But MAXTRAX are no good in mud!

First time I heard this I thought it was a one-off. Then I heard it again. And again.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Traction ramps are great in any compression terrain (term I’ve learned from Bob Wohlers). Sure, they are most famous for use in sand, but they work very well in mud too, and the techniques are much the same.

I don’t know where people get the idea. Clearly, never used them in mud, or thought about it.

A traction ramp does four things to help you out of a problem:

1. Decrease rolling resistance – provides flotation, like airing down your tyres but much, much more so.
2. Improve traction – those lugs are something the tyre can bite into, not just slide on slick mud.
3. Reduce exit angle – the boards provide a shallow angle for the car to ease out of the problem.
4. Increase clearance – even used singly, once on the boards there’s another 30-50mm of clearance.

So all of that means that yes, MAXTRAX and other recovery boards do work in mud, and very well indeed. I de-bogged the Wrangler you see below using MAXTRAX…without it, would have a lot of difficult digging, and we had another car handy to pull but MAXTRAX really made the difference.

Here’s how to use MAXTRAX in sand: