Let’s get planking!

Who knew you could do so much with the humble wooden plank on the trail? Get ready for a workout.

It’s the professor’s humble opinion that the basic plank is a criminally underrated tool. In this article, we mention a mere 12 uses for it. You could, of course, do a lot more. Viva the plank!

Ab rollout

Fancy recovery boards are based on ordinary wooden planks. Instead of spending R6 000 on a set of Maxtrax, you could simply chuck a piece of wood under a wheel for increased grip. Sure, properly engineered sandboards offer superior traction, but if you know how to use your plank correctly, you won’t need anything else.

Bench press

The Achilles heel of a jack – be it the scissors, bottle, or high-lift kind – is sand and mud. You need a plank as a base to prevent the jack from sinking into the ground. If you use an airbag to lift your rig, you can place the wooden plank between the bag and your chassis to protect the bag against sharp metal.

Squats

Use your planks to fashion a makeshift chair so you can perch comfortably while loosening wheel nuts. You can claim with conviction that you always sit like this without having to admit that you actually forgot your camping chair at home. Beware though: This setup and a couple of drinks around the campfire don’t go well together...

Farmer’s walk

The reason you deflate your tyres on sand is to lengthen the tread as opposed to widening it. But spreading weight over a wider area also helps, especially if you’re not going to increase the rolling resistance. Tie two planks width-wise on a tyre so the wheel steps on top of the sand rather than dig through it.