A mower used at the end of the season needs to be emptied of fuel. First, drain or siphon the gas tank dry. If the gasoline you?ve been using in the mower over the summer has a fuel preservative, you can plan to store it until next spring or run it in your snow thrower. If the gasoline has not had a preservative added to it, you need to use up the gasoline as soon as possible. Allowing it to sit over the winter will cause the ethanol in the gasoline to separate and its other chemical components to degrade. It?s also likely that condensation will form in the gas tank.
Then start and run the mower to empty it of remaining gas. If fuel lines are easily accessible, you can disconnect and drain them to ensure that the mower is as fuel-free over the winter as possible. (Note: There?s another school of thought here, espoused by pros such as Matt Scherbring of Iowa?s Monticello Equipment Company. He advocates adding stabilizer to a mower?s fuel tank, running the mower, and then putting it away for the season. "Nine times out of ten, it?ll start right up in the spring," he told PM.)
You should give your mower a thorough cleaning before the winter, too. Remove and sharpen the mower blade. Apply a light film of oil to it and reinstall it. Disconnect the spark plug lead, tip the mower over and clean the underside of the deck with a wire brush and a putty knife.
Remove the spark plug and spray a shot of oil into the cylinder. Pull the recoil handle several times to ensure that this film of oil is evenly distributed on the wall of the cylinder. Replace the spark plug with a new one.
Clean or replace the air filter. Wipe the top of the mower deck clean. Lubricate all exposed cable-movement points and pivot points using a good-quality spray lubricant. Change the mower?s oil.
Finally, store the mower as far as practical from pool chemicals, cleaners, or fertilizers?anything that could cause corrosion if it spilled on the mower deck.
Trimmer
The procedure for storing a four-cycle string trimmer is identical to that for a mower, but remember to clean the string head and install new line.
For two-stroke string trimmers, things are a bit simpler. Run the machine dry; clean or replace the air filter. Clean and rewind the string head. Sharpen the string-cutting blade on the debris deflector.
Chain Saw
If you rely on a chain saw for winter woodcutting, now?s the time to give the saw a thorough cleaning, tune-up, and sharpening. Buy extra chain and, if you do a lot of cutting in frozen wood or in dirty winter conditions, consider buying a pro-grade bar with a replaceable nose sprocket. Check out our previous story for more information on winter woodcutting.
If past experience has taught you that you need to run your chain saw at a moment?s notice to clear your driveway or remove storm damage, consider storing the saw with packaged fuel in the gas tank. One example is Stihl?s MotoMix. This fuel consists of high-octane gasoline without ethanol. It?s blended with premium two-stroke engine oil at a 50:1 ratio. Otherwise, mix up a fresh-batch of two-stroke fuel using the highest octane gasoline you can find and two-stroke engine oil that is blended with gasoline preservative/stabilizer.
Snow Thrower
If you didn?t prepare your snow thrower for the rigors of winter, now?s the time to give it a tuneup, following the identical procedure that you used on your lawnmower or string trimmer (if it?s an older single-stage machine powered by a two-stroke engine). In the case of four-cycle engines, however, be sure to use a winter grade of engine oil.
Buy extra shear pins. The last thing you want to do is hit a fallen piece of a tree limb buried in the snow, snap a shear pin and put your snow thrower out of commission. Keep the pins where you can find them, preferably hanging on a magnetic tool strip above your workbench.
Lubricate all linkages. The chute crank and various operator levers can take a beating in extremely cold and wet conditions. Lubricate all pivot and wear points and thoroughly test that they move easily before putting the snow thrower into service.
Consider all other spare parts. You don?t want to have a drive belt fly apart in the middle of clearing your driveway or a slide shoe grind a groove into it. Inspect these parts and be sure that any retaining bolts and clips and other parts are lubricated and turn freely, in case you need to bring the machine into the garage for a quick adjustment or repair.
Other Fall Jobs
Now?s the time to give your snow shovel a quick once-over. If it has an aluminum wear strip that?s loose, either tighten it, remove it, or replace the shovel. Take a file and clean up any ragged plastic or aluminum edges.
Snow-shovel blades are notorious for loosening in the handle socket. Remove the cheap little sheet-metal screw they installed at the factory and replace it with a larger screw.
Speaking of snow shoveling, the only thing more useful than a snow shovel is a square-edge No. 2 shovel (the kind you use for shoveling sand and gravel) and a round-edge version of the same tool (the kind you use for digging in dirt). Both of these can be lifesavers if you need to loosen up the berm formed by a passing snow plow at the end of the driveway, or if you have to chop through the snow and then move the remainder with your snow shovel. Grind or file away any ragged edges on the blade. If the blade is loose in the socket, re-rivet it. Yes, you can still buy shovel-handle rivets.
Apply fall fertilizer. This should be a high-nitrogen blend that contains extra potassium (that?s the "K" in the fertilizer?s NPK ratio listed on the bag). Potassium improves the grass?s cold hardiness and, combined with nitrogen, it sets the stage for the grass to store carbohydrates over the winters so it can bounce back quickly in the spring. Rinse the fertilizer spreader out on the lawn, and be sure to sweep or blow fertilizer onto the lawn if it has fallen onto paved surfaces.
Stock up rock salt for routine ice-melting chores, but also buy some more expensive calcium-chloride pellets and save them for when conditions really get bad. These will melt ice at lower temperatures than rock salt; U.S. Salt Inc. says calcium chloride is effective all the way down to minus 25 F. Even if that?s a bit of a stretch, its ice-melting prowess is well-known and worth the money for severe conditions.
We?ve said it before, and we?ll say it again: Do repairs now and avoid disaster later. Have the boiler or furnace tuned, stock up on emergency supplies, and make any repairs that keep the house safe and weather-tight. Example: the last thing you want is a loose handrail on the front stoop when someone is making his way up icy steps . . . in the dark . . . with the wind blowing in his face. You get the idea.
Additional reporting by Joe Hasler
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