When do you use chaps? Do you use chaps?

Robert P

TreeHouser
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Jul 11, 2014
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I see a lot of photos & videos of people running saws not wearing chaps or chainsaw pants. When do you use them, if you do?
 
I wear them all the time (trousers that is) unless it's very hot, which is wrong but it gets miserable in high summer.
 
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I wear them all the time (trousers that is) unless it's very hot, which is wrong but it gets miserable in high summer.
You mean chainsaw protective pants or just jeans?
 
I never wore chaps, but if I was a logger cutting all day I would, at least until the heat became unberable.
 
I use them whenever I'm on the ground.

I got Arborwears RAC chaps and I really like them. I stitched the buckles so they can't fly off. The fasteners are supposed to be durable in cold weather as well. . .

That said a really good friend convinced me to try pants, so I ordered a set of Gladiators. Liked them so much I ordered a second set. They ROCK!
 
I recall working on a south slope once, maybe twice, in a clear-cut, about high noon, during the heat of summer, without a breeze to cool my face or back, the chaps on my legs would become too hot to fast. When it got real bad I would stop and peel the chaps off and hold the saws cooling air intake up against my pants, and then rev the saw up to cool my crotch. It may have looked silly, oh but what a relief! I'm not ashamed to tell it was either that or drop flat from the heat. And plus the fact I'd get a damn good hum job from it to boot.
 
Chaps on the ground. Straps can catch on things, like when getting off an excavator, the forward and backward control, for example. Something potentially dangerous to be aware of.
 
Oh, yeah, I been tripped and hung up by the straps more than once. And it can be frightening when you're trying to make a speedy exit from a falling tree. That's no time to be trip or get hung up the brush.
 
I recall working on a south slope once, maybe twice, in a clear-cut, about high noon, during the heat of summer, without a breeze to cool my face or back, the chaps on my legs would become too hot to fast. When it got real bad I would stop and peel the chaps off and hold the saws cooling air intake up against my pants, and then rev the saw up to cool my crotch. It may have looked silly, oh but what a relief! I'm not ashamed to tell it was either that or drop flat from the heat. And plus the fact I'd get a damn good hum job from it to boot.

Lmao! I have a Stihl BG 86 I use for drying off in this humid heat we have here. Shoot the air down the legs of my Arborwear climbing pants and it dries and cools you off. I try to this where customers don't see so me 😆
 
I don't use chaps but I am with Butch if I was on the ground all day then I would invest in a pair. I heard of guys on another thread I think wearing shorts underneath. The trip hazard wearing them is this main reason I would want them and yet they can cause this! I still may get a pair
 
I wear saw pants everyday I work. Modern vented ones are a vast improvement over the old ball boilers, but still not perfect.
I have seen a few accidents where a simple slip was harshly punished by not wearing them.
 
GF works in the Emergency Room , yes she is the Tech who smiles and asks all the Saw Leg Cuts " ... and where were your Chaps??" ( if they are conscious)
 
As a serious safety nerd, I wear cut protection anytime I start a saw. Chaps on the ground, pants climbing.

My pants are pretty horrible. They may be so hot that they become a safety risk due to dehydration! :/:
 
I think that if it's such a hot day where chaps seemingly make you noticeably hot, you are going to be hot anyway without them.
 
I wear saw pants most of the time. I wore my chaps to climb once, that sucked. The buckle was under the waist belt for my harness, made me sore for a few days. Then I bought pants, been using them ever since. Once in a great while I'll climb without them, when its stupid hot. I don't handle heat well so its a subjective equation of cutting vs heat stress in terms of likelihood and consequence (severity). If its hot and I'm on the ground I'll wear the chaps, then I take 'em off when I take a break and cool down a bit.
 
Chaps rarely, Don't like all the buckles and dangly bits...saw pants, always when using a saw, climbing and on the ground.
Steel toe boots too.
 
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