We've all done it before, sitting around the dinner table with the guys and talking about ideas you could make a million dollars off of. One that had been mentioned time and time again is a ratcheting hydrant wrench(a socket wrench with a socket sized specifically for most hydrants.) Unfortunately for us, it's already been done before! However, on the bright side, since it has been done all we'd need to do is buy one. Has anyone ever used one before? The concept is great, ever had a hydrant too close to a fence, tree, even a vehicle (it happens and a lot of the time it might be the postman or even the cops.) There is always the problem with creating a water hammer when closing the hydrant too quickly or busting a main by opening it too quickly, but we've got some guys who could bust hydrants with a regular wrench; what keeps them from doing this is that they have common sense and know NOT to do so. I'm not trying to advertise for The Fire Store, or advertise for Zak Tools; yet this is one of the few I've found online. It has an adjustable pin in the socket head to get the correct size depending on the hydrant. http://www.thefirestore.com/store/product.cfm?pID=2802 I'm just trying to see if anyone has purchased one before, has or is currently using one, and what your thoughts are on the matter. I'm looking to purchasing one soon and testing it out, hopefully being able to later convince our chief to purchase enough for all of our trucks if all goes well.

So what do you think, good idea, bad idea, personal experiences with it, comments?

Thanks for all your posts.
-Jonathan LCFD