TRED Quick Release Mounting Pins review

Parking my Prado under the carport is a real challenge, even after chopping the front fascia out with a grinder and reciprocal saw.

One side of the carport was still lower than the other, and my wife wasn’t happy about me parking in the middle of the carport, leaving her to park her car out in the weather.

With a 50mm suspension lift and a rooftop tent mounted to load bars on a Tracklander backbone, the Prado was a smidge under 2.2m tall. Then I mounted some load bars to the lid of the tent, installed a TRED mounting baseplate and 115mm threaded mounting pins to carry four TRED Pro recovery boards, and overall height grew to 2.3m.

This was a nightmare when it came to accessing underground carparks or negotiating fast-food drive-throughs, let alone squeezing under the carport. I once tried to enter an underground carpark with a clearance of 2.3m but ended up destroying two of the plastic TRED securing nuts, as they sat just 2mm above the top of the threaded mounting pin. Thankfully the pins weren’t damaged.

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Recently TRED Outdoors released 113mm Quick Release Mounting Pins with a new style of securing nut called the TRED Quick Release Ratchet Handle. While the name is long, this new product significantly reduces the height of TRED mounts. Keen to try them out, I jumped online and had two pairs heading my way pronto.

The first thing I noticed was that the ratchet handle is much shorter than the original plastic securing nut, by 25mm, down from 90mm to 65mm. By also taking 2mm off the height with the 113mm mounting pin, I was looking at lowering the Prado’s height by around 25mm.

Now, I can hear you asking, why do I need to carry four recovery boards? If you carry two the clearance will be improved even more, but as I travel solo, having four TRED Pros is a benefit in self-recovery situations, and I also use them to level the Prado when I get to camp.

The TRED 113mm Quick Release Mounting Pins come in pairs with all the gear you need to install them on the mounting plates and they retail for $49.95. You can also purchase the Quick Release Ratchet Handles separately for $20 each if you already have a set of Quick Release pins. The unique design will mount up to four TRED GT, HD or PRO model recovery boards, or two of the TRED 800/1100 model recovery boards. They also work with other brands of recovery boards.

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The TRED 113mm Quick Release Mounting Pins have taken the hassle out of accessing the recovery boards and I can now get to them quickly and easily while keeping them secured safely on the Prado. The ratchet handles are manufactured from reinforced nylon and are lockable with a padlock to secure your recovery boards. TRED recommends using a 30mm padlock with a 5mm shackle.

One thing I have noticed, especially when it is cold, is that it can be challenging to disengage the Quick Release Ratchet Handle with icy fingers. I haven’t tried this with muddy fingers, but I expect it could be tough as well. This could also be caused by my inability to open things with my ageing fingers, and/or the newness of the handles.

Overall, I’m enjoying the improvement in clearance, even by a mere 25mm, which means I can now access places that have a height restriction of 2.3m… and park under the carport at home while leaving space for my wife’s car.

RRP $49.95