(Photo courtesy of Zachary Hein)
January 27, 2025
By Zachary Hein
A properly fit hunting rig is a bit of an accomplishment. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a proponent of the concept that any vehicle can be a hunting vehicle, but I also know that one that has been purpose-built for the specific manner in which a person likes to hunt is a beautiful thing. Incredibly personal, it’s a combination of the right base vehicle and an appropriate amount of upfitting, most often sprouting from experience, thoughtful consideration and a bit of trial and error. Growing up in western Kansas with a predilection for automobiles of all kinds, I keyed in on the more unique of these rigs. For a handful of locals, it meant a dent-side Ford equipped with a flatbed-mounted dog box with two spare tires bolted to its back and a length of rope strung in through either side window. You’d see them fueling up at Dino’s Discount and if you made a little noise, you could get the greyhounds to pop their heads out the sides of the dog box.
Purpose-built coyote trucks, they’d crisscross the county taking down song dogs much to the farmers’ and ranchers’ delight.
Then there’d be Kansas’s opening weekend for pheasant when our little town would be overrun with Johnson County tags, a good number of them stuck onto lifted, four-door, four-wheel-drive OBS Fords (not known as OBS at that time…). In the days before four-door trucks became a common sight, these looked like they’d never gotten a speck of dirt on them while tooling around the city. With high-dollar slide-in aluminum dog boxes in the beds and gents wearing name-brand hunting gear from head to toe with the factory creases showing, it was a far cry from our well-worn old Blazer with the dogs riding in the far back, but I took note.
Fast forward ten years, and I built my own perfect truck. The Tundra Rock Warrior Crew Max was transformed over the course of several years into just the right rig for what I did, which was haul people and dogs and guns all over the U.S. chasing everything from quail to bear to whitetail and all things in between. Years of tweaking had finally gotten it just right, and I could head into a 6,500 mile trip with full confidence I’d have all the things I needed and the truck would handle it without an issue.
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Time For An Update? (Photo courtesy of Zachary Hein) Last year it finally crested a quarter million miles and my wife started hinting around that it might be time to pick up something newer, which was painful but evident. Though the Tundra had been perfect for many years, my needs had changed and it just wasn’t big enough.
By mid-summer the Tundra went up for sale and was gone before I knew it. The search for its replacement began and Kansas’s bird season would see me in my new truck, sorely lacking the niceties that I had become so used to. As I begin outfitting this new truck, here are the five things I miss most from my Tundra that will without a doubt make it onto my new rig.
Premium Bumper A good bumper can mean the difference between a totaled truck and hospital bills in contrast to walking away bruised but alive. (Photo courtesy of Zach Hein) The Tundra wore two different aftermarket bumpers while I owned it. The first was a Ranch Hand that served admirably until it absolutely ate a Chevy truck. A project truck that lost control on the highway, the ‘72 spun out and then slid its way into my path across four lanes of traffic. Slamming on the brakes, I got down to 45 before we hit and the Ranch Hand demolished nearly every panel on the old Chevrolet.
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The bumper took the brunt of the damage on my end, along with a bit of sheet metal and one slightly bent tie rod besides.
(Photo submitted by the author) When rebuilding the truck, I ended up picking a similarly-robust three-hoop bumper from Expedition One since it allowed for the addition of a winch. With beefy tow points and clean lines, it was a tad lighter and looked amazing while giving plenty of protection in the all-too-common occurrence of a deer running out in front of me and threatening to put a pause to a trip.
Morimoto XB LED Headlights (Photo submitted by the author) As I’ve gotten older, certain things have become very apparent: If I don’t bring my own pillow I’m going to wake up in pain; boots have to be both properly fitting and broken in and if a vehicle’s headlights aren’t excellent, it’ll limit how much I can drive at night due to fatigue.
As the miles climbed on my Tundra, its factory lights that were once just fine became hazed and cloudy. When I had the unfortunate run-in with the Chevrolet mentioned above, I quickly found a factory replacement headlight was rather similar in price to some of the best aftermarket lighting available. At first, I slapped in a cheap set of Amazon specials, only to get what I paid for. Once I realized my error, I opted for Morimoto’s then-new XB line of LED headlights .
A plug-and-play replacement, the Morimotos were an immediate and dramatic improvement and even interfaced with my truck’s dash-mounted height adjuster for towing, allowing me to get the beam height perfect to avoid blinding oncoming traffic, but also ensure the beams were pointed as far out as possible.
