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Being a greenkeeper at a small country golf course in New South Wales, Australia means you’re doing the equipment maintenance too. After working on a golf course as a jack-of-all-trades, and seeing a need for reel grinding for those country golf courses who would otherwise be facing downtime using a city grinding service, Gareth started a reel grinding operation of his own striving for an overnight turnaround. We discuss some what-not-to-dos from early in our careers and the satisfaction of bringing a dull mower back to life. Gareth gives a ton of credit for the way he operates his reel grinding service today to the Reel Turf Techs community and Hector’s Shop.

Transcript

Trent Manning: 
welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the technician that wants to get reel follow along. As we talk to industry professionals and address hot topics that we all face along the way we’ll learn tips and tricks. I’m your host, Trent. Manny let’s have some Welcome to the Reel Turf Techs podcast, episode 27. Today, we’re talking to Gary Ballard. He’s the owner of Panorama cylinder, grinding and new south Wales Australia. Panorama provides real grounding service for golf courses, bowling clubs, councils, and homeowners. When Gareth reached out to me several months ago. Asked him for access for the Google drive. And when I realized we had a listener in Australia, I just had to hear his story. And while Gareth isn’t a technician on a golf course currently. He is a very big part of this community. And that’s what this community is all about. So I hope you enjoy hearing from Gareth. Welcome Gareth to the Reel Turf Techs podcast. How are you doing today?

Gareth Ballard: 
I’m good. Thanks. How are you?

Trent Manning: 
This is great. Just so all the listeners know. Yeah, we’re recording this and it’s 5:00 PM here and it’s 7:00 AM. Where are you located?

Gareth Ballard: 
Bathurst new south Wales, Australia.

Trent Manning: 
Awesome. This is so cool technology at the best. Well, we’re going to get straight into the questions. Tell us how you got into the turf.

Gareth Ballard: 
Well, I started them green keeping trade and we’re on a small country course. so basically your you’re doing the machinery maintenance as well as doing the turf maintenance as well as the irrigation and, all the rest of it. So that’s how I sorta got started in the equipment maintenance, but yeah, it was, uh, Okay. A bit of a baptism of fire. Really? Yeah. So yeah, you’re doing everything from captain greens to backlash.

Trent Manning: 
right. I got you.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
What walk of inspired you to get into the turf industry? Anybody in your family, or did you like playing golf?

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, I hadn’t, no, my brother-in-law was actually the superintendent at Bathurst and, he sorta got me the job there

Trent Manning: 
Okay.

Gareth Ballard: 
as, um, yeah, an apprentice screen caper, and he was quite a skilled mechanic. And I think a year sorta got me involved in the, the equipment maintenance side of it a bit. So I hated it at first, but started to enjoy it more as, as time went on. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah. Yep. No, I can relate to that too. My first few years of grounding rails all the time, I was like, I don’t know. This is pretty monotonous. I don’t know, you kind of get over the hurdle and move on.

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, you definitely. I mean, I stood in front of the backlash and Michelle, that was, that was what I did. It, we didn’t have any cylinder grinders, we just backlash and, yeah, I’ll spend a lot of time standing there. I can tell ya.

Trent Manning: 
Right.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. When I first got into the industry, we did not have a bed enough ground, or we did have a real grinder or cylinder grinder. And, but it was, it was an old Foley. The real kind of looked like it was standing up in midair. And if you touch the machine, it would come out of parallel. And we ground at most, once a year and we laughed every day.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah, That

Trent Manning: 
That was throughout the year.

Gareth Ballard: 
that was, that was pretty much us. We, we had no. Grinding sorta going on. It was, it was a real, I know when I went to, uh, I went to work at a big resort course up in Queensland and I actually had a mechanic and I’m thinking, wow, Yeah. how bloody good is this? Like he signed, do not touch the machine and they shop like those things. Cut grass.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. And, um, yeah, uh, I’d stay back the afternoon, cause I actually had grinding equipment and um, yeah, I I’d stay back with him in the afternoon because I was fascinated by it

Trent Manning: 
Hmm.

