Dan Williams, equipment manager at Vestavia Country Club in Vestavia Hills, AL, started out in the foundry industry working on machines for most of his career. For the last ten years he was a mobile service guy traveling all over the world. He was ready to get off the road and be close to home when he answered a listing on a job board for a golf course equipment technician. He had no idea what he was getting into but has adapted very well with some mentors in the industry.
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 Welcome to the real turf text podcast. Episode 72 today, we’re talking to Dan Williams equipment manager. At Vestavia country club in Vestavia Hills. Alabama, but STIA country club is an 18 whole course. And a nine hole par three course. Dan has mostly John Deere equipment. With a few Toro, 6 48. And then some other Touro stuff that’s coming in later this year, he also has two Ventra machines and numerous attachments and some agri metal stuff. Let’s talk to Dan. Welcome Dan to the real turf tech podcast. How you doing today?
Dan Williams: 1:03
Thanks, man. good, good. How are you?
Trent Manning: 1:06
I’m doing good. Doing good. We’ll get to it. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.
Dan Williams: 1:11
kind of a long story, but. Not really,
Trent Manning: 1:14
We like, we like long stories here.
Dan Williams: 1:16
it it is, and it isn’t. Uh, so I I’ve actually been in the, uh, or I was in the, uh, the Foundry industry for many years. Well actually almost my whole career, except for, uh, maybe a year or so that I did some production welding, but, and, the last 10 years I’ve been travel. As a service guy. and, so anyway, I just wanted to find a job that was at home. you know, every day didn’t have to travel to Mexico, Europe, wherever, and be home, you know, closer to the kids more often. So, I looked on. Some, some job boards and I came across this job and I was just like, nah, you know, no, no way. it’s kinda way, seems a little lot of my, almost like a dream job, you know,
Trent Manning: 2:08
Mm.
Dan Williams: 2:09
just seemed like the perfect job. but uh, went ahead, applied for it and, you know, got, got a call, a few weeks later. And, boss asked me, uh, if I could come in for an interview and I was, ah, well, you know, about to head over to Tennessee, and, and do a job. But, how about when I get back, you know, anyway, I hung up and I was like, He talked to my ex-girlfriend at, she was girlfriend at the time and I, you know, was telling her about it. And I was like, man, I really wish I could go really wish I could go. This seems awesome. Seems perfect. so I called him back and I was like, Hey, you got time right now. he was like, yeah, man, of course. So I, I drove up there quick and, Had the interview probably took about an hour, I guess, showed me around the course. I mean, it was just gorgeous. like fell in love immediately, you know? And then, about, I don’t know, it was actually, it was actually, I was gone for a week, maybe a little more And he called me on the day that I was heading back home and offered me the job. So I was that, yeah, that made for a really, really good, uh, five hour drive home, you
Trent Manning: 3:23
Oh, yeah, I bet that is awesome.
Dan Williams: 3:25
I don’t don’t don’t have any, you know, assistant experience or. Anything like that or any real ties, I guess, to the, industry.
Trent Manning: 3:37
Was there anything that kind of drew you to the golf course? Did you play golf growing up your dad play or.
Dan Williams: 3:44
uh, yeah, so my dad plays golf a lot. I played with him a couple times, you know, here and there. I think I. I think I sucked so, uh, enough where he didn’t really wanna play with me as much, but no. Um, but I really, I’m not very good, but, anyway. Yeah, I, yeah, he, he, he still plays golf a lot to this day. And, yeah, I guess that, that intrigued me, you know, a little bit, guess not only that just, you know, being, being outside every day and enjoying the, the view. I mean, the, the country club is, is got some breathtaking views.
Trent Manning: 4:24
Mm-hmm
Dan Williams: 4:25
I love it, man.
Trent Manning: 4:26
Yeah. No. Awesome. Awesome. Do you relief?
Dan Williams: 4:29
Uh, currently I do not. I have, I have two grinders at, I have two grinders at the shop and one’s just a spin grinder. And the other is a, is a Foley. actually don’t know the model number of it, but, They fully does the it’ll it’ll relief and spin grind. So, my goal is learning how to use that this late fall winter,
Trent Manning: 4:58
Mm-hmm
Dan Williams: 4:59
and, uh, and bring all my reels in and relief, grind them.
Trent Manning: 5:04
that’s when that’s, when a lot of people do it. And a lot of people only do it once a year. They’ll put a super heavy relief on there in the off season and spend grind during the regular season.
Dan Williams: 5:16
Okay.
Trent Manning: 5:16
yeah, I’ve, I’ve heard, heard quite a few people doing it that way. And you know, at the end of the day, it’s whatever works for you and your operation, your course, what you’re mowing, you know, all that kind of stuff.
Dan Williams: 5:29
right.
Trent Manning: 5:30
Didn’t you mention something about, uh, a new mower you got, that had relief on it and you notice some stuff like.
Dan Williams: 5:38
Yeah, for sure. We, we got a, a new 7,700 in you know, it had new reels and stuff. It’s okay. It’s a, it’s a new to us, 7,700.
Trent Manning: 5:49
Yep. Yep.
