Recovery Treads, Treds, Max Traxs Etc

What a great idea!

Do you think the cable ties will hold when push comes to shove?

Cheers

Hi guys

I doubt they would be much good in mud, they would just slip I would think.
MaxTraxs etc aren't smooth so there is some grip.

Heaven forbid that someone would want to pinch a hot milk crate!

I trust you used, legally-acquired milk crates, and not stolen ones?? [:-0

Being in possession of even a busted milk crate is still " being in possession of stolen property" - unless you can produce a receipt for the purchase!

Milk crates are way too valuable to be chopping them up. Or do you have a supply?

Cheers

Ah the good old trusty milk crate, the most versatile piece of construction equipment ever invented.

I "lent" a couple to one son for his work van. Needless to say I never got them back, I may well cut him out of my will for that!

Cheers

Kier & Marg: they work well in mud too.
re joining the milk crate pieces: not just ordinary plastic cable ties, use the Stainless Steel zip-ties - they work great but are expensive and if you cut off the excess end, its razor sharp.
I changed to using ordinary screw-up (steel) hose clamps, 2 per join (to stop the track twisting) and loose enough to fold easily
Cheers.
Hook

Oh no, now we have enviromental issue with the residual oil left on the ground. Goodness me, what's going on, so far in this short thread, we have had a thief and a eco terrorist, whats gonna pop up next.
Merry xmas.
Tony F8

Tony, you missed the lawyer, who informed us that 'Being in possession of even a busted milk crate is still " being in possession of stolen property" - unless you can produce a receipt for the purchase! '.

I see a new business opportunity opening up, providing fake receipts for otherwise stolen milk crates. Fake ID's for school kids was just not paying enough!!!

Merry Christmas.

Jack

It may look to the uninitiated that I may have forgotten the lawyer, but my only mistake you honour was grammatical, in so much as not using the plural of thief, to cover the lawyer aswell.
Chers.
Tony F8

Tony f8
I did mean a vegi based spray oil not your used engine oil

And manufactured from organically produced vegetables one would hope.
Merry Christmas as well.
Kevin

You may sneer at my warning - but dairies employ private detectives to find stolen milk crates - because it costs dairies $3.5M a year for their milk crate losses.

Here on the left coast, Brownes Dairy employed a detective who went through the industrial areas like a dose of salts. The fine was $100 a crate! Pretty expensive "free crates", wouldn't ya think?

Once the word got out, the blokes in the industrial areas were throwing out crates like they were infected with the plague.
Of course, once things settled back down to "normal", and the detective went elsewhere, milk crates gradually returned to regular "non-dairy" use!

Just ask Bunnings what it cost them to have a few Chep pallets propping up stuff! - and why they now have HUGE signs at every Bunnings store, saying, "NO CHEP PALLETS ALLOWED ON THESE PREMISES".
It cost Bunnings $13.5M to settle the Chep lawsuit!

Gday Vince, Hows life in the south? How's that awesome Patrol performing these days? Do you get a chance to use it much? Michael

I've never quite understood this - I'm sure it's illegal to pinch display cases or any other goods from your local stores but nobody sees fit to warn us of this.

I have three milk crates that I got my young fella to scrounge of the local restaurant that he works for. Not really expecting a bang on the front door???

Pop - Are you talking about this stuff? Yes, I did acquire a couple of sheets, and it's pretty useless, overall.
It's too smooth to provide any degree of tyre grip, and you need that gripping ability.



I never ever saw any of the stuff, for the time I was in the Army and RAE (2 yrs) - however, it might have been used by the RAASC or perhaps the SAS.

It's now available new, in aluminium, and it's called Mantec matting - made by Mantec in the U.K.
However, the Mantec website is pretty light on supplying details about it. Just shows it's probably not one of their "top-selling items".

This product looks about as practical as you can get - with tyre traction ribs, light weight, and easy storage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t1e2vY_Rpo#t=44

IMO, a length of expanded aluminium mesh will get you out of a bog as effectively as all these "dedicated" bog mats.

Cheers, Ron.

Yeah, that's the stuff Ron. Never used any but saw some bolted to the side of an SAS LRPV (6x6) many years ago. Also saw some pics of a vehicle a few guys were setting up for a Sahara Desert crossing and they had a few lengths tied down on the roof rack.
I've got a set of Maxtrax that have only been used in anger a couple of times and then on beach sand. Got me out of the sh1t.
I got the impression looking at those debogging mats that they would be ok in sand. Mud maybe not so much. Personally mud driving is something I try to avoid.

Cheers
Pop

It's interesting that this plate (or planking), was consistently referred to by the American military in WW2 as "steel landing mats" - as that was their primary designed use.
They were inducted into use as bog mats as an afterthought, from what I can see.

The planks were more commonly called Marsden Matting, it was known in official U.S. Army parlance as PSP (Perforated or Pierced Steel Planking).

During WW2, there were actually 5 types of American "steel landing mats".
These were; PSP, Light bar-and-rod, Heavy bar-and-rod, Irving Grid, and Sommerfield.
The Irving grid was a plate with a criss-cross pattern - and the Sommerfield was just like a heavy netting, reinforced with short longitudinal steel bars, that could be rolled up.

WW2 Marsden Matting was fairly readily available in the 1950's and 1960's and started to become scarcer in the 1970's.
It's strong stuff, but too heavy to carry around on a light vehicle. It was designed to be laid and to stay laid, as aircraft support areas and runways - not as a portable bog mat.

For this reason, PSP was constructed with bayonet hooks at 90 degrees along its edges, which were slid into corresponding holes in the adjoining plate, thus interlocking the plates.
The plates were then locked completely together with a spring clip.

Many a farm or station still has WW2 Marsden matting in use as stockyard panels.
Over 2M tons of PSP was produced by the Americans during WW2.
Some was also produced in aluminium, for ease of air transport. It was then called PAP.
I don't think it was a large quantity, because aluminium was in high demand for aircraft construction during WW2. I've never seen any in aluminium.

Here's a photo from the U.S. War Dept, Aviation Engineers Technical Manual, showing the 5 different types of landing mats.

http://oi42.tinypic.com/16k8844.jpg

Cheers, Ron.