Kevin Bauer, CTEM, equipment manager at Pinehills Golf Club in Plymouth, MA, started working on the golf course at the young age of 13. His first job was fetching balls out of the creek for free golf. Kevin was a longtime service tech for a Jacobsen distributor and worked at several golf courses in the Chicagoland area before heading east to Plymouth to be closer to family. In his free time Kevin enjoys playing a round or two of golf and kayak fishing with his kids. Kevin is one of the first CTEMs in the debut year of the program. Tune in and hear more about Kevin!
Transcript
Trent Manning: 0:05
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. Manning let’s have some this episode are real turf techs on golf course industries Superintendent radio network is presented by Foley county a strong supporter of equipment technicians and golf course maintenance departments everywhere Foley county offers a proven solution for above and below the turf for turf professionals To learn more about Foley company’s line of real grinders bed knife grinders and the air to G2 family of products or to find a distributor visit www dot Foley C o.com Foley Ready for play Welcome to the realtor techs podcast, episode 75. Today, we’re talking to Kevin Bauer. CTM. Equipment manager at pine Hills golf club and Plymouth. Massachusetts. Pine Hills is a premiere daily fee golf club. Spectacularly said on 300 acres. That’s home to two 18 hole championship courses. Designed by Reese Jones. And Nicholas design. The mechanic shop is a approximately 2,500 square feet. Maintenance facility has two buildings. With a combined total of. 13,700 square Kevin currently has one equipment technician. And trying to hire an assistant mechanic. He’s about 90% Torah equipment. Some John Deere tractors and loaders. Some SASCO rollers. And some last tax. Let’s start the Welcome Kevin to the Real Turf Text podcast. How you doing today?
Kevin Bauer: 1:59
Pretty good. Thanks for having me on.
Trent Manning: 2:00
Thanks for being here. This is gonna be, it’s gonna be fun. I say that every episode, just so that you know, and the listeners know how much fun we’re gonna have.
Kevin Bauer: 2:10
sounds good.
Trent Manning: 2:11
Tell us how you got into the turf industry.
Kevin Bauer: 2:13
actually since I was about 13, I started working at a golf course. So, started out, my brother was in, worked at the golf course, both brothers. So I had, I got driven and drove along with him to the, uh, to the course. I started out doing creek balls and playing golf on, on the off chance of, uh, you know, when I was done working. And then, uh, any rate, you know, worked at that golf course for a couple years all through high school, you know, anything from carts, then went into the maintenance side mode, grass did all. at that point we kind of, you know, you get to a crossroads where, you know, I was going to college, wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and in the turf industry there’s only one of two, you know, sort of one of two options that you can make a living out of. That’s the, the superintendent side or our side. And, uh, I did like working on things. Uh, my brother went in to be a superintendent, and he’s down in Texas. I went this route and I was very fortunate to actually, I got hooked up with, Chicago land, I think it was at the time, Chicago Land Golf Course Mechanics Association. The, the superintendent, the golf course kind of hooked me up with them. And I went to a meeting and met a guy. The guy was looking for an assistant. I’m very, very green. Took me on that’s kind of what started the career worked. for about 10 months. It was a, it was a, uh, keer sports management job. And, I mean, I was green, but he had a lot of equipment, so learning was good. And then, uh, from there on out, uh, I worked at a Jake dealer. they took me on kind of as a trainee tech, sent me to all the schools, the factory schools, became master certified Tetron. did that for about seven years.
Trent Manning: 3:55
were you on the road during that
Kevin Bauer: 3:57
No, no. I was always in the shop. You know what we, we did, we did, I did go on the road, but only as an as needed basis. we had a pretty strong shop at that time. And you know, this is back in the nineties at that time, you know, our geographic location wasn’t that crazy where everything could be trailered in a lot of the times. so we did that, uh, did that for, you know, seven, eight years. and then, actually the golf course that I grew up working at, there was an opportunity for me to go back there as the equipment manager, and that was kind of, uh, it was kind of neat. It was a family own, golf course. they, it was a kind of a, I had just had two children. Um, kind of a quality of life type of change. was a neat, neat job. Went back, you know, total restructure of shop, you know, kind of, you know, you go in and things were in rough shape. did that for about seven years and then went to work for a park district that also had an 18 hole golf course. at that point we combined the shop. So that was kind of a neat, learning curve for me because it went from just golf course only to now we’ve got 35 trucks. We’ve got all different kinds of stuff. We’ve got the small police department. we streamlined the shop, had four techs in the shop, did everything outta one shop, it was a neat, neat process. So that was a very good job. Had that up until my current job when my children, uh, my youngest just, uh, got off to college. We,
Trent Manning: 5:27
Congratulations. Maybe
Kevin Bauer: 5:28
we just, we graduated actually, so this is back four years ago. Yeah. and uh, when he graduated we were like, my, my wife was from the east and had done her time. I’m from the Midwest, so, you know, I lived in Chicago and my whole life and, uh, she wanted to, uh, kind of get back out this way. So we came out this way and, uh, looked for a course and, you know, kind of made the plunge. So here I am by the ocean now.
Trent Manning: 5:52
Yeah. Yeah. You enjoying it
Kevin Bauer: 5:54
Oh yeah, Yeah. Totally different. Totally different. Very, very cool. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 5:57
That’s awesome.
Kevin Bauer: 5:58
So,
Trent Manning: 5:59
I don’t, I remember one of the other guests that I’ve had on talking about the Chicago Land Tech group, and I guess it’s kind went by the way, wayside. So if there’s anybody listening in Chicago land that wants to get that going, just do it.
Kevin Bauer: 6:16
yeah, yeah,
Trent Manning: 6:17
if you need help, reach out. Send me an email, call me, whatever, and I’d be happy to help get that going.
Kevin Bauer: 6:25
yeah. You know what, what they did was it, then it became tida Turf Equipment Technicians Association. then I think at the time when things were getting rolling with I G cma,
Trent Manning: 6:36
Mm-hmm.
Kevin Bauer: 6:37
I think at that time we were just having a hard time getting, you know, you know, just like any other time just getting guys to come in. And then I think administratively that was always a challenge to, you know, doing that end of it. So I, what they did do was they joined with the Midwest golf superintendents, Associa. So I think they still should have something. I think they have an active person on the board and they have something, so they should, But I think a lot of the guys, uh, Wes, uh, there’s a bunch of guys out there that are all kind of plugged into what’s going on with, the, you know, certification and that, so, so hopefully, uh, everybody, you know, joins in with the, this at the bigger level, you know?
Trent Manning: 7:14
Oh yeah. And. Nothing wrong with joining at the bigger level, but start something on your local
Kevin Bauer: 7:21
absolutely. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 7:22
in your local little area. And it doesn’t matter if it’s you and another person or three of you or four of you. I just, I had a meeting at my shop, I don’t, a couple weeks ago, or maybe it was end August and there was about 12 people that showed up and I hadn’t had one. And forever I’d drop the ball and just, you know, a bunch of excuses I can come up with. But none of ’em are good enough. But it was great and it was no formal, nothing, you know, ordered some pizza and we just hung around and talk shop and catch up and see how you’ve been and what are you struggling with and there’s just nothing like it. Creating those networks and connections with other technicians and it gives you a lot better idea of who you can call. That’s right down the road. I mean, maybe you need, you know, with supply chain and
Kevin Bauer: 8:14
Exactly.
Trent Manning: 8:15
that we hear all the time, you might need a bed knife
Kevin Bauer: 8:18
right. Absolutely. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, no, that’s, that it is, that’s, that’s definitely the, you know, the, the most valuable thing being in our designated area is to, to have that. So, yeah, I agree. I agree with that a hundred percent.
Trent Manning: 8:34
do you. Relief ground.
Kevin Bauer: 8:36
Uh, absolutely didn’t, didn’t always though, you know, way, way, way back when, way back when. but yeah, you know what, It is. If you, if you look at what the manufacturers are all doing, they’re setting things up a specific way. They’re thinning things out, whether it’s for hybrid technology, electric technology, whatever. there’s the studies, the, the horsepower required to drive a reel that has relief is less, which is what they’re going for. And my thing is, listen, this is the way they have it. We need to be able to put it back to the way they have it. So, uh, I’m a factory specs guy. I’m not saying don’t think outside the box. there have been many Bernhard seminars that I had been to in the past, and I think probably the best thing I could, you could grab from one of the best things you could grab from when he would do his things. This is back probably 15 years ago when he was rolling hot
Trent Manning: 9:28
Mm-hmm.
Kevin Bauer: 9:28
is he did encourage people to just get out and grind more, grind more, do do things. And you know, it went from the mindset of only once, you know, once a year to twice a year to get going on doing it more frequently. and everybody’s golf course is different, right? I mean, uh, you know, my might put sand ultra light every three weeks. Some guys might do it every week. You got no choice. I mean, sand is not the, not the friend of the reel. Even as with swap sets and doing all that, you’re gonna be sharpen in something. So it’s hard to take to, to say across the board, you know, everybody has to do that. So everybody’s thing is in, in a, in a circumstance is different, but believe definitely factory specs. There’s a reason behind it. I think John touched on some things. You, you do have quicker re grind time. you’ve got. the area, where lapping compound can be suspended. you’ve got, you know, they say quality of cut shouldn’t be, compromised with or without, but definitely the leading edge, will hold up a little bit longer with the, you know, with the relief and my, my experience. but, uh, yeah, that’s about it. I know it’s always a big, you know, it’s an age old debate and everybody’s, you get, you’re on both sides of the fence and speed and speed and everything is important, but they’ve, they’ve got these grinders dialed in so good now where there’s, that’s really not an issue. You can floor to floor grind stuff, five fairway units, five fairway units by yourself in four and a half hours, four hours,
Trent Manning: 10:54
When, Another thing that I think about often enough is when I first got into this, we didn’t even have a bed knife grinder, but we had an old Foley real grinder, and it took forever to set it up. And if somebody come over and leaned on it, it threw it off.
