EZ Grip Mat Movers - Do They Work?

[gumtree]

@goodhors

Good luck with the installation. I use the larger, adjustable Channelock pliers for mat moving. Cheap plier copies will slip in holding, bash knuckles. Two sets of my Channelock pliers do a great job moving mats fairly easily. I will also be able to use the’s pliers after, in other situations. Plastic mat movers are pretty much a one-use tool and pricy. I never have good luck with plastic tools, seem to break easily.

Remember you CAN ALWAYS roll up a mat, tie it rolled up on both ends, then lift to carry and position it, pretty easily. They only weigh about 45 pounds. Even stand mat on one rolled end, use a 2-wheel moving cart to take mat where you want it. Dragging causes WAY more friction so you will work lots harder trying to put mat where you want it. Dragged mats feel like 150 ponds and catch on everything possible. I figure dragged mat moving is one of the torment jobs they will give people down in hell. Ha ha

Work smarter, not harder! Work like a girl, using the best economy of movement, ideas like rolling mat, tools like a 2-wheel moving cart, to make the job easier on the laborer!!

I guess “mat” is a pretty generic term. The mats we use are 4X5 3/4 to 1 inch think. They are not easy to roll up and they are not “easy” to pick up and carry around. Don’t know what they weight but more than a 50 lb bag of feed that I do know. Most people would consider me to be pretty strong.

Channel-lock pliers work ok as do vise-grip. But they don’t make a “handle”. You have to grip both which can be awkward and difficult for a lot of people. I used to use them. C-clamps make it MUCH easier for the average person and hand strength with heavy thick mats.

I use vise-grip if I am only moving/adjusting the odd mat. Vise-grips should be in everyone’s tool box.

[gumtree]

@fordtraktor

They worked…for about 3 stalls. Then the plastic teeth wore down and they started slipping. I wrapped in duct tape to try and get more grip, then sanded them…works for a bit then stops. Get the metal C clamps or just drag them. I have gotten pretty good at moving them around as they are.

i cut them wth utility blades but think if I did it again I would do something like a sawzall.

Two other people told me the same. As I said in my first comment, depends one’s idea of how many mats will need to be moved. I would wast $20-40 on plastic gizmos when something like a C-clamp can be had for $6 and as I said has many other handy uses. These things when not being used could only serve as a paper clip.

But people like “gadgets”

I like the hay hook idea. Just make sure not to drill too close to the edge.

A circular saw with the correct blade and cutting technique, set up makes short work of cutting up thick mats. I went into detail about the whole process in another thread or 2 on the subject.

If people would take the second or two it and TAG their post. Past posts on the topic, a topic that seems to come up from time to time along with many others would be easily found when doing a search.

[shakeytails]

We use 2 big vise grips. Cheaper and have many more uses. And I don’t think the average person could ever break or wear them out. The only time we ever buy new ones is when we lose them.

[S1969]

@gumtree

I guess “mat” is a pretty generic term. The mats we use are 4X5 3/4 to 1 inch think. They are not easy to roll up and they are not “easy” to pick up and carry around. Don’t know what they weight but more than a 50 lb bag of feed that I do know. Most people would consider me to be pretty strong.

Channel-lock pliers work ok as do vise-grip. But they don’t make a “handle”. You have to grip both which can be awkward and difficult for a lot of people. I used to use them. C-clamps make it MUCH easier for the average person and hand strength with heavy thick mats.

I use vise-grip if I am only moving/adjusting the odd mat. Vise-grips should be in everyone’s tool box.

This is my situation too. And my mats need to be removed and readjusted…they are probably 1" thick and now dirty and maybe wet. Rolling them? I can’t even imagine that being possible. Maybe if they were longer or brand new? Or both?
I’m worried that even with vice grips or these moving clamps I still might wreck my back. It would be well worth the $20/each if I could do it without hurting myself.

[shakeytails]

The mats we use come from TSC or Rural King. They’re 4x6, 3/4"thick and weigh close to 100# each. There ain’t no rolling them up and moving them around on a cart. While I can move them by myself, and will to reposition or whatnot, I don’t think I’d try to place multiple mats by myself. They’re just awkward to move and my back is generally pain free as long as I don’t do stupid shit.

[gumtree]

@shakeytails

The mats we use come from TSC or Rural King. They’re 4x6, 3/4"thick and weigh close to 100# each. Their ain’t no rolling them up and moving them around on a cart. While I can move them by myself, and will to reposition or whatnot, I don’t think I’d try to place multiple mats by myself. They’re just awkward to move and my back is generally pain free as long as I don’t do stupid shit.

Exactly.

When reading Goodhos’s comment

“Remember you CAN ALWAYS roll up a mat, tie it rolled up on both ends, then lift to carry and position it, pretty easily. They only weigh about 45 pounds”

I had to scratch my head, wow, he/she must be strong as an Ox. I’m not as young as I used to be, not as good as I used to be.But I was good once as I ever was and I’m not over the hill, yet. I just move some mats like yours the other day. It was just as much of a PITA as it was 30 years ago.

[Limitless]

Okay, reporting back to say, yes, they definitely work. I had no slipping issues, and I can move mats myself. I like how quick they are to release, which makes for quicker work. Also, going forward, I can easily drag around mats I want to position in the aisle or outside for some reason. I hear what everyone is saying about vise grips and C clamps, but the nice thing about these is that my husband will have no use for them elsewhere, so they won’t disappear into the abyss of his tools. And even if they did, they are bright and would be easy to spot

Mat installation still sucks. My husband helped me and without him, it would be a much slower process.

