I was cleaning up my garage a couple days ago, actually I was looking for stuff I have not been able to find for awhile. I found this hidden behind some other stuff. I pulled it out and decided to use it today. After about 30 minutes of getting up and down and rolling around, I just put it back where it was hidden before. I think I will just stick to a blanket and shimmy in and out from under the car. It's alot easier this way. It's definitely not easy getting older. how about you seasoned guys, you still using one?
I have one that looks just like it. To tell you the truth a big sheet of cardboard works pretty good for a lot of tasks, keeps the grime off and the cold at bay.
have not used a creeper with wheels for many years - have to have car up too high just to move around on - use rubber exercise mats and a fold up mat from Harbor Freight
Never used one. Not practical to me. I usually use cardboard or some old sheets. But a lot of times I use nothing. Doesn't matter much when wearing old clothes anyway.
I'd probably get stuck in one of those and have to be rescued. I've got a Snap On padded creeper with the adjustable headrest out in the shed and a parts house padded creeper that I picked up at a yard sale for 10.00 a while back. I don't use them because I don't have a shop and use sheets of cardboard instead. I had a nice wood creeper that I had had for years and I took it down to my buddy's shop to use and left it there and a while later went to use it and it was smashed. Result of someone setting an engine on it to roll it across the floor.
This is the main reason I will never build a shop without a heated floor ever again. I swear its warmer on my shop floor than in my bed some days. It sure does cut down on the aches and pains. I am still young enough to be somewhat nimble, but a cold floor chills you to the aching point pretty quickly.
Yes, a creeper (I have a bonester) is one of those great ideas that just doesn't work! I use 3/4" blue dow styrofoam, that way I'm warmer when laying on cold concrete. and it gives enough cushion so my elbows and knees don't get sore. BTW I also use the styrofoam when welding on the floor, hot bee-bees melt through it and don't roll under your knees. For those who are worried about fire, I've done this for years and never had a fire start from welding over styrofoam, cardboard and rags are a different story.
My 40 year old Craftsman creeper is a bigger pain to use than its worth. The last time I used it I got off it and pushed it out of the way, when I got done I looked over and the dog was sleeping on it, so I guess its not totally useless.
Back in the 70's a couple of buddies of mine used to run a stock car at Heart-O-Texas speedway in Waco Tx and work on it in a one car garage with a dirt floor. Every week or so one of them would haul in a couple of cardboard hood boxes that Pointiac hoods came in and lay them on top of what was already there to have a clean floor. When the one that owned the garage finally put a cement floor in the garage they spent a couple of days digging the cardboard out.
I have a "Bone" ( I wish !!!)....anyway, it's OK until I try to get out of it. Too difficult to use for me. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I don't use mine anymore.
If it's cold or there is oil or water under the car I use a piece of cardboard. Summertime I just lay on the bare floor. Last creeper I had, one of the wheels stuck, was a pain to move on, wore the plastic wheel down to the swivel dragging it. Guy at our truck shop has a nice one, metal frame, small casters, padded, rolls real easy. I figure he paid big bucks off a tool truck for it.
Back in the 70s when i had hair......... er when my hair was long,belly wasn't quite so "tall" I had the good ole wooden creeper. After about the ump-teenth time of rolling my hair up in the wheel, i put the creeper up. I use a rug .
I have a bunch of those interlocking foam mats that work well. They're relatively cheap, and provide some cushioning. If they get too gunked up, just throw them away and get another. I think they're great !! I think I bought them at Sam's Club.
I have more than enough creepers, but my new favorite is an old wooden one with 4 simple wheels I bought at an auction for $7. Rolls awesome and keeps me off the cold floor. Hard as a rock and not shaped like the human body for comfort though, but at least I won't take a nap under the car
I was on mine this afternoon doing an oil change, gear oil change for the transmission. Still using the same one I bought many years ago with the lowered metal frame and padded back and head, very comfortable. I need new wheels, anyone know of a link?
