G740@aol.com wrote:
> Not only don't they have the right bend, they are no longer making the short
> handle type shovels. Now the handles are about 4" longer than the correct
> originals.
I'm not saying you're wrong, because I haven't seen a real Jeep shovel
in person, but I have a hard time seeing how your specific comments
(especially the one about length) apply to the shovels available at my
local Home Depot, in Foothill Ranch, CA. I'm not trying to be
argumentative; I'd really like to understand how my "fake" shovel is
different from your NOS ones.
The shovel I bought at Home Depot about a week ago fits the pioneer
tool rack on my HMMWV perfectly. The HMMWV's rack has a bracket that
holds the D handle, and a spring loop that holds the base of the
blade. The shovel I got appears to be almost exactly the right length
for the rack, and a shovel with a handle 4" shorter than the one I got
definitely would not fit in the pioneer rack on my HMMWV.
In the following pictures (especially the second one), notice how the
D handle is in the bracket where it belongs, and the spring loop that
goes around the handle on a HMMWV pioneer tool rack is right at the
base of the shovel blade:
http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/tmp/mvc-564x.jpg
http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/tmp/mvc-565x.jpg
http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/tmp/mvc-566x.jpg
If the real shovel's handle was 4" shorter than the one I got, it
would not fit in my truck's rack at all.
I can't comment on whether the bend is right or wrong. I hope you'll
take a look at my pictures and tell me how my Home Depot shovel is
different from your real NOS ones.
All of this makes me wonder the following things:
1. Does a Jeep or MUTT use a different shovel than a HMMWV?
2. Does my local Home Depot stock different items than yours?
Anyway, I chose to not use real military-issue pioneer tools on my own
truck for a few reasons:
* It's a daily driver, not a museum/show piece.
* I would not want to use an expensive real NOS shovel to dig dirt.
* If my fake shovel gets broken or stolen, I'm not out too much money,
and I can replace it easily.
* It might be wrong for a Jeep or MUTT, but it appears to be exactly
the right size for a HMMWV, and it appears to be constructed just like
the shovel drawn in my TM (i.e., the shape of the metal portion of the
D handle is the same, the shape of the blade is the same, the
proportions look right, etc.)
* It's not a cheap fall-apart shovel... it has a good hickory handle
and a stout blade. At about $20, it was the most expensive one they
had. The cheaper ones had plastic D handles. Another list member
commented on poor wood quality and metal thickness, but I don't think
those comments are applicable to the specific shovel that I bought. I
think that all three of the pioneer tools I picked out differ from the
real ones cosmetically, but not in quality.
If I was doing a frame-off restoration of my HMMWV and trying to make
it back into a perfect, original truck, I'd try to get correct
military-issue tools.
Please comment further, Mr. G740! :-)
-- Mark J. Blair, KE6MYK <mblair1@home.net> PGP 2.6.2 public key available from http://www.keyserver.net/ Web page: http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/ DO NOT SEND ANY UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL TO THIS SITE
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Dec 03 2000 - 20:29:58 PST
