Torque Tank M1 Review – 2024
Last updated on April 5th, 2024 at 09:23 am
I’ve always loved sled work. My wife has always had a love hate relationship with it. In fact our old tire sled I tagged with the letters FLH because she would finish a set and say “I Fucking Love and Hate this thing”. I’ve used tire sleds, the basic economy dragging sled, a Strongman Truck Pull Simulator, a prowler style sled, and now the Torque Tank M1. All have had pros and cons as I chase down the ultimate sled solution for my gym. Will the Tank be the final answer? Let’s dig in.
Key Notes
The Torque Tank M1 has been consistently used more often than any other sled we’ve ever owned. It isn’t perfect, and the retrofits they offer aren’t jiving with me, but it is the best option for a space constrained home gym with multiple athletes I’ve used or seen to date.
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Quick Notes
I purchased the Torque Tank M1 used on Marketplace. My model is slightly different than the current model and it doesn’t have any of the extra new gadgets Torque has released.
I’ll make note of those differences and items as we go.
Problems with Other Sleds
Before we dive into the Torque Tank M1 fully, I want to give a quick and dirty on the other sled options I’ve used. This will help illustrate what I liked, and didn’t like. Which should help demonstrate what I was looking for in the M1.
Tire Sled
We went through about 4 total tire sleds in the earlier years of my gym. They were free, I used leftover tow rope, some chain, a belt squat belt, a piece of plywood inside the tire, and loaded it up with a weight vest and some plates.
The biggest issues were that you had to drag multiple plates out and stack them on the tire. If you got stronger, as I have, you needed more and more plates. This means that the rubber on the side of the tire burns up faster and faster. What once lasted me a year, began lasting a month or two. I could have just continued to go to Les Schwab and get free blown out tires, but it got annoying to burn through one during a workout, have to plan that pick up, discard the old tire, etc.
Solid solution for people dragging 45lb, but not so great for us bigger dudes.
Basic Economy Dragging Sled
I borrowed a dragging sled from a buddy at work. I loaded up the weight peg to max with iron 45s, and began walking. After multiple trips up and down my sidewalk, I couldn’t feel anything. It slid so well on the concrete, that there was no resistance.
My wife tried it and even for her it was a waste of time.
Strongman Pull Simulator
I wrote up a review on this one. But the jist was that this was REALLY close to good, but didn’t work outside or on uneven payment. The chord got caught regularly, the unit would overheat, and overall it just didn’t work for us. The adjustable resistance on the fly was AWESOME, since you didn’t need to load any plates, and it had more than enough gusto for even the strongest of athletes. Close, but no cigar.
Prowler Style Sled
I snagged a CFF Prowler Sled off marketplace a few years back. It came with metal skids. The metal was awesome because it made it tough to drag, but was terrible because it left marks and made a horrendous noise.
We put the plastic skids on, and the noise and road damage went away. But pushing the sled became too easy again. I was at one point loading up 10x45s plus my daughter and some change for my top sets. This means like 5 warm up sets before I was ready, a ton of dragging plates out, loading ghemz bringing them back in, etc. It turns into something you don’t want to do because of the set up time. The plastic skids also got DESTROYED fast with that much weight. I could see with regular use, you’d need to replace these a couple times a year. That’s an expensive piece right there.
Ok, so that’s my experience with sleds so far. Some of the above would work if I was a smaller athlete, used a sled occasionally, or had an indoor turf to work with. But I’m a home gym lifter with a kiddo and a wife and some friends who lift with me on my concrete sidewalk.
Let’s dig into the Torque Tank M1 and see if it can fill the void with the above.
Torque Tank M1 Overview
The Torque Tank M1 is primarily a pushing sled. Where it stands out from the crowd is the use of 3 wheels (2 rear, 1 front) alongside a quick adjust magnetic resistance. This means that with the flip of a switch we can adjust how hard the sled fights back when you try and push. We have 4 levels total, neutral, 1, 2, and 3 being the hardest.
