MAXTRAX XTREME Desert Tan Recovery Boards

MAXTRAX XTREME is the heavy-duty board in the range: the Australian-made reinforced nylon shell of the MKII, with 88 user-replaceable hard-anodized alloy teeth set into the tread so it bites where a molded lug would polish and slip. Desert Tan is the muted one, an earth tone that sits quietly on a tan or olive rig. Sold as a pair, lifetime warranty.

Desert Tan looks right on the truck and disappears on the ground. It finishes a tan or olive build instead of shouting over it, and it hides dust the way no bright board can. The cost is real and worth saying plainly: tan is the hardest color to see in sand, which is exactly the ground you bought these for. Run Telltale leashes on this pair. On this color they are not optional.

Who actually needs an XTREME. Someone who pulls vehicles out for a living, runs driver training, races, or works remote enough that a failed recovery is a serious problem rather than an inconvenience. Those people use boards weekly and need one that will not break. Get stuck a handful of times a year and the MKII does the same job for less money and 2.5 lb less per board. The crossover is frequency of use and consequence of failure, not enthusiasm.

• Read this before you buy. The alloy teeth are effectively unbreakable, and that is the trade: they carry an increased risk of tire damage if you don't know what you're doing. Seat the board, ease onto it, never spin a wheel.
• The honest recommendation is still the MKII. XTREME answers a mission-critical need for a board that will not break. If that isn't your situation, spend the difference elsewhere.
• The quiet color is the hard one to find. Buried behind a tire at dusk on a sand track, a tan board is the last one you'll spot.
• Lifetime warranty, and we rarely see one come back. The failure we do see is bridging in very cold weather with a hard impact. MAXTRAX has always taken care of it.

Mounting these? One Universal Mounting Pin now fits the whole MAXTRAX range, leaving two choices: thread length — 17 mm for bracket mounting, including every bracket we sell, or 40 mm through a camper panel — and capacity, a two-board pin for this pair alone or a four-board pin if you run two sets. Measure for the extra inch of stack height over an MKII.

More recovery gear and traction board mounts.

Stuck between XTREME and MKII? Ask us. We were MAXTRAX's original U.S. distributor and have stocked the brand since it first arrived in the United States, and the whole range sits in our warehouse in Prescott, Arizona rather than a drop-shipper's. Someone here has handled both boards, knows which pin your bracket wants, and will tell you when the cheaper board is the right one.