8'x4' Left/Right Gel Hitting Area?

[Duckhook]

Hello -

I'm planning my simulator build and will get going on it next week. I'll be using SkyTrak and TGC and am trying to figure out creating a hitting area for left and right handed play (I know it will be challenging with SkyTrak). The sim will be in my basement and whatever I end up using for a hitting area will rest on good quality indoor/outdoor carpet that has a nice bit of padding under it.

I'm intrigued by the DIY Gel insert hitting area reviewed in the post below and was curious regarding a plan to enlarge it for left/right use and whether it would be stable enough for SkyTrak?

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/build-your-own/mats-turf-and-flooring/115414-diy-truestrike-gel-pad-4x5-mat-for-around-175

The idea would be to use an 8'x4' piece of 3/4" plywood and place the gel at the midway point of the plywood sheet (gel moved forward toward the screen for proper ball placement). I believe this would provide enough room for use by left and right handed players - with the ball lying in the same spot for each. My main question here is regarding stability for SkyTrak...

Would the force of the swing disrupt the SkyTrak reading and screw things up? I was thinking the gel is taking the majority of the impact and is somewhat isolated from the plywood but maybe that's wishful thinking.

I had planned on covering the sheet of plywood and gel insert with this piece of hitting mat. I thought I could use the extra two feet to create a putting extension off the front of the hitting area

http://www.allturfmats.com/product-p/6x10premgolf-atm.htm

Thanks for your thoughts!

[wbond]

Since it is one piece of turf and the ST doesn't sit that far away from the impact area, you may have a problem still with vibrations. With the gel, the mat is going to get pushed downward into the gel creating some mat movement. Most ST users do as much as possible to keep it off the hitting area.

Maybe you can slit the mat the length of the gel, forward and back so that it doesn't pull on the rest of the mat? Just a thought, expensive experiment if it doesn't work though.

[Duckhook]

Thanks -

I was thinking about slitting the mat as well - but you're right it would be an expensive experiment. There's probably a good chance the turf impact would transfer to the plywood underlay and muck things up. I've just noticed that the rug this would sit on accepts velcro very well. I may be able to slightly separate the hitting area from the stance/SkyTrak area and velcro everything down so it does not shift and transfer the shock... will need to noodle on this for a while :-)