What are Recovery Boards and Tracks?

Recovery boards are rigid or flexible devices used to facilitate getting a vehicle unstuck when in mud, snow, sand or on rocks. They are easy to transport inside or mounted to the exterior of the vehicle. While they can be used on any type of vehicle, off road and overland vehicles most often use them. Recovery boards are useful because they provide additional traction, floatation and clearance. They come in two primary categories: rigid traction boards and roll up traction matts.

Rigid Traction Boards: typically made of plastic or metal, they are semi-flexible, are typically about 1′ x 4′ in dimension, and have knobs on top (plastic or metal) to increase traction for tires. Many manufacturers design their traction boards to stack on top of each other for easier packing or for stacking during off road recovery scenarios.

Roll Up Traction Matts: typically made of plastic or rubber, they are flexible enough to roll up to about the size of a sleeping bag. They are easier to store and conform better to the trail surface. However, they cannot be used for bridging or leveling.

How To Use Recovery Boards and Tracks

How To Use Recovery Boards and Tracks in Sand

First, dig sand away from the tires in the direction you want to travel. You need to create a hole into which you can insert the tip of the traction board. Jam the traction board down into the sand, under the tire tread. If you have multiple boards use one per tire. The traction mat should be positioned in the direction you want to travel to get unstuck. If your vehicle is up to the frame in sand try to dig as much sand away from the frame as possible. Place your transmission in low gear and slowly creep onto the traction board. At this point you may also want to deflate your tires to increase traction. Use slow acceleration until onto the traction board, followed by a quick, slight burst of acceleration.

How To Use Recovery Boards and Tracks in Mud

Similar to the sand technique, place the tip of the board under the tire tread in the direction you want to travel. Use slow acceleration at first followed by a quick burst of acceleration. You may need to sustain your acceleration until you are on solid ground again. Often the traction board will sink into the mud. Use a floating rope to keep track of it and pull it out once finished. You may need to stack multiple boards under one or two tires where you have the least traction.

How To Use Recovery Boards and Tracks in Snow

Snow is very similar to mud, except that you want to first create snow tracks of about a car length (if possible) as a runway once you get traction. The traction boards will give you traction on the slippery snow, but understand where your vehicle is headed as you may end up stuck again. You might need to air down your tires for additional traction. Also, once you get unstuck you might drive onto another slippery patch that could put you in more trouble (e.g. off-camber, deeper hole, sliding downhill, etc)

How To Use Recovery Boards and Tracks in Rock

Traction boards are typically used in rock situations to assist with aggresive approach/departure angles where you need to create an easier angle for your front/rear bumpers. They can also be stacked to fill in deep holes where tires might otherwise get swallowed creating a breakover angle leading to being high sided or beached (the frame rests on the ground reducing tire traction). They can also help add traction on wet or slippery rocks. Exercise caution as traction boards might try to shoot out from underneath the tire on hard and slippery surfaces.

How To Use Recovery Boards and Tracks in Ruts

Deep ruts can lead to beaching or high siding (when your frame comes to a rest on the ground thus reducing tire traction). Use traction boards to fill in the deep ruts. You may need to stack multiple boards and/or place rocks, dirt or debris into the rut in addition to the traction board.

Tips For Using Traction Boards and Tracks Off Road

Use a Shovel – A shovel goes with traction boards like peanut butter and jelly. You can use the shovel to dig a hole by the tire in which to insert your traction board. You can use the shovel to clear sand or dirt touching the vehicle frame. You can also use the shovel to move dirt, rocks and debris into a hole or crevice where you need additional support for the traction board.

Tire Pressure Gauge – often times you’ll want to air down your tire to increase the contact patch on the ground, leading to enhanced traction. To do this safely, use a tire pressure gauge to control how much air is let out of the tire. When ready to get back on paved road, use the tire pressure gauge to air up your tires to the manufacturer’s recommend pressures.

Avoid a Bad Situation – avoiding getting stuck in the first place should be a significant part of your game plan. Monitor the trail or terrain ahead and don’t intentionally drive into deep mud, sand, snow or rocky conditions that you know will put your vehicle at risk of getting stuck.

Two Boards are Good, Four Boards are Best – while two traction boards may be enough to free you from the grip of sand or snow, often times you’ll need four boards to successfully free yourself from the worst scenarios. Go ahead and pickup four to be safe. If you only have two boards – use them on the front tires (assuming you want to go forward) so that they rear tires get the benefit of the traction boards too when they roll over them.

Stack Traction Boards – you can stack multiple traction boards to create a bridge or create traction over a dip or hole on the trail. To bridge a significant gap you can stack 2, 3 or all 4 boards together, each adding additional support for your vehicle.

Traction Boards Make Winching Safer – use traction boards to reduce resistance and reduce the load on winch lines making winching safer. If there’s an obstacle your tires will hit along the way when being winched use traction boards to smooth out the trail. Less resistance is better for your winch.

Reduce Wheelspin – most traction boards are plastic and excessive wheelspin will wear them down like sandpaper on wood. If you sense your tires spinning on the traction boards let of the gas so you don’t prematurely wear them down. Some traction boards have metal studs to increase wear – it works but can excessively wear down your tires under wheelspin conditions so really it’s best to keep wheelspin at a minimum regardless of what type you have.

Easy Access – you get stuck when you are least ready for it! Make sure your traction boards are easily accessible should your vehicle get stuck in mud, deep ruts (that might make opening passenger doors impossible), or off-camber. Roof racks, externally mounted spare tires, and pickup truck racks make great mounting points.

Bridging Ladders – if you’ve ever watched the old Land Rover Camel Trophy Tour race you’ve seen teams bridging deep washouts using traction boards. They essentially bridge the gap using the traction board. Sometimes this requires doubling up the traction boards to support the vehicle over such an expanse – more reason to get 4 instead of 2. Make sure your traction boards have sufficient overhang on solid ground since they’ll flex downward some, shortening their overall distance.

Level your vehicle – when parked at night at camp – whether you are sleeping in a roof top tent or inside your vehicle – having a level rig makes for more comfortable sleeping. Most traction boards are strong enough to be used as leveling blocks overnight under your rig. Place under one or two tires, sometimes stacked, to level up and sleep comfortably.