2010 Pickup Truck Christmas Gift Guide

 
By Larry Edsall for PickupTrucks.com

The ho-ho holidays are fast approaching, so here’s our gift guide for the special pickup truck owner on your shopping list.

Wait a minute! We probably should rephrase that first paragraph because we think all pickup truck owners are special (and if you’re reading this, you no doubt agree), and therefore deserving of more than one of the following gifts:

’55 Chevy E-Rod

So you want a classic pickup truck but you also want to be environmentally responsible when you drive it? Well, you can do what GM Performance Parts did and build a '55 Chevy E-Rod pickup. Well, actually GM Performance Parts had GM designer Dave Ross work up the details and then had Ken Lingenfelter Performance do the construction.

You start with a 1955 Chevy 3100 Series pickup reproduction body from Dynacorn, a California company that stamps old-style vehicle bodies out of new steel. The body mounts on the chassis from a Chevy Trailblazer SS, though Eibach springs lower the stance and they also bolted on four-wheel disc brakes. Wheels and tires are from a Chevy Silverado.

Now, inserted a GM Performance Parts 5.3-liter E-Rod crate engine that comes with 315 horsepower, 335 pound-feet of torque, but also with catalytic converters and other modern technology to make it clean and green as well as fast and mean.

GM used a 4L65E automatic transmission with SuperMatic controller system (the E-Rod crate engine also is available for manual transmission use) with a 9.5-inch, 4.10-ratio rear axle with Eaton limited slip, BeCool radiator and Painless wiring.

GM added a wood-floor in the pickup bed, a custom grill, hidden fuel filler and various restoration parts from Classic Industries. Inside, you can get as customized as you want. GM used an Ididit steering column and Vintage Air system.

For more information, visit http://www.gmperformanceparts.com.

Make your Ram a Runner

Maybe it’s because of all those years working with Jeep guys who prefer to modify their vehicles for special use applications – from rock crawling to mud bogging, but while Ford provides its Raptor ready from the factory, Ram and Mopar think you’d prefer to do the work yourself to turn your Ram pickup into a desert-ready Ram Runner.

Although all the parts you’ll need aren’t available yet – though a bunch more are coming early in the new year – right now you can get the Phase 1 suspension kit that includes the upper control arms and shocks that will keep your truck comfortable on pavement while allowing you to assault swales at up to 40 miles per hour without a crash landing.

Coming next is the full Stage 2 suspension kit that includes ball joints, unique bypass shocks, and other hardware needed to provide 14-inches of wheel travel.

Also in the pipeline are flared fenders, an off-road front bumper and a spare tire mount for the pickup bed.

For more information, visit http://www.mopar.com.

Cool Tool Storage

Tulsa-based Swivel Storage Solutions has introduced a line of tool cabinets that disdain the traditional pull-out drawer system for drawers that swivel open.

What’s the advantage? According to Swivel, drawers open more easily; dirt, dust and debris don’t get affect operation; there’s fewer moving parts, the drawers can support more weight when opened; and they open fully around a hidden steel pivot pole so you don’t have to go reaching back into some narrow and dark area to find your tools.

Boxes are designed for all sorts of applications, from a corner to a cube arrangement, on rollers or mounted in a vehicle.

For more information, visit http://www.swivel.pro.

TrailCan Utility Box

Rampage Products of Corona, California specializes in products for Jeeps, but its newest output “can” benefit pickup drivers as well. It’s the TrailCan Utility Box.

It looks like your standard locking Gerry Can for carrying extra fuel, but it’s actually a locking storage container with locking drawers and a removable tray, and all made from powder-coated steel.

It fits in a standard gas can mount in your pickup bed or up on the roof. The suggested retail price is $159.95.

For more information, visit http://www.rampageproducts.com.

Reach E-Z Extendable Reacher

Du-Ha of Fergus Falls, Minnesota makes storage solutions for pickup truck owners, and now it’s devised an implement to help you reach things at the far end of your pickup bed. The Reach E-Z Extendable Reacher expands from 5-feet to 7-feet in length so you can reach or move to rearrange stuff without having to climb up into the bed or even remove a tonneau cover.

It also has a brush attachment and transforms it into a snow-removal tool or even a shop broom. Du-Ha says that the Extendable Reacher also can be used for retrieving duck decoys and lines or for hanging holiday lights on your house or trees.

There’s also a clip that attaches the Reacher to the inside of your truck bed, an ice scraper attachment and a flashlight attachment so you can see what’s way back there under a tonneau.

The price is $34.95.

For more information, visit http://www.reache-z.com.

BedWood

Show your wife pages 8-9 and 10-11 from this catalog and she’ll get excited thinking you’re ready to redo the floors in your house. Arrayed across the pages are photographic samples of wood finishes ranging from ash to red oak, flamed birch to curly maple, Honduras mahogany to South African paduak, Brazilian cherry to Peruvian walnut.