Dan Williams: 5:50
yeah, it’s, uh, it, it came in with new reels and their relief ground and, and, it went. A couple times it’s got a, some issues with it that warranty’s taken care of. But, I mean, it’s awesome. I loved the relief grind. you know, it was basically the first time I’ve seen it, you know, all the reels and on the equipment now are pretty. Pretty well worn. So, and, the guy before me didn’t relief grind. So, didn’t really have any reels with it, you know, with relief grind. And, but yeah, it’s, it’s awesome, man. It really is. I’m excited to learn how to use that Foley, and, and get all the reels ground, is gonna. I think it’ll be much better next year. I mean, was reading, I was actually reading an article. fully, I don’t know so much an article. I think it’s the real science something or other, I I’m sure everybody here’s probably read it. Um, and I think it’s said in there can save up to like 30% on real maintenance by relief, grinding.
Trent Manning: 6:58
Yeah, it is a pretty big number. And I mean, I’m, I’m obviously a fan of it, but again, it depends on what your operation is and
Dan Williams: 7:08
right,
Trent Manning: 7:09
worked for you.
Dan Williams: 7:10
right.
Trent Manning: 7:11
Tell us something you fabric. I know since you, you you’ve only been there nine months, so it was probably playing a bunch of catch up and getting things sharped and getting equipment back running.
Dan Williams: 7:22
Learning and stuff.
Trent Manning: 7:23
And
Dan Williams: 7:24
Um, I was actually thinking about this and in the, in the sense of the word fabricate, I guess I’ve made, I made a little bracket for my bed knife grinder, that I had actually gotten off the RTT, uh, WhatsApp group. I was asking some questions and, about, Hey, is this anybody know if they make a bracket like this? There’s co couple guys that, that had one. So, I tried to make one and, and it was, I mean, I made it, but it didn’t end up working. I know, I know what the problem ended up being, but as far as you know, when I think of actual fabricated, I’m like, I’m thinking of cutting welding, torching, you know, Back in the day, back in the day when I was, just a we maintenance guy, you know, in a, in a Foundry. But, but I suppose you could consider that fabricating
Trent Manning: 8:12
oh yeah, no, that’s that’s fabricating. You don’t have to have a, a welder and a torch every time you fabricate something.
Dan Williams: 8:18
right, right.
Trent Manning: 8:19
Yeah. Yeah. Tell us what your favorite tool is. And.
Dan Williams: 8:23
pie tape. I know that seems like a very common answer, but, definitely a pie tape. if I was to say one, eh, that’s actually my second, but that’s, you know, doesn’t seem to be said by many other people is, my height of cut parallel gauge,
Trent Manning: 8:42
okay. And that didn’t, uh, I think, I remember you made that out of a high to cut bar or.
Dan Williams: 8:48
Yeah. So I had, I had a hide, a cut gauge, and, there was an issue with it when I first got there. And so I turned it in or I, sent it back, to ACU gauge. They were gonna fix it. Well, I ordered one in the meantime and it. it got in. And, anyway, I took this, the older one that I sent in and got repaired and, my friend Robert actually sent me and I was trying to find it earlier, see, maybe posted in that WhatsApp group. but, it’s. information pack. I like a, how to basically from, I think it came from PGA website actually, or something like that. I don’t remember. I just remember it said PGA on the top.
Trent Manning: 9:35
Okay.
Dan Williams: 9:36
but it, but it tells you like where to drill the hole. that’s I know it’s a quarter 20 volt, and I just don’t remember. You know what the, from center of the, of the pin of the, uh, gauge itself,
Trent Manning: 9:51
Mm.
Dan Williams: 9:51
you know, where, how far back, to do it, but it’s basically right behind the hands free magnet
Trent Manning: 9:59
Yeah.
Dan Williams: 10:00
that you drill, drill and tap the quarter 20 bolt.
Trent Manning: 10:03
Mm-hmm
Dan Williams: 10:04
yeah, it it’s been super good man. I mean, very accurate. Don’t have to take the, cutting unit off to, uh, you know, put it on the parallel board.
Trent Manning: 10:13
Right.
Dan Williams: 10:14
it’s I mean, I know they have that one that you can, I think ACU gauge makes ’em too, but you can do it right on the, on the machine. Still it’s just not, I mean, when you can see, like how many, how many thousands. Yeah, definitely. It’s pretty
Trent Manning: 10:29
Mm-hmm what do you like so much about the pie?
Dan Williams: 10:32
before I knew that it was a huge deal. When you have cone in your. I had learned kind of the wrong way, how to grind reels, and it ended up putting a lot of cones in most of my reels, eventually learned the right way,
Trent Manning: 10:50
Hmm.
Dan Williams: 10:51
anyway, But I’m sitting here, like after the cones got in there, I’m sitting there trying to get real to bed knife, and it’s just not happening. And, wondering what the heck is going on here, calling everybody I can, turns out, you know, it’s, cone real. I got a pie tape and it’s been my best friend ever since. I mean, I use it, every time I, it doesn’t matter. I pretty much check ’em every time I put it on the grinder just to, just to be safe.
