Im doing some clearing on a piece of property that is super wet. Ive gotten my PC-120 stuck a couple of times and Im tired of paying recovery fees. In the past I have had a set of railroad ties that were held together with a 4x4 bolted to six or seven ties. This made the mats only about six foot by eight foot. I want to make some matts out of some 15 foot timbers that I have and I am debating the best way to attach them. The RR ties snapped all the time because the 4x4 wasnt strong enough to hold them together if the machine had to crawl up on them. Whats the best way to attach the timbers together? I was thinking drilling a hole through about six of them and putting steel cable with a turnbuckle in the middle to keep it tight, or maybe using a peice of 3/4 or 1 inch all thread and bolting them together. Do you guys that use mats all the time make yours or does somebody sell a good set for a decent price? I already have the timbers so I'd like to make mine but if someone sells a realy good set I might buy some too. Thanks, Justin
Your idea of all thread is pretty close to how real "crane mats" are assembled. They use I think 12 by 12's, 18? feet long, around 4 feet wide. They use a long bolt, 4 feet long, I'm sure at least 1 inch, and probably 6 or so in each mat. They also cut a notch in the end of the second beam from the outside on each side, so the bolt passes thru in the open, and you can pick them up by hooking your chain there. George
That'll work just fine. Be sure to cork up your grousers so you don't slip off the mat. It's embarassing..lol..!
Cuting a notch in the second timber sounds like a really good idea. Ive had to drag mine around with the thumb and that can get pretty clumsy. I guess Ill pick up some all thread and see about bolting some of my timbers together. I think my only concern is that i dont know how strong all thread is compared to a hardened bolt. Where could I come accross some of the lone bolts they use in crane matts? Im sure they cost a lot more than all thread but it would be worht it to have a set of reliable mats.
You can purchase grade 8 all thread, same as a grade 8 bolt. Will be more expensive than standard all thread though.
You could get some 1 1/4 steel bar stock and have it threaded. You can weld a plate at one end to make big carriage bolts. This way, you're not limited to mats under 4 feet wide.
Mats see above info, I dont know how it got up there
Good advice cause yes it is LOL
I think im going to make one of each. One with cable and one with steel. I have a pile of one inch rebar I may try to make work on a third one. If none of mine work Ill just get some grade 8 all thread or get some bar stock threaded and use that. How do you cork grousers? Id love to be able to not slip around as much. Ive falled off my little mats way too many times. Maybe with these new big ones and corked grousers it wont be a problem as much any more. Ill post some pics later on when I get started building them.
Anyone got pics of the mats so we can have a look?
Mats are Nice Mats are Nice. Instead of using Mats I just throw some trees down and walk on top of them when clearing. HeavyEquipmentForums If it's really soupy just keep throwing trees down till it holds you up. When your done just throw them on the pile. In a few rains it will burn just fine. Like you I was going to make some Mats but then got to thinking what a PITA they are and decided against it. If you need a road Mats are the only way to go IMO. I like using the Trees when your Clearing because they are Quick and Nimble. That's kind of my Calling Card, Quick and Nimble.
I usually grab whatever I can find to throw down uner the tracks, but this property was logged so all that is left is stumps. I gues I should have said I was stumping it instead of clearing.
clearing I did a job, it should have been a easy job. BUT it rained and totally changed the ground. Like everyone else I went in and started, it also had been logged, so after playing in the mud for half a day, I got my other excavator and started transferring the stumps to the front. The ground just wouldnt stay up to continuous walking back and forth. It took me twice as long to do the job, but it got done. Mats, whatever you do just remember you have to remove/disassemble anything you make and that can be a PITB also. Thats the reason I like logging mats, they are not that big and heavy that you cant move them easy. Im not sure but I think the last one I bought was like $150, but that was a while back. Check your loggers in your area and some may have used ones or ones they may rent. Good Luck, its hard to make a living now a days
The people that shovel log in this section of the country just pull the stumps, turn them upside down and punch them down in the ground to walk on. I've seen logging shovels in places a man couldn't walk through. When you get through with your road you can just pick them up and throw them in front of you till you get somewhere to burn them. If you are looking for bolts for your mats I've had them made by people who do truck springs and suspensions. The stuff they make U bolts out of is really tough and they get it in long pieces.
