Expedition Essentials recently shipped us one of their new Maxtrax mounts to test out. They call it the RBQM or recovery board quick mount -those guys love their acronyms.
The RBQM allows a set of two or four Maxtrax to be securely mounted to virtually any flat surface. This includes rear bumper swing outs, storage boxes, roof racks or flat sided campers such as the AT Habitat or Vagabond Drifter.
The base of the mount is completely flat and the compression arm that holds the Maxtrax in place is hinged on top so that it won’t interfere with the mounting surface.
There are a pair of reinforcing boxes opposite of each other that resemble the company’s elegant and widely popular dash mount systems (2TPAM, 3TPAM, GXPAM, RAMPAM).
Materials
The compression arm (red piece) is constructed of steel for maximum strength while all other components are comprised of aluminum to save weight. The entire assembly is protected by a rugged powder coating then assembled with high grade stainless hardware.
We installed the RBQM to the passenger side swing arm of our Expedition One rear bumper using the provided mounting holes -no drilling required. Once secured, we dropped in a pair of Maxtrax and aligned them the rubber clad clamping feet before swinging the compression arm into the closed position.
There is a sort of scooping action that’s built into the compression arm that breaks free muddy or frozen recovery boards from the mount. This same mechanism also provides the clamping force necessary to keep the boards in place. The whole thing is actually quite clever.
We were pleasantly surprised that the RBQM and our propane bottle quick mount (also by Expedition Essentials) are keyed alike -which means I only have to carry one key. Not to worry though, the RBQM has an additional locking tab that accepts a traditional padlock in the case that we need more sucurity.
Over the course of our test, we found our Maxtrax and RBQM to be free of rattles or movement over our two weeks of on rig testing, and have no problem recommending the RBQM to anyone looking for a locking mount for their Maxtrax. We tested the first gen mount that holds two recovery boards. Expedition Essentials has since added an additional version that holds four.
For more information on the RBQM visit www.expeditionessentials.com
For more information on Maxtrax visit
This was a temporary mounting solution. If it were permanent we would have used at least four bolts. :)
