Recovery Tracks

Bill, I carry MaxTrax but what do they offer over & above the grates?

Hi Allan,

Like you, I carry a pair of Maxtrax.

Both are similar looking products, but to suit entirely different circumstances.

Maxtrax (or their copycats) provide a solid tractionable surface for tyres to grip when in the presence of sand, or mud. The knobbly surface reduces greatly the tendency for tyres to slip.
However, they do not provide a strong enough "bridge" for crossing washouts, etc. and therefore are unsuitable as bridging ladders. They would flex and then break when the weight of the vehicle is placed on the unsupported surface areas.

The GrateMates (or their copycats) on the other hand, provide a strong bridge to enable the tyres to traverse holes, washouts, etc. or to place against an upright surface where a vehicle may be able to climb that obstruction, such as a log, or an abrupt rise.
However, these do not have a particularly "knobbly" surface and would be fairly useless under sand or mud.

That is my simplified understanding of the two different products.

Allan asked what do the maxtrax offer over and above the FGRP sheet type.
Allan, I've always used them to clear away sand when using them on beaches, so easy to dig some out first before placing (as is the recommended method).
I've never had to get the shovel out in those situations.

You CAN bridge with Maxtrax, you just need to stack 2 or 3 to give the strength needed for the distance.
The FGRP grate is great for this, but you need to go the the much thicker product to have the strength also.
Eg. the pic of the LR with the caption Bridging Ramps, MAx could easily bridge those gap.
But if bridging something like say 2 feet or more, the grate stuff would most likely fail too in that thickness shown.

The Muiputrax are just FGRP grating, and WAY overpriced !!!!
For another $20 or $30 you could find Max on sale regularly.

If after the grating type, find one or two others that want some, buy a sheet, and cut up yourself with an angle grinder, to whatever size you want.

At least you can make a seat or bed out of them if you can't get out of a bog but you won't be able to sit on your maxtrax at all anytime. Yes that style of track has been around for quite a while but what a magnificent way of making a few ad on's and putting some lateral thinking into what else it could be used for to turn it into a product with seemingly endless uses and it still has room for more improvements in the future. Can't wait to see what maxtrax comes up with in the future to improve their product. As for being way over priced no way, they've gone onto my wish list.

Sure some versatility with the grid type tracks, but I take a camp chair on trips for comfort, and have no need / time for all the other uses they have listed . . . maybe apart from bridging, but that is needed very rarely, and a few logs / rocks or a spade soon takes car of that.

Maxtrax really don't need much in the way of improvement, perhaps they can work on more resilient materials as they are developed in time, but people usually break / wear bits off any sort of tracks through misuse.

The Muputrax do look overpriced to me Batts.

You can buy a sheet of the FGRP grid sheet for a few hundred $ pick up . . . seconds etc.
One supplier here, but many more online . . .

Item 10 for example, is 38mm thinckness, 40mm x 40mm grid, you can get 6 pairs 1007mm x 310mm out of the larger sheet at size 1007mm x 4007mm, so thicker and more versatile mid length.
Available in the gritted surface for traction.

I feel if just for sand recoveries, item 4 the 25mm thickness with the 25mm x 100mm grid, would give you 6 pairs size 1220mm x 300mm, with the long side of the grid runnning with the width, and much lighter than square grid sizes.

For similar sized Muputrax, you are looking at $250 a pair.

Anyway, each to their own, some people might take a couple of crates and form a bench seat with a track, some might set up for a shower floor, etc.
Not sure I'd trust them to load any sort of quad on a trailer (as on their site) though.

I did end up getting a set of Muputrax (see post further below) and I would agree with them being overpriced, if they were just the two grates. But there's a lot more to them (see photos in my post below). I had a look at my local Bunnings today, and just for a single stainless steel turn buckle of similar size, I'd be looking at $12.80. And there's 8 of them. Plus the aluminium suppports, the stainless steel fittings and the rubber mats. I paid $225 for my Muputrax set and if I add up all the bits and pieces that came with it, they appear to be very good value for money.

But as you said, each their own, the heavy off-roaders probably won't do without their Maxtrax.

It gives us something to talk about so we can keep the thread alive honestly truth lol.

These the Muputrax brand your using and you haven't posted any pics of the maxtrax on your field test trip to show how they got you out. Of course they'll get heavy when full of mud everything does while they may not have the grip of the maxtrax I wouldn't call the completely useless.

Hi Batts
If you were marooned for four days like we were after having spent the first four hours trying to get to a bit of higher ground you would definitely say the boards were useless.

The MaxTraks didn't get us out until the fourth day when the ground dried out some. We got caught in a large clay pan like area with the nearest hard ground about 600 + metres away.
Having said we didn't get out for four days, the MaxTraks on day 1 got us to high ground even though only a few metres at a time. We gave up because we were totally and utterly exhausted.

Without the MTraks and only using the boards we would would have been stuck in deeper water and much worse off. The boards acted like they had been greased and they were so heavy - never again will I take boards.

I wish more photos had been taken but we were rather per-occupied.

Phil, by "boards" do you mean the polymer grid flooring type such as the Muputrax?

I have only used MaxTrax and even then only on others vehicles and only on sand. They were OK.
I would think that with grid-type and especially in mud, that the mud could ooze through the holes, covering the topside and allowing the grid to sink. Whereas with the MaxTrax, having no apertures, they would tend to "float" on top of the mud and not so easily sink. Would that be correct?

Of course, if the mud were sloppy enough, even the solid MaxTrax type would probably still sink with mud flowing up around the perimeter?
I don't really want to find out by experience! LOL

Hi Alan
Yes I do mean the Muputraxs type.

You're right in saying the mud oozes thru the holes as it sinks; then you've got to get them out.

Based on my experience (20 + years of 4Wding) when MaxTraks came along I've found while not 100% perfect (nothing is) they offer the greatest versatility of any non-winch type recovery system.

When we were stuck for the four days we had heaps of time to discuss various recovery 'boards' at length. We so pleased we had the MaxTraks, we wished we had another four.

I now travel with four MaxTraks and like you I would prefer they stay on they roof rack and never ever need to be used - lol.

cheers

BTW we only got the ladders not the bag and legs