Making Mud Mats

Submitted by IHOC Admin on Sat, 12/01/2013 - 00:00

Having watched James Cowan use a piece of rope matting to
successfully extract vans from thick mud on two occasions, Glenluce and
Malvern. We thought we should get one of our own but took no action
until shopping with Lance we came across a hardware shop selling 100’
hanks of polypropylene rope. As it was really cheap we dully purchased
two hanks and set to, to design our own Mud Mats. After much head
scratching and measuring the length of rope that each knot takes up we
came up with a design that produced two mats 18” x 48” with an approx
4” mesh (6” across the diagonals). Here are the details:-
Materials required:-
Two 100ft lengths of 3/8”dia polypropylene rope, preferably in
different colours.
A piece of board to lay out on, exceeding 48” x 18”
These are the Knots required and the approximate length of rope
used for each, should you wish to do your own design.:-
Cow Hitch
Uses 7 inches of 3/8” dia rope
Bowline
Uses 12 inches of 3/8” dia rope
Carrick Bend
Uses 6 inches of 3/8” dia of each rope
Half Hitch
Uses 6 inches of 3/8” dia rope
Pictures showing the construction of each knot are attached - a
useful skill to learn or brush up on!
Construction:- For one Mat
First cut the rope using a soldering iron or other hot tool into the
following lengths.
T wo lengths 104”, one of each colour
Eight Lengths 126”, four of each colour
Next fix four screws onto your board to form the corners of a
rectangle 48” x 18”.
It helps to mark the board out in diamonds at 6” intervals,
measuring along the long side 3”, 6” etc finishing 6”, 3”. Then 3”
similarly down the short side 3”, 6” etc finishing 6”, 3”.
T ie the two 104” lengths together around these screws to create the
rectangle. Use the surplus to tie a bowline in each corner.
Next attach the eight 126” length to one long side at 6” intervals
using a Cow Hitch at the mid point.
Now join adjacent ropes alternately using the Carrick Bend (as
shown) to form a diamond lattice. Join at the sides with a simple half
hitch. Finish off by tying the ends to the bottom rope using a double half
hitch taken around the bottom rope.
Burn off any surplus rope, preferably moulding it into the final knot
to prevent it coming undone.
Possibly not the cheapest way of acquiring some matting but
definitely the most fun. (Alternatively you could try beachcombing.)
The tray under the driver’s seat of a Ducato cab makes a perfect storage
area for both mats inside polythene bags, out of the way but easily to hand
when needed!
We are hoping next year’s weather is a great improvement and we
will not be needing them!
Tony