Gareth Ballard: 
and uh, cause I worked like an afternoon shift the mechanics up there. Um, yeah. And that’s probably where I developed my main interest in it. So, um,

Trent Manning: 
Kinda talk about, uh, your current business that you have now.

Gareth Ballard: 
Um, I seen a need for it because there was no one in the central west of new south Wales that did this. Um, there were companies in the city. The turnaround for a country golf course, you’d be looking at probably four to five days. They be doing without their green smell is all fairway. Now say I just saw, well, I’ll take the leap of faith and spend the money on the grinders and see what was out there. Um, and, uh, yeah, it’s um, I’ve, I’ve got a good customer base of local golf courses. Cancels and that sort of thing. So yeah, that, that sort of keeps me a bit busy.

Trent Manning: 
I bet. So. Is there any, uh, homeowners or anything like that using real mowers?

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. It’s got real big here in Australia pool and there’s a lot of, um, like guys getting the Maleny home lawns with the cylinder milers. So I get quite a bit, yeah. As well that, like, there’s a few people here with Jane one day thousands. And, um, but mostly like that Scott Bonner’s and, um, set up mass ports and stuff like that. I’ll get a bit of them, but yeah, mainly that golf courses and bowling clubs in that.

Trent Manning: 
Okay. Yeah, around my area here, I’m just north of Atlanta and this is pretty popular for people to use a real mower on their lawn. And the brands we have are true. Cut. And, uh, my client are really popular for the homeowner

Gareth Ballard: 
Yep. Yep.

Trent Manning: 
mower and, uh, a good friend of mine. He does a bunch of it.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
So do you relief grind your rails?

Gareth Ballard: 
Um, no. That’s and it’s one of the questions I asked you to ask everybody because, um, no one seems to do it. And I’m in, I’ve got the equipment to do it, but no one, no one seems to want it done. I’ve even actually had a, uh, a superintendent at a golf course asked me to grow in the relief out of these new rules. So just, yeah, everyone’s everyone seems against it out here. And I, I, I don’t know why,

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. I’m not, not sure because I would assume since you’re grinding their reels to keep them sure. In-between grinds are probably laughing.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Trent Manning: 
And my understanding is if you’re going to backlash, you definitely need the relief and the real.

Gareth Ballard: 
Hi, that makes sense. But, um, Hey, um, I’d do what the customers want.

Trent Manning: 
Oh, right. no.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Trent Manning: 
not throwing any blame or guilt your way.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah,

Trent Manning: 
look, customer is always right.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah, yeah.

Trent Manning: 
to remember.

Gareth Ballard: 
But it’s, it’s interesting listening to your podcasts. Um, the amount of people looked backlash that have, uh, groaning equipment, um, uh I thought you would grow and no back lapping, but it seems quite the opposite. Um,

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, I think there’s, I mean, there’s definitely some places that only grow. But there’s a lot of places that grind and backlash in between.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah. Yeah. That’s quite interesting.

Trent Manning: 
and I think, you know, that just prolongs the period in between grounding, you know, with the bag laps in there in between and keeping that, you know, cutting edge sharp. The other thing I think is once you grind the reel and you have that bird. You know, it cause really good. But after you grass two or three times, four times, you know, depending on what you’re mowing, um, that age stars, you know, to roll and I think with a bag lap, you can bring it back faster than taking all the cutting units off, throwing it on the grinder and grinding it again.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah, it’s a, it’d be a time sorta thing, I suppose. Um, but, but yeah, like I said, we got away with it for years was just backlash and you could see the age of the Royals were round,

Trent Manning: 
Oh, yeah.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah. there’s nothing you could do.

Trent Manning: 
I know it was credible thinking back on, you know, what I used to do when I first started getting into the industry, when we would air fi greens and go out and most sand, I mean, heavy sand,

Gareth Ballard: 
Yep.

Trent Manning: 
we would bring the mower in. It would, you know, not cutting anything we would put on a brand new bed knife and lap it until that bed knife was gone and then put on another new bed now. You know, and then lab. So the more,

Gareth Ballard: 
exactly.

