Ask the Editors: What the Heck Are These Things?
We dug around the bowels of the internet and actually discovered that there is indeed an emerging market for these things. Known as axle paddles, these steel or aluminum fins slide over your ATV’s axles and provide an uneven surface (with or without teeth) to allegedly make it more difficult to get hung up on rocks or logs. In short the theory is that the controlled instability will make it easier remain dislodged over elevated surfaces on the trail.
As an added bonus, users claim that they offer additional bite when crawling through mud or ruts. Do they work? We can’t say for sure (never encountered a pair here at ATVC). We will say however that users around the web seem fairly positive with their assessments. No major aftermarket company seems to have taken to producing & distributing these things yet but rather they are coming out of smaller machine shops around the globe for around the tune of $125 a pair.