Kevin Bauer: 11:13
Oh yeah.
Trent Manning: 11:14
And yeah, I mean, it was terrible. But the other thing I think about is we were only grinding once a year and the learning curve, or relearning how to use that machine once a year, because by the time you got to the last cutting unit, you’re pretty efficient. And I mean, you could turn and burn at that point, but then you wait a year to do it again. So now that we’re grinding more frequently, I mean, it’s just natural second nature almost.
Kevin Bauer: 11:46
yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I, I, I agree. I think, yeah. How many guys have notes all over their grind, all over their grinders because, uh, they have to remember where to put things or whatever. But yeah, they, and, and definitely the manufacturers have done a, a, a much better job of making set up easier when we’re just plopping these heads in and, and we’re ready to go. And obviously that’s that. us doing our job preventatively, like, you know, real bearings, roller bearings. You know, you, you don’t want snafus like that in the middle of, you know, we’re talking if things are maintained, the process is, is pretty quick.
Trent Manning: 12:19
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Bauer: 12:20
and honestly, by the time when you get to a point when a cutting unit isn’t cutting, you’ll spend more time trying to get that thing cutting than you will. But it, you just, you just gotta say, it’s done. We’re, we’re gonna grind and we, we need to get it back on. You know, sometimes we just, uh, we wanna prolong it or, we wanted to lay it, we’re not ready to do it yet. And it just, it fights you and you, you’re spending more time with adjustments and everything,
Trent Manning: 12:42
yeah. I wanna have a in depth discussion. Maybe it’ll be a group discussion and maybe we’ll do it on the podcast and get several people in here and just talk about lapping, because I think a lot of people that lap don’t necessarily lap correctly. And this is just my opinion and y’all can shoot me for it if you want to, but I think, I mean, the research says too that you lap before it stops cutting. You don’t wait.
Kevin Bauer: 13:14
Oh, yes. Yep, yep.
Trent Manning: 13:16
it’s not cutting and then lap to get it back to cutting, because yeah, you can lap it and get it back to cutting, but that cut’s not gonna last very long.
Kevin Bauer: 13:24
Right, Right.
Trent Manning: 13:24
And I was talking to Roland McPherson the other day and he was talking about lapping his walking greens mowers. And he said if anybody ever saw me, they would think I was crazy because he uses electric drill
Kevin Bauer: 13:39
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 13:40
and I mean, you know, he’s doing it for one minute, you know, so you don’t have to hook up the back lap machine or any of that stuff. Just a real quick. And he’s using a pretty fine grit and he’s doing it every day
Kevin Bauer: 13:52
Yeah. I mean, you think, you think about it, it’s almost like, it’s gotten to the point where it was, it had its purpose back in the. And then, you know, everybody did it. That was what you did. You didn’t have grinders or you had horrible grinders. And then everything kind of changed. And now, and then it became almost like taboo. You know, like you, you gotta hide your, hide your face. If you, if someone comes around the corner when you’re, when you’re lapping something, when really it’s exactly like you said, it’s a preventative maintenance thing. And if you think about it, like even with engine valves, everybody should be able to relate to that. And by the way, your ratings might go down with the lapping stuff now.
Trent Manning: 14:28
that’s, true. We’ll, we’ll take the hit if we have to
Kevin Bauer: 14:31
But you know, you think about engine valves, you know, when you’re lapping, even, even valves machine are, are lapped before you’re, you know, you know, lapping the margin to the seat, you know, So it’s just, it’s, it is just mating those surfaces together and as great as the grinders can get, even then any, and honestly, when you go out and watch these guys what they mow and what they go through, I’m amazed that the units even come back cutting it all. I mean, just through grass, you know, hit a tee, hit this or hit that. So I think sometimes we’re a little hard on ourselves and want this expectation that we’ll never have to do anything other than the adjustment. And we’re making it harder on ourselves. You could get a mouthful of sand from a guy with a bad sand shot on the green, and now you’ve got a pile of sand on the green and it goes through and wears a little dip in the bed knife or whatever.
Trent Manning: 15:19
yeah. And I’ve seen members fill in their divots and they fill ’em three inches tall,
Kevin Bauer: 15:24
Yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 15:25
and then that reel goes across there and chews all that up.
Kevin Bauer: 15:28
yeah. So, I mean, there’s just all those variables. I’m not saying it happens all the time, but it’s just, you know, using all the tools at our disposal, you know, all the manufacturers aren’t nuts. Everybody puts ’em on there. So, you know, again, if you’re thinking, if it was such a bad thing, why would everybody have a back lab kit? Almost standard now? Probably, I think for the most part, done with the valve bank in the switch. So they believe in it. The engineers believe in it. The grinding company believes in it, you
Trent Manning: 15:54
Mm-hmm.
Kevin Bauer: 15:55
you know, people that have done it, you know, but you’re right. It’s not a leave it on there for 30 minutes, come back. and it’s not a substitute for grinding. It’s Sure. It’s a maintenance thing.
Trent Manning: 16:04
Yep, for sure. And yeah, if the listeners don’t believe me, I’m talking to Kevin and he’s got a gold wrench hanging on the wall behind him, so he knows his stuff
Kevin Bauer: 16:15
It has nothing to do with that. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 16:17
No. And what year did you win the Golden Wrench?
Kevin Bauer: 16:20
2012, I think. 2012.
Trent Manning: 16:23
Congratulations
Kevin Bauer: 16:24
old. That’s old. That’s, that’s 10 years ago.
Trent Manning: 16:26
well, that’s, that’s okay. It’s coming around again.
Kevin Bauer: 16:30
yeah,
Trent Manning: 16:30
nominated for VT or something. Next,
Kevin Bauer: 16:33
yeah.
Trent Manning: 16:34
tell us something you fabricated lately.
Kevin Bauer: 16:36
that goes in spurts. Uh, I hear you guys, a lot of guys on the podcast. There’s some people doing some pretty cool stuff. easy one, I’m kind of, uh, I think I did a, mobile table for my hose crimper. That was kind of neat. Just kind of copied what was out there already, sort of in a way. Caster wheels, and can put the, I have a gates crimper, so I have the crimper on it. anything from tailgates, from elongating them, putting a aluminum, diamond plate, piece on the, on the tailgate instead of the mesh wire, makes it a lot lighter for the guys. so things like that. I did some light brackets for trifles. Again, I’m kind of like, uh, electricity or oil. I’m gonna, I’m gonna take the path of least resistance and that, I mean, be resourceful. I mean, I had stuff in the shop from a previous technician that he had a lot of, of angle aluminum. if I don’t have to paint anything and it doesn’t rust, I’m gonna use angle aluminum to make brackets. And then I also, I’ll try to model after what I’m, you know, there are definitely, I could be creative, but that’s probably not one of my strong suits. So I’ll always like, listen if somebody else is come up with something, Well, I’m, I’m, I’m pretty good at taking a look at that, and then I can, I can duplicate it. so I’ll, I’ll see how manufacturers are doing their kits. Yep. I’m gonna do the same thing, but I’ll use this and I’ll run the harness. You tap in, you make it factory, you buy the, you buy their switch. I just did ’em in my triplexes. and I think the cost savings from the kit, if you got the kit as a whole good, it might have been like $900. And then if you bought the parts, if you missed the whole good option and you, you had the machine, you bought it, it might have been something like 500. I think I did ’em for like a hundred. With a, a nice two wire loom. I did buy their switch. I mean, it’s, it’s completely, you know, it’s, it’s not an ugly thing. It’s got the u bolt clamps that mount the, uh, brackets to the rocks and, you know, it’s a, So things like that, you know, we can save money and cut costs and, and do things. yeah. So I think about other than that, that’s, that’s been about all it is later, but we’ve done anything, usually whatever, if there’s a need, you know, whether it’s something to hold a blower on a greens mower, come up with something, you know, I’ll work with the superintendents or assistance and listen to their input. And if they have a, they have a request, I’ll, I’ll do my best to
Trent Manning: 18:53
Yep. Yep.
Kevin Bauer: 18:54
You know, it’s fun doing that. You know, it takes time, fabrication takes time, and you could, you could get, it could get away from you in a, in a day soon. So,
Trent Manning: 19:02
it does. Uh, we we converted an old, it was a kushman vacuum. And we made it into a water trailer with one of the 300 gallon Kim
Kevin Bauer: 19:14
Yep.
Trent Manning: 19:15
we mounted that on the bed of it and it was a gooseneck. And anyway, cut off the gooseneck made it so you a bumper pull and then, uh, just put a two inch trash pop on there. And the superintendent at the time, he said, Y’all, you know, is the wintertime, we’re pretty slow. He says, You’re going way over budget on this. You know, And I mean, we did. We took our time, we stripped it down, we painted it. I mean, I wanted it to look nice, right? I mean we even stenciled H two trailer on there, you know, I mean we whole nine yards painted the wheels new tires. So anyway, and he is giving me a hard time about going over budget on it. And then when they started using it, he was like, I don’t know why we waited so long. I mean, it was going every. Because it’s perfect just for, especially in the spring, and we do sodding and you have five pieces of sod. You don’t want to hook up a donut or a quick coupler’s, not close enough. I mean, it’s just a very valuable tool
Kevin Bauer: 20:15
Yeah, I think, um, yeah, I mean, everybody’s been there. Where you, where you do that, where you, you go completely overboard and you just want, I think you get, and different guys, I mean, there was a guy that I worked with that was, had a really good artistic ability and, and I’m more about that compromise in between of production and, and, and he was definitely take his time, you know, everything had to be right angle and, you know, so, and, and there’s something to be said for that. There’s definitely some, some, uh, artisan guys out there that I could see taking some time on projects.