A little less than a year later, I started to see some fogging in one light and Morimoto’s customer service was spot-on. After a quick call and a hold on my credit card, a new set arrived on my doorstep. The swap took thirty minutes, the older set went right into the boxes and back to the manufacturer and the charge dropped off my card. Couldn’t have been more perfect.
Decked Drawer System Though you do sacrifice bed volume, a good drawer system can be invaluable. They organize gear and help prevent theft of valuables. (Photo courtesy of Zachary Hein) The very first thing I did to my Tundra when I got it was order a Decked system to make transporting guns, ammo and gear a whole lot more secure . I had looked at a few other bed drawers, but the weight associated was surprising. They were wood and carpet, meaning I’d immediately need to add a topper of some sort—in the plan but not in the immediate budget.
The polymer Decked system was new to the market at the time and two things immediately sold me on it—weatherproof storage that didn’t require a topper and light weight, coming in at half the heft of the boxes I had been considering.
It wasn’t without its drawbacks, the biggest of which was loss of space around the edges and corners of the bed since they were sealed away to make the system more attractive and finished. Also, anything lost through the cracks on the sides was gone forever unless you partially disassembled the system to retrieve it (or spent time fishing for it with a tool).
(Photo submitted by the author) But the slight issues were far overshadowed by its usefulness. Each drawer could swallow nearly a dozen cased shotguns or six scoped rifles—something I did often when hosting friends and colleagues for hunts. With lockable drawers and my locking tailgate, I had little worry about the security of the contents—it would take someone with a portable saw to break in through the top, and that’d take some forethought and time.
Over the course of many years I hauled everything from big-block Mopar engines on the deck to a lifetime supply of pistol ammo in the drawers and never found the limit of what the system could take. The most damage I did was eventually breaking a lock when I happened to yank on the handle of a locked drawer on a frigid winter morning.
Now nearly a decade later I looked to again purchase a Decked to go in the new truck to discover the system has gone through a fresh update. Absent are the design choices that I had previously resigned to live with and gained is tons of space—both in the drawers themselves and around the edges. Long gone are the unsecured bins on the corners and in their place are access panels to the previously unavailable pass-through space to the outsides of the drawers, with the option to add locks to them as well.
Long story short, every little issue I had with my original Decked system when I bought it many years ago has been addressed and I’ll gladly use and abuse my next set like I did my first.
Ten-Ply All-Terrains (Photo submitted by the author) Some might say it’s overkill to run ten-ply tires on a ½-ton truck, that it harshens the ride and puts a slight hit on gas mileage. Frankly, those naysayers would be correct. They’re heavier, stiffer and don’t flex nearly as much to give extra grip when aired down. They’re also well worth all their drawbacks when on a long trip that depends on a vehicle staying in service. From thorns and road debris to sidewall-thrashing rocks, a beefier tire will shrug off a surprising number of things that would quickly disable a standard light truck tire.
For many years I ran General Grabber all-terrain tires and they were unbeatable for longevity. At 60k miles they would be about 1/3 tread and I’d start thinking about replacing them.
Once I moved to the mountain West, I made the swap to Goodyear Duratracs for their reputation in snow and ice and was not disappointed. While the tread pattern isn’t attractive to me, I’ll be darned if it doesn’t work and work very well.
With the new truck equipped with an equally new set of tires, it pains me to immediately swap them. In due time a set of 10-ply Duratracs will be installed in their place, along with all the rest of these accessories that I’ve learned I can’t hardly live without.
Covercraft Carhartt Seat Covers (Photo submitted by the author) Long before the urban hipster movement hijacked Carhartt from working stiffs, their gear was known for being bomb-proof and utilitarian. When I saw that Covercraft was making seat covers in Carhartt’s signature duck material with reinforced seams and riveted pockets I was in. The price was a bit of a shocker, but they’re custom fit to specific applications with nearly unlimited variations.
Swallowing my pride and cashing in several years’ worth of closely hoarded Cabela’s points, I ordered a set as my own birthday gift and didn’t regret it for a moment. Installation was a tad involved, owing to how tightly fit they are to the seat they’re going onto.
Years of people, dogs, camera gear and much more and they never experienced so much as a tear and hardly any stains. The most they had to show for it was a driver’s seat that wasn’t quite as crisp as the rest, since I was sliding in and out of it constantly.
When the buyer for my Tundra was looking it over, he pulled a few covers to reveal pristine factory upholstery, albeit over somewhat worn-out foam. I will definitely be adding another set to my new rig, probably in the gravel gray color this time.