Be Storm-Ready With A Chainsaw

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Being storm-ready with a chainsaw is a staple of country living. Unfortunately, chainsaws can be finicky beasts and dangerous to boot. I’ll give you some tips to keep your saw reliable and ready for any event. We’ll also touch on maintenance, operation, and safety gear basics.

Being Storm Ready With A Chainsaw

It’s wise to keep spare parts for anything you rely on. Keep extra consumable parts your saw may need, such as air filters, spare chains, and an extra bar. Consider keeping spares if your fuel and bar oil caps are not attached. The same goes for your bar nuts. There’s nothing worse than losing one of those when you need that saw to run. Bars can get pinched and bent, and chains dull quickly, so invest in both. I need to buy a spare bar for my saw, but I keep 4 or 5 spare chains in cue for duty.

Lubricants

Chainsaws are two-stroke engines, so their fuels require an oil additive. Most saws require a 40:1 or 50:1 fuel-to-oil ratio, so check with your manufacturer for the correct ratio. Even if you buy pre-mixed fuel, keep a few bottles of fuel oil on hand if you’re forced to run pump gas. Chainsaws also need bar oil to lubricate the chain and bar to keep them moving. In a real pinch, motor oil can work, but it’s far better to run a proper bar and chain oil in your saw, and it’s cheap. Try to keep a spare gallon or two around.

Ethanol Blended Fuels

Have you ever had difficulty starting a chainsaw, lawnmower, or other small gas engine? There are plenty of reasons for it, but the most common is fuel. More specifically, it’s usually because of Ethanol-blended fuels. Ethanol has been in the American fuel supply since the ’70s, but since the early 2000s, it’s become commonplace to see E10 (10% Ethanol, 90% Gasoline) at the pump. Except for some localities, most American gas stations now serve ethanol-blended fuels.

Why Alcohol Is Bad

Ethanol is an alcohol, and alcohol can cause issues in small engines. For one, alcohol is deleterious to many compounds, including rubber. Rubber is still common in small engines’ fuel systems, such as fuel lines and seals. Ethanol breaks this material down, causing clogging and fouling, especially in the carburetor. Alcohol also absorbs water. As ethanol-blended fuel sits unused in a gas tank, it absorbs ambient moisture, adding water to your fuel. Ethanol also evaporates quickly, which hastens the deterioration of gasoline into varnish. Varnished fuels create deposits that clog and coat parts of the engine’s fuel system. All these effects of ethanol-blended fuel leave you with a chainsaw that won’t start and stick you with replacing fuel lines and carburetors.

Stable Engine Fuels

Straight gas, tool fuel, E0, and racing gas are common names for stable gasoline. You can purchase straight gasoline in most power shops, big box stores, and auto parts stores, usually in gallon or quart containers. You can also buy these fuels pre-lubricated for your saws, or you can choose to add your preferred additive later. I buy gasoline from a racing fuel supplier in 5-gallon cans without added oil because I also run it in 4-stroke engines like my water pumps and lawnmowers. Running pure gasoline will keep your saw running at peak performance, give you easier starts, and keep them reliable.

Chainsaw Chaps

Being storm ready with a chainsaw includes having the right safety gear on hand. I have experience with what can go wrong with chainsaws, and I can attest that safety equipment is worth wearing. It’s bulky, hot, inconvenient, and annoying, but wearing chaps and a helmet will make the difference when things go wrong. On a beautiful sunny day, I was bucking up a felled tree when something moved, and my saw was suddenly running full bore against my left thigh. Thankfully, I had my chaps on. The chaps did their job and jammed the drum of the saw, stopping it in its tracks. I was in shock and couldn’t believe the speed at which it happened. After I came to my senses, I had to have a friend help me disentangle myself. Thankfully, I had little more than an abrasion on my leg, but it very well could have maimed me.

Chainsaw Helmets

Wearing a helmet while cutting trees can save your life. Broken branches may still hang above you from when a tree fell. These branches can fall without warning and cause severe injuries. My local fire department recently flew out a local professional tree worker struck by a piece of tree that fell on him. He did not have his helmet on. Last I heard, he was learning to walk again and had sustained life-altering injuries. A helmet could have significantly improved his outcome.

Items to keep your saw storm ready

1) non-ethanol gasoline (Stable Gasoline)

2) 2 stroke oil (To add to fuel if needed)

3) 1+ gallons of Bar and Chain Oil

4) 2+ Spare chains (Keep them sharp)

5) 1 spare chainsaw bar

6) Spare parts, filters, caps and bar nuts

7) Scrench, or tools to work on your saw

8) Chaps, helmet, and safety glasses

9) Medical supplies for the worst-case scenario

Face Shields

Chainsaw helmets usually have a face shield. They reduce your vision and can be irritating, but when a loose chain flies off your bar and hits your face shield, you will be glad you wore it. Face shields also save you from chips flying in your face and whipping branches from striking you. Even if you wear a shield, you should also wear safety glasses.

Medical Supplies

Few people think about having medical supplies handy when doing dangerous things. Due to the potential of grave injury and bleeding, it’s wise to keep trauma supplies close. Gauze pads, wraps, and pressure bandages are vital to stopping non-arterial hemorrhaging, but you’ll need a tourniquet in the case of a spurting arterial bleed. Buy quality tourniquets, not the cheap ones, online, and don’t plan on improvising with a belt or rope because life-or-death situations are poor times to be improvising.

What do you keep handy for being storm ready with a chainsaw? Tell us in the comments below!