Looking for a rubber mat for my tractor

[StarWolve]

My 24x24 garage in Upstate NY doesn't have a floor drain (one of the many things I hope to eventually correct) so when I park my tractor after snow-blowing, the snow melt pools all over the garage. This wasn't an issue last year, as the old wooden door didn't seal properly and the water just ran out. Since then, I've installed a new door (with a liftmaster 3800!) and a raised threshold seal on the floor. It does a great job of sealing the garage up, but now I have to shovel or squeegie the floor every morning.

Here's my little snow-throwin monster. It's a 1972 Gravely 816, which was upgraded with a 1993 Kohler 18HP Magnum Motor. It has 3 PTO points, hydraulic lift, a 42" snow blower, and can throw snow into the next county. (I also have a 4' plow blade, a 50" mower deck, and a bunch of other attachments. I'm still looking for a good 60" deck and a snow-cab for it!)

I've been doing some looking on this site, as well as shopping around, and what I really need is a 5x10' rubber mat that will contain the snow as it melts off. The mat also needs to be strong enough to hold up to tire chains constantly parking on it.

So far, I've found this:
http://www.mygaragestore.com/detail.aspx?ID=1578

But I question if the drymate mat will hold enough water, and if it can hold up to the tire chains. It is also a bit too small for my tractor.

This one seems to be sold by a number of sites, and has a "heavy duty" version which may hold up to the chains better, but it's not designed to contain the amount of water than usually melts off my snow-blower (even if I brush all the snow out of the augers):
http://www.mygaragestore.com/detail.aspx?ID=781

Clean park makes a mat designed to contain the water, but I doubt that it will hold up to the abuse of the chains at all:

They do make rubber mats that are designed for chains, but they are outrageously expensive. They also make a "heavy duty" version (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002S3NBH6/?tag=atomicindus08-20) but it's only 50 mil thick vinyl, so I don't know if it will hold up to the chains either.

I've seen other people post here about using horse stall mats from TSC, but they're not designed to hold water, just to provide cushion.

My tentative plan is to purchase something similar to the clean park mat, and then cut up a TSC horse stall mat to make 2 mats for the chained wheels to drive on. Is this the best option, or is there someone out there making a truly heavy duty 5x10 rubber mat with a lip that will contain all the slop melting off my tractor?

 

[s_ontario]

Those cow mats are tough and cheap under $50.00
you could put wood strips under and around edge to hold water ? but how are you going to get the water out

 

[Grumpy365]

go to Tractor Suypply or most feed stores and get a stall mat, They are thick, tough rubber and not to expensive.

 

[wood02]

Try and contact material handling facilities in your area that might use converyor belting. I worked for a surface mine (AMAX Coal). I used 1/2" x 48" x 8' in the back of my pick-up and on the floor of my garage. A lot of people were using converyor belt in the horse stables...made shoveling a lot easier when cleaning the stall.

 

[StarWolve]

Those cow mats are tough and cheap under $50.00
you could put wood strips under and around edge to hold water ? but how are you going to get the water out

Evaporation. I brush the tractor off before I pull it into the garage to remove any large amounts of snow, so the water that does run off isn't significant, just inconvenient when working on other projects in the same garage.

A 5x10' mat in a garage heated to around 50 degrees will evaporate a bit of water daily. It's not significant, but because the snow-blower isn't always used daily, it will eventually evaporate. If the level reached the lip, I could always remove some water with a rag, cat litter, etc.

I've only been in the house 18 months, and last winter it wasn't an issue to have a little water on the garage floor. Now that I've had more time to properly set up my garage, I'm doing a lot more work (I have a few motorcycle projects) in the garage and the water is an issue.

 

[z28toz06]

how about something like this? http://www.griotsgarage.com/product...rd=garage+floor+mat&sortby=newArrivals&page=1 a blanket of some sort under it would probably absorb the water as it melted and then evaporate it over night.

 

[StarWolve]

how about something like this? http://www.griotsgarage.com/product...rd=garage+floor+mat&sortby=newArrivals&page=1 a blanket of some sort under it would probably absorb the water as it melted and then evaporate it over night.

I had thought about those, although I was looking at something more rubberized than plastic, such as this:

What I hoped was that the rubber edge would be heavy enough to keep the water inside the mat area, and not seep out around the mat. TSC also has a similar interlocking mat.

I might have to swing by TSC tonight and take a look at their mats to see if there's one that will work. I had even considered getting a very thick rubber mat, and cutting grooves in it with a circular saw to retain some water.