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Recovery Boards
Stuck in a rut? Get a grip with these recovery boards.
1 MAXTRAX MKII
You’re bogged between microwave-sized chunks of nuclear melt-glass in the irradiated desert of Maralinga. Two days after you’ve abandoned hope, and have begun to glow, the sort of weathered 4WD-steering bloke who happens by everywhere, eventually, will turn up. He will have a set of MAXTRAX strapped to his roof. They will be orange. He will say, “You right, mate?” And you will be—now. There’s a reason why MAXTRAX are ubiquitous. Conceived in 2001 by off-road guru Brad McCarthy, rigorously refined, MAXTRAX’s 1150mm x 330mm benchmarks come in 12 colours, and are mighty cost effective (MAXTRAX’s topof-the-line EXTREMEs, with their awesome replaceable alloy teeth, cost $200 more).
Price: $299 trailbait.com.au maxtrax.com.au
2 ARB TRED PRO
Billed as “the world’s first non-mechanical solo off road vehicle recovery device with a lifetime warranty”, TRED recovery boards come in various specs and prices. From compact versions (790mm long) to the 1160mm Pros, they’re strong, durable and easy to join head-to-head to create an extra-long recovery track. Note that while ARB’s signature tracks are undeniably cool, with their distinctive orange-on-black nodules, they can sell out quickly. The identically priced, monotone TRED Pros do the same job. Sturdy to 2.25-tonne per vehicle axle
Price: $349 arb.com.au
3 MAXTRAX MINI
Constructed from the same engineering-grade reinforced Nylon as larger variants, MAXTRAX Minis are best suited to smaller vehicles—ATVs, for example, or those with limited cargo space. But they can be surprisingly effective even on their own for larger jobs. They come with leashes, which can be handy if the tiny boards become buried in soft sand and you need to excavate them. Weighing around 2kg each, they’re super easy to carry and manoeuvre into place And at 640mm x 330mm, they’re cute but useful, like a Derringer.
Price: $199 trailbait.com.au or maxtrax.com.au
4 BUSHRANGER X TRAX II
Malleable, flexible and designed to curl up between uses like an enormous jam-andcream sponge roll, Bushranger’s X Trax II is built to grip as much of the tyre as possible. (Whereas longer boards, such as MAXTRAX, are capable of contact bending around a tyre without breaking, their natural rigidity offers different benefits). More than twice as heavy as standard-sized rigid boards, a pair weighs over 16kg. They’re less useful to bridge gaps or ramp over obstacles, but their inherent flexibility can help them conform to the shape of the ground beneath, adding traction.