Trent Manning: 11:22
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yep. Well, that’s I use a, I use a fo. Real grinder. And I still use the pie tape before and after every grind. And what I like about that is yeah, on the fo you can gauge off the center and it’s supposed to get you there, but occasionally it might be off a little bit, one way or another, just on your setup, you know, you don’t have the sensor touching the real shaft exactly. Like you need to or something like that. So if I pie tape the reel. And I know it’s true, or I know it’s got a five thousands cone or something on one side or the other when I put it in there and I run my first pass across the reel with the grinding stone. I know if I got it right or not, because it should be hit hitting heavier on this side. Or, you know, if it’s still a true cylinder, it should be hitting the same all the way across. So it it’s, it is a quick gauge. And to let me know if I, I did get it right on my setup.
Dan Williams: 12:25
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 12:25
I, I love the pie tape too. What do you do to relax or find your balance?
Dan Williams: 12:30
I play some disc golf. I don’t know many people know what that is, but, I like to, uh, I like to disc golf, Also, I like to kayak and hike. but say I probably disc off more than
Trent Manning: 12:43
uh, disc off, is it, is it a, a beer drinking?
Dan Williams: 12:47
Oh, absolutely.
Trent Manning: 12:49
All right. I’ll just check, just check it. I didn’t know for sure if that was, uh, frowned upon or not.
Dan Williams: 12:54
No, I it’s. Uh, that’s pretty. Matter of fact. I mean, I usually put at least three or four in my backpack. every time I go, it’s just kind of like, I don’t know, they just go together, you know,
Trent Manning: 13:06
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. No. I know exactly what you’re talking about because for years and years and years, I could not light a charcoal grill without a beer. In my hand. It was just, you know, they ha they go?
Dan Williams: 13:18
go? Exactly. They go together.
Trent Manning: 13:21
Yeah. If you’re gonna grill something, you have to have a beer in your hand.
Dan Williams: 13:24
Yep.
Trent Manning: 13:24
Yeah. Just, just something about it. What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen at.
Dan Williams: 13:30
Strangest thing, I believe, okay. At this job anyway, or, at the golf course, when the Messant is. Just went up in flames. pretty sure somebody had, thrown a cigarette butt into it, but it happened back in December, I think. Or
Trent Manning: 13:49
This was piled up behind the shop or something.
Dan Williams: 13:52
so back back where we keep, you know, on our garbage, trash, not.
Trent Manning: 13:59
Right, right, right, right. Natural
Dan Williams: 14:02
uh, yeah.
Trent Manning: 14:04
Yeah.
Dan Williams: 14:04
yeah, we were piling up back there and I don’t know, somebody just came back, came in from, from outside. We were all just kind of chilling in the office talking and, and the other superintendents. And, somebody came in and was like, wow. Fire back there, like what,
Trent Manning: 14:24
Mm.
Dan Williams: 14:25
you know, so we went back there and sure. Crap. I mean, it was, it was small when we got out there, but it definitely got big very quickly. but we, we got her put out while fire department showed up and helped out.
Trent Manning: 14:40
Okay.
Dan Williams: 14:41
I feel like we did probably the majority of it. I mean, there was no place to hook a hose up, you know, there no, uh, hydrant or anything nearby, we hooked into our irrigation lines and, and firetruck or fire department had a water truck. So
Trent Manning: 14:58
Mm-hmm so it got it got put out and nobody was hurt.
Dan Williams: 15:03
No,
Trent Manning: 15:04
No, none
Dan Williams: 15:04
Got, got, got, put out and nobody got hurt. Weird thing was we, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this, but apparently Dawn dish soap. apparently Dawn dish soap, spread it over on, on a fire like that. and you know, makes it with water. It puts it out quicker.
Trent Manning: 15:22
Ah, okay. I guess something to do with the oxygen or something.
Dan Williams: 15:26
Yeah. I believe so. Kind of.
Trent Manning: 15:28
would guess.
Dan Williams: 15:29
it or whatever, but holy man, did we use the hell out of some Dawn dish soap that day
Trent Manning: 15:34
I bet. That’s good. What’s one of your pet peeves around the shop or at home or a couple of them.
Dan Williams: 15:44
believe people borrowing tools, not bringing them back. That’s that’s probably why.
Trent Manning: 15:50
So that happens there too.
Dan Williams: 15:52
Oh, yeah.
Trent Manning: 15:53
I’m pretty sure that happens every.
Dan Williams: 15:55
I feel like it’s almost like a, getting paid back from borrowing my dad’s tools and him yelling at me for not putting them back.
Trent Manning: 16:03
right. Right. I think a lot of the listeners can relate to that too. Barring BA dads tools and not putting ’em back. Yep. I’ve heard that once or twice before. And it was not very pleasant either.
Dan Williams: 16:16
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 16:17
not coming from my dad. do y’all have a separate box for the crew or staff?
Dan Williams: 16:24
they, for the most part, they have like little tool boxes on their, on their carts. Well, I guess apparently never seem to have the tool that they need. but yeah, I mean, they do and it really is a, it’s a community box, I guess, you know, but, I definitely use them every day versus, those guys who. I don’t think they use tools every day,
Trent Manning: 16:48
Right, right, right. Yeah. I couldn’t tell you in my career, how many number two Phillips screwdrivers has been bought at my course? I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know if they bar at one time and just throw it in the woods or what they’re doing with the number two, Phillip.