Trent Manning: 
know, ludicrous now to think about it, but as well, we done.

Gareth Ballard: 
Hi, we were the same. It was the same thing. It was bed north after bed north. And they’d be sitting on the back lap and Ms. Shane for like 20, 30 minutes each new unit. So this was back before they had them on the machines that you could back lab, but,

Trent Manning: 
Hm.

Gareth Ballard: 
Um, yeah. it’s strange how things have changed.

Trent Manning: 
Tell us something you’ve fabricated lately.

Gareth Ballard: 
Well, actually I might myself, I, it was one of your guests that was only who invented the role of timer,

Trent Manning: 
Okay. Yeah.

Gareth Ballard: 
because, um, on like him getting bearings out of rollers, they’d roll as water height. And so I thought, well, I’ll make myself one of those. Um, so I’ve also made one of those and also made a, um, a it’s. It was another one of your guests that sits on the lift table on the Benard grinders, um, that holds a cylinder up for you to adjust it.

Trent Manning: 
Okay.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. Yeah. I can’t remember which, which guests was on your show,

Trent Manning: 
Was it Bob?

Gareth Ballard: 
That was, Yeah. Bob. Um, I thought, my God, he’s me bend over, trying to adjust Royals. And he asked how simple and how easy is it? B cam. Thanks Bob.

Trent Manning: 
Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. And that’s what was great about this podcast is getting that information out to, to other people. And I don’t know. It’s just great. And I’m really glad that you’ve been able to get something out of the podcast and, you know, learn, put some new tips in your hat.

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, definitely. I’ve yeah. I’ve learnt so much off you guys and listening to your podcasts and, uh, I didn’t realize how backward we were sort of thing you guys are like the cutting edge, so to

Trent Manning: 
No.

Gareth Ballard: 
and, um, yeah, here in sorta country, new south Wales, uh, yeah, we’re very backward.

Trent Manning: 
Well, here I am. And, uh, nor Georgia, I thought I was pretty Backwoods, but maybe not

Gareth Ballard: 
No, no, definitely not

Trent Manning: 
a lot of people in the Americas can, uh, appreciate this. Probably they think everybody from the south is dumb.

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh really?

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yep. Well, it’s her rednecks down here in this

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
but what’s your favorite tool and why?

Gareth Ballard: 
I don’t know, it’s probably pretty simple, but I’ll have me ratchet, spanners, um, resisted buying them for years. Cause I thought I’m not going to waste the money, but oh my God. Yeah, they are a great tool. They’d probably be me Fiverr,

Trent Manning: 
Okay. Do you have any particular brand? You like

Gareth Ballard: 
I’m into the king crown.

Trent Manning: 
king, crown. Okay.

Gareth Ballard: 
and crime. Yeah. I don’t know. Do you

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, I don’t that doesn’t sound familiar over here.

Gareth Ballard: 
not yet now that that be brain, the tool I use. Yeah. Um, that, that in the Makita, um, rattle guns and that sort of thing. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
We do have Makita over

Gareth Ballard: 
you do have Makeda yet? Yep. That’s that’s me.

Trent Manning: 
I think they all have a Milwaukee.

Gareth Ballard: 
Um, yeah, yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Milwaukee, I think is pretty popular. Yeah, I think it is one of the more popular brands.

Gareth Ballard: 
I think, uh, he, he you’re either red or blue. He like you walk in the cater or you’re a Milwaukee or a DeWalt.

Trent Manning: 
Yep,

Gareth Ballard: 
go to be into the, or I’m

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, we do have the walnuts as a pretty strong brand over here.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Uh, tell me something you liked best about your job.

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, I just love, um, getting the cotton unit to count. Um, just having a background. Ingrained caving. There was nothing nicer than mountain with a sharp now. It’s it is great. Yeah. Looking back at a freshly cut green or a fair way and see them stripes. Um, yeah, so I’m a bit passionate about it.