Trent Manning: 20:47
Tell us what your favorite tool is.
Kevin Bauer: 20:49
Favorite tool, that’s a tough one. I heard listening to your podcast, you know, I’ve heard, you know, obviously digital, I’m digital vault meter is important, but I wouldn’t, it’s not my favorite, you know? I do think kind of a couple things. Uh, you know, I mean, I love if I, so I was thinking about, I’m like, well, what do I go to every day? I think probably the thing that I use the most is my three eights impact. Cordless, uh, gun and, and three eights impact swivel sockets. I think those two things, whether it’s cutting unit disassembly, quick light duty stuff, that is definitely a tool that is a huge time saver versus pulling out a ratchet or an air ratchet in those days. that’s definitely a must have and everybody probably does have it. I do like the stethoscope for listening for bearings. Have you ever the metal probe? That’s a, that’s a, that’s a cool tool. It’s not something you pull out all the time, but it’s, it’s kind of neat when you can’t hear anymore, you can’t decipher. I get that. And the car carb screwdriver kit, I have an old one from the Jake dealer. It’s actually a Toyota kit. It was for the, uh, the 3 27 liquid cooled engine.
Trent Manning: 21:57
Okay.
Kevin Bauer: 21:58
And they, they supplied the distributors with them, but it’s a, it’s a Toyota product. It’s, it’s a cool thing. You can look it up on, Amazon or whoever, but it’s a, it’s an awesome set. It has like four tips, just straight tips, and this is carburetor days, you know,
Trent Manning: 22:12
mm-hmm.
Kevin Bauer: 22:13
of that anymore, but, they’re all smooth the edges where it can get in and get jets out, and then it has a tee handle to leverage it off. So it’s a, it’s a pretty cool kit. kind of neat. Something that you, you’d have a hard time finding nowadays. And it’s, uh, definitely a lifesaver when you, when you’re in there doing a, a carb repair, you’re pulling out jets in a, in an old
Trent Manning: 22:33
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. For. I got a little, uh, snap on and it’s, uh, it’s got, uh, a Phillips, couple, Phillips couple flat heads, some torque pits, and then a pick set. I don’t remember how many pieces it is, but I found those screwdrivers work really good
Kevin Bauer: 22:52
Yeah, they may not, they may not bevel out that much. They might be straight. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, yeah,
Trent Manning: 22:58
Yeah, that kid’s come in super handy.
Kevin Bauer: 23:00
yeah, yeah.
Trent Manning: 23:02
What were you saying at the beginning of that? Because you may we, I’m gonna edit this out, but you were saying something and it reminded me of a good story I had.
Kevin Bauer: 23:12
with the vote meter maybe, or just the important tool or, uh,
Trent Manning: 23:16
It was after the vault meter.
Kevin Bauer: 23:18
Impact stethoscope.
Trent Manning: 23:21
Oh, the stethoscope.
Kevin Bauer: 23:22
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 23:22
right.
Kevin Bauer: 23:23
Even, you know, load testers, I mean, they’re all huge time savers when, you know, you need to eliminate whether it’s a battery or something else before you even start an electrical problem. Good old fashioned load testers are, you know, again, just things that make our job quicker. you can do it with a multi meter, but it’s a little bit harder,
Trent Manning: 23:40
Right, right, right, right. yeah. So the, the stethoscope when I was volunteering at East Lake, uh, few weeks ago for the tour championship, so they have, uh, it’s made by golf lift and it’s a big green table. It’s got a flat plate on it.
Kevin Bauer: 24:01
Yep.
Trent Manning: 24:01
It, yeah, it’s whatever, four by eight ish, not those dimensions, but close. And it goes up and down electric over hydraulic. And last year, I remember this table had this squeak going up and down, a squeal up and down, and we greased every point on it, lubed everything we could lube, and it was still squeaking. So I get back this year and. Hopefully, I hadn’t told this story in another podcast, but I, I get back this year and it’s still squeaking, and I’m talking to Chris, the equipment manager there, and he says, I took it completely apart and put it back together, and it’s still squeaking. I don’t know where this squeak is coming from. So I asked him, I said, You got a stethoscope? He’s like, I got three at home. He like, Well, it’s not doing us any good here. So I said, You got a long screwdriver,
Kevin Bauer: 24:57
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 24:58
long screwdriver. Stick it to your ear. Same thing as a, it’s not as good as a stethoscope, but it will work. I mean, it amplifies the sound so, I think it was Tommy Richie was there and he’s going up and down with the table and I’m listening to every point I can find, and it ends up being one of the, Oh, I gotta tell this part of the story too. So Mike Rollins, he sees me looking at the table and he says, Don’t do it. That thing will beat you. And it was game on. Then it was like, I’m gonna figure this out. Yeah, yeah. This is not happening. Not on my watch. So anyway, I’m listening all around. Ends up being one of the caster rollers that rolls on the ground. It was just rusty inside there. And yeah, the caster rollers probably two and a half inches wide. And they had sprayed it with lube, but it hadn’t got into the center.
Kevin Bauer: 25:53
Okay.
Trent Manning: 25:54
So
Kevin Bauer: 25:54
So, and then when, when they, when they had a load, it wasn’t moving the table, but maybe just putting the, the weight of it on there just created the squeak? Or was it
Trent Manning: 26:01
Well, no, just moving the table up and down. It would squeak. No load. It didn’t matter if it Yeah. Had a mower on it or not. Um, but it was really annoying too. That was the
Kevin Bauer: 26:12
yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, those are, those are good tools, you know, to, to, to be able to, uh, isolate something. And boy, things sound terrible when you put that on. It’s, it’s definitely nice. It’s, you know, it’s great verification. It takes a guessing game out of it. you know, so,
Trent Manning: 26:29
Well, I mean, just like that problem when you would listen from one side, it sounded like it was on the other side, and then you’d listen from another side and it sounded, you know, and like you said, you can just really pinpoint where the noise is coming from.
Kevin Bauer: 26:43
yeah, yeah.
Trent Manning: 26:44
What do you do to relax or find your balance?
Kevin Bauer: 26:48
I do like to golf.
Trent Manning: 26:49
Oh, okay.
Kevin Bauer: 26:50
yeah, I’m a big golfer, golf, and, uh, I do enjoy fishing out here, my son and, uh, my stepson kind of got me into kayak fishing a little bit. so we’re kayak fishing in the ocean, which is pretty awesome.
Trent Manning: 27:04
Oh, I bet.
Kevin Bauer: 27:05
kind of a neat, you know, so I’m, I’m not very good at it. I don’t catch
Trent Manning: 27:09
What, what do you, what? What would
Kevin Bauer: 27:10
uh, we go out for stripe bass and, um, they’re flounder can be caught, sc can be caught. so some things like that, but it’s just a, it’s a neat experience. so that’s, love spending time with my family, my wife and kids, and, uh, I do a lot of remodeling. We do a lot of house things that kind of actually is a nice, uh, change of pace for me. So I do enjoy that. but definitely this, uh, you know, the later seasons, uh, been nice to get out and golf again and, and, uh, I do enjoy that. So that’s been, uh, you know, and, and even though I’m a work at a course, I don’t get tired because you, you’re at a different angle. We’re in the shop, we get out of the shop, but it’s kind of nice to be out on the course, and, and look at it from that perspective, um, as opposed to just even a drive around like we do or whatever. It just, you see more things and, you know, it’s a great
Trent Manning: 28:00
Oh yeah.
Kevin Bauer: 28:00
I like the game,
Trent Manning: 28:02
Well, I remember, uh, our director back in the nineties, you know, way before cell phones and all that stuff, he had a little voice recorder and he would walk the course just like a golfer would and record everything he saw and then come back and take all those notes and delegate.
Kevin Bauer: 28:20
Yep. Yeah. I mean, there’s
Trent Manning: 28:22
Cuz you do see it from a totally different perspective
Kevin Bauer: 28:26
yep.
Trent Manning: 28:27
when that’s happening. What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen at.
Kevin Bauer: 28:32
so that was a tough one too. You were telling me, I’ve been doing this for probably 27 years, and I’m like, I just don’t know. You know? Nothing sticks out that crazy. The only things, I mean, I think I’ve forgotten more. That’s the, that’s the hard part. I think I’ve even information, you know, even as we do things, I’m like, you know, you just, you just forget processes sometimes, you know, the things that you did 15 years ago. So out here, one of the funny ones was, we got a, uh, we picked up a new tractor, a couple seasons ago. And the golf course where I’m at, has tunnels that go under the roads. A lot of, a lot of places would have that. And, the guy, uh, Went in full swing with the new tractor that was the same vintage as the other ones, but just a, you know, a slightly different model. But I don’t know, we, nobody thought, They think they, nobody even thought about it. And I get a call and he’s like, you know, 15 feet into the tunnel, just jammed with the, with the rocks and the low flotation tires, And he was stuck. So I had to, we had to let the air out of the tires to get ’em out of there. you know, then we had to make accommodations. It was the first time we just didn’t know, you know, he just, nobody thought about it, you
Trent Manning: 29:39
Uhhuh.