Dan Williams: 17:04
for, I think for us, it’s, Those big, plastic or hard rubber mallets. They’re probably two pounds, three pounds. I don’t know how many of those have been bought just since I’ve been there.
Trent Manning: 17:16
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan Williams: 17:17
and every time I turn around mine seems to be gone, and they all have ’em in their toolboxes, you know,
Trent Manning: 17:23
Mm.
Dan Williams: 17:23
I think it’s just like the, the, they give ’em to the guys on the crew that are, putting. Tee markers up or whatever, and then they don’t, then they don’t give them back and vicious cycle.
Trent Manning: 17:36
Yes, it is. When sometimes at the end of the day, especially a rain day or something, and everybody brings everything in. I’ll just go back there and look in all the carts and collect tools.
Dan Williams: 17:46
right.
Trent Manning: 17:46
Yeah. That. Got left behind. Do you have a mentor in the industry or a.
Dan Williams: 17:53
Yeah, I think I got, I think I got two, my friend Robert, I would say he is my mentor on the cutting unit side of things. and then my, my boss hunter, he would, he would be my mentor on. Agronomy side of things.
Trent Manning: 18:13
Yeah for.
Dan Williams: 18:14
he’s awesome, man. I great boss, just, teaches me, been teaching me a little bit here and there about the agronomy side of things and like how it relates to my job and, it’s pretty cool. You know, you’ll just. Pick me up in the shop and be like, Hey, you wanna go? Let’s go take a ride and we’ll look at the course and he’ll, you know, we’ll stop in the fairway and he’ll show me this or that. Or explain this, explain that. I mean, it definitely helps with doing my job
Trent Manning: 18:43
oh, for sure. And I think it’s really important and it sounds great what he’s doing, taking you out there and kind of showing you. You know, what, what they’re doing on the course and how that relates to the equipment, all that stuff is great. And the more we can know as technicians about what they’re doing on the course, it helps us understand better why we’re doing what we’re doing and what their expectations are. So that’s a, win-win all the way around for sure.
Dan Williams: 19:15
I agree.
Trent Manning: 19:16
So how did you meet Robert?
Dan Williams: 19:19
So I met Robert on group that I had joined. right after I started this job, you know, I, started seeking out some places, for networking and things like that and getting assistance or help. And, uh, anyway, I had asked a. In one of the groups and, Robert responded with, the answer and then me a, Facebook message and was like, Hey man, here’s, here’s my number. Uh, you know, if you running anything else, need any other assistance, whatever. Just, shoot me a text or gimme a call.
Trent Manning: 19:57
No, that’s awesome.
Dan Williams: 19:58
So,
Trent Manning: 19:59
don’t, there’s so many people in our industry and that’s one of the things that makes it so great that we just wanna help
Dan Williams: 20:05
this has definitely been the most helpful, I guess just everybody’s awesome. Seriously, like the RTT group. and. Yeah, it’s just been great. Like seriously, everybody that I’ve, you know, run into and this, this position has been just super, very helpful. I, definitely wouldn’t be, probably not even doing this job if I didn’t have that kind of help, you know, seriously,
Trent Manning: 20:34
Mm.
Dan Williams: 20:34
I just don’t know. I didn’t know anything, you know?
Trent Manning: 20:37
No, it can be very overwhelming when you first get into the industry because there’s, there’s a huge learning curve. If, I mean, even if you’re a, a good mechanic, you can figure a lot of the stuff out, but definitely the cutting units and quality cut after cut appearance, all that stuff is really specialized just to.
Dan Williams: 20:58
that’s, you know, the engine, the engine stuff, just the, the machine itself not speaking of the cutting units, but, if it was just the machines and everything. Yeah. I could, I’d be fine. You know? it’s, it’s definitely the, the cutting units that I think it was John Patterson, maybe that said this, it’s not a maintenance shop. It’s a real maintenance shop, and it’s true. I mean, it’s like 85 to 90% or maybe 80%, I don’t know. But it’s the majority of what we do, you know?
Trent Manning: 21:33
yeah, yeah, yeah. For. As an equipment tech one of the most tedious jobs is keeping your parts inventory straight But that job just got a whole lot easier with uses an ASB task tracker But that job just got a whole lot easier With using AASB task trackers parts scanning Technology I can scan or see parts into the inventory And as I use them I can scan them into a work order If you hadn’t had a chance to check out the technician side of ASB task tracker I highly recommend you schedule I highly recommend you schedule out I highly recommend you reach out to them At ASB task tracker.com To schedule a demo There’s a really great software And I use it on a daily basis Using task tracker has made Uh using task tracker has made my life so much easier Using task tracker has made my life so much easier I love being able to pick up The scanner and scan parts and inventory Let’s get back to the episode What would be your dream job or opportunity professional disc golf pro or something.
Dan Williams: 23:28
that would that, that would be pretty cool. Um, I think it’d be awesome to have my own charter boat.
Trent Manning: 23:35
Okay. Yeah.
