A Handy-Looking Snow Plow

The big thaw started this morning. Aided by a steady rain, warmer temperatures are slowly converting the snow on my steep driveway into a river of slush. I will probably be able to drive up it tomorrow, the third day after Wednesday’s storm. But if I had a wheeled snow shovel like the one shown in the photo, I would be out sooner.

My neighbor has one. He told me he got it at a garage sale. It was advertised as a wheeled sidewalk cleaner, but maybe that was a summertime marketing pitch. There are two differences between his rig and the one I found online. Neither seems critical. First, on his, one wheel is closer to the shovel (thus placing the blade at an angle like a road-clearing snow plow). Second, he added a rubber strip across the bottom to make it slide a bit easier.

I watched him “plow” his mother’s driveway for a few minutes this afternoon. Her driveway is steeper than mine but not as long. He had the whole driveway almost cleared by the time I got there. The work looked a lot easier than attacking the job with a conventional snow shovel especially given the weight and volume of our rain-saturated snow. Sadly, he didn’t offer to shovel me out when he was finished at his mom’s place.

I haven’t seen any wheeled snow shovels for sale at the local hardware stores and home centers. The shovel shown in the photo sells for $109 with free shipping. It has a 36-inch blade and a great marketing name—the Snowcaster. It’s also made in the USA. If you live where it snows and that doesn’t convince you to get one, the product description might:

The Snowcaster stores easily and takes up little room in your garage, just hang it on the wall. The wheeled shovel design greatly reduces the risk of back and heart injuries associated with snow shoveling. The Snowcaster revolutionizes snow shoveling by outperforming many snow blowers and is 3x faster than shoveling. It is environmentally clean, quiet, and almost maintenance-free.

So should I buy one and store it in my shed only to watch it gather dust? It doesn’t snow much in the Puget Sound area, at least at sea level. I haven’t been snowed in since last year and probably won’t be snowed in again this winter. Still owning one might make me feel more in control of things when bad weather does hit. That or a macho 4-wheel-drive truck.