Now try telling her that you’re going to do the floor of her kitchen but the bed of your pickup truck, because the catalog in hand comes from BedWood and Parts, which provides 40 exotic and domestic show-quality wood finishes for pickup truck beds, and can fit Ford, Chevy and Dodge pickups from 1917 to those now rolling off Big Three assembly lines, and there are applications for the Toyota Tundra and El Caminos.

Jeff Major, who founded the company based in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, notes that BedWood kits also can be used in hot rods, and that the BedWood RetroLiner is an "easy-to-install" wood floor for late model pickups and utility vehicles – and fits without any drilling or cutting.

For more information, visit http://www.bedwoodandparts.com.

Ezy-Lift

Struggle to lift, say, a quad or an engine block or anything else of heft into the bed of your pickup? One solution can be an Ezy-Lift.

Produced by Ezy-Lift of Houston, an Ezy-Lift mounts inside your pickup bed, pivots back under a push-button control unit so that heavy object can be attached, and then power pivots back toward the front of the bed so the object can be placed and secured.

Prices range from $4,750 for a unit that lifts 1,000 pounds to $6,150 for one that lifts a ton to $12,950 for the Grizzly that can deal with a 3,000-pound lift.

There also are trailer-mounted units, and Ezy-Lifts for quad-style tractors and carts.

For more information, visit http://www.ezylift.com.

Invis-a-Rack

There are times when you need to carry ladders, a couple of canoes or other objects that are too large to fit inside a truck bed, but there also are times when you don’t want a commercial-looking rack sticking up into the air above your bed.

Now there’s Invis-A-Rack, a rack that folds out of sight when not in use.

The systems producers, based in Sparta, North Carolina, say their rack system can be installed in about 10 minutes via theft-resistant bolts that clamp (no drilling) the black power-coated aluminum racks to the underside of pickup bed rails. The system comprises four housings that pivot upward and then attach to each other to create one goalpost-like elevated bar at each end of the bed. The system can hold up to 500 pounds.

An Invis-A-Rack for a 6-foot bed costs $779 and an 8-foot model is $799.

For more information, visit http://www.invisarack.com.

Rhino-Rack Foxwing awning

Rhino-Rack is an Australian company that produces roof racks, roof boxes, and roof-top carriers for skis, snowboards, kayaks and small boats. But what caught our eye was the company’s Foxwing awning system. The awning attaches to vehicle’s roof racks and provides up to 270 degrees of shade as it unfolds like a bat’s wing. The awning material is UV-resistant, rip-stop polycotton canvas and is held above head height by telescopic poles and guy ropes.

There are units designed for the driver’s or passenger’s side, and each covers the side and back of the vehicle, in the case of a pickup truck, shading the bed.

The price is $599. The awnings and other Rhino-Rack products are available from dealers listed on the company’s website.

For more information, visit http://www.rhinorack.com.

Cornhusker Neon Signs

For more than two decades, Cornhusker Sign & Mfg. Corp of Gretna, Nebraska, has been producing neon signs and clocks. While not pickup specific, the powder-coated steel and neon garage signs are oh-so-cool, and the company can customize a sign proclaiming the garage as your own.

The signs are 2 feet tall and 4 feet wide, or slightly taller and two feet longer with a working clock included. Prices ranged from $600 - $1,300, and you can get a sign personalized with your favorite pickup truck owner’s name for another $100 - $300.

Signs have pull-chain on/off switches and have UL-listed transformers with protection circuitry.

For more information, visit http://www.cornhuskersign.com.

Chevy Pickup Tailgate Shelf

The Sunbelt Marketing Group of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina has been in business since 1993, producing and selling officially licensed Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Disney products, from signs to key chains to paper towel dispensers. More recently, it has added automotive-themed products, including display shelves that look like a vehicle’s nose or tailgate has broken through your wall.

For example, there’s a 20 x 6 ¾ x 15 ¼-inch shelf unit that looks like a back end of a 1976 Chevy pickup truck, with the tailgate pivoting down to provide a display area.

There’s also a full line of 1948 Ford F-1 stuff, from a table lamp to book ends to a nightlight (the truck’s headlamps light up) to a key rack. There’s also a scale-version of a truck’s front-clip that’s been turned into a wall display area with a tempered glass shelf that spans the hood.

Prices range from $10 to $50.

For more information, visit http://www.sunbeltgifts.com.

How to Make Your Car (or Truck) Last Forever

Ignore the "Car" in the title of this book. Everything in this wonderfully illustrated, 176-page, $24.99 volume applies to your pickup truck as well.

Written by Tom Torbjornsen, for four decades an auto mechanic and since 1991 host of America’s Car Show on the radio, consider How to Make Your Car Last Forever as the real owner’s manual for your truck.

In words and detailed photography, the book shows and tells you how and when to do the maintenance needed to keep your truck on the road if not forever, then for at least a couple hundred thousand miles.

Torbjornsen also guides you through the jungle of extended warranties, tells you when its time to retire and replace your truck, and even includes a chapter on “How to Kill a Car” or a truck.

How to Make Your Car Last Forever is part of Motorbooks' Workshop series.

For more information, visit http://www.motorbooks.com.