So I went through a good bit of research in regards to recovery pads, here is what i have found.

First of all, any recovery pad is a CONSUMABLE ITEM. it WILL get damaged/stripped/cracked from usage almost every time you use them regardless of the brand.

With that aside, I tried to compare maxxtraxx (the instagrammer's wet dream and also some of the most expensive on the market) against other ebay/amazon brands and in the end i went with X-Bull brand recovery pads.

Why? Well, the biggest thing is, all of these pads use practically the same base plastics to make them, which results in almost identical performance of the material. The only major difference is the outward appearance of the pads, which i do not bother with too much.

In my usage of X-bulls, i have been able to recover so far, FIVE instances, and i believe they have another 5-10 uses left in them.

A MAJOR factor that no body seems to consider when looking at these is what terrain they are used on.
Sand will incurr less damage to them when compared to say an uneven craggy surface as the pad has more foundation to sit on sand for example. I believe this is where peoples perceptions that one board is superior to another comes from, as i cant seem to find a legit controlled experiment of recovery pads. Also, if you just drop the hammer while on top of any recovery pad, you will damage them and likely the tire's tread too. You dont need to pretend your at the BAJA 500 when using a recovery pad, use moderate power and get unstuck, then pretend your at the BAJA 500


My suggestion is to go with a set of mid-tier ones like X-Bull and see how they handle for you, as i seem to be getting the same performance with that brand as my freinds did with maxxtraxx, but at a fraction of the cost