Thanks to Extreme Terrain, we’ve been testing out these traction boards from Red Rock Recovery.
Exploring New Hampshire (ENH) used these boards for our All-Wheel Drive and Off-Highway 101 training classes as well as commercial training sessions here in New Hampshire on a variety of terrain over the past 9 months.
The boards were tested in NH terrain with a mix of sand, packed dirt, and rocks over the course of several events. They were used with AWD vehicles and full size pickups for demonstration purposes and during recoveries.
We found that the boards were very flexible and formed themselves well to terrain surfaces especially when used on compression terrain.
Traction lugs on the boards for the tires worked well for tires with large voids (mud tires) but on tires with tighter tread patterns they did not seem to grip quite as well as other brands of boards with smaller or different shaped traction lugs. There were no issues with grip on the “dirty side” facing the ground.
When used on trails with rocks, there was some material transfer of the red plastic to the rocks. We found that some of the protruding traction aids on the bottom had been ground off and portions of the traction lugs were missing. This damage did not seem to affect the function of the boards very much but we have not seen that level of material removal in similar conditions with other boards. It is possible that the plastic of the boards is softer which helps in some situations but may cause increased wear on harder surfaces.
The boards worked well when used for bridging, but since the plastic is soft they performed best when two boards were stacked together with support (rocks, wood, etc) underneath to help reduce flex of the boards and increase clearance of the vehicles. Without support the boards would bow, leading to a steeper angle of approach to the obstacle or reduced ground clearance of the vehicle. We found no warping or deformation of the shape of the boards even when used for bridging with fullsize pickups.
The boards were used in temperatures ranging from the mid 40s (F) to the low 80s with no notable change in performance. They remained flexible at lower temperatures and showed no signs of being brittle.
Generally we like using straps on traction boards to assist with recovery of the boards from ruts and soft surfaces. These boards did not come with straps but there are plenty of places to attach them to the boards and a variety of inexpensive sources to purchase them from.
The handles were large enough to be easily used with gloves and did not get in the way of using the boards in New England terrain.
Holes are provided for mounting the boards to vehicles but we did not test them mounted to a vehicle. The placement of the traction lugs on the boards did make them easy to strap down on and inside of vehicles to keep them from moving during transport.
The jack pad location provided on the bottom of the boards is large enough for the bottle jack contained in our recovery kit as well as most factory jacks. We did not need to try out the feature during recoveries but did use it for demonstration during trainings. Due to the flexibility of the boards, we would recommend doubling them up if used for jacking to increase stability. This feature is not available on all brands of traction boards and can be helpful for reducing the amount of gear needed for off highway travel.
Overall the boards performed well during our testing. We found that some of our clients preferred them over other brands due to the flexibility, weight, jack pad, and price. Other than the wear from rocky surfaces, we noted no other damage after several uses. They will be staying in our recovery kits as one of the tools to train self-recovery techniques to our clients.
Extreme Terrain provided us with the equipment for review. The review above is based on our own honest opinions after extensive use of the equipment.
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