➡ The Canadian Prepper video discusses the pros and cons of electric and gas-powered chainsaws for homesteaders and doomsday preppers. Electric chainsaws are quieter, easier to start, require less maintenance, and can be powered by solar energy, making them a good choice for long-term survival situations. However, gas chainsaws are more powerful and efficient, making them better for heavy-duty tasks. The video suggests having a variety of tools, including a good felling axe and splitting axe, to ensure you can efficiently harvest and process wood for heating.

➡ The Poly Mule is a heavy-duty hand cart, perfect for moving heavy loads like firewood, especially when the source is far from your location. Despite its weight, it saves energy and has an auto-locking brake system for uphill tasks. It’s ideal for off-grid living and is built to last. For cutting wood, the most powerful electric chainsaw is recommended for small logs, while a gas-powered chainsaw is better for larger trees, especially for frequent users like homesteaders.

Today on the channel we’re discussing what’s better for homesteaders and doomsday preppers, an electric chainsaw that can be powered by the sun, or a combustion engine chainsaw powered by the substance that will be sought after by every marauder in the wasteland, non-renewable law. So I’m relatively new to chainsaws. As many of you know, I’ve been a Japanese pulsar purist for the longest time. But as I now have acquired a homestead property and the grid is still up so we can still enjoy all the amenities, I’ve gotten into chainsaws lately. I still believe that there is many reasons to have multiple analog manual saws because these things are loud as all hell, especially the gas power chainsaw.

That’s going to draw every cannibal within earshot after shtf. So you want to have a way that you can discreetly harvest wood. That’s why you get yourself an analog saw. Now in terms of electric versus gas, obviously gas is putting out a hell of a lot more power. As far as I know, the most powerful chainsaw that you can get is a 60 volt, maybe an 80 volt. And I don’t know what the overall output power is based on the research I’ve done. The Milwaukee has one of the best in-class offerings for a 16 inch bar.

So here we have a 16 inch bar, we have a 24 inch bar here. So it’s not going to be a fair competition. We’re not really comparing cut speed and things of that nature. Some of the reasons that you’d want to consider a electric chainsaw is because it was going to require less maintenance. It is going to not be quite as loud. It’s going to be much easier to start. And most importantly, it can run on the sun. You can power this, you can charge these batteries up with your solar panel.

You can’t do that for this. Now you’re still going to need a copious amount of bar and chain oil, but it’s a lot easier to stockpile bar and chain oil than it is the amount of gasoline that you would need to power this thing for extended periods of time. That said, the steel chainsaw is very efficient. So this is one of the best chainsaws on the market. Let’s just talk a little bit about what they can do. And we’ll show you what a fresh chain on a Milwaukee 16 inch bar chainsaw can accomplish.

Now, one of the great things I love about this, again, all I have to do to turn it on is go like this and it’s on. So I have to sit there and do the pull start thing or anything like that. But let’s see how it cuts. This is a mostly fresh chain. I’ve made a few cuts on it. This is kind of what you would expect for a electric chainsaw. It’s definitely going to be faster than a silky saw. There’s no doubt about that. So this is the Katana Boy 650. So we’ll see what this thing can do.

I know it’s not going to perform as well, but it’s quiet, right? This doesn’t want to end. As we’ve demonstrated, spruce, pine, this thing’s a keeper. Hard woods like birch, you’re going to need something with more power. If I was preparing for long-term SHTF, three things I would want, gas-powered chainsaw for the bigger stuff, like the real big stuff that you have to buck, an electric saw, which is going to do most of the work. If you’re just talking about harvesting wood, especially soft woods, the silky is going to do that.

No problem. I would say that you’re going to want a few extra bars. You’re going to want a lot of chains. There’s numerous methods to sharpen the chainsaw blades. There’s industrial machines that do it very quickly, and then there’s ones that take a little while where you have to individually, manually file each of the teeth. But having 10 extra chains, at least, and you’re going to want a lot of bar and chain oil. You’re going to want a lot of batteries. The motor in this thing, I expect that it’s going to be like any electric motor.

It’s going to run for a long time. You still might want to get a backup one of these as well. This is not a Milwaukee ad. I have no affiliation with this company whatsoever. This is not the only electric chainsaw I’ve used, but this one is better than the other one I’ve used. So make quick work of that log. If you’re going to be heating your home with firewood, it’s going to take calories. There’s a trade-off, right? The colder you are, the more energy your body needs to keep warm. Wood provides heat, but it takes energy to harvest that wood.

Let’s say it takes you 50 calories to acquire an hour’s worth of heating. Without that wood, if you were just shivering there with your jacket on, you might be burning 200 calories. That’s a three-fold net gain, I guess you could say, a four-fold net gain in terms of caloric conservation. So you want to be doing this in the most efficient way possible, and the most efficient way is with a chainsaw. The energy saved, if you were to do this by hand using an axe and an old-fashioned saw, is going to be very minimal.

