We have all been there.
In the bleak midwinter, frosty drives of snow, you open the door to step onto the front porch, but it is an unexpected struggle.
You push and push and eventually manage to shift the avalanche of snowfall that is keeping your door in place.
Walking outside, you scratch your head, your mind racing back to the tiny, ineffectual hand shovel in your garage.
You survey your front drive and lawn. Nothing but a white caking of snow sits there, mockingly.
You sigh and create a new daily to-do list, scrapping all your other plans.
The list only has one thing: “Spend all day putting my back out, clearing this snow out of the way.”
Enter the snow shovel… with wheels.
Wheeled snow shovels make the daily tasks that emerge throughout the winter months less arduous.
We all hate having to clear snow from our drives unless you happen to be a small child creating the next Frosty, and the point of a wheeled snow shovel is to ease that hardship.
By providing a set of wheels and a long handle, a wheeled snow shovel provides natural ergonomic support for you and your back.
It essentially works in a similar way to the tremendous oversized snow pushers you see on the road, but it can haul some of the snow, not just displace it.
Rather than the open-faced, arrow-headed designs typically seen in a snow pusher, a wheeled snow shovel still enjoys the scooping benefits of a shovel.
It complements this with the ability to move magnitudes more snow than a regular shovel, thanks to your entire leg-power behind the tool.
There is no longer a need for the physically taxing and inefficient to-ing and fro-ing of manually shoveling snow; the handle and wheels grant your shoveling exponentially more force.
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Benefits of using snow shovels with wheels.
* Reduced back strain
Back strain is nearly eliminated due to the snow shovel requiring you to be upright. There is no risk of poor shovelling form here, and it does not wreak the same havoc on your posture that continually bending up and down might do during manual shovelling.
Not only is it a lot easier on your back, but it also provides two extra benefits that come as a package.
* Time
Wheeled snow shovels significantly reduce the time it will take you to clear snow off your personal property as a snow shovel with wheels clears a lot more area in one fell swoop than you could ever hope to with your shovel.
Some products offer a breadth of clearing as broad as 2 feet!
Covering this much area means that as you deliver a strong standing push through the snow, you will be clearing nearly 2-foot squares in one movement!
* Increased Clearing Area
The surface area coverage provided here is unrivalled, especially compared to a regular snow pusher or a standard shovel.
Consequently, the amount of time you need to spend outside doing this activity has reduced a thousand-fold.
Problems with using a snow shovel with wheels.
A snow shovel with wheels is always going to be more prone to breaking than a regular shovel. Most shovels are three parts at most – the handle, the shovelhead and some connecting joints.
As a wheeled snow shovel has more components–wheels–the potential for breakage or servicing may increase.
Simplicity in this form is always more reliable. A snow shovel is several different parts together, and while you can make them yourself to cut down on price, all of these distinct parts will eventually fail.
Unfortunately, the more complex something like this is, specifically parts made from metal that often interact with snow and water, will degrade or rust.
Lastly, is price. Investing in a quality wheeled snow shovel makes sense as you want it to last and not break down.
A wheeled snow shovel is more expensive.
My time, back health, ability to move heavy snowfalls from my long driveway make looking at a wheeled snow shovel a viable solution to meet my needs.
Top 3 things to look for when buying a snow shovel with wheels.
1. An adjustable handle length
One of the oldest family traditions is pawning off, clearing the driveway to your younger siblings.
Ensure that is still possible by buying a snow shovel with wheels that can be operated by someone of any height.
2. Ergonomic handles
You want these.
The cold and our hands do not mix well.
Make that cold less uncomfortable and reduce its impact on your steadiness when shoveling by getting an ergonomic handle.
3. Sturdy components
Many snow shovels online look relatively flimsy.
To avoid a disastrous break while shoveling and returning to the dreaded manual shovel, make sure you have a heavy and well-built wheeled snow shovel.
Frequently asked questions:
Is a wheel snowed shovel heavy?
The weight of a wheeled snow shovel depends on what you buy.
However, the large shovel at the front, combined with the sturdy metal components needed to support it, will make it significantly heavier than your shovel at home.
The average weight we found throughout our research was 30lbs for a heavy metal duty wheeled wheeled snow shovel.
How deep can a wheeled snow shovel dig?
The answer here depends on the brand you choose.
Higher-end wheeled snow shovels boast the ability to clear at least 5 inches of compacted snow in one go.
