ActionTrax Recovery Trax prove their value for the discerning overland and vehicle-based adventurer
Traveling off-road on your favorite trail or traveling on a self-sufficient overland adventure creates a sense of freedom. It connects you with nature, the opportunity to explore new paths, meet new people, create new experiences, and at the end of the day when you’re sitting in front of the fire with friends and family, there’s a sense of rejuvenation.
It’s no secret that over time, we acquire a wide range of gear for our rigs so it’s important to pick quality gear because with that sense of freedom comes the responsibility to be safe and prepared.
When Paola and I purchased our 2019 Jeep Wrangler JL Sport last year, our first off-road trip was going to be to the beach for some surf fishing. Our Jeep was stock, with “street” tires and no differential lockers, so we decided to get a set of ActionTrax with metal teeth in case we needed to self recover. We headed to Robert Moses State Park in New York and for those of you who don’t know, New York offers a number of beaches that allow access to 4-wheel drive vehicles for surfing and surf fishing. We lowered the air in our tires and headed out around Democrat Point. We had a great day except we didn’t catch any fish.
That said, we found an area with deep sand and got ourselves stuck to practice and test out this recovery gear. In short, the ActionTrax worked flawlessly. We used them as a shovel to dig out the sand in front of the tires but also learned it’s a good idea when handling the Trax to avoid abrasions from the teeth. The hand-holds along the sides make them easier to work with, and the slots along the sides are great for linking them together in the event of needing a longer or wider track. They were stiff enough to handle the weight of the vehicle over sections with ruts.
ActionTrax are made of a proprietary material from DuPont and they measure 44.25” x 12.75”, weigh 8 lbs. 6 oz., have been test weight rated up to 47,000 lbs., are made in the USA, and have a two year no restrictions warranty. If you spin your tires you risk breaking a tooth and damaging your tire but Trax themselves are easily repairable. Just drill out the broken tooth from the bottom, install a common 1/4” bolt x 3/4” long with nylock nuts and washers. Now you’ll have a metal-toothed ActionTrax, so you’ll have to be more careful not to spin and damage your tires. For reference there are two versions of the ActionTrax available: one with teeth using the same proprietary DuPont material; the other featuring 72 pre-installed metal teeth utilizing galvanized steel bolts.
We’ve used them several times since our first experience including in rocks and snow, and would recommend them to anyone looking to add an important piece of recovery gear to their kit. Based on our experiences in the field, here are a few take aways:
- Use gloves for safety
- It’s a multi-tool – shovel, bridge, ramp
- Usable on a wide variety of terrain and heavy duty (47k lbs. tested)
- Easily linked together for longer and wider tracks
- Find your method of external mounting because they take up a lot of space inside of a vehicle and have sharp edges which can create abrasions to yourself and other gear.
- Prefer the ActionTrax with metal bolts and nuts on the ends because that’s where you’ll have more torque and greater chance of tooth wear.
- Suggest two sets for technical or longer trips – heavier rigs may require double stacking for rigidity if you’re creating a bridge
ActionTrax has given us the ability to go on off-road adventures with confidence and we appreciate the ease of use and versatility of this made in the USA product.
Learn more at www.usactiontrax.com/
OutdoorX4 Magazine – Promoting responsible vehicle-based adventure travel and outdoors adventure