Kevin Bauer: 29:39
just thought it was not a big deal. So that was that. And then, uh, yeah, the other one, what was my other one? I had another one strangest thing. Oh yeah, Yeah. This is another one. this is kind of a bear too. The guy, I get a call the guy’s, uh, mowing tees or approaches. He’s on a plex mower and he is, uh, the engine won’t start diet out and won’t start. So I go out there and, uh, you know, hit the key, you know, just, you know, it. It’s like it’s uh, just stuck, right? You know, you tried to turn over but nothing. So I opened up the seat and the guy’s like Goretex rain suit coat got completely wrapped around the pump engine coupler to the point where it, where it stalled the engine. Just, I mean, this thing was, it probably took me at least two and a half to three hours to cut this thing out with the utility knife. And that’s the only way you were getting him. Just this thing was just totally locked up. So I don’t know if that’s anything great as far as strange, but it was definitely, uh, this something,
Trent Manning: 30:36
str. It don’t happen every day.
Kevin Bauer: 30:38
No, I mean, it just sucked this guy’s coat in. I mean, it wasn’t obviously wearing, and he put, they put it behind the seat and uh, maybe, uh, maybe the manufacturer could put some guards on there. We’ll see. But, uh, yeah, yeah, it was a tough one to get out.
Trent Manning: 30:52
What’s one of your pet peeves around the shop?
Kevin Bauer: 30:55
Pet peeves probably, you know, like everybody else, you know, nobody likes any when you put things away.
Trent Manning: 31:01
Mm-hmm.
Kevin Bauer: 31:02
And don’t say anything. You know, I think we’ve, maybe we’ll talk about this later too, just like the adage of how, how positive a, an equipment manager or mechanic at a golf course is that isn’t angry all the time at guys. And then how that just, rubs off on them and how they will gladly bring you everything that’s broken versus they’re afraid to bring you stuff that’s broken. So you definitely gotta get on that other side. And I’m not saying if you have the same, my motto would be like, Listen, everybody makes mistakes. You do something once, that’s fine. You do it two or three times, then there’s some problem that needs to be communicated through the channels, the proper channels, and that’s that. But, but I, I’ve found in my career that, you know, if you’re, if we’re fixing things, they love that, and then they’re gonna tell you about everything and sometimes too many things. But pet peeve wise, pet peeve wise might be when you see someone filling a tire for like three days straight and they never come and tell you about.
Trent Manning: 32:01
uh, yeah.
Kevin Bauer: 32:02
Yeah, like a low tire, like, you know, there just don’t go low. There’s, there’s a leak, you know, I mean, there might be a chance they caught something on the side wall and knocked the air out and you can’t find the leak. But if I see somebody doing that, that’s like maybe one that people just accept as normal sometimes too, they’ll be like, Oh, you just gotta put air in it. Well, you do, but we also need to let me know and we can pull the tire off and look for with a puncture or whatever’s going on. So it’s, that’s pretty trip. That’s pretty trivial. But it’s, it’s one of the ones that I see that kind of dis education.
Trent Manning: 32:33
No, I’m glad you brought that up because I don’t think that one’s been brought up before and I definitely have seen that happen a lot.
Kevin Bauer: 32:41
Yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 32:41
Yeah. And you like the third day, you’re like, What are you doing?
Kevin Bauer: 32:44
Right, right, right. It’s not normal. It’s not part of the morning jobs, you know? It shouldn’t be. And a lot of guys just think, you know, they just think that, Hey, I got it. It’s just, you know, either, I don’t know, to disconnect on it, but I don’t know if they think it’s, I have looked at it and haven’t seen it, or I’m not sure what, but you know, now communication, that’s all. So we just let everybody know.
Trent Manning: 33:04
Do you have a mentor in the industry?
Kevin Bauer: 33:08
So I, I’ve hit a couple, you know, obviously, you know, growing up, uh, you know, or bring coming into the industry the way I did. very green, uh, very thankful for the people that trained me and, and taught me from the guy that gave me the first job to the guy that hired me at the distributor, and took a chance and, you know, and invested in me. so with that, oh, and even from guys working at, you know, you talk about just the camaraderie of an association of, you know, getting together with guys in your local area, but it’s even a step further when you’re, have the, uh, the benefit of working with technicians in your shop as with assistance and, uh, You know, and other guys, and it’s amazing how you play off each other. and you start to, you know, you know, everybody can, you know, they just, they, they look at things differently than the way that you would attack something differently. And, you know, I remember I had a couple of older automotive guys that were at the distributorship and, and they were characters, but man, they were good old fashioned, you know, taught you how to, you know, get in there and find something and, and, you know, for an electrical problem, there came a point when you needed to pull open the harness and, and, uh, and there were things like that. So very grateful for all the, you know, the people that, uh, that, you know, and invested in me and, and, and, and hopefully I’ve done that along my career to, uh, guys that I’ve, uh, had work for me. So, that’s about it, you know, And I’ve had good super superintendents that have been good role models and, and good, uh, mentors as far as, you know, just, just. Positive and backing what you’re doing, you know, and, and being behind you. And that’s a, that’s a big, you know, that’s a big part too.
Trent Manning: 34:49
Oh, for sure. Yeah. If, if you’re working for somebody that doesn’t there, that you feel that doesn’t have your back, that makes the situation really tough.
Kevin Bauer: 34:56
Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 34:58
For sure. What would be your dream job or opportunity?
Kevin Bauer: 35:02
I said the PGA golfer, right?
Trent Manning: 35:05
Yeah. Yeah. That’s,
Kevin Bauer: 35:06
be be, yeah. Be paid to play golf, but you gotta be good. no, you know what, uh, you know, I think dream job would be the, you know, the perfect work balance and compensation. Right. You know, you’re just, we’re, we’re always striving for that. enjoy your job and do things. I feel like I’ve had a bunch of, of dream jobs. You know, I’ve, I’ve had very, been very fortunate in, in where I’ve been in, in the jobs that I’ve had, So,
Trent Manning: 35:32
No, that’s awesome.
Kevin Bauer: 35:32
Yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 35:33
What technician would you like to work with for a day?
Kevin Bauer: 35:36
man. Yeah. Is a default answer. Have to be you. That’s what I hear a lot of guys, right?
Trent Manning: 35:40
Oh, no. No, I don’t. So. I really, really struggled with this because I wanted to ask this question and then I wanted to put on there, not me. And then I, then I thought, was that too,
Kevin Bauer: 35:56
yeah.
Trent Manning: 35:57
you know, arrogant, Like they would really pick me. So I don’t wanna put that in there and come off that way.
Kevin Bauer: 36:03
no, no. It’s because guys, guys, they hear you and they, they, they, they would like to spend a day with you. You know? You’re
Trent Manning: 36:09
Well, and anybody wants to spend a day with me is more than welcome.
Kevin Bauer: 36:12
yeah, yeah. So, I. I’m thinking about that and I’m thinking, you know what, I, I wouldn’t mind checking out Hector just to see what the heck he’s doing.
Trent Manning: 36:22
yeah,
Kevin Bauer: 36:22
He came, he came by, he came by my shop when I was in Illinois and he never, I gotta call him out on this cuz he never used, he did a, I don’t know if we were like the trainee, it was when he was doing his road tour on, um, what was it on tools? Was he doing, was he doing like a, a tip or tool or something? I don’t wanna say tips and tricks. That’s
Trent Manning: 36:43
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and I think it was kind
Kevin Bauer: 36:45
it was something like that, right? He went to, he went to some different golf courses and he stopped and, uh, it was cool. It was nice to meet him. and he did some, uh, he shot everything with the camera and then I never saw, I never saw her thing on, on the video, on the, uh, on his channel or whatever. So I give, give him a hard time on that. But, Yeah. So I just, just in a joking way, it would be fun to see him, you know, honestly, and I, it would be kind of cool to go see, uh, whoever the equipment manager is at the, uh, masters at
Trent Manning: 37:15
Oh yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Kevin Bauer: 37:17
You know, that’s down in your neck of the woods there.
Trent Manning: 37:19
Yeah, it is. Uh, I don’t know who’s there currently. Fred Hartenstein was the technician when I worked for Jerry, Pay the Toro distributor in oh 8 0 9.
Kevin Bauer: 37:31
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 37:32
Fred was there and I know Fred was there up until the last year or two, and I heard that they were looking for someone, but I never heard if it got filled or not. And you know, and a lot of that’s like cloak and dagger and
Kevin Bauer: 37:45
It, yeah, it is, it is. That’s why it would be kind of fun to go there, I think. You know, just
Trent Manning: 37:48
But I mean, it’s just like the course. They have an amazing maintenance facility and set up and yeah. it was really incredible operation they got going on
Kevin Bauer: 37:59
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 38:01
What do you know now you wish you’d known on day one?
Kevin Bauer: 38:04
Maybe to wear welding glasses
Trent Manning: 38:07
Okay. Yeah. Did you do a lot of, lot of welding with
Kevin Bauer: 38:12
no. It was funny. The, the first guy, the first guy that, that that’d hired me, so, you know, I’m green, right? And he was doing a fabrication project on a trailer, on a big double axle trailer. and he was welding flat stock on the side rails to hold clamps or to hold, uh, uh, ratchet straps. And, and so I was helping him, you know, again, this is back 25 years ago. And so I’m helping him and, uh, I think all I did was stare at the light for about the first couple as I’m the hold guy. And then boy did my eyes hurt that night. I, and I think one of the guys that worked there said something. I think you had to cut, cut a couple of potatoes, and you put potatoes on your eyes, I think is supposed to help, supposed to do that. But boy, they hurt, open or shut. You’ll never do that again after you do something like that.
