Car Creepers Review

Anyone who works on cars; either professionally or in their spare time, will tell you that the money that you spend on a mechanic’s creeper is money well spent. No one wants to be working down there with their back pressed against a concrete floor at best or on the direct asphalt at worst. We all also know that a flattened cardboard box isn’t fun to work on as well. When you are working under your car, you want to be sure that you are using the safest, most comfortable gear so that you can work with a degree of reliability and confidence. The best car creeper for mechanics will deliver all of these features, so before we get into car creeper reviews, let’s take a closer look at the car creeper.

How it Rolls

These products are designed to let you lay horizontally under the vehicle that’s being worked on, which means that you should seek a product that will roll well. This means that the wheels that you select should be able to tackle cracks in your work surface, not get mired by any oil that’s on the floor, and won’t eat your shirt when you are rolling it under the car.

Ergonomics and Comfort

These products should be ergonomic so that you can fit comfortably atop their laying surfaces. This means that the product shouldn’t have any sharp edges that would make the whole process uncomfortable. It should also contour to the natural shape of your body so that you won’t even feel like you are working under a car.

In addition to these features, the most comfortable creepers will have padding on them. The type of padding that the product will have will vary, but some employ memory foam and some employ the same type of foam that you’d find in most furniture. If you select a model that’s comprised mainly of plastic or metal, just be sure that it has the right ergonomic shaping so that it isn’t a chore to work on.

Additionally, some car creepers will actually employ comfort items like headrests in order to make the process easier. These are very useful, especially when you are doing extensive work under the car.

The Three Types of Wheels

For the most part, most creepers that are on the market today only come with three types of wheels. Older models use steel wheels that you might find on an old-school office chair. These are just steel discs that are affixed to an axle, which is attached to the frame of the creeper. These tend to last forever, but they tend to have issues rolling across cracks and seams in the surface that you are working on.

The second type is constructed of urethane. These wheels are smaller and also have a high degree of durability, which meansthat they don’t get caught in every little crack in your garage. Harder, rougher surfaces that you might find outside like asphalt still can cause problems with urethane wheels though.

The final and most modern choice are four to five-inch wheels. These are so small that they don’t get caught on most surfaces, which means that they are a great choice for most mechanics to use in their garage.

Weight Capacity

The last thing that you want is for your creeper to buckle under your or your coworker’s weight. With this in mind, always select a car creeper that has a high degree of weight capacity so that you can work without worrying about an embarrassing breakage.

Item

Best Design Feature

Price

Rating

Whiteside Manufacturing – Professional 44″ Either End Adjustable Creeper

Since creepers are often in moist, under car environments, it’s great that this one is virtually rust-proof.

$167.00

Stars 4.7/5

Traxion 1-100 ProGear Wide Body Creeper

The design of this creeper makes it low-slung, meaning that you’ll have more clearance.

$82.99

Stars 4.3/5

Pro-Lift C-2036D Grey 36″ Z-Creeper Seat

This product uses a “Z” design so that you can use it at a seat creeper as well.

$28.90

Stars 4.6/5

Pro-Lift C-1004 Grey Mechanic Creeper – 350 lb. Rated Capacity

This creeper’s simple, the stretcher-like design is perfect for under car maneuvering.

$31.30

Stars 4.6/5

Dale Adams Enterprises The Bone 6031 Mechanics Creeper

This is one of the lowest creepers on the market.

$136.34

Stars 4.7/5

Torin TR6452 4 Position Headrest Shop Creeper

With this creeper, you’ll be able to select from five headrest positions.

$35.74

Stars 4.6/5

ATD 81051 Plastic Blow Molded Creeper

ATD crafted this creeper with a bow shape so that it’s comfortable, despite its plastic design.

$50.46

Stars 4.5/5

Omega 91000 Black 40″ Foldable Z Creeper

Another convertible Z creeper, this product has a high weight capacity.

$58.20

Stars 4.6/5

1) Whiteside Manufacturing – Professional 44″ Either End Adjustable Creeper

The Whiteside Manufacturing mechanic’s creeper does a great job of being a great overall creeper for those who want a more professional experience. It’s amazing, but we found the Whiteside creeper to have all of the flexibility that you’d expect in a reclining chair. You can bend it on three specific joints so that you can sit up with it or simply keep it flat for use under your car. Its built-in versatility makes it a true gem amongst the products that we are featuring on this list.

Additionally, this product also employs six swiveling casters that allow you to have a wide range of overall motion. The construction of the product is also very durable; it can support individuals who are over 300 pounds without any issues with the rollers. In our testing, we also really appreciated the fact that this unit has powder coated steel tubing that protects the creeper from rust.

Finally, this creeper has a platform that’s entirely cushioned so that using this product under a car or even as a bench is easy and comfortable.

