New Traction Boards?

Anybody seen these or have used these before? Never seen these before and I was able to convince my company to get these purchased for my work. Won't be able to test them for a few more weeks to a month from now. And it will be my first time using traction board type of recovery, period, so any advice would be helpful. But rest assured they'll definitely get used and I'll have a report about them later.

 

Don't spin your tires.

 

Look like the stack nicely.

 

Ya that's a true statement

 

Daaaaaaamn

 

Holy moly. What do the boards look like?

 

Forgot yours have metal studs.

 

The metal studs are unscathed, of course. The plastic knobbys in the middle were rubbed down passed the base. So if your traction control is off, this is most likely the outcome. I would reccomend to either keep traction control on (which all the recoveries I've done I've made sure they're off) or replace all the plastic knobbys with the metal nut and stud version as shown. I'll take a pic of the boards when I'm back to the storage area they're kept (which will be about 2 months).

 

First gens don't have traction control, so you have to rely on your right foot. The best practice is to back off as soon as you lose traction and reposition the boards. Getting them deep under the tire is key. I've used mine probably a dozen times and they're still in good shape.

 

That's good to know. We used them on our work truck that I was driving with (2017 Ford F350 gas with a rear locker) that got stuck. I drove upon a grassy hill in 2wd with about 63 5 gallon specter water jugs in the bed and as soon as I slowed, truck bogged down. I immediately realized it and dropped it into 4lo and rear locker engaged and deployed the boards behind the rear tires. No luck. Time was sensitive and I had to leave said area ASAP so I ended up burning the Coopers a bit. Thats between rocking back and forth with a crew deploying the recovery boards in appropriate locations of the tires. Just goes to show that you must read your lines and predict your next move b4 you get to it.

 

Good grief

 

I love that the instructions use an old VW beetle as the sample vehicle. Maybe they sell a lot to the Baja Bug crowd?

 

Would this have happened with other recovery boards??

 

Any board without metal studs wouldn't do that to the tire; they would just wear down, or melt if you spun the tires long enough.

 

Ok good. I'm in the market for some boards after shoveling for hours to get myself out of some snow. I will absolutely avoid the studded ones

 

The snow is where I've used mine the most.

 

Just like your trigger finger is your safety, my right foot is my traction control...

Initially I liked the idea of the metal studs (replaceable), however the tire wear issue is definitely something to think about. Maybe replaceable plastic studs would be a good compromise...

 

Now you have a set of aquatreds.

 

I think you're right on the replaceable plastic studs. Metal seems like a good idea on paper, but I'd rather the sacrificial part be the board instead of my tire.

 

Like those guys who put a bunch of lag bolts in a pressure treated 2x6 as a poor man's traction board. Fine as long as you don't spin the tires.