Trent Manning: 38:58
Yeah. I bet not safety
Kevin Bauer: 38:59
No, no, no. Safety first. Yep. So, yeah. So kind of a spoof thing that would be probably that, but, you know, No, I mean, I think honestly, um, there’s not like this light bulb that goes off. It’d be like, Oh, I, you know, I could, should have done things this way. I mean, I really, really, you know, I worked hard, opportunities always came available. and, you know, I acted on ’em at least, you know, the ones that I, that I did act. And there may have been other ones that I might have missed, but, think everything is, I can’t really say that, Oh wow, if I had really done this, things would’ve been a, a this way or this way, you know? So,
Trent Manning: 39:35
Yeah, No, I understand that.
Kevin Bauer: 39:37
yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 39:38
And back to getting burnt with the welder. So my blacksmith buddy that I talk about on here all the time, Tom, when I was helping him, and I would be holding something before he would pull the trigger on the mid gun, he would say, Cover or cover up. and I just thought that was really good. And I mean, that works anywhere. It don’t matter where you’re at, but if there’s other people around, tell ’em, watch their eyes. It’s that
Kevin Bauer: 40:05
if they’re holding stuff for you. Well, you just, you can’t assume that people are gonna, you know, Well, maybe, maybe they are. Maybe that was just a hard case.
Trent Manning: 40:12
Well, I mean, that was the other thing that I was really guilty of is I would be holding something and he would say, Cover up, and then he would, you know, tack it or whatever he was doing. And I’m still holding and I really wanna open my eyes so I open my eyes and, but if he’s going again, he would just say cover. So I, I knew when to close my eyes and, you know, I don’t know. It worked
Kevin Bauer: 40:36
that’s a good deal. Yeah. Yeah. So,
Trent Manning: 40:44
What are the latest tips and tricks you wanna share with us?
Kevin Bauer: 40:48
Yeah. Latest tips
Trent Manning: 40:49
And they don’t even have to be latest, They could be the
Kevin Bauer: 40:52
That’s why I gotta go back. I can’t remember any tips and tricks,
Trent Manning: 40:55
What, whatever you got, we’ll be happy to.
Kevin Bauer: 40:59
I mean, as far as like just sharing, I’m sure a bunch of guys, I’m sure a lot of the guys already do these things, but I’m just thinking of things that, you know, make, make life easier for us while we’re, you know, diagnosing, troubleshooting, whatever. remote start switch, you know, I mean, that’s something that’s probably everybody should have in their box. If you don’t, I would definitely recommend you get one. You know, it’s hooking up two jumper leads and it’s a push button switch and it enables you to bypass the cellinoid to check, you know, is the starter good or is it a cellinoid? And, and then if you, it’s not that you gotta go dig in. you know, those are kind of neat. I also do keep all of the, the connectors from you. Not all of ’em, but I keep a good portion of interesting connectors from, if you ever have to replace a switch or an interlock switch, we’ve got hershman connectors, weather pack connectors, DOYs connectors, all different ones. they’re great for making jumpers out of, to test purposes, you know, So for anything, for test purposes is, is I always will keep these male and female connectors because you, you know, you can’t go jam, uh, alligator clips in with these connectors now they’re so, they’re so fine. If you even spread anything, you know, you even, you know, put the probes in. You could spread those and then they might not make contact good. So, you know, using the correct connector to then jump or test or then attach your alligator leads. I mean, tho those things are, those things are pretty cool. So, you know, before you throw it away, you know if it’s a, even if, you know, just, just keep clip it, put it in your box in a bag.
Trent Manning: 42:29
No, I think that’s a really, really good one. And so far I don’t remember anybody saying that, and I’ve been doing that for years, and I don’t know who taught me to do that or where I thought of it. You know, I’m sure it wasn’t an original idea to me. I probably saw somebody else do that
Kevin Bauer: 42:49
or you just, you came across it and you’re probably like, Hey, I would be nice to have a connector. And then the next time, the next time you do that, you’re like, I’m gonna just take this one. And, you know, it’s go, it’s garbage anyway, so I’m gonna cut it and keep the leads.
Trent Manning: 43:01
Well, and to take it one step further, I don’t think a lot of the turf guys know, but I think more of the automotive guys do know about the little tools to take those connectors apart.
Kevin Bauer: 43:12
Yep, yep,
Trent Manning: 43:13
And you can replace the terminals in there, the spades or the, the female side. You can buy all those online for extra cheap instead of, And I’m gonna remember in my Toro days, if you needed to replace one of those, you had to buy a harness. You know? I mean that’s what a joke. And I think John Deere does sell some of the connector components, or they did, I don’t know that they still
Kevin Bauer: 43:40
yeah. Yeah. I think the hard part is just keeping up. They keep changing them, so it’s like, you know, you, you get all set up for one and then they’ve changed the style connector and you just gotta keep up with it. But yeah, I think the, the knowledge would be knowing that all of that is available and you can buy the crimping PLIs and the tool and the weather
Trent Manning: 43:57
Oh yeah.
Kevin Bauer: 43:57
and all that kind of stuff, is huge. But yeah. Yeah, I think
Trent Manning: 44:00
I, I thought about this just recently doing a class at gis or the golf industry show on connectors. And then, so if anybody listening wants to steal this idea and do a class for gis, I’ll help you put it together and I’ll ride your coattails however you wanna do it,
Kevin Bauer: 44:20
I think that’s a good
Trent Manning: 44:21
or, or I’ll help you with it, whatever. I think that would be a good class for a lot of the people learning, you know, what each one’s called, just like you were talking about Metro Pack and the dots and all
Kevin Bauer: 44:33
Yeah, Yeah,
Trent Manning: 44:35
And yeah, just make it easier. So when you’re working on whatever and you need to replace a connector, you know what it’s called. You know where you can go.
Kevin Bauer: 44:44
Right. Yeah, I think that’d be awesome. I think that
Trent Manning: 44:47
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sidetrack you. I get all excited
Kevin Bauer: 44:51
that’s, I, No, no, I think that’s what’s great. That’s what I was kind of hoping would happen. Cause I didn’t want to just be in a, you know, like I said, just to me give you down what I thought about for the answers and just hoping that we’d have a good conversation about things.
Trent Manning: 45:04
Well, un unfortunately, probably the first, uh, at least 25 guests, they had to deal with that, where I just asked them the, the questions. I don’t, I, I wanna say hopefully I’m a better host now than I was in, in, in the beginning.
Kevin Bauer: 45:20
Oh, I, I mean, from what I’ve heard you, you’re, you’re, you’re doing just fine. I mean, I think it’s great. I think the conversations flow great with guys and it’s a, it’s a neat thing. So I, I think it’s just pretty awesome what you’re doing. I think the last thing for tips would be just being creative, which again, I’m sure all the guys out there doing it, but if you’re not, you know, be creative with your service tools. I mean, obviously again, I’m going to buy the service tool if it’s economically makes sense. And it’s a no brainer, and it’s something that you can’t make, but if you can see what they’ve called for and make something in the shop that does it, or if something from a punch to get a buting, a bushing out that you have to put a notch in to get around just being a completely cylindrical surface with no, you know, recess in there. There are ways to make tools to kind of knock things out and do things. So I’m sure guys, you know, you know, are already doing that, but, you know, those are just, you know, don’t feel like, uh, you’re, you’re limited. what’s out there as far as the, you know, the tools that you’re buying at the stores or the snap on or the trucks, you know, if you gotta fabricate something or do something to, to make life easier, you know, get,
Trent Manning: 46:29
Yeah, no, that’s another really good point. And I’m pretty sure I saw it in the WhatsApp, Bruce and John, uh, Broo he made, and I don’t remember what he was working on, honestly, I think it was a hydraulic fitting, but he made a wrench that went on the hydraulic fitting and he could use his air hammer. And actually, I was reminded of it today because I seen a, a set in, uh, the O’Reilly’s tool catalog, and. They make those for removing fan clutches
Kevin Bauer: 47:02
Yes. Yeah. Yep. Yep.
Trent Manning: 47:04
and so he made one to loosen this hydraulic fitting that he couldn’t get a wrench into.
Kevin Bauer: 47:11
Yep. Yeah, Offset wrenches are huge too, right? I mean, everybody knows to know about that, but yeah. Uh, oh, the other thing was the, just the impact driver. I think that’s kind of a, an underutilized tool. We all use them, we all use them for bed knife screws, right? On certain, well, most guys, I mean, some guys still might use a punch, but, but honestly on, on any kind of small, whether it’s the, uh, socket head screw on a universal, uh, groomer box, or you know, the drain plugs on planetary, small Phillips bits that, you know, even with an impact cordless gun, you will round them. But that impact, when you hit that impact driver with a hammer, that thing just bites in and it gets the smallest things out and you just, I think, uh, you know, don’t just think of it as a tool for bed night screws. Definitely use it, uh, on any small frame, you know, or whatever, any tapered panhead thing.
Trent Manning: 48:04
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Kevin Bauer: 48:04
you know, you know, even
Trent Manning: 48:06
No, that’s, that’s another good one. Awesome. What else do you wanna talk about here?
Kevin Bauer: 48:12
I think that’s, that for that. Um, are, are we at the section where
Trent Manning: 48:17
Yeah. Let’s, let’s get in, get into the good
Kevin Bauer: 48:19
yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 48:20
Not that the other stuff
Kevin Bauer: 48:22
Ah, yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, uh, you know, I guess for me in the, um, in the years of doing this to, to just chit chat and share and just throw it out there again, guys may, and it sounds like a lot of guys are already doing things, you know, they’re doing awesome things and, but there’s a, you know, maybe a bunch of guys that aren’t sure are new, it new to the field and, you know, not sure what the best, you know, best practices and things like that. But I’ve always, to me, communication is huge as far as an equipment manager, with the superintendent or however your, the hierarchy is, you know, whether it’s, you know, with assistance and then the super what, but, I have found that if, if you are communicating and you’re, you’re talking on a daily basis and you’re communicating with the other, you know, what, what his needs are, what your needs are, things just go so much smoother. I mean, there’s no, hey, oh, we’re air fine tomorrow, and you had no, no heads up. I mean, just, and that’s just a, you know, one example, but just things like that, that make our lives easier and in our lives, we wanna make their lives easier, right? They want to set the crew for a, for a day of, you know, a day of work. We don’t, they don’t want to be, uh, changing up jobs because, uh, something went down because we never got a chance to check it out,
Trent Manning: 49:39
hmm. Exactly.