I have one that folds up into a seat. The seat works ok, it's easy to roll, but I never use it as a creeper. Wheels catch on expansion joints, you don't fit under the car easily (it's not because of my gut ). I just grab a sheet of corrugated board, and slide under. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Conduction is a bitch. Greenhorn hikers learn this the hardway, can have a sleeping bag rated to 0° but without insulation underneath you'll freeze yer ass off at +30, even on a cot. Cardboard works pretty good for this. One of my relatives was an engineer and designed his own house. He ran hot water pipes under the driveway to keep it free of ice and snow in the wintertime, I'm surprised this isn't more common especially now that PEX or whatever is around. Yeah the creepers seem to have "marginal utility" at times, thought it was just me. I remember the hippies in HS didn't like 'em cause their hair would get caught up in the wheels.
Like others, I've tried several creepers. They're all long gone. Big sheets of cardboard work well for sliding and insulation. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I still use the wooden Stewart-Warner Sales one I bought when I worked there in 1967. I do agree with "Jalopy Joker" that it is now a pain to have to jack up the car and put the stands in place to be able to freely slide around under it. Although I've been lucky enough to not have gotten too much of a paunch in my later years which means not having to raise the car too far! Regards, Dave.
For me carpet is king, cut-pile or loop-pile, no shag. I cut it in strips about three feet wide, double it up if I need more cushion, when it gets too greasy or dirty throw it away. Smaller pieces are useful as padding when working around sharp edges or bolts.
I love my creeper, but then again I'm just happy to be in a garage, bought a real expensive one at lowes and it broke within 30 mins, ended up using my 3 dollar craftsman creeper from a garage sale. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Despite having one hanging up on the shed wall I'd have to jack my car up too high to enable me to slide under with a creeper. Then the car would be too far to reach up from the ground.
I've used a paper-faced bat of fiberglass insulation before. Keeps the chill of the concrete off you pretty good.
I have a wooden Snap On that was the latest and greatest when I bought it 30 plus years ago. It is made of solid wood planks and has held up pretty well, other than replacing on wheel and redoing the headrest half a dozen times. It just depends on the job at hand whether I grab it or a sheet of cardboard. Some nice hints here, I may have to try the piece of fiberglass insulation out, if I can do it without itching. With the heated floor at work, I can probably catch quite a nap.
When I was in the .mil one of my roomates in the barracks moonlighted as a bouncer at a stripper club. Nice work if you can get it Anyway he was always running on empty. So when he was at the motor pool he'd lay down under a truck (probably with a creeper) and reach his hands up and wedge them into some linkage or whatever so they'd stay up and look like he was doing something and nod off for a while. Worked pretty good I guess, for a while anyways.
Creepers are of love/hate thing. Mostly I hate it. Especially when you roll to get off of it and the other side goes up in the air and then slams down or shoots across the garage. And the wheels suck cuz they won't turn the way you want or at all. Very aggravating when you keep forgetting things and have to move up from under the cars many times. Cardboard works great but my next garage, if I build it, will have heated floors.
I use mine all the time . often thought it would be nice to have a top box on rollers too so a guy didn't have to climb in and out of the creeper so often. also nice to have cordless trouble lights when using a creeper.
I've got the old creeper my dad bought in the mid-60s. JC Adams, Canadian made. Don't have a smooth floor in my garage so I hardly ever use it, but it reminds me of hanging out in the garage with my old man when I was a kid.
I own one don't use it. A little creeper safety tip. My dad ,passed now but a mechanic his whole life. Was working on a truck and the guy that was working with him left a creeper on the floor my dad walked around that side of the truck and stepped on the creeper and it shot out and ruined his knee. Took 2 operations and he missed almost 2 years work. Didn't have workmans comp back then. How many remember commoditiy food boxes, before food stamps. Always stand your creeper up or roll it under the vehicle when not in use.
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