Alterna mat alternative?

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We also have a plywood trailer. I think I'm up to 30 sheets. March 1 I'm going to start replacing 1 sheet a month till I get a nice collection on mudtraks

Or maybe I should invest in a genie in a bottle!!
 
Yup, I'm going to hound the local lumber yards for some fresh sheets of plywood myself. I have no issue with using ripped in half sheets as a foot highway. Last year, with all the rain, our boots were enough to start tearing the lawn down to a mud highway when we were doing jobs that required a lot of walking back and forth. My customers never took issue with it but it made me cringe a few times. We have so much water in the ground here that spring is going to be misguided for sure.
 
The woven tire mats aren't that good for spreading the weight out because they aren't stiff like plywood or alturna mats They're just made to be a non slip surface. I had them in my old horse trailer.
 
For my bucket truck I use 1 1/8" I think the back wheels could be as heavy as 8 thousand pounds on each dual if there is a load of chips there. It makes them crack when you drive over them.
 
Mostly 1/2" with a few 3/4" sheets thrown in the mix. Rarely break a sheet with the bucket truck and chip truck driving across. We will double up sketchy uneven spots. I checked the cost of the last load of plywood, 27 sheets of 1/2" for $50 from lowes. I think I am up to 100 sheets total which is way more than enough, but they don't always have the cull lying around so you have to get to pickin' when the fruit is ripe. Steve how heavy is a sheet of the 1 1/8"? That doesn't sound like fun to move around!
 
I use 3/4" plywood. i looked at those tire woven mats in a catalog and not only are they expensive, they are heavy as crap. Ive got about 20 sheets of wood. Ive used them to bring a crane onto a yard before and they reduced the impact a lot. I do think i doubled them up for that too.
 
its heavy when its DRY! we mainly use it in nicer yards to bring in the bucket truck then to haul out brush w/ the skid once the truck is out.
 
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Howdy! Anybody here paint or seal their plywood highway? I was thinking mineral oil.
 
Seems like my plywood holds up to heavy use quite well. It's the rain that does it in, stacked on the truck for weeks without being used and no way for the water to evaporate. I have a couple cross boards under the plywood sheets to keep them from sitting directly on the bed of the truck but the sawdust builds up and blocks any air flow under the boards. Oil (of any type) will help repel water and make the plywood last longer. Last time I bought pressure treated and it's holding up very well.
 
If going to the trouble of trying to better seal the plywood, I would think that a commercially available exterior wood sealer would serve you better than mineral oil. I have used a type on log houses, and it seems to last about three or four years on areas directly exposed to sun and rain full time, and longer on locations less exposed.
 
Alterna mat

I've always been of the mind to force myself to buy two 3' wide mats monthly, if work was staying steady. Once you've got them, you have a lifetime investment. But they sure are frigging expensive!
 
At 10x the cost of plywood and a lifespan of 10 years, I'm going to pass. I can buy plywood once a year and keep the extra money in my pocket. I can spend a couple thousand now or a couple hundred every year.
 
Not even a consideration here. $5 at the used building material store for sheets of plywood I'm sure the shipping alone per mat would be ten times that for me up here.
 
I bet I'd get more than ten years outta the suckers.

But, I've always been a splurger! I even told them to slap in those bright assed fluorescent headlights while I was at Precision Tune today! Imma crazy man!!! :rockon:
 
Exterior grade plywood is some very durable stuff. Eventually if constantly exposed to the elements it will delaminate and rot, but it takes a number of years.
 
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