Svnty Offroad Maxtrax Angled Mounting Bracket for Rhino Rack Pioneer Platform
In this post we take an in depth look at the new Maxtrax angled mounting bracket for the Rhino Rack Pioneer Platform by Svnty Offroad. This post gives you a detailed look at the brackets made here in Brisbane, Australia.Â
Svnty Offroad Manufacturing in Australia
Before we get into our review of the Maxtrax angled mounting bracket, who is Svnty Offroad (formerly Svnty6 Fab)?
Svnty Offroad is a small business in Brisbane. Svnty Offroad are manufacturing roof rack mounting accessories, a bunch of 70 Series Toyota Land Cruiser brackets, and other 4WD accessories, all here in Australia. They have a growing range of products coming into the Australian market that are unique in design, materials used and tested in different Aussie conditions. Their EVA foam inserts CNC cut here in Australia are a first of their kind – we have a few of these and will be writing a few posts on them soon, so keep posted. All their gear is extremely well made with attention to detail on those little things that standout from anything similar in the market. Let’s get into this post and show you the Maxtrax angled mounting bracket from Svnty Offroad and you will see what we mean.
Maxtrax Storage on the Pioneer Platform
We have had the Rhino Rack Pioneer Platform roof tray since we purchased our 76 Series Land Cruiser. The Pioneer Platform has been great and we went with this option because we know Rhino Rack make quality gear, this particular platform is made of aluminium and is lightweight, no chance of rust, many different storage solutions and accessories and looks great. Your roof rack is pretty important as it gives you so many options for storage solutions to ensure you can take all the gear you need, store it well and access it all easily.
One of our pain points with storage has been our Maxtrax recovery tracks. We did previously use the TRED 800’s but when we got our camper trailer DOT373, this had Maxtrax recovery tracks so we decided to match these all around. The TRED’s went to a family member who was happy to get a set of recovery tracks that work really well. We had been storing our recovery tracks on top of the Pioneer Platform and simply strapping these down. This is an ok storage solution but when you want to carry a couple of paddleboards, or surfboards or even kayaks, having your recovery tracks stored flat on the platform is a waste of space. We also found that when you need to access the recovery tracks when needed for a recovery, it was a bit time consuming and sometimes difficult to get to when up on top. The solution we needed was a couple of side mounting brackets that would be out of the way and easy to access when needed.
Which Bracket?
So which Maxtrax angled mounting bracket?
There are a range of different products in the marketplace that allow you to side mount your Maxtrax’s, all with different features and price points. This is a great benefit of having a Pioneer Platform as they are popular and as a result there are many different suppliers making accessories for this particular roof rack setup. The Rhino Rack Maxtrax storage options are expensive, we don’t like the look of them and you need to buy a bunch of different accessories if you want to carry more than two (this is for additional strength) – we believe these come close to $200 for a pair once you get a few of their accessories and before the Maxtrax mounting pins. There are other companies that make similar bracket options but they all have one or a few issues that we just didn’t like with them, they are all somewhere between the $140-$200 price range.
Then came along Svnty Offroad, a small business based in Brisbane. Svnty Offroad are manufacturing all of their gear locally in Australia and put their gear through the test. Their range is small at the moment, but is growing rapidly. All their gear is well thought out, very well made and unique in design and materials used. Svnty Offroad manufacture a Maxtrax angled mounting bracket that has some great features so we bought one of theirs and this is what we think about it.
Svnty Offroad Side Angled Mounting Bracket
This is what you get in the kit from Svnty Offroad:
- 2 X Maxtrax mounting plates 4mm Stainless steel (Powder coated black)
- 2 X Angled side mount brackets 4mm stainless steel (Powder coated black)
- 4 X M8 Zinc Plated Steel Slot Nuts
- 8 X M8 Stainless Steel Button Head Bolts
- 4 X M8 Stainless Steel Lock Nuts
- 4 X M8 Stainless Steel Flat Washers
- 4 X M8 Stainless Steel Spring Washers
The Maxtrax angled mounting bracket kit comes with everything you need (other than the mounting pins or Quick Fist clamps) to get setup on your roof rack. The brackets are neatly packed away to ensure there won’t be any damage in transit. This complete kit costs $145. Like any of the mounting brackets on the market, you will still need to buy the Maxtrax mounting pins. This bracket has also been made to allow you to add on a couple of Quick Fist clamps to use as a shovel mount. Again the Quick Fist clamps are not included but are simple enough to find on eBay or other online stores. A pair of genuine 25-45mm Quick Fist clamps will cost you about $35. Maxtrax mounting pins will cost you another $40 on eBay.
Well Made & Great Design
First impression of the Maxtrax angled mounting bracket is that it is extremely well made. The black powder coat finish is great and matches the Pioneer Platform perfectly. The bracket comes in two separate pieces. You get a pair of mounting plates, this is where you will add the Maxtrax mounting pins, and a pair of angled brackets that bolt onto your roof rack. We like the idea of having the bracket in two pieces as it does give you a number of added benefits.