Trent Manning: 
Alright, that was great.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah, yeah. If I, if I can bring it up doll, malware back, um, yeah. Makes me happy me.

Trent Manning: 
Tell me something strange. You’ve seen him.

Gareth Ballard: 
Jay. We used to a lot of strange stuff. I mean, out spraying chemicals in foams, in a scene and that sort of thing

Trent Manning: 
Oh, wow.

Gareth Ballard: 
early nineties, like the stuff, that sort of stuff. FRAND on Neha dies. yeah, I’ll look back and it wasn’t strange at the time, but bloody hell

Trent Manning: 
Yeah.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. That’d

Trent Manning: 
mean, I remember in the nineties, yeah. A lot of us on the crew would not be wearing shirts. And, uh, I think that would not be very favorable right now.

Gareth Ballard: 
No, no, we were football shorts and, um, you know, t-shirts at work and that was it.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Now we’re kind of saying.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. No, here in protection or, yeah. Um, but yeah, that’d probably be one of the strangest things. Yeah. I’ve been involved in any, right. That it was just common practice in the day.

Trent Manning: 
Right, right. Tell me one of your pet peeves around this.

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, look, something I used to hate it, especially at the, in the golf courses or at the golf courses. Were, was anyone who was hard on equipment?

Trent Manning: 
Hmm.

Gareth Ballard: 
It’d be, yeah. I just never got it. And some operators. Yeah. Which is tough on machines and there’s no, um, I mean, you guys are probably hiked that more than me, but, um, yeah, he used to see it a bit.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, we definitely see it here. And I think just about every course has that guy or gal that they might not intend to break the equipment, it always happens to them for some reason. And I don’t get it. I don’t know if they’re just unlucky or. Or whether daily is I got some bad mojo or Gigi or something on, I don’t know.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah, something’s going on, but it will always, yeah, it always be the same sort of person and it, like, I would be, I’d be at my own a fairway having a great old day and next thing you know. it’s like, come back in and fix this. I’m like, oh, really?

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. The stuff that can be avoided is pretty frustrating.

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. One good thing now is there is no, um, metal spikes in the golfers shoes used to be a fair drama in the, day.

Trent Manning: 
that’s a good

Gareth Ballard: 
us. You used to get, um, yeah. The spike could be damaging the bloody bed knife and, um, and real, and now you, you don’t see that.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, I hadn’t seen one of those in a long time.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah, but we used to get that quite a bit back

Trent Manning: 
And I guess golfers have changed what they use for ball marks maybe because I hadn’t seen the cut quarter or dime or nickel or any of that lightly.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah, it definitely used to get the, yeah, the coins cut in half. They used to do a good job on them.

Trent Manning: 
Yep. What would be your dream job or opportunity?

Gareth Ballard: 
probably to do, do what I’m doing full time. I don’t have the work to, Yeah, Mike, my full-time job at the moment.

Trent Manning: 
Hmm.

Gareth Ballard: 
that would be good. Get a few more people on board getting their, rules, ground and mine time. yeah, that, that, that would be my dream.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Do you have the shop set up there at your house or is it a different location?

Gareth Ballard: 
Not attack my house.

Trent Manning: 
Okay.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah. I usually try and, get most things done overnight for the guys tonight is, uh, there’s a bit of urgency with, uh, getting the heads back on them hours and getting them out. So I don’t book too many jobs in the one time.

Trent Manning: 
Right, right.

Gareth Ballard: 
Sorry,

Trent Manning: 
You pick up or do they bring them to you? How’s that.

Gareth Ballard: 
All, um, Yeah. I’ll go and pick them up or they can drop them off. yeah, I just leave it up to them. Whatever’s whatever’s easiest. I’ll try and make it as painless as possible for them because coming from that industry on what it’s for. So Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Does anybody do a mobile real ground in Jarvis or anything like that?

Gareth Ballard: 
They, there is a one or two, but there’s no one sort of located within a few hundred kilometers of where I am. So it’s quite, difficult for the country courses to, get access to it.

