Tool Review: Grizzly’s Bear Crawl Heavy-Duty Mobile Base
If you are motivated to mobilize, this new Grizzly base offers amazing value
Grizzly’s new Bear Crawl mobile base boasts features you normally find on bases costing two or three times as much: a tubular steel frame with a whopping 1,200 lb. of capacity. It can be adjusted from 19 in. square to 29-1⁄2 in. square, and if you are willing to trim its rails, it can be made smaller. So it should accommodate all of the machines in most shops. Inside each corner bracket is a landing pad that will support either a closed base or the legs of an open one.
With the base resting on its rubber-toed feet and non-swiveling casters, the machine was rock-solid in use. I also flipped the foot levers to take the machine for a spin. With its beefy frame, big ball-bearing casters, and urethane tires, the Bear Crawl handled its heavy cargo like a dream, gliding over my concrete floor and riding easily over chips and debris. I also appreciated the big foot levers, which are easy to operate even when you have to reach your foot into a corner to access them.
I haven’t tried every mobile base on the market, but I can’t imagine one working much better than this one. If you are motivated to mobilize, this new Grizzly base offers amazing value.
—Asa Christiana is the author of Build Stuff with Wood (The Taunton Press, 2017).
More on FineWoodworking.com:
- How to Move a Bandsaw – Michael Fortune demonstrates the proper way to move your bandsaw
- Mobile Bases – Mobility offers convenience, as long as the base is stable and rolls smoothly
- Workshop Tip – Shopmade brakes for a mobile base
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Comments
I'd love for all the casters to swivel 360 degrees. Then I might consider buying this mobile stand. My Sawstop Pro Cabinet table saw is on an all swiveling casters mobile base, and I can move it with only one hand. Even my heavy 18|36 Laguna lathe is on an all swiveling caster base. But my Laguna bandsaw is on a mobile base similar to this Grizzly base, and it requires both hands and multiple back-and-forth movements to move it to its destination in my postage-stamp-sized shop. When I designed my miter saw/planer flip-top cabinet I set it on an all swiveling caster base, and it can dance across my small shop with ease, and when I lock all the casters, the unit is solidly stable.
I am with you. I don’t know why there are more bases with 4 swirling casters. The two fixed ones are a pain in the butt. The only reason I didn’t get the ICS base for my SS PCS was because SS had just raised their prices astronomically in Canada.
Great base for the money. I do not move my saw much but when I do it moves very easy.
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