Two Handy Tips

[n9ads@domain.elided (Howard R Pletcher)]

A convenient place to store a shovel in your Scout is under the hood. 
Take an ordinary gardening shovel (do these have a technical name other
than "shovel"?) and shorten the 48" handle to about 30", lay the shovel
head on top of the power brake booster cylinder with the handle extending
down over the bellhousing and it will ride that way quite nicely.  I have
my cruise control control box mounted so that it helps retain the shovel
in place;without that a bungee cord may be needed.  Due to a physical
problem (they don't make a shovel that fits my hand!), I try to avoid
using the shovel, but it's almost worth getting stuck once an outing just
to see peoples' reactions when you pop the hood and pull the shovel out.

And to put the hood back down, a remote release on the driver's side is
easy to improvise.  A 6 foot piece of wire attached to the hood prop rod
at the top of the spring, routed around the hood bumper on the passenger
side, and anchored under a screw at the back edge of the hood eliminates
a lot of trips to the passenger side.  I used some 1/16" wire cable that
I had, but I've seen heavy string used.

Howard Pletcher
Howteron Products Scout Parts