Firstly, the Maxtrax angled mounting bracket has as number of mounting points. This allows you to set your Maxtrax’s at different heights. This is great for different setups. It allowed us to get the bottom of the Maxtrax’s just above the top of the rear door and not have the top of the Maxtrax sitting too high for our garage clearance. Secondly, if for some reason on a particular trip you didn’t want to have your Maxtrax’s mounted on the side of your 4WD and instead on top of your roof rack, you could just mount the mounting plates on your roof rack as another storage option without using the side angled bracket. You might never decide to do this, however it is always great to know that there are other options / uses for the bracket in the event that you did.
Thirdly, the side angled brackets that mount to your roof rack have elongated holes. This is another great feature of these brackets as it allows you more flexibility when mounting to your roof rack as the elongated holes give you plenty of adjustment by sliding the brackets in our out. These elongated holes are also great as it could give you the option to use these on other types of roof racks (potentially) as the holes are not fixed specifically for the dimensions of the Pioneer Platform. Finally, the brackets sit at a really good angle when your Maxtrax’s are mounted, they sit fairly vertical rather than at a weird angle. This is great as they don’t stick out too far and look really good when fitted.
Fitting the Brackets
Fitting these brackets is super simple and will take you 10-15 minutes (a little more time if you are cutting the Maxtrax mounting pin bolts). You basically connect the mounting plate to the side angled bracket using the supplied two M8 button head bolts, washers and lock nuts. You will need an allen key and 13MM spanner here. Remembering when fitting these two brackets together, to check what height you want your Maxtrax’s to sit taking into account door clearance and so on. There are multiple mounting points on the mounting plate so you can get the height exactly right for your setup. Also remember when connecting these two brackets, that you want to ensure that the hole for mounting Quick Fist clamps is above the roof rack not below.
You will then need to add the Maxtrax mounting pins to the mounting plate. Unfortunately Maxtrax only make the one size fits all pins and as a result you will need to cut the bolts. If you won’t be adding any Quick Fist clamps then you don’t really need to, however it doesn’t look great having a large bolt sticking out the back. So it is far neater to just cut the excess part of the bolts off for a nice neat and flush finish. If you are going to use Quick Fist clamps for a shovel mount, then add these as well. Then do the same as above for the other bracket.
Once the brackets have been put together, mounting pins and Quick Fist clamps bolted on, you can now fit these to your roof rack. Here you will see why the elongated holes are great to give you that little bit of flexibility on exactly where you want the bracket to sit. We find it easier to connect the slot nuts, washers and bolts loosely to the brackets first, and then drop the slots (connected to the bracket) into the channel of the Pioneer Platform and then slide to the desired location. Once you get the brackets in the correct position, tighten the bolts and you are good to go. Now we can access our Maxtrax so easily from the side of our 4WD when needed, as well as giving us a bunch more storage space on our roof rack for boards and a bunch of other gear.
You can see from the pictures below, when we first fitted the Maxtrax mounting pins we had not yet cut the ends of these bolts off. By not cutting them you can see from the pictures that the bolt will get in the way of the Quick Fist clamp when trying to tighten. If not using the Quick Fist clamps then you won’t need to do this.
Overall Verdict
In summary, here is what we think of these Svnty Offroad Maxtrax angled mounting brackets for the Pioneer Platform:
- Made here in Australia (Brisbane to be exact).
- Very well made and look great.
- Black powder coat finish that matches the Pioneer Platform.
- Comes well packaged so nothing is getting damaged in transit.
- You get everything you need other than the Maxtrax mounting pins.
- Will never rust as is made out of Stainless Steel.
- Can store up to four Maxtrax’s with the Maxtrax mounting pins.
- Multiple mounting points on the mounting bracket for different height setup options e.g. rear door and garage clearance.
- Elongated holes on the roof rack angled bracket for flexibility when fitting to your roof rack.
- Two piece bracket gives you the option (if ever needed) to mount Maxtrax flat on your roof rack for different storage options.
- Maxtrax’s sit fairly vertical (not too angled like other brackets) on the side of your 4WD so looks really good.
- Easy access to Maxtrax from side of 4WD for when they are needed.
- More storage space on top of your roof rack as your Maxtrax are now side mounted.
- Have the option to add Quick Fist clamps on the rear of the mounting plate for shovel storage.
The ability to set your Maxtrax’s at different heights and the elongated holes on the roof rack bracket are definitely the best design features of these brackets. Nothing worse than having the back of a bolt rubbing on something, or your Maxtrax’s sitting far too high when they don’t need to. These are locally made in Australia which is another added benefit, supporting local small businesses.
Use discount code 4WDADV for 10% off any Svnty Offroad products.
Any questions or comments? Please comment below this post or send us a message on Instagram. For more information on our 76 Land Cruiser build, check out these other posts here.
To keep up to date on future posts or what we are up to, then sign up to our Newsletter and follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Thanks for reading legends.
