Roll out runway

[miniwhinny]

My son just purchased a pole vault pit but now we need a runway. I was told about roll out runways does anyone know where I can purchase one. Thanks.

[rainbowgirl28]

If there is a factory that uses conveyor belts anywhere near where you live, see if you can get your hands on any of their old ones.

New rollout runways are really expensive.

[Oldcoach]

Roll out runway is available at MF Athletics -see mfathletics.com- 100 feet is going to cost you $800 to $1000 .
Try the Sand and Gravel processors(quarry) they use lots of rubber belt conveyors.

[miniwhinny]

Thanks guys. I e-mailed a conveyer belt manufacturer and their prices were great ( $100 for a 3' wide 100' long 3/4 inch thick )...but I haven't yet asked about weight for shipping lol ! Our HS coach told us about roll out runways but I couldn't find any. I'll go check out Oldcoach's site right now.

[1yeldud1]

The only problem with old conveyor belts is that when they get wet they get slick - almost manditory that you wear spikes for all your drills and vaulting

[miniwhinny]

Wet isn't a problem as we're in the High Desert. I'm more concerned with how "flimsy" the belt would be and if it would keep shifting? I went to MF Athletics but couldn't find the roll outs...must be getting old I'll head back for my search again now...

[VaultPurple]

conveyer belts are not flimsey or shift... that is what we had at my school and it had like a cloth peace that ran down the inside that made it really durable. It was really hard rubber that was really fast, my only problme was because it was so hard it just felt wierd to run on compared to traditional rubber.

[Oldcoach]

I looked up the rollout at MF athletics-- they call it "instant runway"- 12mm thick by 36 in wide for $6.90 /running foot-.
We have some 12mm x 42in x 100 ft. at our school and when we roll it up for storage we have to get a forklift to move it. I put a long pipe thru the roll and got 4 strong kids -and they could not lift it off the ground. 3/4 in thick conveyor belting must reallly weigh a ton-literally.

[VaultPurple]

yeah it does weigh a ton!... We got our conveyer belt donated from a rock corrie that my sister's boyfriend worked at, and he used a fork lift to put it on the trailor. Then we backed trailor up about 10 feet infront of vault box and rolled it down the ramp, then used about 5 guys to just unrole it (really crooked and out of line)... then we finnaly slid it inch by inch until it was in the right place. It took a lot of effort but it saved us about $1000 that the school would have never spent anyways.

Would i have prefered a real rubber runway? YES... but this was better than nothing

[souleman]

Check out my set up at:
http://www.bubbapv.com/Pages/BYVault-Mike.htm

Fisher Tracks in Boone Iowa. I think I got runway for $2.00 a square foot which is cheaper than
MF Athletics by quite a bit. My runway is 36" wide X 5/8" thick X 85 Feet long. Cost is at the bottom of the "blurb" that I did on Bubba's website. Later................The Geezer

I started on a bed of class 5 limestone that worked ok but it wasn't as "true" as I wanted. This year, thanks to a "gift" from a neighbor of a picket fence, I built a wood base for it. The thing is awesome now. If you need it, I can send you photos of what I did to build the sub-base.

[miniwhinny]

Thanks everyone.

I've seen the ones on Bubba's site....awesome pit (s)

Looks like we may end up with hard packed dirt. I don't have a fork lift and between a 49 year old mom (me) and a 14 year old boy I don't think we have too many muscles lol ! He's jumping 11' here and has done 12'9" at school because he can't get the traction he needs...but he's having fun. I may look into stall mats (for horses). I think they're 4' x 6', heavy rubber mats ( I think an inch thick) for $50 so I could cut them in half and run them 2' x 12' for $50. That's still expensive but we can do it bit by bit. I have enough for 2 ' X 24' already (as long as my ponies don't mind lying on concrete lol!!!!!)

You've alll been so helpfull. Thank you.

[miniwhinny]

Here's what we have so far. Thanks for all of the suggestions.

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