Sand Ladders and TREDS

[Ducky's Dad]

I have a set of aluminum sand ladders from OK Offroad and was poking around for ideas to change my mounts so that I can fit a water tank onto my roof rack without interfering with the ladders or with rack access. FWIW, my ladders are the XD 60"x16" and slide under my Con-Ferr basket, between the basket and the top of the shell.
http://www.okoffroad.com/
These things were hard to find when I bought mine a few years ago, and OK Offroad was the only place I found them, other than some milsurp places that were always out of them.
Anyway, I had seen these TREDS briefly a few week ago at an offroad shop but did not have time to investigate. OK has them, and they look pretty good. I think if I didn't already have the aluminum ladders, I'd just get the TREDS. Lighter, probably safer, and won't get bent.
http://www.okoffroad.com/gifs/stuff/tred-1.jpg

My water tank will probably be a 54" length of 8" PVC pipe mounted across my Yakima roof tracks right in front of the Con-Ferr basket, with a fill plug on top and a boiler drain on the bottom. Total height will be close to the unloaded height of the Con-Ferr and may even improve aerodynamics. Capacity should be close to 12 gallons, for emergency use and to run my 12V mister in the desert under the awning that I'm planning to mount to the rack.

[fyrfytr704]

This doesn't help much for how to get everything mounted, but I can say that I had looked at TREDs, too. After a bunch of research, I ended up going with the Aussie made MAX TRAX. I haven't tested them yet, but they feel really well made and like they'd do quite a bit. My biggest worry with either of them was cracking under the weight of the PW - most of the research I did pointed toward the MAX TRAX being more durable.

If you get the TREDs, let me know - I'd love to know what you think of em. If we end up wheeling in the same place sometime, we can compare the two.

Good luck with the new mounting solution!

[Ducky's Dad]

Not going to buy any new stuff unless I destroy the aluminum sand ladders that I already have. Damn PW is expensive to equip.

[fyrfytr704]

I hear ya there! I wanted to get both, to test out and review, but my pockets aren't deep enough to do that just "to see how they shake out."

[TheDirtRoad]

Does anyone have the Max Trax or something similar?

[Ducky's Dad]

I still have my aluminum sand mats/ladders, but I added a set of MaxTrax last year after getting myself thoroughly stuck and suffering the ignominy of being pulled out by a Ford. There was a MaxTrax group buy on one of the Toyota sites so I added them to the PW. Had to use them once and they paid for themselves on the first use. I had the R/F tire in a deep hole and exploded my X-Jack trying the raise the truck enough to start backing out. No way to winch forward and no place to lift with my Hi-Lift. I got out a pair of MaxTrax, locked the axles and just backed right out. I was so impressed that I bought a set for my Tundra. There was just a group buy on Expedition Portal and it was such a big hit that I wouldn't be surprised if they do it again. If I had to choose between carrying MaxTrax or aluminum mats/ladders, I'd go with the MaxTrax.

[TheDirtRoad]

That's what I wanted to hear, Thanks.