Dear Mr Rawles,
After reading Edventures’ letter about there not being any diesel chainsaws available, I had a thought: why not combine an electric chain saw with a small, portable, diesel generator? Besides solving his fuel problem, he would also have a mobile power source that could be used to operate other devises. It’s just a thought.
Best Wishes, – James K.
Sir,
Saw the letter about chainsaws and how stored gas didn’t work well in them. There was some question about the availability of diesel chainsaws and how they aren’t made anymore. ([Since they are] heavy and [have] slow rpm.)
I run my chainsaw on diesel–sort of. I drive a 1994 Ford F250 diesel pickup that I use for gathering firewood. I installed a 2,000 watt inverter with 4,000 watt surge capability. That cost me about $150 from Harbor Freight. A 3.25 horsepower Remington electric chainsaw is plugged in on a 100 ft. heavy duty extension cord.
I cut 10 to 15 cord of firewood every year with this arrangement. The electric chain saw works fairly well as long as the chain is kept sharp. I can only cut firewood within 100 ft of the truck, but frankly, that’s about as far as I care to lug it.
By the way, the truck has been converted to run on waste vegetable oil. Pretty cheap way to gather wood. I do keep a 3.5 foot German steel manual crosscut saw as backup.- Raymond
Jim:
First, be sure that the model used is not a smaller [displacement engine] Sthil [chainsaw] that uses the reed valve type carburetor. These are not a very good system.
Second, I’d recommend he quit using Sta-Bil brand gasoline preservative and switch to PRI-G (and PRI-D for diesel ) which are much, much better preservatives. I have personally used them for gasoline as much as four years old and run a Sthil chainsaw just fine with this stored fuel.
One of your advertisers, Ready Made Resources of Tennessee carries PRI [brand fuel preservative products]. – Andy in Jonesboro, Tennessee