Shovel in the car

Do I need a shovel when traveling by car? This question disappears for those whose car gets stuck off-road. Although such cases are rare, whoever has had a chance to look for help in soiled clothes in order to get a stuck car out will surely remember such a scrape for a long time. Also, there are often cases when you have to dig your car out of the snowdrifts in the morning.

Varieties and purpose of car shovels

Of course, you can carry an ordinary garden shovel in the trunk, but it's still better to get one that will meet all the necessary requirements.

Design features

A typical shovel in a machine is approximately 80 cm long (unfolded). In this case, the length of the handle is 60 cm so that it is comfortable to hold. Sometimes for convenience it is supplied with a handle.

Car shovel

Shovels in the car can be of various designs: folding, telescopic, collapsible. For cleaning the snow drift, the shovels have a kind of recess on the bayonet, and for digging the soil and clay there must be a pointed end.

Production materials

The most commonly used shovels are steel blade. But there are also established titanium counterparts. They are lighter than others. But the lightest material for making such shovels is plastic. Today's technology allows them to be made strong enough to be used on any terrain around machines. Metal cuttings are usually thinner than wood cuttings.

Tips for choosing a car shovel

When buying a shovel for a car, you should keep in mind for what purposes and in what conditions it will be used. Before buying, decide not only how it will be called, but also what functions it is intended to perform.

What is a shovel in a car for?

How much the copy will cost, of course, is largely dependent on the brand of the manufacturer's company. Not everyone is ready to buy such weapons from popular companies (Fiskars, Supreme, etc.).

Sand shovel

It is much more difficult to break through sand than snow. However, it is much easier to dig out the car. Digging out of the sand, you should capture a wider part and make more gentle slopes, since the sand tends to crumble. After the car is able to leave, you will have to align the arrival, since starting the movement, starting from a place on a free-flowing rise, you can again be ambushed.

For dense soil

Without the skills of digging hard soils, he will come to tinker with such a task. Before leaving the rut, it is worth digging high sides over which, for example, a Skoda car will not be able to jump. They are removed by about 3 m to provide the car with room for maneuver. Sometimes 5 minutes is enough to cope with such excavation work.

If the car gets into a viscous puddle, in order to drain it, you need to choose a place for digging for a hole in the side of the natural depression.

Small Sapper Shovel

The off-road sapper shovel will help out in many unforeseen cases on the road. Its small size allows you to free up boot space for other useful items. But in work it is not very convenient, for example, it is very difficult to dig a car out of the snow with it.

Shovel

It is convenient for her to shovel snow from under the car. Also used for cleaning dry sand. The length of the handle of such a tool should be standard. The short one is only suitable for cyclists and participants in desert rally raids. Cope with hard ground is almost impossible.

Shovel

Bayonet

Such a shovel can dig almost any soil. She can even break ice. Choosing this type of tool, you must first of all pay attention to its strength. A shovel made of thin material can bend and burst under load.

Garden shovel

It combines the positive characteristics of a conventional bayonet and shovels. But this variety has a straight bayonet, which creates inconvenience if you have to rake loosened soil. If the choice fell on a bayonet, then it is worth looking for one in which the presence of a slight forward bend relative to the handle is desirable. It is also better to choose with a metal, slightly curved handle, which will add strength to it.

Garden shovel

Foldable Car Shovel

When choosing a shovel for a car, you should pay attention to its size. Ideally, the shank of the shovel should reach to the elbow with the hand down. But, if it does not fit in the trunk, then you should choose the longest one that will fit across the trunk. In addition, you can buy a shovel with a telescopic handle. But remember that such a small shovel can fail at the most inconvenient moment.

Which one is better to choose for the winter

Often, the need for a shovel arises in the winter, when it becomes necessary to free the car from snow drifts that occur on roads outside the city, as well as when leaving the yard, if snow removal equipment has walked along the main road before.

With all the enormous amount of work, digging a car out of the snow with a shovel is the easiest way. Today, the Supreme shovel, produced by a New York brand, is considered popular for these purposes.

Sometimes, when driving on unclean roads, a heap of sticky snow is formed in front of the car, over which the car literally jumps, and the snow sticks to the front bumper. Therefore, in order to prevent this, it is necessary to periodically get rid of the formed snow shaft under the hood.

You can have a regular shovel that the wipers use. A light bucket will help you quickly handle large volumes of snow with minimal effort. It is not difficult to remove the compacted snow from under the car, but only from the edges. But it is impossible to get to all areas with it (this does not apply to the jeep) Therefore, it should only be taken as a set along with a less wide, but at the same time sturdy tool, such as the Supreme shovel.

DIY folding shovel

If the shovel breaks down, but you need to urgently take action, then you can make a folding shovel in the car yourself from scrap materials in an hour.

For example, it can be made from a piece of plywood. With the help of such a tool, you can easily cope with a snow drift. For this you will need:

• plywood (50 × 40 cm);
• a block of wood (40 × 7 cm);
• small fragments of sheet metal cloth (tin, galvanized metal, etc. are suitable);
• handle;
• self-tapping screws.

The first step is to prepare the bar. A hole is made in it to place the stalk there. It is not necessary to make a hole larger than the diameter of the cutting, as it is necessary for the fit to be strong.

After that, the plywood bucket is attached to the bar with self-tapping screws. To make the connection of the parts more durable, strips of metal sheet are placed on both sides of the plywood.

DIY folding shovel

The stalk is cut at an angle of 45 ° in the place where it will be attached to the bar.Then it is wrapped with a sheet of galvanized metal and placed in a previously prepared hole. At the last stage of the work, the handle is fixed to the bar using self-tapping screws. Of course, an analogue of one of the shovels of the Fiskars company cannot be made, but such a copy of the tool will certainly help in difficult times. And if you need to put it in the trunk, you can quickly disassemble it by twisting the screws and separating the homemade bucket from the handle.

You can also make a folding sapper shovel. This will require:

• stalk;
• bayonet;
• attachment point.

Its length should be about 45 cm, and when unfolded it should be 60 cm with a weight of about 1.5 kg. The depth of the attack will be approximately 15 cm. The bayonet size is 210 × 160 mm. The shovel will have 3 positions: unfolded, pickaxe and folded. It can be made all of steel, and the top of the handle can be made of wood.

The attachment point is made from 2 corners 40 × 40 mm, the cut connector is 30 mm. They are drilled and attached to the bayonet blade, which is made of steel. It can be bought in any construction market.

A car shovel should always be carried in the trunk. Thanks to her, no cataclysms of nature will catch the driver by surprise. Only then can you be sure that you will be able to reach the place without delay.