Best Folding Shovels for Your Truck or Camping Kit
A folding shovel is a handy tool to keep in a car trunk. Here’s how to choose the right one for how you plan to use it.
Popularized during World War I, the entrenching tool was used for many things other than digging defensive positions, latrines, and graves. It could be used as a weapon in hand-to-hand combat, a hammer or axe, an oar, and even as a cooking utensil. These multiple-use folding shovels evolved through time and conflicts, and quickly entered the marketplace for civilian use when campers found how useful they could be for removing rocks and cutting roots at a campsite, digging trenches for drainage, and managing and extinguishing a campfire. Some multi-use folding shovels today (still often called entrenching tools, or E-tools) come with additional features like saws, picks, and knives that survivalists find useful, or at least comforting to know they’re on hand if needed. Some everyday car commuters and SUV drivers keep a basic folding shovel in their vehicles in case they need to dig themselves out of mud or snow, or break glass to get into or out of a vehicle that’s been in an accident and the doors won’t open. And there’s a whole range of folding shovel types in between. If you’re shopping for a folding shovel, keep in mind the following:
This product breaks down into multiple sections for easy storage. IUNIO
Any prolonged amount of digging is best performed with a shovel that has a long handle. A short-handled shovel means you need to bend over or kneel down to reach what’s at your feet. In a tall vehicle, you’re going to have a tough time clearing what’s underneath unless your shovel’s handle is long enough to reach it.
A bladed shovel can do so much more than dig. If you tend to venture out on your own or head into remote places where you may need extra tools, a shovel that doubles as a hand saw could get you out of a pickle in a pinch.
With a camo-patterned bag, you can easily toss this kit into your vehicle. Otplore
A broken shovel won’t be much help if you need to dig your ATV out of a swamp, put out a spreading fire, or break your way out of a flipped 4×4. If you’ll be using your folding shovel for serious work, make sure you’re using one that’s overbuilt.