Trent Manning: 
Okay. I was just curious. I know there are a few of these, you know, the mobile ones over here and the stuff. But a lot of people are still using their distributor or a local golf course or something like that. That has grinders.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. Yeah. I’ll be young when, when I sort of get on the, buying their own equipment at all. Yeah, it’ll do me out of a job, but, I suppose, but you’re looking at the cost of a good set of grinders. You can buy a new fairway now. So that could be how they’re looking at it.

Trent Manning: 
Well, right. Yeah, Yeah, for sure.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah, yeah.

Trent Manning: 
What do you know now? You wish you’d known on day one.

Gareth Ballard: 
So many things actually.

Trent Manning: 
Okay.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. Uh, after, you know, watching, Hector’s videos on YouTube there four or five years ago, I realized how Raffa was and yeah, we used to send them ours. They added a really bad Nick. Yeah, that sort thing. yeah, uh, I’ve learned so much from, from those podcasts and YouTube videos and, and none of it was sorta taught to us when, when we did our trade.

Trent Manning: 
Do y’all have any formal training.

Gareth Ballard: 
For uh,

Trent Manning: 
golf course or for the mechanic or any of that stuff.

Gareth Ballard: 
I don’t think there is for your mechanics. There is a green caping trade, or I think it’s a turf grass management. They call it now. Um, I’m not sure what you guys are. Call it over there, but, um, yeah, you, you, you briefly brush on the, machinery maintenance side of it in green coping tried. yeah, you don’t get into it as much as you probably should.

Trent Manning: 
Right, right.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
something I’ll try to do here in my shop. All the assistant superintendents that come through is, try to bring them in there say, Hey, this is how this works, how that works, just at least give them a basic idea of how you set up a cut and unit and that kind of stuff. Because a lot of those guys and gals, when they get their own place and maybe they get a superintendent job and they have a technician and then he leaves and then what are they going to do in the interim? So I think it’s important for them to know some of the basic stuff.

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, definitely. Yeah. If, you know, if I ever got back into, uh, uh, sorta turf type position, yeah, I’m lucky. I’ve got a bit of information on, on the side of things that you guys do, um, information’s goals.

Trent Manning: 
Oh, yeah, it is for sure. Do you have any tips and tricks you wanna share with us?

Gareth Ballard: 
No. I’ve learnt more. I’ve learnt so much, in the last few years and, yeah, I’m really thankful for that and yeah, you guys have got a great information. Yeah. Sharing platform. It’s just been amazing for me. And, and it’s helped.

Trent Manning: 
Between the podcast, Twitter, YouTube. There’s a lot of information out there that you can get your hands on now,

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, definitely. I couldn’t believe it when I was just looking through YouTube probably about five or six years ago when I Hector’s videos came up and I thought, oh my God. Yeah. I couldn’t believe that. you could get it out there. And because it’s not that it’s not that I suppose.

Trent Manning: 
Hmm.

Gareth Ballard: 
in Australia. But yeah, I’ve, I’ve just learnt so much off you guys it’s I’m doing things a lot differently now than what I was when I first started in the business. That’s for sure.

Trent Manning: 
Well, that’s great to hear. I really like that. That’s awesome. Do you have any other thing you want to talk about?

Gareth Ballard: 
Tell, tell me anything you give me some tips and tricks on I’m up for it. Yeah. Anything on cutting units set up and I’m grinding angles. I’m just starting to get into that. I think I’m not sure what guest it was mentioned about more aggressive or steeper angles for cutting different grasses and. That’s sorta got me thinking. Um, yeah, you guys mainly use the Cooch grass over there or easier.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, we do in the south. We got Georgia Remuda

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
pass Powell on. And then of north power,

Gareth Ballard: 
Yep.

Trent Manning: 
Kentucky bluegrass. Fast keys. I’m not super familiar with the Northern grasses, but over here, kind of my understanding and the way I think about it is the Northern grasses for the most part or a softer leaf blade.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yep.

