Feature Creep

Let’s look at the airbags as an example of feature creep.

An air suspension is great for towing because it lets you have a soft luxury suspension when you’re traveling light, but add stiffness when needed for towing. You can add air at any fuel station, or even with a bicycle pump.

For a few hundred dollars more, you can hang an air compressor under the truck and adjust your pressure from the drivers seat.

But if I have an air compressor, maybe I should add the capability to fill my tires. This would be great if I have to air down for off-road action so I can air up before hitting the highway.

Maybe a tank of compressed air to run a train horn?

But if I go that far, why not add a compressor that can run air tools like an impact wrench?

Or maybe add air suspension to all four corners so that I can level the truck for sleeping?

Sometimes it is helpful to go down these rabbit holes as far as conceivable. By thinking to the (il)logical extreme, one can see where “needs” morph into “wants”. Also, this can help with long term planning.

As far as my airbags are concerned, I’m going to install just the bags first. I’ll add a compressor later, with an air chuck to fill tires & inflatable beach toys. The four-way wrench and a hammer is all the impact wrench I’ll ever need in the field and I’m more likely to install an electronic horn than an air horn. If I ever need to level the truck for sleeping, I’ll use the jack.

Because I went through this exercise, I now know that I want to route the air lines together (probably through the license plate) instead of running the lines out through the running boards.

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