Weird & Whacky Recoveries

We test a few different styles of self-recovery aids to see what works, what doesn’t and what you shouldn’t waste your time with… 

Traction mats have been around for over a decade now. In fact, it was back in 2005 when Maxtrax burst onto the scene and took the aftermarket by storm. They allowed fast, easy and safe single-vehicle recoveries from sand, mud and snow with a minimum of fuss and effort. In the last decade there have been countless other traction aids brought out onto the market and every 4X4 retailer in the country is pretty-much guaranteed to have one variation or another on the shelves.

And y’know what? They work well and are an invaluable part of any four-wheel driver’s recovery kit.

However they ain’t cheap, with some examples costing several hundred dollars; and if you don’t have a roof rack they can take up a significant amount of room in the back of your vehicle. Not deal breakers by any means… but we got to wondering if there are other ways to get the same results with a lot less outlay and with a bit more added convenience.

So we took our long-termer 70 Series Troopy out onto the beach and got it well and truly bogged (cough) on purpose (cough) on the soft sand to see what the easiest method of single-vehicle recovery would be.

We had an exhaust jack to lift the vehicle out of its holes so we could fill them in with the shovel; and (just for fun) we thought we’d give a couple of milk crates the old grinder-’n’-cable-tie treatment to fashion our very own set of fold-up traction aids.

Let’s just say we were more than a little surprised at what we found…

DIY TRACTION

Ok, we can’t say we recommend this one except as a last resort, but the old piece of wood and ratchet strap combo will get you out of a bog if you’re fresh out of options. It’s not an overly difficult option, but it will get you a little messy. You simply take a piece of wood, run a ratchet strap in a loop through your wheel spokes and tension it up so that the wood is running across your tyre. Make sure it’s nice and tight and nothing is going to contact the wheel arch or brake caliper as it rotates as the chance for some pretty serious panel damage could be quite high here.

Once it’s in place and you’re confident it’ll clear, slowly try to back out of where you’re stuck. Hopefully the wood will be enough to dig you out. Take a look at the video to see how it works.