It comes with two uprights for pushing, that have two hand placements. A low handle for pushing in the opposite direction. A weight peg for plopping a couple plates on top. And that all comes encased in this sweet hard plastic shell and powder coated finish.
Wheels
The wheels are an obvious improvement over skids. Metal broke everything, plastic wore down fast and was too easy. The wheels are great. You are likely to make more noise huffing and puffing after a hard set than the Tank itself makes.
So if you are an early morning dude or dudette, get it in while the kids nap, or otherwise just don’t want the entire neighborhood to know you are doing crazy things in your yard, the wheels are an obvious choice.
One piece that I was excited about here too, is the wheels and the body of the Tank are built to where you can wheel it up over the garage door entrance without bottoming out. Super convenient for us in the garage, especially with a sloped driveway where you don’t / can’t stop. This also works OK to get down the curb into the street, but not so much UP the curb.
I reached out to my dude Coach Carp who has had his Torque Tank M1 since October 2020 for some notes on the maintenance of the tires.
The only maintenance I have had to do is air up the tires 4-5 times in 3 years and wipe it down with with Clorox wipes or the leaf blower If it gets dirty from the road or grass
Coach Carp
Resistance
A big difference with the Tank and other sleds is that the resistance isn’t based on weight. You can add some plates to the Tank, which is a good idea, but they don’t really add to the difficulty of the sled. They simply help keep the sled down as you get pushing hard, especially for sprints.
The two areas where more weight makes a difference, is for smaller athletes who might be using the sled on Neutral, or if you plan to use your sled on a hill/driveway like I did in my Torque Tank Hanks Video.
The resistance primarily comes from the magnetic resistance, which is controlled by the switch, which can go from Neutral up to 3. It isn’t “heavy” like dragging a weight sled, and doesn’t get heavier as you go up in resistance. It’s more like the breaks on a car. As the resistance goes up, it’s like pressing your feet on the breaks more and more.
On top of that, the magnetic resistance is variable. What that means is that it works similar to an Air Bike. The harder you work, the harder it fights.
So 1 isn’t a static amount of resistance. If I was to walk with it, versus all out sprint with it, we’d have two different amounts of force pushing back.
The good news here is that you don’t have just 4 options in terms of resistance. The bad news is that it can be fairly difficult to have a consistent workout if you were trying to do some type of progressive overload.
A Quick Note on The Handles
The handles are marked with a sticker. If that sticker comes off, the handles can easily drop onto either post, but only work correctly for one side. This seems odd. A clearly marked engraving, or just a simple way to ONLY slide onto one side, would be ideal.
We also notice that it has a tendency to “drift” off course a bit. The three wheels are locked in place, no swivel. So this must be a factor of the handles having some wiggle to them. It isn’t like you are going to end up in your neighbors yard across the street, but we have to consciously pay attention not to run into our planter box or dip into the street. They really could have made the handles removable, but also lock into place much better.
What is on the inside?
I was asked to take the hood off the Torque Tank M1 and share the inside guts. I’m not an engineer or gear head, so I’m just going to leave these pics here for your viewing pleasure.
Torque Tank M1 Performance
The above is the mechanical break down of the unit. But what you really want to know is, is it a good sled or not? The answer is, yes, and no. As always, I think the answer lies in the details of your gym and how you plan to use it. So take a ride with me. We used the Torque Tank M1 pretty exclusively in our front yard on the driveway and asphalt. I think this is fairly common for most people who are looking at the M1 as an option.
Our issues with previous sleds centered around ease of use and longevity. If I’m going to need 35 minutes to load up a dozen plates on a sled to get into my working sets, I’m just not going to use my sled. And if it breaks down every couple of months, I’m going to miss workouts with it and find reasons why I should avoid it.
The Torque Tank M1 100% handles both of those. I can go from storage mode to out of breath in under a minute. The set-up time is about the same time spent to wheel out the Freak Athlete Nordic HyperExtension and set it up. Or even grab a cable attachment or two. This means we have little to no excuses to avoid using it, and without a doubt we have used the Torque Tank M1 more in the past several months than any other sled option we’ve ever had.
