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Thread: Shovels

  1. #31
    Site Supporter Norville's Avatar
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    Jan 2017
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    WI
    Good price on the Cold Steel w sheath, ordered one for the car. There’s one in the suv and it is typically used to usher snapping turtles out of the road.

  2. #32
    Member That Guy's Avatar
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    Jan 2012
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    overseas
    I've kept a folding entrenchment tool in my vehicle ever since I got my drivers license. I believe it is either identical, or very close to it, to U.S. issue e-tools. That thing has come in handy more than once - I've dug my car out of a spot of trouble with it, chopped firewood for a campfire when a day out with friends lasted past sun down, etc. It's one of those tools that one develops an emotional bond with after owning and using it for years. In the military I've dug a foxhole with an identical one, opened ammo crates, trained in hand-to-hand combat with it, etc. Very handy piece of kit, and I do get the warm and fuzzies knowing it's in my vehicle ready for what ever might come up. But once I got my Jeep really stuck for the first time, I made a fairly obvious observation: for straight out digging, an e-tool really does not even come close to a proper shovel. So these days I tend to go big - as large a shovel as the vehicle will comfortably fit. A super lightweight non-folding hiking shovel fits into a compact SUV very easily and is far more effective at digging than a dinky little e-tool. (I believe it would fit into the trunk of a regular car fairly well too, but I have no intention of ever again owning one so I don't know for sure.) A regular ol' shovel fits into the bed of a pick-up truck very easily, doesn't cost a fortune, and works rather well if you need to do any, you know, digging. If you live in snowy climates, add a snow shovel in the truck for winter.

  3. #33

  4. #34
    The R in F.A.R.T RevolverRob's Avatar
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    May 2014
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    Gotham Adjacent
    Quote Originally Posted by Hambo View Post
    I'll never shovel snow again, but for those that might get stuck in it one of these will be way better than GI.

    https://www.amazon.com/Black-Diamond...SIN=B017P3MEE4
    That's nice looking, but the handle length is a deal breaker - this one I posted upthread - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004O5B6XM...ing=UTF8&psc=1 extends to 32". My current one (like that in the link) has been through four Chicago winters and dug the car out a bunch of times, including high-centering on a plow drift a couple of times (downside to a car with ~7" of ground clearance) and bashing it against ice as an ice breaker. I helped a cop dig his high-centered Exploder out two winters ago. So far, I haven't found a situation I can't dig out of with it and I've only scrapped up the blade end of the finish a bit. Seriously, for $25 the best thing next to a real snow shovel.

    For mud/sand though, an E-tool is better. You can move a ton of dirt in a short time with an e-tool blade bent at 90-degrees using it like a hoe/pick. Whenever I do exacavations (not often much anymore), I always bring an e-tool and pick-mattock for initial dig outs. More than once I've been down in a hole and had to recut a face or stairway and the e-tool at 90º does it faster than anything.

    I don't care much for the d-handle, because it tends to get in the way of raking and reduces the leverage you have using the tool as a pick. An E-Tool + work gloves is a winning combination for most things.

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