Trent Manning: 
So a lot of times we’ll use a more aggressive at it. And the reason for that is the software leaf blade. It tends to layover more or easier. It can be rolled over and not stand back up. So I think that’s, you know, and all this as my personal opinion too. But I don’t mind giving it to you. So I think that’s why it’s important to, have a steeper angle.

Gareth Ballard: 
So that’s a that you’re saying the steeper angle. on your top, face your door.

Trent Manning: 
Well that I don’t actually change. I usually just, whatever the OEM says on the angle, that’s usually what I stick with on the angle of the bed knife, but on the attitude. Yeah.

Gareth Ballard: 
All say your Rola

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. So when I’m setting my rollers and I’m setting my attitude, I set the cotton unit up more aggressively for cool season versus warm season.

Gareth Ballard: 
Is that small slanted towards the front?

Trent Manning: 
Correct. And the other thing I’ll do like with warm season grasses, I’ll be more aggressive in the spring when it’s coming in

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
the drought to get some of that out of there. Decrease some that maybe, and then one thing that happens with Bermuda is we call it the Palm tree effect. So it has a stem and all the leaf material is right on the top. So it looks like a Palm tree. And this happens in about, about now third, fourth weekend August. And before I get the third or fourth week August, Decrease my bad knife, attitude,

Gareth Ballard: 
Yep.

Trent Manning: 
and hopes to push him some of that over and knock on the top of my Palm tree.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah,

Trent Manning: 
Yep.

Gareth Ballard: 
Interesting. So a lot of, well, not a lot. There’s quite a few people, uh, grass over here, which is, I think your equivalent to your Bermuda grass there, guys dormant in the winter months and they oversaw with the softer leaf

Trent Manning: 
Okay. Yup. Yup.

Gareth Ballard: 
Through through the, through the winter. So, yeah, I’ve got a couple of guys on my, there’s some experiment in, in the future with the, setups, which I find interesting, which I’ve, I’ve heard on your podcast and seen on the YouTube channels in that.

Trent Manning: 
thank you. It would definitely be worth it. Yeah, our, we have Bermuda fairways, my course, and we oversee with rag grass,

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
and we’ll do that towards the end of September. And then we’ll be mowing rye, grass, all winter. Yeah, the Bermuda goes dormant. And in the spring, like a lot of sports fields that overseed with rock grass, they’ll spray the rag grass. And leather Bermuda come up. But on the golf course, we don’t do that. We just try to let it burn up and it eventually will burn up all depending on the temperature and the year. Usually by end of may, 1st of June, most of it’s gone. This year it was a little cooler in the spring. We got more rain and all that stuff, and it just kept hanging on until end of July.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Before it finally checked out on us.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. So you July getting pretty hot

Trent Manning: 
Yes.

Gareth Ballard: 
are. Yeah, Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Are really June, July and August is our hottest months here in the south. Seems like the older idea. The longer the summer lasts NAS last than end of September, sometimes I think.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yep.

Trent Manning: 
but we usually, at least are having some cooler, not towns in September.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. Yeah,

Trent Manning: 
And it’s pretty humid here, but after talking to a Matthew over in Barain, I’m not saying as high here anymore.

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, I know.

Trent Manning: 
can’t believe what he deals with over there.

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, how interesting was he with

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, it was. That was incredible talking to him.

Gareth Ballard: 
having the fried in so many pots, because he has not, Yeah, he can’t, he can’t get to readily something, something we sort of take for granted, I suppose.

Trent Manning: 
Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, I know I do.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
I thought we were having a. Parts issue, but you know, when you look at his situation, there’s not bad houses. A part’s been over there since COVID and all that kind of stuff.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. I can, I can pretty. much get anything from the states. I mean, I use a lot of the R and R products, and I can usually get them here within a week, which, which isn’t too bad. and, and, Toro, they’re still on the ball. We’re still overnight,

Trent Manning: 
Okay.

Gareth Ballard: 
pretty much delivery. So. Yeah, not really a big issue considering we’re all locked down here at the moment.

Trent Manning: 
How does your Toro parts, where do you get it straight from Toro?

Gareth Ballard: 
No.