Kevin Bauer: 49:41
So many problems that can be avoided by just that, you know, good communication and even if it’s, you know, shop things. You know, I, I think, uh, John Patterson, when I was listening to that podcast, he was talking about, uh, getting the TIG welder, I think, and I think you gave him a hard time about it.
Trent Manning: 49:58
Mm-hmm.
Kevin Bauer: 49:59
You know, and he went and explained, Hey, I’m gonna do this, uh, pa this fab project. It’d be great if I had this machine. And I, if it is, if you make the case and you make it in the right way, I, you know, there everybody, you know, they’ll be on board most, nine times out of 10 they’re gonna be on board and support what you wanna do, as long as you know the facts and you’ve done your homework and you can prove why you need it and justify it. just the way that they have to with the board or with whatever, you know, I mean, it’s, uh, I think getting equipment managers to, kind of, uh, approach our jobs and that way, uh, as far as, you know, taking ownership of being responsible for budgets and bringing that to their attention and things like that, just, just go a long way.
Trent Manning: 50:46
Well, I’d also like to say the, the communication is a two-way street and it’s not just, you know, direct communication or telling the superintendent or who, whoever your boss is, what you need. You know, ask them what they need.
Kevin Bauer: 51:06
Right, right.
Trent Manning: 51:07
Cause you know, a lot of times I feel like they’re not giving me the information I need, so I’ll go ask. Cause I want that information right now. And if they don’t know it, that’s okay, because I know they like to change their. Not that they like to, but you know, weather and all that stuff. So, you know, plans change frequently and I, and I understand that, but I wanna be as proactive as I can. I mean, just case in point, I don’t wanna set all the greens mowers up and park ’em in the back of the shop and then them come in at two o’clock when we leave at three or three 30 and say we wanna run groomers tomorrow.
Kevin Bauer: 51:46
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 51:47
So I may, I make it, you know, I asked them in the morning, You gonna run groomers tomorrow? We still, you know, when you kind of get in these routines and kind of know what to expect. But I asked,
Kevin Bauer: 51:58
Yep. Yep. Yeah. It, it is. I mean, and that’s, it’s, it’s, it sounds simple, but it’s like, those are the things that just make the days go smoother. And then the, you know, the, the, when you’re trying to plan things out, you know, just, I think, you know, much better. I think. you’ve been doing a lot with the, you know, so I’m gonna switch gears, so that’s communication. The other thing I would say, you know, that I found, uh, huge is just maintenance software. and it doesn’t have to be that it could be a dry erase board, but maintenance software is definitely, way more efficient. and it sounds like more and more guys are getting involved and, and yes, it takes a lot of time on our end to do it, but boy is, it’s, it’s like having, having the fleet managed, efficiently with software. You, you know, helping you do that is just so much better than just you running around trying to track everything down. I’ve always been huge with them. I just think that’s, that’s been, that’s allowed me to be more efficient shop.
Trent Manning: 52:55
Oh
Kevin Bauer: 52:56
know, you’re tracking things, you know, from, you know, and, and you can, you know, can be as, you know, big and bad as you want it. But, you know, I think at the end of the day, everybody wants to track assets. We all need to do schedule maintenance. We all need to do work orders. We wanna remember what the heck we did two weeks ago, or did we have a problem on a particular piece of equipment. And, you know, you could take an hour looking in files or you could be a couple clicks away. And, you know, I mean, these are things that, you know, inventory, I think we talked about this at the, with the ctm, inventory on the computer. I think you guys are talking about bars code. I mean that, that’s awesome. Uh, with the scanners. But just having it in a database that you can access, that you can then know, I mean our parts rooms are getting quite, quite large. And to go, even though we may be the one that put things away, somebody else needs to go in there and get something. Or even we need to go in there and get something. You could, you could spend, you might, you might have the shelf right, but you could be digging for five, 10 minutes, 15 minutes for a bag of parts or electrical
Trent Manning: 53:57
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Bauer: 53:58
and to know that you have it based on your inventory and then go right to a location and get it, you just shave 30 minutes off a job. You know? I mean, so I mean, there’s just so many things that make the day, and it really comes out when you go to a new location, for example, if you go to a place that maybe things weren’t structured right and you’re taking a year to get things or six months to get things in order, and it’s, it’s incredible. When you leave a place of, of organization and go to disorganization, boy do you realize how important that is and how much lost. That you have in a job doing a repair. When you can’t find anything, nothing is in its right spot. I think that’s a huge thing, you know, I mean,
Trent Manning: 54:41
Oh, yeah, Yeah, yeah. Well, and to add on to that a little bit on the whole Parts inventory deal, what I love is the minimum threshold for what you need in there. So you use it, you put it on a work order, and then it gets taken outta your inventory, and then it gives me a report on what I need to order because it’s real easy. You know, not keep the stock you want to keep. And then the other thing on inventory that I see, and you said that the parts rooms are getting bigger, I think they’re gonna continue to get a lot bigger with the whole supply chain. And I mean, I’m, it actually makes me sick to say supply chain because I’ve heard it so many times. You know, so whatever this excuse is, it’s uh, a pain in our neck
Kevin Bauer: 55:30
Yeah. Yeah,
Trent Manning: 55:32
I think we’re gonna have to start stocking more parts.
Kevin Bauer: 55:34
Yeah. Yeah. Even, even at, uh, it, it may almost make sense to stock more parts because costs are going up. It just
Trent Manning: 55:42
Well, true. Yeah.
Kevin Bauer: 55:43
know, certain things. I mean, like, we all do it for winter programs. Do you guys, you guys have winter program?
Trent Manning: 55:49
still have winter. I mean, we slow down.
Kevin Bauer: 55:52
but do they do, do they, do they do, uh, specials on maintenance equipment at certain times of the year? The distributors
Trent Manning: 55:58
Yeah.
Kevin Bauer: 55:59
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So same, same, like bed knives may run cheaper from this month to that month. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 56:04
Yeah, well, a couple of, Yeah. Uh, jrm, they got a winner. Yeah. Special. You get a certain amount off if you order this or whatever. And then the Toro distributor and the John Deere distributor, they have some kind of winner maintenance program. You spend this much money, you save 10% or
Kevin Bauer: 56:21
Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I think, definitely doing that kind of stuff. and then, you know, training, you know, just keep up on training, you know, it’s just things, technology’s moving quick, we all gotta stay on top of it, and it just makes us better technicians, better equipment managers. the quicker ween, get in and diagnose something, the better. always a big fan of, you know, service manuals, electrical schematics, you know, not just throwing darts, being able to understand things, break it, break it down, simplify it, whether it’s that or hydraulics.
Trent Manning: 56:54
One thing that I, I gotta say I really like, I got a big screen TV and so it’s setting over our toolbox and it’s, I don’t, you know, whatever, 55 inches, six inches, whatever it is. But you put a PDF matic on there. It is awesome.
Kevin Bauer: 57:12
That would be great. And is, is it a touch? It’s not a touchscreen,
Trent Manning: 57:15
No, no, no. It’s not a touchscreen, so all it is, I mean, it’s a regular TV and then I’m using a Chrome box, so it’s kinda like the Chromebook, but it’s a Chrome box and the TV’s just a big display
Kevin Bauer: 57:28
yeah. No, that’s awesome. That’s a great,
Trent Manning: 57:30
and yeah, and it is, it is awesome. I.
Kevin Bauer: 57:33
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’d be pretty cool to have a, uh, a life size, uh, schematic to, uh, go up to,
Trent Manning: 57:40
Uh, Yeah. Well, and I remember like in the, when I was working for the distributor and I got a 15 inch monitor, and I’m scrolling and scrolling, trying to find the component. I’m looking for such a pain, But you put it on that big TV and you can see the whole thing right
Kevin Bauer: 57:55
Yeah. Yeah. And that’s probably something that’s actually more common now, too with the, with the shops, whether it’s the, uh, for the, you know, multiple technicians. They gotta have a station out there so they can access work orders and whatever. Or it’s, uh, A TV with a job board for maintenance crews if you’re sharing the shop at that end of it. And, uh, if you can access that, that’s pretty cool.
Trent Manning: 58:16
Why don’t, Yeah, it’s kind of got crazy because in our break room we got two 70 inch tv. And soon as you walk out of the break room there’s another job board TV there. And it’s the same size as the TV over my toolbox and using task tracker, I got the, the job board, the technician job board running over the toolbox and then, you know, we can look parts up there. Do what I mean it just works just like a computer. And I got a parts order list and I got two guys working for me in the shop and you know, they look up all their own parts and you know, if they got a question or whatever. But I remember, you know, for years where I had a guy or two helping me in the shop and all I done was set behind the computer cuz I was looking parts up or ordering parts or you know, or doing the whole inner work orders. Closed work orders. Yeah. I was like, I didn’t sign up
Kevin Bauer: 59:16
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 59:17
behind a desk all
Kevin Bauer: 59:18
And, and that’s where there has to be a good balance. And that’s where I think, you know, again, it’s, it’s what you get, what you put into is what you get out of it. And initially there is, at least almost on everyone I’ve ever used, there’s that initial load of you inputting data and, and you keeping up with it. But then the idea is jobs are already printed, parts are already prefilled so that it’s literally clicks or whatever. You wanna make it as easy as possible to close the ticket and not be doing things and add a note if you need to add a note and then take, parts are taken out of inventory. I think that’s where it saves us the time. And then when it pulls schedules. So take taking that time to make the schedule so that all that stuff is in there. Once you do that, it pays you back big time. But it does, it does take time and you just gotta, you just kind of gotta get through it. If, if. if you want to go that route. If you
Trent Manning: 1:00:08
right, right. Yep.
