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If you have a nice new pits, it doesn't matter a whole lot what you put under it (as far as impact is concerned) because no one should be bottoming out.

With older, smaller pits bottoming out is a bigger issue.

It seems to me like tires would be the best thing to put under these pits. If I was going to bottom out I'd rather hit tires than pallets or the ground.

Am I wrong? This is not a tested theory, just an idea I had.

This is a good post/question. I have this problem with one of my pits. Here is my plan: use pallets to keep the mats off the ground (but I like the idea of tires). Inside pallets I will have moth balls around the border to keep rodents out. I then will have old mattresses on the pallets under the mats (but only in the back, not under the front buns--which are perfectly good). Then, between the mats and top pad cover, I will put a large 12' x 6' x 2" gymnastics mat to help distribute the weight over a larger area so you won't sink too much.

Becca tiers are the way to go. Before we had all the nice big pits to jump on we would stack tiers over pallets with bags of foam on top . If you hit in the seem the tiers made the landing much more pleasureable. Some times the
tiers would move and you would hit the pallet and you definitely could tell the difference. So your theroy has been tested If your pits have age and soft
spots I would most definitely use the tiers until new pits could be purchased. Another idea would be to open the skins and try to rebuild the foam. I know of a vaulter, Mark Rose of New Orleans, who did that with great resolutes. He can be reached through www.mardigrastrackclub.com. if you want his advise.
Good Luck and safe vaulting!!
Kevin

What are tiers?

perhaps tires = tiers?

Sorry about that Becca , it's hard to find good proof readers
these days!! tires would be correct I used to vault much
better then my typing and spelling ...but now they're about the same

it happens, haha i can only dread the day that comes for me.

yeah, tires are definitely the way to go. We have those under our crappy pit, and it unfortunately extended the life of those pits by another couple of years....

If I was going to use tires I would take the time to tie the tires together or bolt them together.
The reason I say this is because when you land on the pit the tires compress and will move.
If the tires move, this will leave a gap between the tires and that will leave holes under the pit for you to bottom out. :crying:

Tires do work well - I've used them for years - they don't rot, and cushion the landing. One suggestion though is to drill holes in the bottom of them - reason being: they collect and hold water for long periods of time which attracts mosquitos and fosters mildew, so you want to make sure they're draining. I actually found that by using a 1" hole-saw bit on an electric drill (cordless will take forever) worked the best, but be warned that smelling burning rubber and getting pelted with liquid hot rubber granules is not a pleasant job. I did 4 holes on the very bottom of each tire in a cross pattern, and they never collect water now. Either that or spend a small fortune in Deep Woods OFF and months on end of itching bug bites.

lonestar wrote:Either that or spend a small fortune in Deep Woods OFF and months on end of itching bug bites.

We don't really get bugs in this part of the country. Just slugs and other slimy things that don't bite.

sometimes it gets kind of hot here... we can get parched at times