If there’s one thing in this world I refuse to compromise on, it is 4×4 recovery gear.In the scheme of things, it’s not even terribly expensive to purchase quality recovery gear that your life could literally depend on. Best of all, high-quality rated recovery gear is something you can take from vehicle to vehicle, if you have multiple four-wheel drives or plan to upgrade in the near future.
With that said, when it came time to select what recovery gear we wanted on-board 4X4 Australia’s mighty D-MAX, we needed not only quality gear but modern recovery gear.
The name MaxTrax is synonymous with four-wheel drive recovery equipment, and with plenty of new exciting products on offer, we decided to give its products a run exclusively in our D-MAX.First of all, we chose four MaxTrax Xtreme recovery boards which live on our Yakima roof platform any time we head bush. They’ve already paid for themselves after we managed to get a press vehicle badly bogged in thick mud.
With two placed behind the rear tyres, we were able to reverse out quickly and easily, without sustaining any damage to the MaxTrax or vehicle. This is one of the main things I love about MaxTrax recovery tracks: you can use them to help other four-wheel drivers and take them from vehicle to vehicle.
The main selling point for the Xtreme recovery tracks (other than the fact they work bloody well), is they feature 88 replaceable hard-anodised alloy teeth fixed to each recovery track. While it’s poor form to spin tyres on recovery tracks, sometimes it’s just not possible to avoid it.Now, if you do manage to damage one or more of these teeth, for just $30 you can buy a set of replacement teeth, and for $16.50 more you can buy a tool to change them out again. You are essentially buying a product that will last a lifetime. They are also Australian made, and we love supporting Aussie off-road companies.
As well as the MaxTrax Xtreme recovery tracks, we decided to assemble a collection of recovery straps and soft shackles to carry inside the D-MAX. I’ve mentioned this previously, but I always keep essential recovery gear in a bag inside the cabin of the vehicle, in the event you are really stuck and can’t access the canopy and drawer system. For this task, we chose to grab a recovery kit bag and stock it full of everything we should ever need to safely extract our D-MAX or other off-roaders.
Now, if your 4×4 doesn’t have a winch and you always travel in a convoy, you can essentially get away with a snatch strap or kinetic rope, a shovel and some shackles (as well as rated recovery points). As we have an Ironman 4X4 12,000lb winch on the front of our D-MAX – and often travel solo – we had to take a closer look at what recovery gear we needed.Soft shackles, when used in conjunction with soft-shackle-safe recovery points, are a brilliant idea to save weight, so we carry five of those at all times, as well as a MaxTrax fuse shackle.
We also carry a MaxTrax kinetic recovery rope for snatch-style recoveries, a static rope, a MaxTrax winch ring and rope dampener. Sometimes there’s just not enough rope on your winch to get out of trouble, so we have also selected a static winch-rope extension, and a smaller three-metre static rope which can be used as a bridle strap, small winch extension or tree-trunk protector.
At the rear of the D-MAX, we’re spoilt for choice thanks to the inbuilt recovery points on our Hayman Reese X-Bar towbar. However, we also decided it would be wise to carry one of the MaxTrax Hitch 50s which can be inserted into the tow-hitch; it’s also soft-shackle compatible.You can actually buy two different already-assembled recovery kits from MaxTrax – one called The Bush Kit and the other called The Beach Kit – which can help you out if you are unsure of what gear you need.These are comprehensive recovery kits that will last the distance when you need them most. Buy once, cry once – wise words to live by when it comes to recovery gear.AVAILABLE FROM: www.maxtrax.com.au
RRP: $499 per pair (MaxTrax Xtreme recovery tracks); $899 (MaxTrax Bush Recovery Kit)
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