Mad Mods

As with most passenger vehicles, there are myriad accessories available for SUVs, from flashy to fishy. Many auto manufacturers are rushing to add accessories to their line-ups after decades of few, if any, choices of wheels, high-end electronics and performance parts. This is because customizing cars and trucks is now a $31-billion-a-year business, according to the Specialty Equipment Market Association, and until recently, aftermarket vendors have dominated.

Katzkin Interriors makes this North Shore Edition custom leather seat for the Chevrolet Tahoe.

When considering modifications for your SUV, the medical doctor's oath "First, do no harm" is a good rule of thumb. Though you may intend to improve the look, performance or comfort of your SUV with an aftermarket or factory-original accessory, there is great potential to damage or impair performance and safety without the proper research and care.

One example involves swapping factory wheels and tires for larger ones. Changing the overall diameter of the wheel and tire can seriously hamper the suspension, steering and braking performance of your SUV. The same is true if the wheel offset (the distance between the edge of the wheel and where the wheel attaches to the hub) changes.

Auto manufacturers want you to buy their parts instead of an aftermarket vendor's, so they play up the fact that their accessories are built to factory specifications, which they say removes the potential for problems as compared to products made by third-party vendors. There is logic to this, but there are also many highly respected aftermarket vendors that have been selling accessories and performance parts for decades (Borla, Dinan, Edelbrock and K&N, for example). The Internet is a good resource for researching potential pitfalls with aftermarket accessories and finding out from other owners which ones are the best.

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