Chainsaw-Charged Battery

Chainsaw-Charged Battery WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 31-4-39 When Steven Koenig and his five-man crew found themselves with a dead battery, no communications and an 8-mile walk back down a mountain, they made do with what they had. The crew was doing road cleanup. "Someone had left the two-way radio on and drained the battery while we were clearing roads," recalls Koenig. "We started brainstorming. The truck was an automatic so we couldn't push start it. All we had was our chainsaw." That was enough. Koenig took the chain and bar off the chainsaw and then took off the belt that powered the alternator. He slipped it over the sprocket on the chain saw and went to work. He recalls sitting on the fender and leaning back to maintain tension. "It took about 10 minutes of running the chainsaw to get enough juice to start the engine," says Koenig. "It did tear up the belt enough that we worried about getting back down the mountain with it." He still has the Stihl 051 chainsaw with its 32-in bar. While newer saws don't have the old star sprocket, Koenig thinks todayæs serpentine belts would still work. "If you ever have to do it, don't forget to turn the key on to complete the circuit back to the battery," he notes. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Steven C. Koenig, P.O. Box 106, 121 Carr Rd., Trout Lake, Wash. 98650 (ph 509 395-2684).

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