are Maxxtraxx worth it?

Reason I ask is,

1. they’re thinner, for better storing
2. They do make a replaceable cleat version, but it costs twice more
3. Most aftermarket mounting solutions are designed to fit maxtrax, not knockoffs

it’s just hard to justify $300 on a piece of plastic to get torn up under the truck. especially if you help someone else who spins the tires and melts them which is not covered by warranty.

For those of you with them, how did you justify the price?

For a while I’ve simply had the cheap $60-80 Amazon xbull set.
They have worked. But they don’t stack thin.
I’m interested in the Remora Offroad bracket system to mount traction boards on the outside of a camper shell side window,
But it’s designed for maxtrax, as are the locking twist grips that I believe are made by Rotopax.

 

If you’ve got the money, I’d say sure. If not I’ve had some of the cheap ones and they worked great

 

I just buy the cheap ones off Amazon. How often are you realistically going to get stuck? If they work for one or two recoveries, you've got more than your money's worth in recovery fees. No sense paying more for what is essentially just a piece of plastic with nubs on it. I'm pretty sure the last ones I bought were the X-Bull ones off of Amazon. They're fine. If I tear them up on a single recovery, oh well. I'll buy new ones. All of them come out of the same 3 factories in China anyways. You're paying for the brand or removable spikes.

 

What do you mean they don't stack thin? They still stack together, just not tightly? I was just considering ordering them

 

They stack, they come in a re-usable zippered bag, and they also come with mounting hardware if you wanna be bro-cool and mount them on your bed rack. I leave mine in the bag, chuck them in the bed of my truck when I go offroad and don't worry about them

 

I also just bought a set of the cheaper Amazon ones. I don’t have enough money to justify maxtrax when most of the cheaper ones have overall very good reviews.

 

Exactly what I do. I have the bag clipped to my bed rails with a carabiner so it stays put on trails.

 

It's marketing. When Yeti showed up with the "BEST COOLER IN THE WORLD, HOLDS ICE FOR 4 DAYS" but cost $600. First to market in a niche.
I just picked up an Igloo at walmart that outspecs the yeti and it was $90 for the same size.

 

Haha great minds think alike.

I will be the first to post a review in my build thread if the xbull ones fail on me or just don’t work.

Based on all the reviews I read, the knock off versions seem just fine unless you’re going on a legit wheeling trip for an extended period of time in a remote location and you need the same set of boards to work over and over and over. That would not be the case for me.

 

And if you're going on a legit wheeling trip for an extended period of time in a remote location, a harbor freight winch is gonna serve you much better than some plastic traction boards. A warn winch with a proper front bumper will serve you even better.

TBH, I've never liked traction boards. They work, and I carry them because I don't have a winch on my current truck, but I'll take the winch all day every day if I have a choice.

As long as a winch has power, you can almost always figure out a way to get yourself unstuck. Traction boards are fickle mistresses depending on what you're stuck in. Traction boards + winch are very useful.

When you're in deep snow, you can't traction board your way out of being stuck. But you can typically always winch yourself forward or backwards.

 

I’ve used my Xbulls. But maxxtraxx probably stack twice as thin
And this is a small truck platform where space is at a premium and compactness matters as it fills up quick the more necessary stuff you carry (hi lift, etc)

There is also the aspect of helping other people who are stuck
Or putting them underneath a tire to level the truck at a camp spot

in this case maybe I’ll just try to Fab up my own camper window mount and stick the Xbull on there, where it’s not gonna matter how big they stack since the mount solves the problem of getting them out of the way.
And accessible

last time I used mine truck was uphill on sand which made climbing into the bed to grab them off of threaded knob mounts a pain

 

Maxxtraxx sales VP out here letting us know that they stack twice as thin (so you can fit one more inch of tactical gear in the truck) because we have our (hi lift, etc) apparently in the bed of our trucks.

Just buy a winch and toss the traction boards in the bed. When it's time to sleep, throw them under the truck. Nobody's gonna steal them.

I think the amount of people that just go 4 wheeling and sleep on the ground are really dying off rapidly at this point.

 

I don’t work for maxxtraxx. If I did they’d give me a set for free.

I do have my hi lift in the bed. 60 in a shortbed. Don’t know if it’s safe to mount to my front bumper.
Don’t have roof racks

I have slept in the bed while having stored inside Hi Lift, WaterPort, and more. And nobody knew I was in there. Not possible with a tent

if for whatever reason you have to overnight in a parking lot or rest stop, shell works a bit better than a tent.

yeah winch maybe one day. Better than traction boards. Gonna have to research which one works well to fit in my ARB and potentially dual battery setup to power it.

IF a winch requires second battery that sounds like the hardest part to me. Not finding a badlands HFT winch to bolt into the ARB.

 

I was just giving you shit and you came back with receipts lol

 

these appear to be 14" 9x9 guinea pig cage panels
who wants to be the guinea pig to order a set to test fit then sell the rest of them to us in a group buy

if I sleep in the back with these does that technically make me a caged guinea pig

 

I think sportsman’s had them on sale for $200 a month ago
Not anymore

but I do see a seller on eBay with them for $200
Not sure if it’s the exchange rate that makes this possible or what the ship time is

hopefully they’re legitimate

 

$300 for 2 pieces of plastic that most likely was made in China for $5 each, NO.
Buy the Amazon ones.

 

yes this is the appeal of Xbull
sometimes you have to spin tires to get out
If someone else is driving they definitely will
so the fact my cheap Xbull does have a couple small sections of melted plastic on them from that isn’t bothersome at all given their lower price

may have to create my own shell mount bracket or something given the rest of what’s commercially available (and not custom) tends to have their mounting system compatible with MaxTrax and not other versions

 

A shovel works wonders

 

Preach. This is my ultra not-flashy recovery gear setup lol, hasn’t failed me yet