Kevin Bauer: 1:00:09
something else one
Trent Manning: 1:00:10
you know the notebook, it works too, but like you said, it’s definitely not as efficient and.
Kevin Bauer: 1:00:17
Right, right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you can have a folder for every piece of equipment and look up jobs and everything’s handwritten and that that works too. I mean, something’s better than nothing, you know? So I, you know, you wanna do something. but there are great tools out there that, again, that’s the case of, bringing, making the case for why you need this. I, I think it would be very, find it hard pressed to find someone to fight you on, an asset maintenance software or something when you have, most of, most people have two and a half to, you know, three and a half, $4 million worth of
Trent Manning: 1:00:48
Oh yeah. Yeah. Pr pretty easy to, to sell that one for sure.
Kevin Bauer: 1:00:53
right, So,
Trent Manning: 1:00:55
Well, do you want to talk about c a for a little
Kevin Bauer: 1:00:58
Yeah, yeah, sure.
Trent Manning: 1:01:00
and that process and how much you enjoyed it?
Kevin Bauer: 1:01:03
Oh, I enjoyed it. Um, no,
Trent Manning: 1:01:05
you, you enjoyed getting ready for it and,
Kevin Bauer: 1:01:07
enjoy getting ready for it. It honestly, I want to thank you guys and, and, and unfortunately I only know you and a few other guys by names that are, that are involved with it, but I know’s so many more people in and even Diane with, uh, at, at Gcsa. I just think there’s, there’s, you, you guys are, it was great that you took, put the time in to do this for us and, and you as well, but it’s just, you know, a lot of times, unless you’ve been on a board or served or you don’t realize the amount of time it takes, and it was a, you know, pretty, pretty awesome sacrifice that a lot of people have done to, to get this to where it is. I love the professionalism on the gc, s a a with alongside of us with this. Yeah, I mean, when the test, when the level one, level two came out, I think I was just the tad behind when they started coming out. And I’m like, Yeah, I’m gonna, I want to get, I want to get involved with this. I want to get back and, and stay, stay in the, in the, in the groove with everything. And, and I knew, and I read about it, you know, they talked about the final stage of cem. It wasn’t developed yet, then it was coming out. And I kind of had a hunch that might kind of follow, the superintendent, certified superintendent track as far as that final step. so when that came, came, when that came out and, uh, you guys released it’s very thorough. I mean, it is a great, it is a great testing tool to, you know, get your, get your ducks in order and kind of makes you reflect on safety. A lot of different things that we don’t just always think about. We just think about, all right, just doing our job and, you know, we don’t think about the facility. as far as like, you know, getting things prepared and are we really up to, up to speed on things? And so I think, uh, it’s a great, it’s, it’s a great thing to go through for, for your facility, uh, for you. I think it’s just a, it’s just a great, uh, I’m very proud of it. I, I think it’s a, it is a, it’s a, it’s a neat thing and I just love the, the, the feedback and the, uh, the publicity that the, how, how the GCs A, puts out the, uh, supports it. And I just think that’s, uh, that’s just kind of a neat thing.
Trent Manning: 1:03:12
When to speak on the process a little bit. I was fortunate enough to be involved with the process pretty much from infancy, and I don’t remember what, if that was 2015
Kevin Bauer: 1:03:26
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 1:03:26
or it might have been 2016. Uh, when. The first year I was on the task group and we were talking about all this, and that was our ultimate goal is to get to a certified equipment manager. And we didn’t even know what it was called at that point, but we knew we wanted a certified something and it was an amazing process. And I don’t, each year there’s, I don’t 10 ish people on the task group and they all share the load. So the amount of hands, well not even just the people on the task group, because when we were doing Em c p level one and level two, we got other people that wasn’t on the task group, like John Patterson to name one. I think, uh, Frank McWiggin wrote some questions. I mean, there’s people from all over the country helping write test
Kevin Bauer: 1:04:23
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 1:04:24
and. I mean, where would we be? Where would we be if it wasn’t for gc, s a a and all the other people that put the time and effort in to get us to this point? And I wanna say congratulations on earning your CT designation. Very awesome. And I was lucky enough to get to interview you or attest you, I guess I’m interviewing you now. I tested you then, alongside Brian Brer and he’s also a certified turf equipment manager. And it is just so great. I mean, it’s, it’s the pinnacle of our career. We can’t go any higher than where we’re at right now, and it feels pretty.
Kevin Bauer: 1:05:10
Yeah. I, I like it. I, I think it’s a, it is just, and it’s a good, you know, it’s, it’s a good measuring stick for, the industry to kind of, not to say that, you know, just because you have anything that, you know, you gotta, at the end of the day, you gotta roll up your sleeves and you gotta do
Trent Manning: 1:05:23
Oh yeah, you gotta do the work.
Kevin Bauer: 1:05:25
You know, you can’t just rely on your, you know, certificate, you know, but, but it, it does set a standard and I think that’s pretty neat. I think everybody’s, you know, really wants that. I think like, in our end, we all kind of, you know, wanna get to that next level or we wanna be involved at least, I always wanna be involved with training to be able to access such and such, whether it’s, and that’s a whole nother talk too. I think that may another podcast and be like, where the technology is going nowadays, as compared to automotive. So I had the, you know, the, I was able to work on quite a few vehicles at the, the maintenance facility I was at before this, where we had the fleet of trucks. And so you see that whole side of things and. You know, the automotive from scan tools to, you know, testing equipment, but it’s very open ended to the, to the end user shop, right? where you can, access modules, get codes and do things like that. And in our equipment in the industry, there are info centers that are, things are built in, but then where our hands are kind of tied, if we get a module for X, Y, Z and the module’s blank, it needs to be programmed. is this something that we can work with manufacturing, say, Hey, we’re we’re certified guys, or we can take such and such to get certified and then pay a subscription to have access to be able to do this. And I’m not saying they just carlan, just let everybody do things, but go through, set your, set your standard on what you’re looking for because it just allows us to be able to, A, there could be geographical things that guys just cannot get there. If it’s a, you know, a service dealer in the area, obviously when things are in warranty, they’re in warranty, but, you know, things are gonna happen, you know, four and five years out of the road. And, and, you know, I always wanna be able to try to do as much as we can in the, in the way that we should be doing it.
Trent Manning: 1:07:18
Yeah, I agree. And I don’t know when we’re gonna get there and I, you know, I hear all kind of stuff like, Oh, it’ll never happen. But I know John Deere has released Service Advisor and it’s not cheap. I don’t remember the exact price. You gotta buy a laptop dedicated for service advisor, and I mean, you’re probably in three grand or something, which is probably out of the reach for most courses. far as I know, Toro and. Honestly, I don’t know anything about Jake, so I can’t speak on that. But Toro has not released any stuff. Kubota has not released any stuff, which is a big frustration for me cuz I got several Kubota tractors and they’ll throw a code and it’ll have to, uh, I forget what they call it, but it’s a factory regin, so it has to be hooked to a laptop. And my Kubota dealer doesn’t have a road technician, so we gotta send the tractor to them, wait however many weeks or a month
Kevin Bauer: 1:08:23
a, for a,
Trent Manning: 1:08:25
to hook it to a
Kevin Bauer: 1:08:26
for, Exactly. I’m not saying, I mean, these are, these are good examples, and I’m not saying we need to have access to every engine controller out there and all that. I, I, I get that. But there are certain procedures that you’re, you’re plugging a laptop in, you’re, you’re putting a calibration in, you’re putting in a program. It runs the program, we’re done, you know?
Trent Manning: 1:08:46
Right. Yeah, exactly.
Kevin Bauer: 1:08:48
it’s, it’s, it’s no different than automotive. So it’s been done in that market. So I, it, you know, there will always be dealer level things, but there are definitely a lot of things that are released. To the end user if they have the scan tool and you know, so, you know, maybe that’s something, I mean that’s definitely something that in the future as everything has more modules and computers, it just, it’s gonna be going that route. they do try to do a decent job of supplying some things with us, but with info centers and that, but, it’s definitely something to look for in the future,
Trent Manning: 1:09:18
there’s a lot, lot to be desired
Kevin Bauer: 1:09:20
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 1:09:21
end. Anyway, getting more,
Kevin Bauer: 1:09:22
Right, right. But I feel like if with Sea Om, with getting back to that, I mean, I think when you kind of have a large grouping of certified turf equipment managers, now kind of coming forward saying, Hey, well hey, you know, maybe that catches the ear of, you know, now that guys know that we’re serious about this business and serious about learning, you know, maybe manufacturers will slightly open the doors a little bit more. Maybe
Trent Manning: 1:09:48
that’s a, that’s an excellent point, and I really hope that happens. I mean, that would be awesome, and yeah, why not?
Kevin Bauer: 1:09:55
yeah,
Trent Manning: 1:09:56
Because to get the certification, you gotta go through a lot of rigorous safety procedure stuff, so it’s not like, We’re, we don’t want to be environmentally friendly and we don’t want to go in there and delete all the emission codes or, you know, I mean, all that stuff. We just wanna be able to repair our equipment the correct way and get it operating again, because at the end of the day, that’s our job. That’s what we’re supposed to do.