Dan Williams: 23:36
Like just somewhere on, somewhere on the west coast of, Florida, you know, golf, just bring people out fishing every day. I think that’d be awesome.
Trent Manning: 23:47
It would, yeah, I think, I mean, that sounds really, really good, but it’s probably like anything else. Once you turn into a job, it takes some of the fun out of it, but. That that would be, that would be pretty cool. Do you do a lot of offshore fishing,
Dan Williams: 24:00
I don’t get down there enough to
Trent Manning: 24:03
right? Not as much as you want to.
Dan Williams: 24:05
yeah.
Trent Manning: 24:06
like the rest of us. Gotcha. What technician would you like to work with for a.
Dan Williams: 24:12
I’ll be honest with you. I’d like to work with any of those guys in the RTT group. guys, girls, sorry.
Trent Manning: 24:18
mm-hmm yep.
Dan Williams: 24:20
yeah, I mean, I, I, I really would, I’d I’d like to work with, with any of those guys, I think if, and, also. I really like to work with John Patterson for a day.
Trent Manning: 24:31
Yeah. Yep.
Dan Williams: 24:32
just watching his videos, you know, on the sip website and, even your interview with him,
Trent Manning: 24:39
Mm-hmm
Dan Williams: 24:40
it was it’s awesome. Like that’s how I’m trying to gear myself towards, you know, like being. Being like him, I guess, more like him just very accurate, very precise,
Trent Manning: 24:52
mm-hmm uh, John, he’s definitely, uh, one of, one of the best out there for sure. And he’s a super nice guy. and if you called him today and said, Hey, John, I got a question on this. He would do what he could to help you out. And that’s, like I said, that’s, what’s amazing about this industry and the guys that seem to ex Excel or kind of have it figured out in their positions. They’re not too good to help you cause they were there 20 years ago or 30 years ago, or however long it’s. So you you’re, you’re new to the industry. We all started there too. No matter how long we’ve been doing it, we’ve been in your shoes before. So we just want to help.
Dan Williams: 25:37
it’s awesome. The support that I’ve gotten from everybody in the industry, honestly.
Trent Manning: 25:43
What do you know now? You’d like to know on day.
Dan Williams: 25:46
other than everything about reels
Trent Manning: 25:51
somebody would’ve gave you a pie tape on day one. That would’ve been good.
Dan Williams: 25:56
yes, absolutely. A pie tape day one. That’s that is, yes. That’s the answer
Trent Manning: 26:04
We, we got, we got some power here. We’re gonna do it. We’re gonna make sure that every new technician in the industry gets a pie tape from Mike Rollins. S I And they’re, they’re gonna, they’re gonna put the bill for that one. all right, Mike, you, you get on that?
Dan Williams: 26:24
I’m still considered new Mike. Uh, so if you could just
Trent Manning: 26:29
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm
Dan Williams: 26:30
I’ll be I’ll I’ll I’ll be the first. Go
Trent Manning: 26:33
There you go. That’s awesome. Yep. Do you have any, uh, tips and tricks you wanna share with us?
Dan Williams: 26:44
So I think what, I’ll say for. and tricks is, I’ll make it better. I’ll find that article and I’ll post it in the RTT group. the, parallel gauge, the hide to cut slash parallel gauge.
Trent Manning: 26:59
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan Williams: 27:00
I, think that’s what I’ll say is for my, for my trick or tips, um, is putting. Quarter 20 bolt, you know, behind that the handsfree magnet. and again, I’ll, I’ll share with the articles. So everybody knows like where to, drill it, in the right spot. But, yeah, drilling that, quarter 20 bolt putting that in there was awesome. Like that seriously is. I love how you can just put it up there, be so precise and, get it down to the thousandth, if you can, pretty hard to do on John Deere cutting units, but without John Patterson’s, little invention there, that’s awesome. By the way.
Trent Manning: 27:44
Mm-hmm Do you have any,
Dan Williams: 27:46
I do not, but, I have talked to hunter about it and I think, we’re gonna probably do that. Not probably not on all of them, but,
Trent Manning: 27:55
well, I think it’s a must on greens, mowers, fairways and stuff. Okay. But on a greens Mo. I talked to John the other day and we were kind of kicking around the idea, going fixed head John Deere, uh, on our walking greens mowers. And I told him, I said, if we do that, I will be ordering some of these for sure.
Dan Williams: 28:15
Yeah. They’re it’s awesome.
Trent Manning: 28:18
Yep. Good stuff. You wanna talk about task tracker a little bit.
Dan Williams: 28:22
Yeah. I I’d really like to actually, got some I’m just, I mean, I know task tracker, as far as. I log into it every morning and to see what’s on the work board, uh, you know, and then I go talk to the supers about it and, just, Hey, this is just cool. This is not cool. I, I, I, don’t keep up with the equipment end as, as well as I should, as far as, you know, li labeling whether, uh, equipment is, good or, not, not able to use it, whatever, faulty, I guess. so I go over there and just, talk to him for couple 15, 10, 15 minutes in the morning and, uh, well, but, uh, I’d really like to know or learn how, To more use the, like the maintenance side of things, like for the there’s you can make PMs on there. Is that right?
