THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

I recently picked up a pair of the Maxtrax ramps after trying the Smittybilt Element ramps.
First use of the Element ramps caused a number of the plastic traction knobs to break off or crack. I wasn't using them with the Pinz but with a pickup that was stuck in snow. Possibly the severe cold we were having had something to do with the plastic failing but Smittybilt didn't offer a temperature range, rather just saying they were good in snow.

I haven't tried the Maxtrax yet, which by the way are twice the price of the Element ramps for reasons unclear to me so far. I look at them like auto insurance - hopefully I won't need to use them.

Anyway, for those of you also contemplating buying them, I found a nice way to mount them and thought I'd share:
The knobs with bolts and the rubber vibration insulators came from McMaster. The knobs are aluminum and have 10mm X 76mm threaded rods attached and fit right into the existing spots on the bulkhead where the 10mm bolts are stored for removing the brake drums. I plan to put some rubber anti-skid strips under the ramps just to keep any possible rattles quieted.

If you spin your tyres on Maxtrax the knobs will get torn off. So slowly with minimum power is the way to go. Also the truck will bury them when exiting your bog so make sure you have brightly coloured recovery lines attached to them so you can go back and find them. Also if there is a long to drive out of the bog before you can safely stop then tie the Maxtrak to you vehicle so they are pulled behind as you exit.

I use the bright orange coloured Maxtrak to assist in finding them after a recovery.

Garry

Very nice installation Paul

I bought a set of the Smittybilt ones last year. Haven’t used them yet ( and hopefully never ) for my gentleman’s offroader
But I also got them for Death Valley… not quite as cold as you get there.

Wait... There are bolts in the bulkhead for removing the brake drums??? 5 years and 3 pinz later, I had no idea.

audiocontr wrote:Wait... There are bolts in the bulkhead for removing the brake drums??? 5 years and 3 pinz later, I had no idea.

Newbie ...

The good part is that you only need two, save the other two for spares.
Kind of like that metal plate in the tool cabinet that goes under the jack when you are in sand or loose soil so the jack doesn't sink.

I don't have any drum bolts or metal plate on my K. I guess they're only an M thing.

Very nice install
Thanks for sharing as that is. Great idea and method of mounting!

Really nice attention to detail. Do you have pictures of the rest of the truck?

Where are the brake drum bolts stored on a K as they are not on the bulkhead?

I did not have any on my M so I bought two bolts and I keep them in my tool kit.

Thanks for all the comments!

Garrycol - I think that spinning the tires may have caused the breakage on the Smittybilt ramps. The Maxtrax instructions and video clearly say NOT to spin the tires. Wish I'd been more aware of that before I helped out my neighbor. The Smittybilts are still useable, just not complete.

krick3tt - I never thought of that use for the metal plate - thanks!

McCall Pinz - some more photos are here: https://plus.google.com/photos/10980033 ... 9553?hl=en

ScottishPinz wrote:Where are the brake drum bolts stored on a K as they are not on the bulkhead?

I don't know if there are any specifically for that purpose. The ones on the side aerial mounts do the job.

They're standard M10 coarse bolts that screw into threaded inserts in the drum. If these are missing, don't try using an M12 coarse bolt as it has the wrong pitch

spandit wrote:They're standard M10 coarse bolts that screw into threaded inserts in the drum. If these are missing, don't try using an M12 coarse bolt as it has the wrong pitch

An M12 bolt won't fit into an M10 hole regardless of pitch. The bolts on the top of the side aerial mounts definitely work. My brakes failed when I was halfway up a mountain and I had to search the vehicle for a way to remove the dums. Those bolts did the job perfectly. I didn't use the bolts that secure the mounts to the vehicle - I used the bolts on the top of the mounts.