I humbly disagree with the notion that sand mats are not that useful and a waste of space. They do take a lot of space, but securely hung outside the vehicle, they don’t use much valuable space. I fitted my Jeep with a fast engine driven compressor and a front mounted electric winch but I still carry my sand mats all the time.
Letting the air out of tires will only ease the extraction, it won’t guarantee freeing a vehicle. You still need a solid surface for the tire to grab to especially since the tires have to climb upwards out of the whole it dug for itself.
Since I installed the winch I almost always use it to get, or get someone, unstuck because of its ease of use and speed. However there where a couple of incidences where I still needed to use sand mats to ease the load on the winch when pulling heavier, or deeply buried, vehicles.
Perhaps the most important reason to carry the sand mats is they will always work. Winches and compressors can fail and both units in my Jeep did on different occasions.
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A.B.
OasisPhoto.com – Images from the Magical Sahara.
ShortWheelbase.com – Jeep preparations.
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A.B.
OasisPhoto.com – Images from the Magical Sahara.
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