A wovel. A wheelbarrow shovel for snow removal
I ran across this last night at Mario’s. The lovely lady acting as hostess told me that it is called a wovel, wheelbarrow shovel. She said that it was invented by a young man who worked at Mario’s several years ago and he holds the patent on it. He has upgraded the device to have three wheels, she told me.
I wish I knew enough about mechanical advantage to calculate how much this device would ease the burden of snow removal. The handle can be adjusted to several different positions, as seen in this photo:
Detail showing handle adjustment for the wovel
It would appear that this would be an ideal device for older folks to move snow with less effort. The wovel site has a lot of details and photos.
HI I saw your post on our wheeled shovel products (Wovel), which is actually one of our older models. Our new models are 1/3 lighter and stronger. The University of Massachusetts actually did an indepdent study on the wheeled shovels looking at lower back stress and overal exertion (ie heart related risk) vs. shoveling and found 75-85% reduction in lower back disk compression and exertion…and that study didn’t include the new models. But it works ike a seasaw, so you use your body weight and legs to lift vs your back and arms. For example, if you lift 40 lbs of snow, the wheel is bearing 80lbs ….remember with a seasaw you can lift your body weight vs 20-25 lbs with a shovel….safe, beats many snow blowers, yet stores on the wall (and the new ones fold in half to even store on a shelf)…hope that helps, but if you have any questions, let us know…