Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Bunker Industries Traction Boards: bunkerindust.com/?ref=KZGn4rQd8YX6Kk [PAID LINK}
Traction Boards: Do I Need Them?
There are a lot of gadgets in the overlanding world that I haven’t bought into.
you’ve got single-purpose cooking contraptions based on farm equipment. A mess of hoses to air down all your tires at once. A big balloon that uses your car’s exhaust to lift your vehicle to. And my favorite the ubiquitous Hi-Lift Jack you see mounted as high as possible on vehicles that can’t even use them.
and if you don’t know what any of this is, then surely you’ve seen the meter-long orange things mounted to the top, sides fronts and backs of almost every truck out there.
Is this just rampant consumerism? Is my friend Harry right? Do “Overlanders love to add to cart.” Or do these things have a purpose? Well, today we’re going to take a look at traction boards.
The example we have today is the Bunker Industries Traction board with replaceable teeth and steel plate. These were sent to me for review by VicOffRoad, but these ideas will apply to any of the major traction boards.
Given the fact that you see these on so many overland trucks around town every day, you might think that they are a critical piece of equipment that you should never leave for the mall without.
But I would say that’s not the case.
When we travel in an SUV like our old 4Runner or our Tacoma, or even our Tacoma when it was stock, I never felt the need to spend several hundred dollars to get these traction boards.
If you drive a car-based SUV or a Van then I would recommend pthem, especially if you’re like us and take a 2 Wheel Drive van into the sand.
So today I’m going to show the main uses for a traction board using these Bunker Industries Traction Boards that VicOffroad sent for this video.o
The main reason you might need to use a traction board is to get out of loose ground like sand, snow, or mud. After that, al other uses they may have are secondary.
Using them as a Ramp
Using them as a bridge
Leveling out your vehicle or camper
and as a shovel.
Like I said, these were sent to us by VicOffroad and they’re made by Bunker Industries. This is the Prime Traction board, and it comes with two sets of replaceable nubbins that thread into these brass inserts along the surface.
They have handles and mounting points along the sides and metal plates at the ends. When you use these boards, often your tires are spinning, and they can melt the plastic and chew up the nubs, so having them be replaceable is great; these metal plates protect the leading and trailing edges where you’re more likely to be spinning.
To be honest, I’m kind of worried about these chewing up the tire; there’s a lot of cheese-grater energy here…
They come in pairs, with this case and two straps you can use as tethers because they tend to get sent into the ground like splinters.
So these are traction boards, and it makes sense that their primary use is when you need extra traction. So here we are in the sand and wouldn’t you know it, we’re stuck.
The basic technique is to place these in front of your tires, and hopefully, that will provide enough traction and flotation to get out.
First, try to dig out a little bit of the material so you can get the board as close as possible, preferably right up under it.
The next thing we want to talk about is using the boards as a bridge. This is one use I don’t see needing in this vehicle because if a gap is big enough that I need a bridge, then this isn’t going to work.
But if you have a smaller car, or SUV, or a van, then this could help you get over a gap between a road and the shoulder or across a deep rut. The traction boards are designed to bend and not break, but obviously, that has its limits.
Similar to bridging, using these as a ramp is probably in the domain of smaller SUVs and Vans;
At the end of the day, my recommendation on traction boards is that if you get any, get 4. Because in my experience if you’re in a modified 4x4 and you’re stuck due to lack of traction, then you need traction on all 4 tires. Unless you have a 2 wheel drive van, in which case, I’d say, get a reservation at KOA.
These Bunker Industries traction boards seem like a decent product, and at $200 they’re a pretty good deal.
Thanks for watching, and happy trails.
Bunker Industries Traction Boards: bunkerindust.com/?ref=KZGn4rQd8YX6Kk [PAID LINK}
Traction Boards: Do I Need Them?
There are a lot of gadgets in the overlanding world that I haven’t bought into.
you’ve got single-purpose cooking contraptions based on farm equipment. A mess of hoses to air down all your tires at once. A big balloon that uses your car’s exhaust to lift your vehicle to. And my favorite the ubiquitous Hi-Lift Jack you see mounted as high as possible on vehicles that can’t even use them.
and if you don’t know what any of this is, then surely you’ve seen the meter-long orange things mounted to the top, sides fronts and backs of almost every truck out there.
Is this just rampant consumerism? Is my friend Harry right? Do “Overlanders love to add to cart.” Or do these things have a purpose? Well, today we’re going to take a look at traction boards.
The example we have today is the Bunker Industries Traction board with replaceable teeth and steel plate. These were sent to me for review by VicOffRoad, but these ideas will apply to any of the major traction boards.
Given the fact that you see these on so many overland trucks around town every day, you might think that they are a critical piece of equipment that you should never leave for the mall without.
But I would say that’s not the case.
When we travel in an SUV like our old 4Runner or our Tacoma, or even our Tacoma when it was stock, I never felt the need to spend several hundred dollars to get these traction boards.
If you drive a car-based SUV or a Van then I would recommend pthem, especially if you’re like us and take a 2 Wheel Drive van into the sand.
So today I’m going to show the main uses for a traction board using these Bunker Industries Traction Boards that VicOffroad sent for this video.o
The main reason you might need to use a traction board is to get out of loose ground like sand, snow, or mud. After that, al other uses they may have are secondary.
Using them as a Ramp
Using them as a bridge
Leveling out your vehicle or camper
and as a shovel.
Like I said, these were sent to us by VicOffroad and they’re made by Bunker Industries. This is the Prime Traction board, and it comes with two sets of replaceable nubbins that thread into these brass inserts along the surface.
They have handles and mounting points along the sides and metal plates at the ends. When you use these boards, often your tires are spinning, and they can melt the plastic and chew up the nubs, so having them be replaceable is great; these metal plates protect the leading and trailing edges where you’re more likely to be spinning.
To be honest, I’m kind of worried about these chewing up the tire; there’s a lot of cheese-grater energy here…
They come in pairs, with this case and two straps you can use as tethers because they tend to get sent into the ground like splinters.
So these are traction boards, and it makes sense that their primary use is when you need extra traction. So here we are in the sand and wouldn’t you know it, we’re stuck.
The basic technique is to place these in front of your tires, and hopefully, that will provide enough traction and flotation to get out.
First, try to dig out a little bit of the material so you can get the board as close as possible, preferably right up under it.
The next thing we want to talk about is using the boards as a bridge. This is one use I don’t see needing in this vehicle because if a gap is big enough that I need a bridge, then this isn’t going to work.
But if you have a smaller car, or SUV, or a van, then this could help you get over a gap between a road and the shoulder or across a deep rut. The traction boards are designed to bend and not break, but obviously, that has its limits.
Similar to bridging, using these as a ramp is probably in the domain of smaller SUVs and Vans;
At the end of the day, my recommendation on traction boards is that if you get any, get 4. Because in my experience if you’re in a modified 4x4 and you’re stuck due to lack of traction, then you need traction on all 4 tires. Unless you have a 2 wheel drive van, in which case, I’d say, get a reservation at KOA.
These Bunker Industries traction boards seem like a decent product, and at $200 they’re a pretty good deal.
Thanks for watching, and happy trails.