It’s just going to be on the margins of survival, and that’s what the pioneers had to endure, and that’s why they didn’t live that long. They succumbed to all sorts of different complications as a result of essentially laboring themselves to death, trying to keep warm. Then the chainsaw came around, and it simplified all of that, and it allowed you to harvest lots of wood for very little energy expenditure. Then solar came around, and then electric chainsaws came around, and they made the process even easier. So with the gas power chainsaw, it took me about 10 minutes to buck all this wood.

So 10 minutes for days, if not weeks of heating is a pretty good trade-off. The problem is, is that it’s incredibly loud. Were this a SHTF situation, a lot of people just think, ah, who cares about the sound, but if that sound is going to travel for miles, and that’s going to tip people off, that you have electricity or you have energy, you have gas, that could be the death of you, and that could put your security at risk. This wood would have taken me hours to process with a handsaw, and I would say two or three times as long with the electric chainsaw.

I would opt for the electric. It’s a lot less loud, but as the electric chainsaws start to increase in their power, they’re going to get louder too. This is a much bigger piece. Let’s see what we can do. Like that. Try one more. If I had to have a chainsaw that I would use all the time right now while there is functioning law and order, and there were no security concerns, it would obviously be the gas-powered chainsaw. It’s just the quickest. That said, if I’m just looking for an odd job around the house, I’m going to go to the electric because it’s simple to start.

It’s not very loud, and it’s easier to wield. It’s smaller. After the grid goes down, my go-to would be the electric. In terms of long-term grid down in a precarious security environment, I would have to go with a handsaw variant because the sound discipline is going to be of utmost importance. In addition to that, if you’re harvesting wood or if you’re cutting trees down, if you’re felling trees, I find that these are a little bit better also depending on the type of wood that you’re trying to cut, and they’re also a little bit safer.

The simple act of felling a tree can be dangerous when you throw a chainsaw in that, and if you don’t have a lot of experience, it’s doubly dangerous. With a handsaw, you create a little bit more distance, especially with the silky. You’re putting about three or four feet of distance between you and the tree, so if there’s kickback, you don’t have to worry about that. Also, the weight factor. This is something you could potentially backpack, and of course there are much smaller variants. So in terms of day-tripper stuff, nothing beats a silky saw.

I would just say have as many options as possible, but try to again, try to master one thing. If you find a really good electric chainsaw that works, buy a couple of them if you have the resources to do so. I think if you have these three things and a good felling axe, as well as a good splitting axe between all these tools, you’ll have everything that you need to keep your family warm. So if you’re harvesting the wood from nature, you’re going to have to have a way to move those big logs to wherever it is you’re going to be processing the wood and then of course into the house.

So if we’re talking about there’s no more diesel and your tractor’s not working, you’re going to be doing that manually unless you have yourself a workhorse. For most people, I presume that where you’re going to be harvesting that firewood is going to be far from your location. So that’s going to be a lot of work. That actually could be even more work than processing the wood itself, is getting the wood to where you want it. This is something where a hand cart might come into play. Fortunately, in wintertime, you can use a sled.

It’s a very efficient way of moving heavy loads over short distances. In the summertime, you’re going to need some kind of hand cart in order to do that. Let’s face it, you’re not Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime in that movie, Commando, hauling giant logs around and you ain’t me either. So that means you’re going to need yourself some way to move that wood once it’s processed. So this is the Poly Mule. It is a hand cart. Initially, I was intrigued when I first heard about this. And then when I received it, I was, I was a little skeptical because of the weight.

It’s a very heavy duty system and it’s overbuilt. I can already see some rust happening on some of these. It’s a heavy gauge steel and it’s a really thick polymer type heavy duty plastic. And then we also have these wheels. These are not pneumatic tires. That’s one of the good things about it is they essentially built this for people who needed a workhorse off grid. It’s just overbuilt, but now that I’m actually using it a bit more around the homestead, I’m starting to understand why. Because if you did want like a hand cart for the apocalypse that was going to last a long time, it’s set up so that despite the fact that it’s, it’s very heavy, it’s still saving you a lot of energy moving stuff around.

There’s actually an auto locking braking system so that when you’re going uphill, it doesn’t roll backwards. So that’s kind of nice. When you’re going uphill, you can take a break. There’s a few attachment points on here. It’s kind of cool. It’s great for firewood. And if you do need to bring that wood to your processing area and into your home, then you’re going to need a hand cart. So this I think is a great solution for that. My final assessment is, is that if you can only get one chainsaw and the logs that you plan on cutting aren’t that big, get the most powerful electric chainsaw you can get.

This is perfectly suited for somebody who doesn’t plan on using the chainsaw that much. If you’re a homesteader, on the other hand, who frequently processes their own wood for lumber or firewood, and you’re dealing with larger trees, then obviously the choice would be a gas powered chainsaw. Hopefully someday you can have both. Thanks for watching. Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below. Canadianpreparo. The best way to support this channel is to support yourself by gearing up at Canadianpreparedness.com where you’ll find high quality survival gear at the best prices, no junk and no gimmicks.

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