Ever felt inadequate? Our competition does.

Casters: Why the Bone is better. Take a look at the wheel comparison picture and note the following attributes – you never knew how much thought went into our products!

Wheels: In our initial tests nearly 20 years ago, 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, the Bone doesn’t know what an obstacle is!

Number of Wheels: Do not be fooled by 6-wheeled creepers; more is not better. Why do they have six wheels? Because they aren’t strong enough with only 4! On top of that, 6 wheels give you two more sources of frustration when you need to climb over something. Those two middle wheels are also 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 overmolded onto the wheel cores. Overmolding 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!

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 plate should also be as big 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 big 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. All three of our creepers feature oil-impregnated sintered steel bearings. These spread the force through the entire wheel and don’t squeak.

Design: Most creeper wheels focus on function, not form. The problem is that they don't function too well either. Here at Dale Adams Enterprises, not only do we like our products to work, we want them to look good doing it. Dale calls it "Stylitude", as they have style and attitude. Hence we invested in our own wheel designs. The unique 5-spoke design looks wild and is at least as strong as the “functional” wheel design it replaces. Plus they have the soft, grippy TPE tires explained earlier. The Rough Rider even adds treads!

Creeper Design: Form Meets Function

Basic Design: 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.

Padding: 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! Our creepers have smooth, contoured bodies to cradle you. Now you can work for hours and still sleep at night!

Flip/Tip/Pinch: 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 (just add a hot work light... under an MG... on a hot summer night in Tulsa. Not fun). 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.

Industrial Design: This is a phrase you just don’t hear anymore. Let’s face it, functional is boring and ugly. But it doesn’t have to be! The Bone embraces its weirdness and looks cool doing it. The new Bone-ster takes the Bone’s styling several steps further; it looks a whole lot nicer than the competition but costs about the same!

Buy Yourself a Bone!

The Bone is available in catalogs and at warehouse distributors across the country, as well as directly from us here at the factory. Check out our Order page for more info.