Coach Carp can attest to the maintenance aspect, as there essentially is none. Outside of abusing it and leaving it in the rain, I believe you’ll have a fully functioning sled for years to come.
Pushing – Hamstring Focus
This is really the sleds bread and butter. The handles on the back give you two options for different height athletes. I’m 6ft and my daughter is under 4ft, and we both can use it. We’ve actually done workouts TOGETHER with the 2x25lb plates on the sled and adjusting the resistance between the two of us.
For your typical sled pushing, this is essentially everything I’ve ever wanted. Hard on the hammies, challenging on the cardiovascular system, easily adjustable, easy to set up, works moving slow or fast. The three levels of resistance seem to be plenty for even me to work with in this setting. I typically sprint on 1 or 2, and push heavy on 3. It takes a decent amount of time to get a short distance on level 3.
A quick note that when I say sprint, I mean PUSHING the sled. So hands extended out into the handles.
A Rating for this use. A+ if they figured out the handles a little better.
Reverse Walking – Quad Focus
With our tire sled reverse walking required a fairly long rope hooked up to the tire which was maybe 3 inches off the ground. This was so you could get the right angle to be able to squat down enough and nail the quads. You essentially wanted to be able to lean into it and do a leg extension to get moving. The quad burn, specifically the tear drop, was just torture.
The Torque Tank, due to the locations of where you would anchor a harness and the weight distribution, doesn’t do this well. If you try and get low, you can’t sit back the way you want. The entirety of the resistance is in the front wheel. So a low anchor point and no weight to hold it down, means it is stupidly easy to raise that front wheel up and have no resistance at all.
New Model
The newer model of the M1 allows the front harness bar to be adjusted at an additional height, which means you now have a better angle of adjustment. The retrofit kit is $99, and is required if you want to add on the M1 Dumbbell Cradles. The idea here is that you can now add weight to the front of the unit to keep it from lifting off the ground as well. These are another $35, and of course you need to own dumbbells.
Here is my general thought. You already spent a LOT on a sled, and now you are in for an extra ~$150. The higher hook for the sled is likely a decent solution. But now needing to load plates and dumbbells is annoying. Do I think they might have fixed their problem? Possibly. Do I think it is an elegant or well done solution? Not at all.
I’ll note that this is likely going to be your experience with sprints with a harness as well. Anything where you are hooking up to the front of the unit and “pulling” it, like you are towing a wagon, is going to suffer.
Not Great
The resistance on these doesn’t seem to match up as well as the old tire sled. I think that is likely due to the variable resistance nature here. Reverse sled drags are normally done slow and methodically, where the maximum resistance doesn’t kick in. I can still get a horrendous pump, but it takes more work to accomplish. You can do some reverse sled work as I showcase in the Torque Tank hacks video, or you can set up a long strap, or do a number of possible things. But the ease of work for the tire sled with reverse dragging versus the M1 leaves us still wanting something a little more.
It sucks that you have to get creative to do 1 of the 2 BASIC movements with a sled. If the forward pushing gets an A+, we get a solid C here. Passable, but that is it.
Pulling – Back Focused
I ended up snagging a pull rope for the sled specifically for review purposes. I like it. A lot! I have always liked finishing my accessory sessions with some kind of eccentricless conditioning style work. Lots of blood flow, low muscle damage, heavy breathing. Good stuff! But for back that was difficult. With the Torque Tank M1, my pull rope, and using my driveway, I am in business!
I’ve also done walking pulls with a strap, and it isn’t my favorite. It works, but the problem is again that you pull explosively and the front wheel comes up.
The rope works so easily, so effectively, and is a really nice mix up for cardio. Solid A from me.
Slow and Steady
I had a comment on my initial post on r/HomeGym where a user compared the Tank to the Rogue Echo Bike, opposed to a normal sled to a Concept 2 Bike. The idea being that you couldn’t just get in a warm-up or longer length session on the Tank. In my experience, while their analogy isn’t wrong, I definitely found with Air Bikes and the Tank that you can control the resistance by how hard you work. They are definitely “different” than a regular bike. But you can achieve similar outcomes if you want.
