Stuff We Use: Creepers and Seats

On our never-ending quest to improve this place, we are choosing to take a new tack with these product posts, focusing on items we have used or purchased with our own cash. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

Most of our readers spend untold hours fixing terribly wonderful cars, helping a buddy with basic car care, or just generally maintaining their ride. Here’s our take on a tool we find to be of particular use, especially as the bones and joints of most TTAC staff begin to creak and snap with age. We covered this about a year ago and it is time for a reprise.

Floor creepers and wheeled seats can be a godsend for those of us who dislike sliding under a car on cold concrete or prefer not to squat for an hour whilst polishing cloudy headlights for the umpteenth time. In other words, these things aren’t not just for old people.

There are no shortage of options floating around places like eBay, such as this  old-school blow molded plastic model which has a bit of padding for one’s head and not much else. Some of these types are ultra-low profile, so don’t write them off completely as a useful tool.  This similar unit darkened your author’s garage for the better part of a decade and was a worthy companion until its pressed board base crumbled after an age of service.  

If slotting underneath a vehicle isn’t necessary, a rolling shop seat may be a better spend of hard-earned money. Look for one  with a decently padded cushion and an integrated tray betwixt the frame rails. The latter is a common component of these seats, useful for those who don’t always feel the need to file away each and every tool after extracting a bolt. Yes, there’s merit to that approach but for some jobs this writer finds it preferable having his tools to hand – especially if a maze of differently sized fasteners is causing a headache.

A third option in this segment is a recent(ish) rise of creepers which can  convert from the flat style to a wheeled seat. Deployed as a stretcher-type flat creeper for sliding under cars, it has a padded surface and six wheels. Popping out a cotter pin and rising the top half skyward moves the unit into a ‘Z’ shape, with the padding formerly meant for a mechanic’s head now serving as a cushion for seating. It goes without saying to reinstall that cotter pin to keep the whole thing from unfolding itself just as you’re arms deep in a repair or carefully applying that last bit of polishing agent. This style of seat was my replacement for the old creeper which bit the dust and, despite initial reservations about too many moving parts, has continued to perform well.

One feature which has been appearing under these seats is the addition of magnetization to one of the partitioned trays. This is a boon for catching and keeping fasteners or bolts and the like, securing them from vanishing right into thin air during reassembly. How many of you lot have stepped on a hubcap containing five lug nuts, causing the blasted things to fly across a garage with sufficient force to dent drywall? Oh, just me? Right on.