We made 4 sets one time, out of 14' railroad ties. What we did was, got some 4" X 3/8" strap, laid enough ties on top of it to make an 8' wide mat, heated the strap at the 4 corners, then cut and welded it where it came together. Then we drilled thru both sides of the strap, and the ties, and bolted at every tie. We had 4 of these bands on each mat, one at each end, then two spaced evenly in between. We also took some old 7/8" cable, and made a lifting loop in the middle, going between the ties if I remember right about 2 ties out from the middle on one end, just outside the inside band, to 2 ties out from the middle the other way, on the outside of the other middle band, with cable clamps on the underside. You could easily grab the cable with your bucket teeth, to position the mat. These worked great, and I've actually dug across a swamp like area with them with a PC300 sized machine. But they were about all a 200 class machine wanted, so with a 120 you'd want to go smaller. Nothing quite like trenching across a swamp, working on mats, and dragging the pipe in behind you as you go... The good ol' days...
Slight derail but this is one of the ways it is done up here in the Great White North. http://www.swampmats.ca/ :canada Far too expensive for Joe Six Pack - only Big Oil can afford to make a wooden/bamboo highway 30 miles long.
ok, I'll be the first to admit that I dont know much about mats,but I saw a few yesterday on my drive home and thought I'd post what I saw, maybe it will help. Each mat consisted of 3 "layers". The boards looked to be 2x8s or 2x10s,stacked in layers with a slight space between each board. Im not sure on the EXACT lengths,width,and thickness of the mats and boards. I'll try to explain how they were laid out- Top layer-2x8\2x10 laid out from left to right with maybe 1-2" space between each, for say 10-15 boards wide Middle Layer-same size boards and spacing as above,but instead of being laid from L to R, they were laid from "top to bottom" Bottom, Same as top,laid out L to R. Like I said,Im not 100% sure on the EXACT sizes of the materials used or the actual mats, but they seemed to have worked quite well. Hopefully this can be of some kind of help to you. Maybe someone in the houston area can take a peek @ them, Along 290 between Pinemont and BW8(in front of Northern and Rudy's), They might be gone today as it looked like they were setting forms to pour the widened shoulders -adam-
Some interesting mats I saw on a job, made out of tires. Wouldn't be good for a big machine but the guy said he loved them for his mini-ex.
Wow 150$ for a matt sounds like a steal. I might get up with some of the loggers in the area and see if they have any I could get from them. Most loggers just build a road out of fallen trees in this area though. I like the 3/8 strap Idea. I think Ill call and see what doing it that way would cost verses the grade 8 all thread. If it would stop raining long enough for the ground to dry out I might actually be able to get a set built and get some work done.
I have only had to do Matts for my Backhoe (I do realize this is much less weight than you guys are looking at), but what I have done is take railroad ties and depending on how long I want/need them to last, either use re-bar to hold them together or cargo straps for more temporary ones. I have been thinking about building some nicer ones and my thought was to take railroad ties, re-bar them together then take old tires strip the driving surface, and nail that or bolt through with washers maybe (this part is still in the engineering stage in my head) on both sides of the ties. I don't know... just my .02... I'll take any input you guys have for it too!
That's quite the website there.. not a single thing to click on got a welder? or access to one? Rail road ties and rebar. Drill holes through the ties, thread the rebar through and bend the end around and weld it to make an eye for lifting. Simple, effective, long lasting.
I like the tires or rubber matting on top idea. I wonder how much this would help with sliding?
If I remember correctly, most railroad ties are about 8 feet long. Most excavators are quite a bit wider than that. How would you handle that with railroad tie mats? Two sets of mats, or staggered railroad ties to make a wider mat, or ??
Mud mats. :tong Hello. I was thinking, mud mats for a excavator?! http://www.thematsite.com/ Perhaps this operator does not want to get his shoes dirty? http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages...418452,320418536&formats=0,0,0,0,0,0&format=0 But, something like this? http://www.terrafixgeo.com/content/?id=145 :tong For something really cheap that works, use old elevator hoist "rope" (cable) and bolt smaller sections together to form something like rungs of a ladder. Make sure that you have something solid for it to hang onto and drive over it. Old hoist rope is really cheap but grease covered. But, this really does work, and work well. To pick it up simply pick a rung and lift. It will store easy enough, it is after all a metal rope.
this is what the company i work for use's
mats