I can help you with. Here are a couple of accessories you could add to your rig or use whenever you go outdoors.

What Does My Rig Need?

Everything or nothing, depending on what you have planned for your future adventures. If you have a very safe trail where it’s unlikely you’ll require any serious performance out of your rig, then realistically, you might not even need any UTV accessories.

On the other hand, you have a wide variety of accessories to add if you want to customize your experience. Everyone wants to get something different out of their riding experience, and everyone’s needs differ as well. Perhaps, for example, you have a personal passion for riding at night, and so would greatly benefit from powerful headlights to light your path.

You also might want a little more out of your experience and decide to go for racing. It’s hard, it’s very competitive, it requires a lot of technical skill, knowledge, talent, concentration, and support, and it’s also likely to win you absolutely nothing but a repair bill, but it’s a hobby worth sinking your time and teeth into.

For me, it’s better than knitting. In general, you’ll be looking to expand in the areas listed down below. I’ve posted a couple of products to give you an idea of what brands you should be looking at.

Wheels and Tires

As with every off-road vehicle, good wheels can make or break your UTV. Without a good pair of wheels, it’s not going to perform well in rough terrain conditions, which is exactly what you don’t want since you’ve gone for a UTV in the first place.

My first suggestion would be not to skimp out on paying for a good pair of wheels. It’s always better to have a sturdy set that performs well and won’t let you down in critical moments than be stuck in the middle of nowhere with no spare tire.

Pro Runner Tire Pro Armor All Terrain

It doesn’t get any better than this. Very affordable and with a track record of performing under the worst conditions, the Pro Runner Tire Pro Armor All Terrain is everything you need to keep going no matter how hard it gets. Don’t regret not having a good pair of tires. It’s always better safe than sorry.

To install your wheels, you’re going to need lug nuts. There is an abundance of them pretty much everywhere on the internet, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out which size and model you need for when you start fiddling around with your vehicle.

If you’re not quite sure how you should be doing the operation, then make sure to contact a mechanic. It’s not worth ruining your UTV out of pride. More often than not, having no formal training or experience in mechanic work is liable to mess your vehicle up one way or another.

Maybe take training as a mechanic if you want to go crazy? It’s not like you have to change profession if you do a white-collar job. We all have our hobbies!

Exhaust

It’s not surprising many people want sheer power out of their UTVs, but more often than not, that’s kind of unnecessary. If you have a certain plan for your vehicle that you fear it’s not going to perform well, then swapping the exhaust system for a more powerful one could make a wealth of a difference.

Additionally,  UTVs are not street legal in most states, but by adding a range of accessories such as license plates and lights, you can actually make them legal for street driving purposes. If you have a UTV and would like to be able to roam your local roads, then adding an aftermarket exhaust system to a street-legal rig could make it nothing short of a very versatile vehicle.

Trinity Racing Stage 5 PowerVision Tuner

Incessant power! Trinity Racing is known for producing great accessory models that never disappoint. An exhaust system could really improve the overall capabilities of your UTV, so why not opt for the Trinity Racing Stage 5 PowerVision Tuner to really impress your peers with?

It’s worth mentioning that although most of these accessories will make driving smoother for you, it’s probably not going to change anything at all if you don’t have any experience driving. It’s always better you take your UTV out on the road and learn what you need out of it before adding accessories.

Conversely, adding too many accessories could even make things worse. Imagine getting lost in them! After that, however, an exhaust system is just the start of things: UTVs are very customizable!

Radio Gear

It goes without saying that safety is absolutely paramount when it comes to going off-road. It’s very easy to get cocky and think that nothing will happen to you while you’re having fun shredding the local trail. Unfortunately, the universe doesn’t really care about how foolhardy we are and always finds opportunities to teach us a lesson.

Imagine this: you’re having family over the holidays, and so you eat together, they drink - you won’t as you want to go off-roading later - then fall asleep, so you put on your gear and get ready to go out. But at one point or another, your engine fails, or your tires are popped because of a sharp rock.

Now you’re stuck in the wilderness miles away from civilization. All the people that could go looking for you are deep asleep in a drunken stupor and you have no way of contacting anyone. If you had a radio with you, on the other hand, then it would be virtually impossible to get you caught in this kind of situation.

Good radio gear can make the difference between life and death. Rugged Radios are the brand that I would suggest. They’re quite clear and resistant and I’ve never had them malfunction on me, which is good because I value going back to my wife and kids at the end of the day.

Additional Accessories Worth Considering

Depending on what type of terrain you plan to take your UTV trawling through, you might also want to buy an aftermarket bumper or two for it. While stock bumpers are by no means bad, aftermarket bumpers are almost always stronger and lighter than their stock counterparts - at least if you’ve gone for good quality gear.

Since off-roading is very likely to have you crash into an obstacle at some point or another, opting for reinforced bumpers could go a long way when it comes to protecting your vehicle. There are a lot of components that could be damaged if you’re unlucky enough, and if you go off-roading often, then bad luck is simply a matter of time.

As previously suggested, you might also want to get headlights for your UTV. There is a huge variety of lights you could get, from powerful long-reaching ones to xenon lights, to the sort of spotlights you’d expect to see in World War 2 watchtowers. Because, yes, you can shine a huge bat-shaped beam out of your UTV and at the sky in the middle of a metropolis at night to see if Batman shows up.

A final worthy mention is a winch. Going off-road comes with a lot of dangers and one of them is getting your vehicle stuck in a deep patch of mud. It’s almost impossible to drag out hundreds of pounds of metal out of wet mud by yourself (or even with all your friends), so outfit your rig with a winch to protect yourself from such scenarios.

Trust me. It’s always better to spend extra money on a winch than lose out a lot more on professional vehicle recovery or just repairing a damaged UTV that’s been ruined by mud.

Endless Opportunities

I think one of the reasons UTVs have such a loyal and dedicated community is because they’re not only versatile but open to receiving a lot of modifications that allow their rider to enjoy a highly customized experience. It’s always satisfying to have your fun exactly in the way you want it, so I encourage you to take a look and see just how many things you could add to your UTV.

Have you thought about a sound system? Going off-road must get lonely if you’re doing it by yourself, and some sick tunes definitely wouldn’t hurt. As long, however, as it’s with respect to nature: judges and jurists from every state is anxiously waiting for an opportunity to tax or ban the off-road hobby, so be responsible and take care of the environment!