2) Traxion 1-100 ProGear Wide Body Creeper

The Traxion 1-100 is a wide body unit that provides a good amount of support for the mechanic who’s working on it. One issue that mechanics have had with creepers is that if a shirt gets caught in a wheel, moving the creeper at all will cause the wheel to try to eat your shirt. This results in holes, massive tears, and just a generally embarrassing situation, so this unit’s unique wheel orientation ensures that this doesn’t happen so easily. The wheels themselves are very large; at a full five inches, and they also swivel so that you can maneuver underneath the vehicle.

We loved the capacity of this wide body garage creeper; it’ll hold an amazing 401 pounds of weight, which makes it one of the creepers with the highest capacity in this guide. The design profile of this product is also very low so that you can easily use it under just about any vehicle.

3) Pro-Lift C-2036D Grey 36″ Z-Creeper Seat

Z-creepers are fairly valuable when you are working in a busy garage and are at a premium for space. These types of creepers convert to a seat so that you can sit under your jacked car from a sitting position. The product has six casters and needs to be assembled. Assembly takes about 20 minutes, and once it’s together, it’s a very stable product. During our research, we were taken with the fact that converting this product only requires the removal of a pin. This makes it simple to go from one mode to the next when doing different types of work.

The product can hold about 300 pounds of weight, which is a great level of weight capacity for one of these devices to have. The casters work on a swivel so that mechanics can easily move around under their vehicles. One of the most impressive features of this creeper is its price; it typically goes for less than $40, which is perfect for a dedicated mechanic’s device.

4) Pro-Lift C-1004 Grey Mechanic Creeper – 350 lb. Rated Capacity

Another Pro-Lift product, the C-1004 is a more standard offering that has a high-capacity so that it has a more versatile level of performance; in fact, this unit can hold 350 pounds in totality. We tried the main platform and found that it was soft and pliant enough to be comfortable for hours of extended use. This area is also covered in vinyl that isn’t too hot, even in the sometimes warm environments of a garage. The types of creepers that allow you to rest your head comfortably on a raised surface really allow you to not strain your neck when working, which is why this creeper shines.

Additionally, it’s nice that Pro-Lift designed this garage creeper to be easily trucked from vehicle to vehicle; a feature which really illustrates the pro-level of this piece of equipment. This simply isn’t a creeper that is best for a small in-home garage. That being said, it also has a very reasonable price point that comes in at a little more than $30.

5) Dale Adams Enterprises The Bone 6031 Mechanics Creeper

This creeper may seem a bit kiddy, but the honest truth is that this is a great product for just about any mechanic. To start, it looks like a large red dog bone. This is so because each rounded and raised corner houses a large five-inch wheel that is designed to grant a mechanic access to areas under a car that is unreachable by other garage creepers. In addition, it can easily roll over asphalt, gravel, and cracked pavement.

This is a mechanic’s creeper that works well for larger people as well. At more than five feet in length, even those mechanics who are over six feet tall won’t feel like they are straining to get comfortable. As a plastic creeper, this product doesn’t have much in the way of cushioning though it is very contoured to accommodate most body types.

6) Torin TR6452 4 Position Headrest Shop Creeper

Another great, classic product, the Torin TR6452 4 Position Headrest Shop Creeper, also has a few features that make it very unique as well. Firstly, the headrest, which is part of the product’s description, can rise to four different positions. This is incredibly valuable in a shop or garage because it allows you to raise your head comfortably in order to see at different angles.

As a matter of fact, comfort seems to definitely have been one of the chief goals from the manufacturers, especially considering that the main bench area is entirely padded for a comfortable use.

Outside of the main bench area, the Torin TR6452 has an all-steel construction to assure that it’s sturdy and able to take a few dings during storage. Also, since this product only weighs about 16 pounds, it’s really easy to grab it and carry it to the next job. When we tested this garage creeper out, we really liked the professional-grade looks and the fact that the casters are able to rotate freely, yet they are still very strong and durable.

Conclusion

We often test a lot of products for vehicles, but a car creeper stands out as one of the better products for someone who likes to work on their car, either in a professional or amateur capacity. Finding a gem of a product will prevent your neck from getting stiff, make moving around under the car much easier, and make it more comfortable to be in a prone position under your car. Each of the products that we’ve reviewed is excellent, but which one would we pick? For our money, we really like the Whiteside Manufacturing – Professional 44″ Either End Adjustable Creeper.

It has a simple, yet a well-padded design that makes working down under a car fairly comfortable. The entire surface is padded so that you simply won’t feel uncomfortable down there. It even has a ground clearance of two and a half inches, which will get you where you need to be under the car. Additionally, the head rest is very comfortable; just don’t fall asleep under a vehicle!

The best bang for your buck for your buck item, on the other hand, we feel is the Pro-Lift C-1004 Grey Mechanic Creeper. This product has a good 300-pound capacity, and since it is a Z-creeper, you can fold it up to become a seat for when you have cars jacked up high, or you can just use it as a work surface. You get all these features for a very inexpensive price of $28.00.