Trent Manning: 
There is a distributor.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah, I’ve, I’ve either got to get my, customers to get the parts for me because Tara won’t deal direct.

Trent Manning: 
okay.

Gareth Ballard: 
what I sort of wind towards the hour or an hour. Product, um, which are fine. I think they’re bloody good. They’re I find it a bit better than the, the genuine stuff.

Trent Manning: 
Okay.

Gareth Ballard: 
The feedback I’m getting from the customers is, is the same.

Trent Manning: 
Okay, well, that’s

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. Yeah. I don’t, know how you guys do you guys use the aftermarket?

Trent Manning: 
I don’t, I use JRM a lot was, is an aftermarket company and I really blocked their products, the RNR, badness, and reels that I’ve used in the past. I did not think were up to par. But this was several years ago, too. So, you know, I don’t, I’m not talking bad about RNR, but when I tried to use them, you know, 15 years ago, uh,

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah,

Trent Manning: 
was not happy with the results that I had,

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, okay. Yeah. So what was the other brand you were using?

Trent Manning: 
J R M

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, okay. I’ll have to have a

Trent Manning: 
I think it’s JRM industries. They’re in north or south Caroline.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah,

Trent Manning: 
And they do bed knives and times.

Gareth Ballard: 
Right.

Trent Manning: 
And I think, yeah, they just came out with a cylinder and I hadn’t really heard, I think Bob porno was trying one, but I hadn’t heard any feedback after it’s been used, for awhile

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
to see how it was holding up. But I think the metal RG, the JRM is using. Better than RNR was the last time I tried RNR.

Gareth Ballard: 
Woke them up and give him a guy for sure.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. They, they seem to last longer in my opinion. And even longer than the OEM stuff

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah, yeah.

Trent Manning: 
really enjoyed them.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. W what. He’s merely asking the questions.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, no, that’s fine. You can. You’re going to interview me. I don’t mind at all.

Gareth Ballard: 
What sort of what’s the main, like here in Australia, Torah is, yeah, you’re popular geek and I’ll go to a meet on the one on Tara supporter. But what sort of equipment there you go is using mind me.

Trent Manning: 
Toro and John Deere,

Gareth Ballard: 
Yep.

Trent Manning: 
Jacobson is still in the ball game, I guess, but I mean, from what I’ve seen in the industry there, they’re not really hanging on to any of the market and is pretty much Toro and, and John Deere. And it all kind of depends on where you’re at. You know, John Deere might be really strong and one state and Toro be really strong in the other state.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
one just like, for example, down here, John Deere is really strong and Georgia and Toro had most of Alabama, which borders, Georgia. And I know there’s some block, some sections in Florida that are all objective. So I thinking a lot of it boils down to the distributor,

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
your parts, your service, and that kind of stuff. And I think that’s the way a lot of us mechanics look at it is, is all going to break. It doesn’t matter what color it is. Something’s going to break down. How quick can I get the parts or how quick can I get a warranty claim done? You know, if there’s a new piece of equipment. So having that service then. The par supplier is really important.

Gareth Ballard: 
I think from my perspective, the Torah. Is a lot easier to work on. It’s simpler. They’re cutting unit set up is so simple compared to the John B.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah,

Gareth Ballard: 
don’t know if you guys find that or

Trent Manning: 
Yeah, no, I, I would agree with you. I’m 100%.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah.

Trent Manning: 
I do kind of prefer working on Toro equipment. There has, you know, some good stuff and they have a few good ideas, but when it comes to cutting units, I really like the tour. Okay.

Gareth Ballard: 
Definitely. I mean the first John D I think, I think they, the QA five or is that wrong?

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Yeah. There’s a QA five is the five inch reel and the QA seven’s a seven inch reel.

Gareth Ballard: 
so, Yeah, I didn’t even know they had the eccentric screw on. Front roller, but, my God and that again, I learned that from you thinking. Yeah, well, I spent so much time when I didn’t have to do

Trent Manning: 
Yeah,

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. Great. And what, give me them cutting units back on another, go at him.

