Best Automotive Accessories 2023 – Automotive Excellence Awards

To work on a car—in most scenarios—is to jack it up off the ground. That’s great, but jack stands aren’t always the best solution; there are instances where they can block what you’re doing, damage your expensive floors, or not even be able to fit under your vehicle. Available for $139, the Jack Rod is a quick and compact alternative for getting your car elevated safely. The Jack Rod is really as simple as it looks. Once you have a corner of your vehicle jacked up into the air, you attach the Jack Rod between the axles of the floor jack.

Few experiences are more painful than having a dealership take a power drill to the front of your shiny new car to install a license plate bracket—it’s the car enthusiast’s equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. There are many solutions to this problem, and BumperPlugs looked appealing enough for me to give them a try.

Each plug is painted using the same 22-stage—19 stages plus 3 stages of clear—process that can take up to 14 days to get right. That’s not to mention that BumperPlugs also uses high-quality paint from Germany to mix the exact formulation that would have been used in the factory. You can see in the photo that the carbon steel gray is a perfect match with the paint finish on my Mk7 Volkswagen GTI.

MichaelPro makes a stout tire iron replacement that doubles as a torque wrench. Its dual functionality is made possible thanks to a bit driver that slides up and down the shaft of the torque wrench—the driver clicks into place at the top and at the middle. In its T-mode (with the driver at the top), you can use it as a torque wrench, while X-mode (with the driver in the middle) is best for breaking wheel nuts loose and tightening them back up most of the way.

It’s no secret that juicing up an EV is more affordable than filling up at the pump. However, the current charging infrastructure isn’t as robust as that of gas stations. If you are considering going electric, this $160 J1772 adapter from Lectron makes it more feasible and appealing. That is until Elon opens up his charging network to the masses, which we’re still waiting to see—much like the Tesla Roadster and the CyberTruck.

Whether you’re parking up at a Tesla Destination charger on the road or juicing up at home, the process is the same: Plug the male end of the charging cable into the female end of the adapter, and then connect the male end of the adapter to your vehicle as you would normally.

Veteran overlanders will know that having running water is underrated at a campsite. Referred to as the Hydration Water Faucet, this solution has a magnetic base that keeps it in place and a touch-sensitive button on top for easy operation. In this setup, it’s connected to Dometic’s 11-liter Hydration Water Jug via a quick disconnect fitting. The battery is good to dispense 150 liters of water and easily recharges via micro USB.

During my stint in college as a painfully average mountain bike racer, I spent more than a few weekends camping in the back of my Volkswagen GTI. After folding the back seats down and laying out a sleeping pad, I faced an uphill battle to get comfortable and keep things organized. Thankfully Luno’s inflatable air mattresses are custom made to fit your vehicle and quickly create a comfortable sleeping space. Luno also sells a handy magnetic storage bag that sticks to the outside of your vehicle—no more shoes stinking up the inside your car.

These wheels from Nomad drew our interest with their attractive designs. It’s clear that all of these rims take a classic look and bring it right up to date. All of these wheels are flow-formed (a process that starts with a basic casting, which is then heated while being stretched and compressed) and will be plenty strong for any overlanding application. Compared to standard gravity-cast wheels, they’re much stiffer and lighter. In fact, the company itself is actually a sub-brand of Raceline wheels—one of the market leaders in manufacturing high-performance wheels for off-road, track, and street use.

Rooftop tents are all the rage. And they’re awesome, but I saw a lot going on with awnings while walking around Overland Expo this year. Take iKamper’s 270 awnings. They provide 270 degrees of shade around your vehicle. Whether keeping you out of rain or sun, these awnings open up living space around your vehicle that would previously be unused. While the picture shows a number of anchors securing the shading device to the ground, these aren’t always necessary—the show saw wind speeds upwards of 20 mph that day, and the awning had no issues.