By Raul A. Angulo
I can already hear Seattle (WA) Fire Department Captain Steve Bernocco saying, "Oh no! Not another article on door chocks!" Yes, another article on door chocks! I did have to ask myself why there is always a new tool coming out to wedge a door. The answer is because it is still a problem. Standard wooden wedges are cut in a variety of widths and lengths. Inevitably one is too short, too thin, or too fat. Because the wood breaks down and finally cracks, companies started making hard rubber wedges. They're good for wedging sprinkler heads but they're not very good for door wedges. Heavy commercial doors can still compress them. I find I often have to double up on rubber wedges to get the door opened to where I need it. Even then, they slip. I started using the "Jerome" clamp (Tool Tech, May 2012), which is an inexpensive, heavy duty, plastic hand-gripped clamp, but the door still has some play in it. On all residential and most commercial doors you'll run into, it works great. It is lightweight and doesn't slip, but the spring can still break with heavy tensioned, self-closing doors.
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| (1) The Fat Ivan is a door chock design invented by a Cincinnati firefighter. It expands on the concept of the angle iron and hook used to chock a door open. The plastic panels are made from nylon-impregnated engineered plastic, making it extremely strong and durable. It is 100 percent resistant to corrosion and won't rust in your pocket. (Photos by author unless otherwise noted.) |
Leave it to firefighters to come up with a new design. A firefighter ingeniously figured out that if a hook was welded on to the spine of a piece of angle iron, you can simply drop the hook over a hinge on the inside jamb of the door and it will securely hold the door open. I have seen a few of them around. The problem with these self-made contraptions is that the angle iron is no more than 90 degrees, which, depending on the door, only holds it open about ½ to ¾ of the way (approximately 45 to 60 degrees). The homemade versions can be heavy to carry in your pocket, and unless the edges are smoothed out, they will definitely rub a hole in your bunker coat pocket over time. If the edges don't make a hole, the hook will. This can be an expensive and inconvenient repair, not to mention that you could also lose some valuable pocket tools. It will also rust after repeated exposure to moisture. The real downside is when you accidentally fall and land on the angle iron while it is in your pocket. It is not collapsible and has hard, defined edges. In other words, because it's bulky, it's going to hurt. Other than that, it is a great tool.
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| (2) In the closed position, the hook is protected from accidentally poking the firefighter. The hook is a case-hardened, zinc-plated steel rod. The panels butterfly open to 130 degrees, which is better than a 90-degree angle iron and hook. The 130-degree design will securely hold the door open at 80 degrees or in the fully opened position without slipping. |
A New Solution
Lieutenant Nick Caliguri, a 22-year veteran of the Cincinnati (OH) Fire Department assigned to Truck 32, was a fan of the angle iron door chock but after a few bunker coat pocket repairs and falling hard on his metal door chock, he thought there had to be a better way to design it.
He invented the Fat Ivan. By expanding on the hook and angle iron design and eliminating the problems, he made a good tool into an excellent