Anyone ever built their own "bog mats"?

[boostmg]

I have a job i need to do which will require something like this. If you don't know what bog mats are - they are usually wooden rectangles/square sections that an excavator can pick up, put in front of them, and drive on in marshy conditions.

I don't have an excavator- i have a tractor with backhoe so I cant make them too heavy, i would have to transport them by hand.

So far i was thinking of maybe making mats big enough to put under each tire then just keep inching it forward accordingly.

 

[MossRoad]

Have you checked the price of lumber? Or do you have your own supply?

 

[boostmg]

I was going to buy rough cut

 

[4570Man]

I’d just rent or hire an excavator to do the job.

 

[WranglerX]

Just get 8 to 10 feet long scrap (rough) 2x12.... Its the surface area the load is dispersed over that matters...

 

[Rustyiron]

How "boggy" is it and is your backhoe full size?
If you need to travel very far across this bog, you'll need enough matt's to get all the way there. An excavator can work off of 3 of them sitting on 2 of them, rotating 180* and "leapfrogging" the 3rd one in the direction of travel.
I'd be very leery of just individual planks or pair of planks under each side of the machine. Not placed perfectly or driving perfectly in the middle they'll want to flip. Then you know that they'll be very muddy in short order and that will complicate things and you'll be trying to drive on slippery, sideways tilting, halfway buried planks that your about ready to slip off of.
How's that for painting an ugly picture. Maybe it's not as soft or wet as I envision, but a proper "mat" is like a barge and a few planks (not connected)..... think canoe.

 

[boostmg]

Just get 8 to 10 feet long scrap (rough) 2x12.... Its the surface area the load is dispersed over that matters...

Where can i get scrap?

i understand about the canoe analogy too. I just used plastic pallets this weekend and they helped me get unstuck but i didn’t use them as bog mats.

that’s the trick i have to come up with a system i can leapfrog using the tractor. So moving by hand.

 

[Rebeldad1]

how big? maybe just fill with 6" crush.

 

[boostmg]

how big? maybe just fill with 6" crush.

It’s a big area. Probably 2-300 ft total. I would need to leapfrog it someway.
I’m thinking large enough wood sections for each wheel will do it.

 

[beeforty]

Depending on how boggy it is, the last time I saw someone using mats for an excavator, they had 12x12's bolted together in about 8' x 12' mats! They were digging out mud along the flooded area of San Francisco Bay for a new access road to a bridge. Watched a Cat operator with 6" high paddle tracks curl up the goo to somewhat dry out before excavating the mud. from a distance the operator looked like he was sitting at mud level! I think you would want some width to your mats to allow for differences in the density of the ground to not have to worry about rolling off the edge.