Trent Manning: 29:15
Yep. That is correct. And some of the PMs are already preloaded, but the nice thing about the preloaded PMs is you can import them in for your equipment and then pick and choose exactly what you. and one of the examples I always go to is torquing the Lu nuts every 50 hours or 25 hours or whatever it is. Um, normally I don’t do that. So you can call me a bad guy or whatever you want to, but, I usually take that out, but that’s just one example and you can customize it. If there’s something that you see. you know, if you’re having repeat failures or is an issue, you can add something in there to, uh, the service intervals. So it’s really nice how customizable it is. And you can do that for each piece of equipment. And then the other thing that’s nice. If, so you built a PM program for one piece of equipment. They make it task tracker makes it super easy to. Copy that to a bunch of other pieces. So for instance, I have, I think 14 prog 2020 prog. So all I gotta do is write at once. And like I said, a lot of it’s already preloaded in there and I just pick and choose, take out a couple things, add a couple things, and then that’s my program for prog. And then I can add it to all the pro. It’s uh, takes a little bit, there’s a little learning curve, you know, finding out where you gotta go to do this and that, but the other thing, Jamie sharp and Gerald, both they’re super helpful and you can call them up and say, I’m trying to do this and they’ll walk you through and tell you exactly how to do it.
Dan Williams: 31:11
That’s cool.
Trent Manning: 31:12
And they have, uh, if you’re on a page, And you go down to the bottom right hand corner. There’s a question, mark. You can click on that. And they have videos too, like tutorial videos on how to load equipment, how to set up preventive maintenance. So they got quite a few videos on there too, that kind of walks you through how to do stuff.
Dan Williams: 31:35
well, that’s awesome. I didn’t know that, about those videos for sure. but I, I know I definitely wanna start. to use it more. as far as the equipment side of it, you know,
Trent Manning: 31:48
Well, it is really nice too. You were saying you hadn’t really got into that part yet, but if you disable a piece of equipment because of a repair that needs to happen, you can leave a note in there and that will let whoever your assistant superintendent whoever’s using it on the other side that wants to assign that piece of equipment. They’ll see the note and see why it’s outta service.
Dan Williams: 32:12
okay.
Trent Manning: 32:12
So that makes it really nice too. And that was actually Hector Velasquez. that was his idea that he pitched a task tracker. And that’s the other thing I love about task tracker is if you’re repeatedly doing something and it’s a little bit cumbersome in their system, just reach out to ’em and let ’em know because don’t, you know, everybody wants to hear the good feedback, but they want to hear all feedback. So if you’re having an issue with how something’s working, just tell him about it. Jamie, especially loves to hear about that stuff. And I don’t know how many times I’ve talked to him and say, can we do this? And he’s honest and he’ll say, that’s a great idea. We’ll do it now. Or I don’t really see a big need in that. I hadn’t heard a lot about that, but that’s something maybe we can roll out in a few months.
Dan Williams: 33:05
Yeah,
Trent Manning: 33:05
I mean, I like his transparency there.
Dan Williams: 33:09
Yeah, no, that’s, it’s awesome. It sound like, you know, really good, really good people to, uh, know, if you are gonna have some kind of, uh, software like that, you know, like,
Trent Manning: 33:22
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yep. No, it’s been great.
Dan Williams: 33:24
like they’re super good people. So.
Trent Manning: 33:27
And they had just come out, I guess, in the February, uh, inventory system. So you can inventory all your parts. You can inventory your fuel, you can inventory your chemicals if you want to, all that stuff. And if you do a work order and use an old filter, it’ll take it outta your inventory. So it is a, it is a pretty slick system. Him,
Dan Williams: 33:51
So do you like then, sorry, I just wanted to, yeah. I just wanted to ask about that. Like, so that that’s really cool. you know, we’re actually, they’re building our new shop right now. And so, when we do move in, the, parts room is just gonna get completely overhauled, just, you know, bins and everything like that. labels. And so is when you get a part then do you just like, do, do you have some kind of scanner or on your phone scanner
Trent Manning: 34:18
well, I actually bought.
Dan Williams: 34:19
out or,
Trent Manning: 34:20
Yeah, I bought a handheld scanner, like, you’d see at home Depot or something, it’s wireless. I bought it on Amazon. It was a hundred bucks or something and you can scan the part number and add it that way. And it’s called a receiving report. So if I get a shipment in from Toro or Deere, you know, whomever I’ll. Scan it in that way, you can manually type it in. But the scanning thing is really cool. Being able to use that. So you don’t have to type all that information. And then if you already have an existing parts inventory in an Excel file, you can upload that into task tracker. And it’ll put in all the parts and the prices and everything that’s in your spreadsheet. If you have a spreadsheet, parts inventory, so you don’t have to manually type all that stuff in.
Dan Williams: 35:13
That’s really cool.
Trent Manning: 35:14
Yeah. Yep. No, it was, it was well, well thought out for sure.
