Trac-Grabber

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Words by Perry Mack & Jason Tansem

At some point, through either misdeed or accident, you will get stuck, even with 4WD. When it’s serious you’ll need a tug from a buddy, your winch to haul you out, traction pads or a call for roadside service. But these solutions aren’t always available, and often you just need a little help, just like giving your buddies car a push to get on firmer ground. Without trying it I initially dismissed the Trac-Grabber as a ‘not-serious-enough’ piece of equipment - a completely uneducated judgement.

The device consists of a rubber block with a corrugated surface, mounted to a heavy duty 1.5-2” webbed strap. Models are available for cars and trucks, 2WD and 4WD. The strap wraps around your tire, through the wheel, and snugs securely with two D-rings. Simple.

Off into the winter mountains we went using a 2015 Ram 1500 as a test vehicle searching for terrain that would allow us to get the truck stuck. The company says it works in mud, sand or snow. Mid-April in the mountains can provide any or all of the above, but on test day the mountain roads provided an ugly mess of wet, heavy, slippery snow.

We drove in deep and brake torqued the rear tires in 2WD until they spun without traction – we were stuck. The Trac-Grabbers are the smallest lightest piece of recovery equipment we’ve ever tried. You can store a set in your daily driver and forget they are there – until you need them. It only took one of us a couple of minutes to put them on.

The physics behind the device is it increases the effective tire height to improve ground clearance, the rubber acts as a lifting block which generates extreme traction perpendicular to the tire rotation, and stays with the vehicle a long as it takes to return to stable terrain.

Theory aside, does it work? The Trac-Grabbers come as a pair for 2WD vehicles or as a quad pack for 4WD vehicles and as recommended we put one on each wheel of the axle. With the lightest touch of the pedal we let the wheels rotate until the blocks both came in contact with the terrain, and then a little more gas to slowly reverse back on to the road.

Yes, they work. Aside from a buddy giving you a tug with his truck, this should be your first recovery technique. Alone on the trail or roadside, you can install them in a few minutes and save yourself the wait for a friend with a truck, or for roadside assistance to get you out and give you a bill.

The instructions are included and provide pointers on where and how to best use them i.e. don’t mount them next to the valve stem, try not to spin your tires, remove once you are out of trouble and clear debris out of your escape route (a folding shovel is your friend once again).

Will they save your proverbial bacon every time in every situation? Maybe not. But they are affordable, easy to keep in the vehicle, allow for self-recovery and may allow you to be the good Samaritan to a fellow traveler.

For more info visit Tracgrabber.com

To buy visit 4WDsupply.ca