Trent Manning: 
the quick adjust that Deere came up with, I really like is that’s a good idea with the worm drive. Can you use a drill to move the roller up and down? I really liked that, but the little point adjustment on a Toro, the BPA cat Nunez is hard to beat.

Gareth Ballard: 
I know you can set them up so quick. Um, which must be good for you guys that are wanting to get ’em out mowing grass as quick as you can when you don’t want to be fiddling around. But, uh,

Trent Manning: 
Well, yeah, the whole process of removing the bed bar, changing the bad night, you know, all that stuff. It’s just a lot easier on a Toro unit versus a deer.

Gareth Ballard: 
And they they’ve come a long way since they had that single adjust 0.2 on the Toro where you

Trent Manning: 
Uh, yeah.

Gareth Ballard: 
on the bed knife. yeah. I couldn’t believe how much better they have gotten in the last 20 years. So it definitely made it. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Well, one of the, I guess, highlights through my days is when Toro came out with the DPA for the 3,100, which is the 27th and then a 32 inch cutting units. No, it was always one of the single point adjustments. And. The roller adjustments were terrible. And when they come out with the, the DPA for that, uh, uh, uh, had won the lottery.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. I’ll

Trent Manning: 
So this is a great

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah, no, they, there are far better machine. I just did a what are the Sidewinder? The, we call them the surrounds mower, the Toro that was in all the one with the old single point. Adjust.

Trent Manning: 
right. Yep.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah. Um, God. Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Yeah. Those are terrible to go work on after you’ve worked on a DPA cutting

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah, definitely. They’ve definitely got it sorted now.

Trent Manning: 
Yep. I got it figured out for sure.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah.

Trent Manning: 
Well, if you don’t have anything else, will you tell the listeners how they can get ahold?

Gareth Ballard: 
On Twitter. so it’s hand around. cylinder one on Twitter. Yeah. I’m not, I’m not real sure that I’ll be, I’ll have a lot of information, but yeah,

Trent Manning: 
Oh, well, yeah. Well maybe someone wants to drop on say, Hey.

Gareth Ballard: 
yeah. Sounds good.

Trent Manning: 
Yep. Well, thank you so much, Karen, for being here and being on I’ve enjoyed this conversation. I love the technology that we can talk and we’re this far away.

Gareth Ballard: 
Yeah, it’s it’s, it’s great. And we’ll come on flattered that you don’t even want me on your, on your podcast. Yeah. You know, what can I say? I’ve got so much, so much knowledge from you guys. It’s. It’s just changed the way I operate.

Trent Manning: 
I’m thankful for that. I’m hoping there’s a lot of the other listeners out there that’s getting the same.

Gareth Ballard: 
Oh, they definitely would. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said before, I didn’t realize how bad I was. So, you guys have definitely taken it to a new level. That’s for sure.

Trent Manning: 
Well, thank you for that. I really enjoy talking to Gareth. I hope y’all enjoy that. It was really good. The community that we’ve created here. From everybody, that’s been a guest on the podcast to all our listeners, the ones in the WhatsApp group. This thing just keeps growing and growing. And I hope from Gareth’s interview, you can tell how much it’s helping. So sometimes it’s hard to see. What we’re doing here and who might’ve helped, but luckily enough, we were able to talk to Gareth and find out how we helped him. But just imagine the, of all the people that we’ve reached out to that we hadn’t heard from. I’ve got numerous emails, DMS, all that kind of stuff about how great the podcast is and how much has helped people. But it was nice hearing from Gareth. On exactly how we help him. And he’s just one. And we’re reaching people around the world, which is truly amazing. So, if you’re interested in the WhatsApp group, send me a DM on Twitter, send me an email. That real turf texts. gmail.com. And I hope everybody keeps up the good work. We will talk to you next week. Thanks for listening. thank you so much for listening to the real turf techs podcast. I hope you learned something today. Don’t forget to subscribe. If you have any topics you’d like to discuss, or you’d like to be a guest, find us on Twitter at real turf techs.

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