Other Options
I mentioned in the Hack video that I sometimes do sled pushes, where I put it on the driveway and PUSH like a medicine ball. I’d take this over some battle ropes anyday. Some people like to do some other stuff like sideways walking. Certainly doable, just not exactly my go to.
Additional Attachments
Torque has two other attachments I want to highlight. They have a wall storage option, which is great. I personally have no room on my walls, so I created a DIY option. But I like that they thought of this as an import factor. Coach Carp has the wall storage:
Wall storage is great and if you have other carabiners, u can use it to store chains and other stuff too. If I was buying a new, I would definitely get the wall storage with it because it saves a lot of space or you could always DIY out something to hang it. The wall hanger also serves as an anchor point for battle ropes.
Coach Carp
The other attachment is their wheelbarrow handles. They added these after the Xebex Fitness XT3 PLUS Sled launched with them. I can’t for the life of me understand the purpose of these. Wheelbarrows are essentially a weighted carry exercise. They should be heavy in the hands as you move. Strong hands, upper back, traps, core, with the need to stabilize and move through the lower body. By removing all of the weight and relying on the magnetic resistance, they will be light in the hands and only difficult to move in the same way sled pushing is. So this is just a one wheel version of a sled push. Complete gimmick.
Other options on the market
Xebex Fitness XT3 PLUS Sled
This is definitely the closest rival to the Torque Tank M1. Currently the pricing is within the same ballpark. The general functions are the same. The XEBEX has a couple of adds ons like their cell phone clamp and wheelbarrow handles included. I’ve heard rumors that the XT3 is a little light on resistance, but no first hand experience here. It would be tough for me to recommend the XT3, being the knock-off, at almost the same price point.
XPO Trainer 2
I looked at this badboy multiple times over. Almost pulled the trigger a few times, and just never did. The hard part for me is that this matches up extremely well to the M1 on price, and general concepts, but the M1 has the multiple levels of resistance instead of just a constant variable resistance option.
All Other Sleds
There are a metric ton of options on the market. In our experience, they all basically work the same. Metal/skids on a surface, load with plates, get frustrated, want something else.
Torque’s Other Tanks
Torque offers the M4 which from my knowledge, addresses a handful of the issues we have with the M1. I really wish the handles came off and you could store it vertically, because then this would be an option. But the footprint is impossible in our space, even if it would be the better option. Oh, and it costs $1600 without any attachments, taxes, etc.
Overall Thoughts
I said earlier that the Torque Tank M1 addressed the two big issues we had with previous sleds. I can easily say that it is so stupid easy to set up and use, that we use it. This is by far the best thing I can say about it. We. Use. It. Regularly!
It isn’t perfect. My wife said to me the other day “I do miss the tire sled, something about it just worked”. She was gasping for air, with her legs full of blood, so she might not of been thinking straight. But I think that nailed it.
I’m currently happy enough with the Torque Tank M1. It does a few things VERY well, it is just so user friendly that we actually use the damn thing regularly for multiple workouts a week. I’m even considering dragging it to the park for soccer practices. It will likely get used with kids and anyone in my gym for years. Because it works.
But they definitely left the door open for someone to come in and take the crown of best sled for the home gym. I’m just not sure anyone else has done that yet.
Wrap Up
If you are looking for a sled, the Torque Tank M1 is in my opinion the best option available currently, especially for those with tight spaces and multiple athletes. You might not want it if you plan to do certain movements regularly, but there is likely a workaround to get you there.
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Joe Gray
My name is Joe Gray - aka Gray Matter Lifting - and I've been lifting at home since 2013. In that time I've built a badass gym, deadlifted over 600lbs, helped grow r/Homegym to over 1 Million subscribers, created the Garage Gym Competition and written a ton of posts here on this site. I love the Garage Gym Community... If you do too, I hope you stick around.