Dan Williams: 35:19
So other than the, you know, the parts inventory and, and like the, You know, the equipment where you can like print PMs and, uh, you know, say whether a machine is disabled or whatever. Like what, what else can it do? I guess
Trent Manning: 35:37
Well, the thing that I like the Mo well, I can’t say that I like a lot of stuff about task tracker, but, and I’m not just saying that, cuz they’re a sponsor, but, seriously. so each piece of equipment has a QR code and anybody on the crew with their smart. Can scan that QR code and it pulls up that piece of equipment. And there’s an option on there where you can send a note to the technician. So you click note to technician, you put in your name, you put in your problem, and then it gives us a, I got a big screen TV over our toolbox and the notification will pop up there. And then from that notification, I can. Just dismiss it or clear it, you know, if it’s something minor, like I need to put some air in a tire or something, and I’m not worried about tracking the maintenance on that. I can just clear it, but if it turns into a repair that I want to track from that note, all I gotta do is, uh, click a button that says create work order and it’ll create a work order for the problem that was report.
Dan Williams: 36:50
That’s cool.
Trent Manning: 36:51
So, you know, whatever it is pro greater four, won’t start, you know, I, if I get that, I can turn that straight into a work order. And then once you have all your work orders, depending on if you got peop how many people’s working with you in the shop, you can assign that work order to certain people to complete the.
Dan Williams: 37:11
That’s really
Trent Manning: 37:12
And so for me, it’s really nice cuz I have two guys in the shop and it just helps us keep straight on who’s working on why who’s doing this. Who’s doing that. And if, if they kinda get slow or they get caught up or whatever, they can go right there to the board and it’s got all the work orders that’s coming up, they can do a PM service or they can make a repair on the next. and on the work orders, you can also prioritize how important the repair is and it’s, uh, low, medium, high, and urgent is the four different categories. So if I create a work order, I always try to prioritize it. And then all the PM work orders are automatically generated at a low priority. Cuz normally they are normally we’re not, you know, in a panic to get. Mower in to change an oil. Yeah. To change the oil on it. If it starts and runs is pretty good.
Dan Williams: 38:12
yeah.
Trent Manning: 38:13
You got any more questions?
Dan Williams: 38:14
No, I don’t. I don’t think
Trent Manning: 38:16
Okay. Well good. No, that, that was good. I was
Dan Williams: 38:19
yeah, I really needed to, I really need to look into that more, you know, like the task tracker thing, as far as what I can do on my end, you know,
Trent Manning: 38:27
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, seriously, you got my number. If you wanna give me a buzz one day, you’re at the shop and you wanna got some questions. I’ll, I’ll be happy to help you work through those too. Give you, give you, some pointers here and there. Yes, sir. Absolutely. You ready for some rapid fire questions?
Dan Williams: 38:48
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 38:49
Let’s do it. What’s what’s your favorite?
Dan Williams: 38:53
All right. So somebody said Shaw, Hank already. I’m gonna say top gun.
Trent Manning: 38:57
One or
Dan Williams: 38:58
first, the, the first one. Well, the second one was good. I don’t know if anybody’s seen it, but it was
Trent Manning: 39:03
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan Williams: 39:04
but I, the first one’s better. I think
Trent Manning: 39:06
Yeah. That’s tough for me. The second was really, really good. And I like the
Dan Williams: 39:10
was, it was really good.
Trent Manning: 39:12
the, the, the. the, first one is definitely so iconic in eighties and all that stuff, but second was really good too. What would be your last meal?
Dan Williams: 39:23
some kind of black and seafood, maybe some flounder,
Trent Manning: 39:27
Okay.
Dan Williams: 39:28
grouper. I just, uh, I love some black and seafood man.
Trent Manning: 39:33
what are you, what are you getting with it?
Dan Williams: 39:34
I don’t know. I, I, you
Trent Manning: 39:36
I I, was, I was really hoping. I was really hoping to hear at least a hush puppy.
Dan Williams: 39:42
Oh God. yes, yes. yes. Hush. Yeah, me too.
Trent Manning: 39:47
There you go.
Dan Williams: 39:48
hush puppy,
Trent Manning: 39:49
What are you most proud of?
Dan Williams: 39:51
my
Trent Manning: 39:52
Yeah.
Dan Williams: 39:52
for sure. Yep.
Trent Manning: 39:55
many children do you have?
Dan Williams: 39:56
I got two girls.
Trent Manning: 39:57
Two girls
Dan Williams: 39:59
yeah,
Trent Manning: 39:59
and what’s their age.
Dan Williams: 40:01
14, the one just the youngest just turned 14 at the end of, uh, last month. And, my oldest will be 16 and
Trent Manning: 40:11
All right. Congratulations.
Dan Williams: 40:14
yeah. Yeah.
Trent Manning: 40:15
You, you get, uh, you get eight points, four points per kid. I don’t know what you’re gonna do with the points, but you get eight points. Cause it is something special having teenage daughters. And I can relate cuz I got a 14 year old and a 17 year old and I love ’em to death and they’re amazing. But uh, they’re teenage girls too,
Dan Williams: 40:38
yeah, man, I it’s crazy. Your kids are about the same age as mine.
Trent Manning: 40:42
Yeah. Yeah, no, it’s cool. Very cool.
Dan Williams: 40:44
Why’d you like your daughter driving?
