Some different recovery track options

G'day,

Just wondering if anyone has tried these options & if so what is your opinion.



Thanks
Tony
"For the Rover's life has pleasures, that the townsfolk will never know" - sort of from Banjo Paterson

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Reply By: Member - PJR (NSW) - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 14:13

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 14:13
I didn't study them nor have I used them. Just two criticisms. They seems way too short and I would prefer a brighter colour that would stand out in mud etc and of course at night.

Phil
AnswerID: 532892

Reply By: Les PK Ranger - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 14:30

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 14:30
Hard to say . . . some softer type recovery devices (like the ladder tracks) can just wrap around a spinning tyre.
Have seen a few you tube vids where that happens.

Most times it is due to people going too hard, spinning wheels, etc.
Which you can't do with any recovery device, even Maxtrax and TREDS need a nice easy foot, using 2 low as a general rule.

Other things you can try are FGRP ladders (which could be your first pic ?), shadecloth, strips of old carpet, planks of wood with tek screws screwed into them in a pattern, car mats, hessian bags you partially fill with sand, and probably other things I can't recall right now.

For sand, you can even get a watering can and dampen down the sand in front (or behind) the wheels, once you've shoveled enough away.
AnswerID: 532893

Follow Up By: Member - Scott M (NSW) - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 15:08

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 15:08
"planks of wood with tek screws screwed into them in a pattern"

Les, not belittling your suggestion, but any sentence that tyres and tek screws in close proximity gives me the shudders...........
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Follow Up By: OBJ - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 15:21

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 15:21
Well done Les. I carry about a dozen silt bags, those green ones that councils use on the side of the road. I get them from a local hardware chain. If I hit any trouble I just half fill those with whatever is around. I'll use up a lot of silt bags before I cut out the cost of some of these track things.

Silt bags and a very easy foot seems to work for me.

OBJ
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Follow Up By: Les PK Ranger - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 16:38

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 16:38
Ha yeah Scott, just the heads sticking out of the timber.
http://www.4x4earth.com.au/forum/attachments/d-i-y/13396d1327130090-planktrax-planktrax1.jpg
http://www.4x4earth.com.au/forum/attachments/d-i-y/13397d1327130098-planktrax-planktrax2.jpg

Yes OBJ, those silt bags would be excellent, they are hard wearing shadecoth material too, rather than hessian, which would break down / tear a lot quicker.
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FollowupID: 816193

Reply By: The Landy - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 16:51

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 16:51
I had a discussion on this topic not too long ago when Aldi Stores were selling recovery tracks at a price substantially cheaper to the other alternatives on the market, including Max-Trax.

It was put into some perspective when one in the group said, if you didn’t have recovery tracks in the vehicle you would use anything you could find that was lying around, tree branches, anything, so at $99 how could you go wrong?
AnswerID: 532904

Follow Up By: Les PK Ranger - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 17:17

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 17:17
Just use with caution, there are a few pics floating around of TRED copies, that are split right down the centre lengthwise.

If 2 cheapies were to break, then Max Trax would have been worth purchasing.
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FollowupID: 816197

Follow Up By: The Landy - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 17:36

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 17:36
Whilst understanding your point, if I had neither the copy or the Max-trax I'd be using anything I could lay my hands on.

The perspective was I was never prepared to pay for Max-trax given the cost of them...

Cheers, Baz
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FollowupID: 816201

Follow Up By: Les PK Ranger - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 17:44

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 17:44
Yes Baz, I hope they give you many years of good service : )

MaxTrax, TREDS, or copies, the all work pretty much the same, nothing better for solo recoveries.
Even with others, sometimes beaches are that soft, it's better to grab the Max and walk a few hundered meters up the beach to help someone out.
Usually, half a dozen shovels with the max from in front of all 4 tyres, then push em under the fronts nice and firm, drive out 2 low . . . rarely does it take more than 5 minutes to get yourself or someone else out.
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FollowupID: 816203

Reply By: Member - Richard L (WA) - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 19:16

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 19:16
I can never understand why people reach for "recovery tracks" instead of a tyre guage
I have been 4wd all my life and have never been in a situation where tyre pressure wont get you out. That includes Sand Mud Snow.

Cheers
Richard
AnswerID: 532916

Follow Up By: Bigfish - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 19:51

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 19:51
Sorry Richard but if what you say is true then I would suggest you haven't been in real mud or soft sand...I have been bogged where 2 winches and 2 extra 4wd drives only just got my rig from the mud. Tyre pressure means zilch in these circumstances. Tyre pressure had no bearing on getting bogged either.
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FollowupID: 816214

Follow Up By: Member - Richard L (WA) - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 20:19

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 20:19
Well Bigfish if you are in that much you no what...Recovery tracks certainly wont help
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FollowupID: 816215

Follow Up By: Peter_n_Margaret - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 21:27

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 21:27
Yep....
The compressor works for me too....
These things are a fashion promoted first by Europeans who seem to think that every 4WD needs them. No one used them much in Oz until 10 years ago, but we still managed to get "un-bogged".

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome
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Follow Up By: Motherhen - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 23:11

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 23:11
As caravanners, we do not go looking for trouble but were caught out on what looked like firm stones at Carawine Gorge. Fully laden for a lap, seven and a half tonne just bounced down in the stones, even when we lowered to tyres to 12 psi. MaxTrax had advised us to get two pairs, but not expecting trouble on that trip, we purchased one pair "just in case". With nothing to attach a winch to, time for the "just in case". They were like magic.

Being on a farm, improvising to get out of deep bogging is something that is part of farming life.

Motherhen
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Follow Up By: gbc - Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 06:20

Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 06:20
10 years ago? Europeans? We used to call them duck boards a lot further back than that, and yes, when you need them they would be a very handy bit of kit to have. Like others I haven't shelled out for them but I can remember plenty of bogs in my past where a pair or two would have been just awesome rather than dragging anything I could find and jacking it down into the mud to get out.
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FollowupID: 816239

Follow Up By: Les PK Ranger - Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 11:01

Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 11:01
Yes, tyre pressure can help get you out, but at what time expense ?

You have to do a lot of digging to remove excess sand / mud, then deflate at least once, perhaps twice to get to a pressure to assist.
Then you have to reinflate after recover in many cases, after you've gotten through the rough patch.

With the Max, I can generally shovel (with the Max itself) a good half dozen scoops from in front (or behind) each tyre, and place them firmly under front tyres, and I'm out.
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FollowupID: 816253

Reply By: Ashez H - Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 19:26

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 19:26
I have used square foam pieces ( like the type that interlocks) to get out of trouble in sand. Now thanks to bunnies I have a couple of skinny lengths of ply wood that I have no concers of anyone knocking off from the back of the ute.
AnswerID: 532917

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