They work fine the few times I have used them and saved me from spooling out the winch I don’t yet have. I’ve recovered myself and others probably 5 times in mud and sand. They work amazingly well when going up steep muddy/clay areas with exposed roots. If you lay the board right over or even in front of the root to get a little speed up they help tremendously. They do take a bit of a permanent bend but nothing substantial. The shovel is a typical folding shovel which is adequate. For the money they work fine but they do not really nest if that is important. So far they are not fading any perceivable amount from the sun either which is nice after close to a year outdoors but you can tell the plastic gets stressed when the boards get bent. So far no breakages yet even after others have spun their tires enough to deposit melted rubber on the lugs. For this amount I would buy again. If I were very serious I would buy name brand Maxtrax.