Kevin Bauer: 1:10:28
Yep.
Trent Manning: 1:10:29
And yeah, my boss didn’t hire me so I could call somebody else to come work on it,
Kevin Bauer: 1:10:34
Right, right. No, no,
Trent Manning: 1:10:36
that’s not why
Kevin Bauer: 1:10:37
I mean, no, that’s exactly it. I mean, and again, obviously we, you know, there are limitations to everything. I’m not saying we’re we, we’ve gotta know we have to have a hundred percent. Access to everything. But there, I think there are definitely things that, you know, uh, can be done so in the future. So hopefully that
Trent Manning: 1:10:53
Well, and that’s what, and I don’t know the difference. I’ve never even been in John Deere service advisor, but I’ve heard that it’s the end user level, so I’m sure it’s got different access stuff than the dealer level. And that’s fine. But if you can get in there and do the common stuff
Kevin Bauer: 1:11:09
Exactly right. And maybe that’s a way that they start to, that they start to do it. And then I think we’ll probably have the same issue of, you know, you don’t need to get, as long as, you know, you can just upload software or do something like that and have one computer, but, you know, connectors, things like that, that will be an investment. But then that each shop, I guess being able to have the choice to either budget, whether if you’re a hundred percent John Deere or you’re a hundred percent Toro, then you might say, Okay, it’s worth us, it worth it for us to invest in this software or subscription. And, you know, and, and the equipment. if it’s not, then at least have that, have that opportunity or that choice to do that. so
Trent Manning: 1:11:53
that’s where I’m at. I just want a choice and you know, and I got a choice with John Deere and I want a choice with Toro and Kubota and, and all the other manufacturers or if OTC or one of the SNAP on, if somebody, them, one of them want to come out with a tool, give us an option here.
Kevin Bauer: 1:12:13
yeah, yeah.
Trent Manning: 1:12:13
I’m sorry, I got so sidetracked cuz we’re talking about CEM and how great of a designation that is.
Kevin Bauer: 1:12:21
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think, you know, it rolled over to, you know, again, I think the more, the more people in our field that are doing this and, and the bigger, the bigger group, the better. And, I, that’s a standard. But yeah, it’s
Trent Manning: 1:12:33
I did. It is a great process and I heard a superintendent. If the superintendent wanted to get certified, it would be good to have the equipment manager get certified first, because if he did, then the shop is in order pretty much for their certification. You know? And I, I mean, he was being serious too. I mean, because yeah, it’s really squared away. You gotta have all your ducks in a row, and there’s quite a few show stoppers in the rubric that they came up with.
Kevin Bauer: 1:13:11
But I, I love, it’s very, uh, you guys did a good job on, There are no surprises too. I think that’s the big, that’s, that’s another neat thing. It’s not, you’re not trying to trip guys up. You’re laying it all out. They’re very thorough in, you know, getting you the rubric, go over it, practice it, making sure everything is there if it isn’t, and, and then, and then hopefully then this isn’t just like, you know, we don’t just want to do this for the show, we want, you want to implement it, or it has been implemented, throughout, that’s the end result. You know, obviously you wanna be safe and you wanna do things the right way, but this is just a great, it just, everything’s out there, there’s no surprises. and that will be the challenge. I mean, a lot of, you know, a lot of us, you know, shops can be, they can become bad really quick and just from years of people and collecting things. So it’s good house cleaning, you know, it’s
Trent Manning: 1:14:02
Yeah. Yeah, No, really good. And everything I’ve heard, Diana does an excellent job telling everybody, Here’s the rubric. These are the things. Just go through and grade yourself and you’ll kind of know. And speaking personally at my shop, I found a handful of stuff that I had to correct, and it made my facility more.
Kevin Bauer: 1:14:26
Yeah,
Trent Manning: 1:14:27
and no, nobody there said, Oh, you don’t need to be doing this. Making us more safer. I mean, you know, everybody wants that. Why not? And it wouldn’t, you know, neglect on our part that we didn’t care. It was just something we ha hadn’t thought about. So it’s, it’s definitely eye opening to going through that process and getting things squared away.
Kevin Bauer: 1:14:49
absolutely. And uh, yeah, you guys did a great job.
Trent Manning: 1:14:53
Thank you. Thank you. You ready for some rapid fire questions?
Kevin Bauer: 1:15:00
I guess, so.
Trent Manning: 1:15:01
All right, let’s do it. What’s your favorite movie?
Kevin Bauer: 1:15:04
Caddy Shack,
Trent Manning: 1:15:06
Ah, right. Great. I love it. I don’t know if anybody said that
Kevin Bauer: 1:15:10
be in a golf course and have not quoted that. Come on guys.
Trent Manning: 1:15:13
Oh yeah. No, yeah, no, it, yeah, it, it gets quoted all the time
Kevin Bauer: 1:15:18
Right.
Trent Manning: 1:15:19
for sure. What would be your last meal?
Kevin Bauer: 1:15:21
Yeah. Probably steak.
Trent Manning: 1:15:23
Okay. What are you getting with it? Potato.
Kevin Bauer: 1:15:27
Potatoes. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 1:15:28
Yeah. All right. Meet meeting potato guy. Love it.
Kevin Bauer: 1:15:31
guy.
Trent Manning: 1:15:32
What are you most proud of?
Kevin Bauer: 1:15:33
most proud of, uh, I’m most proud of my, my family, my kids. I’m definitely proud of my career, but that takes a backseat to, uh, you know, being a dad and being a husband. so proud of, uh, you know, just working hard and, you know, doing what you had to do to, to, to be successful.
Trent Manning: 1:15:50
Oh yeah. How many kids
Kevin Bauer: 1:15:52
back at things. I got two kids and then, uh, two stepchildren, so
Trent Manning: 1:15:56
All right. Awesome.
Kevin Bauer: 1:15:57
yeah, so it’s, uh, full house and, uh, you know, we’re at the next, next phase. Everybody’s out. Everybody’s outta college. And so it’s, uh, going through that and enjoying life and, and doing things. But
Trent Manning: 1:16:09
Very good. Tell the listeners how they can get ahold of you.
Kevin Bauer: 1:16:13
I am not a fancy tech guy. Uh, they can get ahold of me, so I don’t have.
Trent Manning: 1:16:20
That’s.
Kevin Bauer: 1:16:20
I do have Twitter, actually. I do have Twitter, but I, I don’t know the thing of it right now, but I did, I did sign up for one of those. I’m, I’m old, I’m kind of old school on that stuff. I’m out of the limelight of technology. Um, they can email me
Trent Manning: 1:16:33
Yeah. You got an email
Kevin Bauer: 1:16:34
Yeah, yeah, you can do, uh, real Edge 51, so r e e l e d g e 51 gmail.com.
Trent Manning: 1:16:43
I like it. Very good. Thank you so much, Kevin. This has been a pleasure. I’ve enjoyed it.
Kevin Bauer: 1:16:50
Yeah, it’s been, uh, awesome. Thank you for having me. And, I look forward to, uh, you know, kind of hooking up with you guys, uh, some more of the guys out there, you know, on a national level. And then, you know, you know, like we talked about, uh, getting plugged in with the local guys,
Trent Manning: 1:17:07
Oh yeah, for
Kevin Bauer: 1:17:08
my area as well. So, but, uh, yeah, I’ve definitely, uh, re-energized in, in the field a little bit, uh, with the whole Ctem thing and, uh, you know, uh, I think it’s a great thing and uh, you know, there’s a lot of guys doing great things out there, so if I can support and be part of that and that’s great. Well, thanks for, thanks for having me.
Trent Manning: 1:17:28
Yeah, no thanks again. Hope you enjoyed hearing from Kevin. Great episode. Great guy. And congratulation on getting your CTM, Kevin. I was lucky enough to be one of the. Uh, testers and he’s got an amazing facility And as doing a great job. Do you back lap? As back lap and taboo to you. Do you think you’re lesser of a human, if you back lap? I hope not. But I laugh and might not be for everybody. But as a tool in your toolbox. And if you do The correct way. It can prolong. The cut on a cutting unit. So, if you hadn’t or if you don’t know anything about it, I challenge you to learn. Give it a try. Maybe you find out you don’t lock it. But maybe you found out sometimes it’s about getting out of our comfort zone, trying new things. You ready to be a C town? The choice is yours. Highly recommend if you want to take your career to the next level. Pass the AMCP. Level one and level two. And then get your shop a tested. And it won’t only bring up you, but it’ll bring up everybody else around you. You’ll have a better facility because There’s a lot of this stuff is related to safety. And operating procedures. Equipment training. And it’s just going to make your whole operation a whole lot better. And I heard a superintendent the other day say that. He was glad. For his equipment manager to do it because it gets his shot more. Organized and ready to. Get his certification. For CGCS. I thought that was a pretty interesting. If you’re hesitant. If you got questions. Reach out to us. You can email Uh, real turf tax at Gmail. You can look me up on Twitter. I’d be happy to tell you what all I know about it. And anybody else that has CTM. Does a nation. I guarantee you would be the same way. So if the guy down the road. Got it. Give him a call. If, you know, Kayla KIPP. Give her a call. A lot of great people in this industry. And I’m so thankful to be a little part of it. Thank you for listening. I couldn’t be doing this podcast without all and I can’t. Thank you enough. And if you’re interested in being a guest on the podcast, Reach out to me. I’d be happy to talk to you. Until next time. See you. Bye. thank you so much for listening to the Reel 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 Reel turf techs.