Trent Manning: 40:46
it was okay. she’s really cautious and observant and she’s a pretty good driver. Some of it. I want to relate to at the golf course when I would take her in there on the weekends, cuz she would do lap after lap, after lap around the shop. And I’d say, all right, honey, it’s time to go. And she’d be like, come on dad, just one more lap. I’m like you’ve made 500 laps around this shop. I can’t believe it. But anyway, I was comfortable with her driving because the way she drove a golf cart.
Dan Williams: 41:21
Okay.
Trent Manning: 41:21
and the 14 year old, she’s got a little learning to do. We’ll we’ll see. She’s a little scary.
Dan Williams: 41:29
I, I feel like I need to bring my, uh, oldest to the. To the course and have her drive some golf carts, man, cuz she’s uh, no, she really doesn’t do too bad, but there’s definitely, uh, some stories. Oh man.
Trent Manning: 41:46
mm-hmm
Dan Williams: 41:47
Just for only having her permanent for, you know, seven months, but eight months.
Trent Manning: 41:53
Well, tell the listeners how they can get ahold of you.
Dan Williams: 41:56
I do have Twitter. I just don’t remember what my,
Trent Manning: 42:01
I will, uh, I’ll look
Dan Williams: 42:02
but
Trent Manning: 42:03
we’ll tag you.
Dan Williams: 42:04
okay.
Trent Manning: 42:05
no worries at all.
Dan Williams: 42:07
just the RTT group WhatsApp group.
Trent Manning: 42:10
Yeah, I’ll definitely, uh, put a shout out to the RTT group and all the great people that are in there. They’re so awesome. We got a really, really good group of people in there. And I’m so thankful that they do what they do in there.
Dan Williams: 42:26
Yeah, it
Trent Manning: 42:28
for sure.
Dan Williams: 42:29
it’s awesome, man. Like just that group is awesome. This podcast is awesome. thank you for doing this.
Trent Manning: 42:36
Oh yeah. Yeah, no, thanks. Thanks for being a guest. I appreciate you being here I thank everybody else for listening.
Dan Williams: 42:43
Thank you for having me. it.
Trent Manning: 42:45
We’ll talk to you soon.
Dan Williams: 42:47
All right, man, take care.
Trent Manning: 42:49
I hope you enjoyed hearing from Dan. So awesome to have. A new person in the industry. And he’s not the youngest guy. Around, but is really great. To have somebody. New to our industry. And he’s only been doing this for eight or nine months. And look how far he is came. He’s seemed like he’s really got it together. And I know he probably has a long way to go, but don’t, we all. So I’m very thankful for him to be in our industry. And I think it’s on us to try to get more people in the industry. And a quick story. I had happen. This week I was up at the. Clubhouse. And there’s one of the young cart staff. Guys there. And I’ve, he was talking about the range picker and what was wrong with it? And just the way he talked, I could kind of tell he’s got some mechanical ability. So I talked to him a little bit more, you know, where where’d you learn? Why do you think it’s electrical problem? You know, he is telling me that it wouldn’t start and he thinks it’s electrical problem. And so, you know, he is explaining that. And then ends up. He’s got. Uh, Mazda Miata that he’s been. Restoring and modifying. Just, you know, as a hobby. So I asked him. Would you be interested in working in the shop? So I brought him down the shop, gave him the full. Tour and he called me. Yesterday and said, I would really like to work down there with you. So very exciting. And that’s how I quick it can happen. Is this picking up on what people saying? And If you think they have an interest in this industry? Bring them in, give it a try. What’s the worst that could happen. Next up huge shout out to the RTT group. On WhatsApp. We have a great group of people in there. so proud to see the interaction. On a daily basis of what they’re talking about, how they’re helping each other out. And if you wanna be a part of it, Send me an email, send me a DM. And I’ll get you in there. But everybody in there has one purpose. And that’s to help other people. And it’s been amazing. One, one of the best things that. Came around in a long time. And I wish we would’ve had something like that when I got started. But it’s good for. The veterans and it’s good for the new people. Because if we have knowledge to share, we’re happy to share it. And lastly, I want to talk about. The TTAC. First annual Eric Duncanson Memorial. Golf tournament and it’s to raise money for their benevolence fun. Is gonna be October 10th. At Carolina trace. Golf club in Stanford. North Carolina. And if there’s any way you can make it, even if you don’t play golf, if you just wanna come up and hang out for a day. I wanna do my best to be there. Hopefully I’ll have, uh, some real turf tech stickers by then. Gotta get those on order. But come out and hang out with us for a day. And is a good cause. Eric Duncanson was a great mentor to me. And not that he taught me a lot. About working on or fixing equipment. But he really done a lot for me. Getting me involved with GCSA. And teaching classes, one of the first classes I ever taught for GCSA. I was nervous as I could be in San Antonio. Texas, but I taught it with him. And if it hadn’t have been for him, I don’t know if I would’ve done it or not. he gave me the. The courage and the support. To put myself out there. Who knows. I might not even have a podcast right now. If it wasn’t for him. So I feel like I owe this man a lot. I know his wife and his daughter. Really great people. And I wanna do what we can to help ’em out. So please help support that. Cause. Until next time, see you by. 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.