Cheapest MAXTRAX Alternative | Are They Any Good?

When I walked past $98 recovery boards, at Bunnings of all places, I figured they’d at least be worth a shot. With a 12 month warranty, and Bunnings usually being good with warranty returns/refunds, I figured I’d at least get 12 months before I could return them if they were crap.

Two years later, they’re still my go to set and I take them, on all my tours with me.

That’s the review. They’re good!

However, it would be a bit light on for an article, so I will elaborate.

Top of the line MAXTRAX brand boards, will set you back around $500. That is insane!
I get it, they look cool. And, with most people having them mounted to their cars these days, you get to virtue signal to the general public that not only do you have a good outdoors lifestyle, but you go four wheel driving often enough to demand the very best. You can passively demonstrate that you can afford the premium option. That’s all well and good. But, I make a habit of looking at peoples MAXTRAX every time I walk through a carpark, to see if they have any signs of wear. Almost without fail, the expensive MAXTRAX are always completely scratch and dirt free.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the MAXTRAX brand. They make some really good stuff. But who really needs the $500 boards? I don’t. I do more remote four wheel driving than nearly anyone I know (because I run a 4WD tour business), and I don’t need them. So who the hell really thinks they require them?

I think a set of recovery boards is an essential addition for most trips. But not necessarily the expensive ones.

Common Misconceptions About the Role of Recovery Boards

If you’ve made the mistake of trawling through Reddit to get advice, you’ve probably come across these two prevailing opinions:

The first is that most people with them mounted to their vehicles, will never use them and therefore shouldn’t lose space and or aerodynamic efficiency to carry them around everywhere. I agree.

The second common opinion is where someone jumps in to defend against this by saying that even if you don’t use them often, they’re worth keeping in the car for that one time you do use them. Despite seeming like opposite points of view, I agree with both.
I carry mine with me all the time and rarely use them, but I’m very frequently putting myself in situations where I may need to use them. This is different to a pavement princess keeping them on to drive around the city and their daily commute.

The third common opinion that pops up on Reddit is that they’re a cheap insurance (I agree), but if you’re using appropriate tyre pressure and enough caution, you won’t need them anyway. I disagree with that last part completely.

It is not about, not getting bogged. There is nothing wrong with getting bogged, it means you gave something a go. The only problem is if you can’t get unbogged. That’s where a set of tracks comes in.

My boards mainly get used for my clients these days. I have them mounted on the side of my roof rack, so I can access them really quickly, if someone else gets bogged. This saves the whole group having to wait for them to unload their entire car to find their set of boards. I’ve noticed though, that often when I pull them out to help, they get embarrassed for getting bogged. I have to gently remind them that getting bogged is all a part of the process, and we only ever have a problem if we can’t get them unbogged. And just to be clear, I’m never taking them through places where the bogging or recovery is going to cause any damage.

So all that is to say, that we shouldn’t be so worried about getting stuck, if we have the capacity to get out. The worst myth about recovery boards, is that you should do everything you can to avoid using them. However, If you’re remote and solo, a few extra degrees of caution and possibly a winch may be advisable.

MAXTRAX Vs Trojan | Expensive vs Cheap

I’m two years into using my Trojan boards.

They’re 1/5 of the price of MAXTRAX.

If they failed now, I would need to get 10 years out of a set of MAXTRAX to justify the price difference.

But, my Trojans are still going strong, even though they get used much more intensely than most recovery boards do. In another year, if they’re still going strong (which I expect they might), then I would need 15 years of use to justify a set of MAXTRAX.

Despite all the fancy features, I can’t justify the upgrade. Running a 4WD tour business means I have the luxury of being able to purchase and tax deduct items for my business. The flip side of this is that everything I buy for off-roading, has to be analysed from a profit/loss perspective. Sometimes I buy the best option available, such as an AOS swag instead of an Adventure Kings swag, because the difference in quality and longevity pays for itself many times over. But, if I can conclude that I can get comparable or sufficient performance out of a cheaper item, then that’s the way I go.

Trojan vs TRED | Cheap vs Mid-Range

If you’re considering the $98 boards, then maybe a more helpful comparison is to some $200 boards, instead of the $500 MAXTRAX.

TRED are a great middle ground. They’re Australian made and an Australian company. MAXTRAX got bought out by an American company just FYI.

TRED offer good products and a good range of accessories, but without the stinging prices of MAXTRAX. If you can afford to support local, then I would encourage looking at TRED.

But in terms of comparison, are TRED’s boards better enough to justify double the price? Sadly, I don’t think so in terms of what I need. They do look cooler and they are higher quality, but I can’t justify it for myself at the moment when the Trojans do work so well.

I have used other people’s TREDs in the past and they’re a good product. When my Trojans finally give up, or my homemade mounts get ripped from my roof rack, then I’ll maybe buy some TREDS.

Pitfalls of Trojan & Other Cheap Brands

Melting the Tracks

I have melted some sections of the board, where spinning wheels have heated small sections and rubbed down some of the knobs. I’ve also done this on more expensive boards too.

If you get the primo MAXTRAX options, you can replace the knobs and they’re harder to melt. But with all that said, I don’t believe this has really diminished their ability to help recover a vehicle.

Traction is only one part of the equation for the usefulness of a recovery board. Other factors include that it helps ramp the vehicle up on top of the surface and it stops it getting bogged down further. Neither of these benefits are affected by a bit of melting.

Lack of Accessories

MAXTRAX do make the best mounting accessories for their boards. They have those locking pin style holders which are really sleek and super practical. These nicer accessories generally aren’t available for most budget brands.

You can still get many generic mounting options for most styles of board, but they’re not quite as easy or low profile. Many generic options will use a strap and a ratchet to secure the boards.

But those fancy MAXTRAX holders? They are pretty damn expensive, so maybe it’s not the biggest loss in the world.

If you’re flush with cash flow, then maybe spending extra on the boards so you can use the better mounting options and save time on building something yourself, will ultimately pay for itself. It took me about 90 minutes to make my own holders for the Trojan boards, but if you don’t have much experience with that sort of thing, it may become a 3 hour endeavour.

Aldi Recovery Boards?

Generally not my first place to go, when looking for 4WD accessories, but occasionally Aldi do come out with something decent. I bought a $30 camping table 18 months ago, and it’s still doing well with over a whole season of touring under its belt.

However, I’m not a fan of the recovery boards they occasionally bring out. The design is bad and the quality is certainly not enough to justify them being more expensive than the Trojans. They seem to be a bad knockoff of TREDs.

Would I Buy the $98 Trojan Recovery Boards/Tracks Again?

Absolutely.

There’s some controversy around the saying “the proof is in the putting”, or whether it’s actually “the proof is in the pudding”. But really, the proof is in the fact that these boards continue to go strong two years later after copping a lot of abuse.

They might not look the fanciest, but I take pride in being one of the few people cruising around the carparks with boards that are scratched, melted, scuffed and dirtied.

Don’t be a poser. It’s function over form in this game.