[gumtree]

@Limitless

Okay, reporting back to say, yes, they definitely work. I had no slipping issues, and I can move mats myself. I like how quick they are to release, which makes for quicker work. Also, going forward, I can easily drag around mats I want to position in the aisle or outside for some reason. I hear what everyone is saying about vise grips and C clamps, but the nice thing about these is that my husband will have no use for them elsewhere, so they won’t disappear into the abyss of his tools. And even if they did, they are bright and would be easy to spot

Mat installation still sucks. My husband helped me and without him, it would be a much slower process.

“I hear what everyone is saying about vise grips and C clamps, but the nice thing about these is that my husband will have no use for them elsewhere, so they won’t disappear into the abyss of his tools. And even if they did, they are bright and would be easy to spot”

Excellent point and thanks for my morning chuckle! Heck, I can’t find some of my tools that I only use myself. Ones that I tend to use a lot and lay down somewhere in my shop or around the barn/property I spray with a bright colored paint.

As I and others pointed out, “mats” come in different sizes and vastly different weights. According to my friends the EZ Grip didn’t stand the test of time moving lots of the large heavy mats.

[TullyMars]

Mine only worked for a few stalls as well, but if I recall I paid more than 20.00 for them! I was so irritated.The teeth just kept slipping off over and over! I will not buy them again!

[Bluey]

I put by myself about 50 mats, the 4’x8’ 3/4", too heavy to lift, just dragged them into place, with the two C vise grips and a small chain between them to drag them here and there.

I had moved the 40 old ones out of the way to clean and level under them and added a new 10 row to them, that I bought and slid off the pickup with said C-vise grips.

Some I could roll over and over and over first to get close to where they went, others had to flat drag them in place.
Wish I had thought of the hay hooks, one would have made dragging by the chain easier by giving a smoother handhold.

It took time, to level with a rake into a thin layer of clean sand under them and then put them all back in place.
The old ones had been nicely level for several years, but were starting to curl around some edges.
With those mats under a long shed, that is a job that needs to be done once in a while.

[toMy75]

@Limitless

The dreaded stall mat installation is about to begin. I’d love to be able to do this myself, so I’m running around purchasing a pair of these mat movers (TSC only had one each in local stores, insert eyeroll here).

Do they work? Will I be able to do this myself instead of waiting for help from my SO? We are on a deadline, and I’m stressing out big time! Ease my stress COTHers, and tell me I can do it!

Do you meen these guys?
http://matmovers.com/

[Sammy_the_Saddlebred]

Another vote for “not as useful as I thought they would be”. We were also dealing with the very thick, very heavy mats and found they didn’t grip tightly enough and just kept slipping off. A cool tip we learned from a trailer guy at the Midwest Horse Fair a few years ago is to lay a leadrope across the mat, flip the end of the mat over the leadrope, and then grab each end of the leadrope to drag the mat. As long as the leadrope is far enough down the mat to where the mat is folded almost in half, this works quite well. I was surprised how well that worked, actually, since I usually can’t move them at all unaided. The nice part about this is a leadrope is something you pretty much always have around, and he was specifically addressing needing to pull mats off a trailer to clean or otherwise access the floor, so might be out in the boonies and not have access to a lot of tools. Anyway, I thought it was so simple and yet so genius.

[Bluey]

@Sammy the Saddlebred

Another vote for “not as useful as I thought they would be”. We were also dealing with the very thick, very heavy mats and found they didn’t grip tightly enough and just kept slipping off. A cool tip we learned from a trailer guy at the Midwest Horse Fair a few years ago is to lay a leadrope across the mat, flip the end of the mat over the leadrope, and then grab each end of the leadrope to drag the mat. As long as the leadrope is far enough down the mat to where the mat is folded almost in half, this works quite well. I was surprised how well that worked, actually, since I usually can’t move them at all unaided. The nice part about this is a leadrope is something you pretty much always have around, and he was specifically addressing needing to pull mats off a trailer to clean or otherwise access the floor, so might be out in the boonies and not have access to a lot of tools. Anyway, I thought it was so simple and yet so genius.

That rope trick is how I move the mats out of the way to clean and reset them.
Works great, forgot to mention that.
Very good to roll a mat off the pickup or trailer onto the ground in a heap and then run the rope thru it to pull it half rolled up, as long as you don’t have to go too far with it.

I do prefer the clamps to drag the mats back into place.
Clamps on one end lets me place the mats back into the right spot easier.

[SashaBast]

Yes the plastic clamps work and are well worth the money IMO. I did 10 stalls in my barn (7 mats a stall - big stalls…) The 4x6 3/4" mats weight 100 pounds a piece. Not 45 lbs.

One of our local suppliers use the mat clamps when delivering. Not all of their delivery trucks have pallet lifts so they have to unload one mat at a time… : ( I live in Lexington, KY so there are A LOT of stalls = mats. The delivery guys also said they were a life saver.

Not sure where you are located, but you might be able to post on a local fb group and see if anyone wants to share theirs?

I used the grippers to pull onto a wheel barrel. flipped onto a wheel barrel and wheeled them into the stall.

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