Creeper Design: Form Meets Function

Our three products, the Bone™, the Bone Rough Rider™, and the new Bone-ster™ are designed to make your life easier!   Called “The Bone™” because its uniquely shaped one-piece molded body resembles a huge dog bone, the creeper’s unusual shape allows large, specially designed wheels.  Most important to users, the large diameter wheels roll easily over cracked pavement, floor drains, grates and other obstacles that can stop an ordinary creeper dead in its tracks.

The mechanic’s creeper has remained functionally identical to the original in the 1920’s. Yes, there are headrests and pads and 6 wheels and adjustable angles and slick creepers that turn into seats BUT without big wheels they’re still no better than some cardboard or a piece of old carpet. Most of our buyers were using cardboard, carpet or nothing at all before they bought a creeper from us, simply because they got so frustrated with their conventional creeper.

Most creepers are hard, flat boards. Those creepers that do have padding are still hard, flat boards - after you lay on them for a while your back still hurts! The Bone™, Bone-ster™ and Rough Rider have a smooth, contoured body to cradle you. Now you can work for hours and still sleep at night!

Old school metal-wheeled creepers flip you on your bum or face when you get off them – actually, this is how the Bone got invented . With outboard wheels, the Bone creepers can’t tip over. Find a friend that has a Bone and stand on one of the pods. You won't get knocked off. Newer metal-framed creepers solve the flip and tip, but introduce pinching. How many times have you gotten your shirt or hair pinched by a cheap caster that’s too close to you? The Bone’s wheels are covered, making it practically impossible to pinch your shirt, hair... and whatever else you can throw its way.

The original "Bone Creeper" solved many of the major problems with creeper design. The largest of which was a need for larger wheels that would roll over obstacles rather than pushing them away. The Bone’s new, custom designed 5 1/8” casters will climb drop light cords, air lines ad even roll over cracks and grates with ease – no other creeper can do this!

The "Bone-ster Creeper" is the newest member of creeper family. It was introduced in September 2003 to our customers and formally introduced at the 2003 SEMA conference in Las Vegas. The Bone-ster comes equipped with 3” diameter custom designed wheels with special, extra soft tires to climb, rather than push away, obstacles. The shape is an evolutionary design of the Bone. The exposed ribs add unbelievable strength plus welcome ventilation and cool looks.

The "Rough Rider Creeper" meets the needs of a group that never even considered creepers – mechanics and techs that work off pavement! The Rough Rider is a Bone with wider wheels and about an inch of extra ground clearance. These wheels allow it to roll across and through gravel, dirt, sand, grass, or any other surface that you can drive on. Farmers, tow truck drivers, RV owners, and even tradesmen that work in crawlspaces love the Rough Rider! Be sure to check out the new 5 3/8” diameter custom wheels that look and work better!

 Why Our Creepers are better!

Wheels:

In our initial tests, we found out that it takes a 5” caster with a soft tire to climb a drop light cord.  The competition has small, hard wheels, usually 2” or 2 ½” diameter.  Some still come with the slanted metal wheels.  There is a reason you don’t see those anywhere else – they don’t work!  The competition stops at the smallest obstacle, where our creepers keep on rolling!

Number of Wheels:

Do not be fooled by 6-wheeled creepers; more is not better.  Why do they have six wheels?  Because they are not strong enough with only 4 wheels!  On top of that, 6 wheels give you two more sources of frustration when you need to climb over something!  Besides that, those two middle wheels are just two more things to catch on your clothes and cause that embarrassing ripping sensation.

Tires:

Most creepers have hard plastic wheels that won’t climb a speck of dust (those who know won’t laugh!).  Just like you want big sticky tires to hold the road or climb boulders in a sports car or 4x4, a creeper needs big, soft tires to grab obstacles and climb them, instead of just pushing them out of the way.  The Bone has always had softer tires than the competition, but we just did it one better.  The tires are now custom made from thermo plastic elastomer (TPE) which is effectively a polymer that acts like rubber.  Unlike rubber, though, it is not broken down by solvents and has the unique property of chemically adhering to the polypropylene wheel core.  The tires are over-molded onto the wheel cores. Over-molding is a fairly new process that allows a soft polymer to be molded over a harder one – take a look at toothbrushes, they use the same technology.  The tires have a 55 Shore-A durometer, which is the softest of the hardness scales and is soft enough to squeeze in your hand.  Even if you leave the wheels soaking overnight in paint thinner the tires won’t come off, they will simply expand slightly from soaking up the solvent, but will later return to almost their original size!

Mounting Plates:

Mounting plates need to be as big and as thick as possible with holes spread out. The thicker the plate, the less it will flex, which means it won’t flex and break the creeper.  The plates should also be as large as possible to spread the force out and make the wheels less likely to snap off the creeper.  The Bone, Rough Rider, and Bone-ster all feature large, thick plates with holes on the edges.  The competition has small, thin gauge plates that lead directly to frustration!

Fasteners:

This aspect is extremely important, yet often overlooked.  Fasteners should be as large as possible, with as many mounting points as feasible which are as far apart as they can be.  Also, it is important that the fasteners go all the way through the creeper for added strength rather than just screwing into plastic, wood, or metal.  Most competitors attach at only 1 or 2 places, and the few that attach at four places have small plates and fasteners that don’t go all the way through.

Bearings:

Most creepers don’t have bearings on the wheels, only on the swivel.  This means that all of the force is carried on one small piece of plastic in the wheel.  This shearing force pushes the axle through the wheel or squares the hole.  You guessed it – time to go buy another caster.  Our wheels feature oil-impregnated sintered steel bearings.  These spread the force through the entire wheel and don’t squeak.  The top of the line Rough Rider has an oil-impregnated bronze bearing for an even smoother ride.

 How the Bone™ Creeper was born.

It was a hot, steamy August night and I was working on my car trying to get it running so I could get to work the next day. After midnight, having struggled for hours, I was nearly finished. Sweating profusely, I rolled back under the car on my creeper when for the umpteenth time the creeper wheels hit my droplight cord and stopped. Struggling against the obstacle, I pushed harder. The little cord might has well of been the Grand Canyon. There was no way I was going to cross it. I rolled back to get a run at it. I hit the cord, the creeper stopped dead and flipped over, dumping me face down on the drop light.

Now, sweaty, mad and with a nasty burn on my face I struggled back on top of that tormentor and angrily slid out from under the car. As if I hadn't experienced enough misery when I tried to get off, that creeper tipped up and dropped me on my butt. Coolly, I stood up and threw the creeper out in the middle of the yard where it remained for several weeks.
That night as I lay in bed I was thinking. There has to be a better way. If those cheap little wheels weren't so small they would roll over that cord. If they were far enough out to the corners the creeper couldn't flip or tip.

Years went by; my hate of creepers grew worse. I could design and build a better creeper and the world would be a better place for it. The Bone™ was born out of this agony and frustration, relieving the world of at least one aggravation. – Dale Adams, Inventor
Now you and mechanics everywhere can be freed from their old, obsolete designed tormentor and get a creeper that really works. The Bone™ moves easily, won’t get hung up, is very comfortable, and won’t break. A creeper made by mechanics for mechanics …Ride the Bone!

Home | About Us | Products | Services | What's New | Contact Us | Links