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. I’m sitting here with Brian Lin. See Tim today. And we’re gonna do a little recap of the Carolina Show that we just got back from. Hey Brian, how you doing?
Bryan Epland: 0:37
I’m great, Trent. How are you doing?
Trent Manning: 0:39
Doing good, man. We started off at, uh, bombs on Sunday night. It’s, uh, My second year being there, and that’s the tradition. Everybody goes to bombs.
Bryan Epland: 0:50
Yeah, it was, uh, it was my first, uh, first year going down there and I definitely wanna go back next year for sure. I had a great time.
Trent Manning: 0:56
It’s so much fun. Just all the, the people you meet, there’s so many good people in the industry. I feel like a broken record because I say it all the time, but there really is a lot of good people
Bryan Epland: 1:07
Oh yeah. I mean, I, I can’t remember everybody’s name as I was going through my notes and stuff, trying to write down all the names and the people I met. I, I definitely forgot a few, and I apologize in advance for that, but,
Trent Manning: 1:17
Yeah, it’s, it’s hard to keep up with everyone, but I know when I got there, you were sitting there and I think Mike Rylands was sitting there and Kayla Kip, who else was with us?
Bryan Epland: 1:30
I think that was it. when you got there and then, uh, I think we chatted for a while. Then Brian Durant, he stopped by Jim Moria and then, The two assistants from East Lake joined us. I can’t remember their names.
Trent Manning: 1:42
Yeah, banks and Dustin,
Bryan Epland: 1:44
Yeah, those, they were great guys.
Trent Manning: 1:46
uh, that, that was so much fun. They were giving Mike Rawling such a hard time about being the Chief’s gate and, uh, they’re gonna change out the grounder. Grinders just so they could get free beers or free drinks. And yeah, that was a really, really good time. And it was great to see, uh, Brian Lore too.
Bryan Epland: 2:03
Yeah, it was great. I, I enjoyed talking to him. I definitely followed him on Twitter and Superintendent network and all that, so.
Trent Manning: 2:09
Well, and that’s kind of the other cool thing about, you know, this show and other shows, you get to put a, a face with a Twitter handle.
Bryan Epland: 2:17
Mm.
Trent Manning: 2:18
Cause we interact with these people all the time on Twitter. Never met ’em. Person to person.
Bryan Epland: 2:23
Yeah, it’s, it’s much, it’s much nicer to talk to somebody in person. I mean, it was my first time meeting you, my, pretty much all those people. So,
Trent Manning: 2:30
tell me a little bit about that. You paid your own way.
Bryan Epland: 2:34
since I’m going to the, the, uh, gis, I guess it’s called the trade show now, but, I didn’t expect, I didn’t want them, I didn’t want to ask to go to another show and have them pay for that as well. So I kind of treated it as a vacation for myself. and yeah, I paid my own way. I think it was, I dunno, somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 bucks for the room and like 400 for flights really wasn’t terrible. I must just be the off season and, and the location. But I wasn’t upset by, by any means.
Trent Manning: 2:59
Awesome. No, I’m so glad you came. And I think it says a lot about who you are and where you’re trying to go by, you know, making that investment and you could have met your next boss there
Bryan Epland: 3:13
Yeah, definitely man. It’s, it’s hard telling. You know, I’ve gotten, I’ve gotten big into personal growth and development and self, self analytical stuff and I thought that would be a great thing to do in network and get out, get outside the equipment management, side of things too, and talk to some other folks. And that’s what I did. So,
Trent Manning: 3:29
No, that’s awesome. So good. And I mean, that was the only reason I was there really. I mean, I was gonna speak on, uh, Wednesday, but I was just there to network. Same reason I came up last year. I was just there to, to network. And honestly for the podcast, me going last year was really, really good because I worked out a deal with Guy and Matt with GCI and a sponsorship with Foley to get a episode of Sponsor. And that’s the way this stuff happens.
Bryan Epland: 4:00
Yeah. Yeah, it’s, it’s a great thing.
Trent Manning: 4:03
And it, you know, it wasn’t like I set off last year like, oh, I’m gonna get the podcast. At this golf show, you know, I mean, it was just talking to ’em
Bryan Epland: 4:12
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 4:13
and they were like, Hey, you looking for a sponsor? Sure. And the next thing you know, we got a sponsor. So that, that part was really, really good. And this year, meeting a lot of, seeing a lot of the same faces and then meeting some new people.
Bryan Epland: 4:27
Yeah, they were, I don’t, there was only familiar faces from seeing guys online, but I definitely met a lot of people I didn’t know very through various, whether it be Twitter or WhatsApp or anything like that. So it was really great to meet those guys and gals.
Trent Manning: 4:40
That was another good thing too. There was a lot of people that’s in the WhatsApp group that was there too,
Bryan Epland: 4:45
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 4:46
so that was kind of cool. Chad Cancer, Jake Teeter that I wanna call Zach every time I see him. I don’t know why I got Zach in my head, but Jake’s awesome dude too.
Bryan Epland: 4:56
Yeah, he was great. Met him a few times.
Trent Manning: 4:59
Justin King, he’s in the WhatsApp and he was there.
Bryan Epland: 5:02
He showed, what did he show up Monday night?
Trent Manning: 5:04
yeah, he showed up, uh, Monday night. So yeah. So we hang out at bombs on Sunday night. Monday morning. Well, me and you and Mike met for breakfast.
Bryan Epland: 5:15
Yeah, Papa’s the place right across the street from us and down the street from you.
Trent Manning: 5:19
Yep. Killer uh, buffet breakfast.
Bryan Epland: 5:21
I guess we can’t say, Mike didn’t buy, buy anything. He’s, he’s one, he, he’s the one that gave us the, uh, breakfast tickets, wasn’t it?
Trent Manning: 5:28
Yes, but those tech, the, the tickets he got for free. So I don’t know that he really bought us breakfast. I’m not gonna let him off the hook that easy,
Bryan Epland: 5:37
Yeah,
Trent Manning: 5:38
but I do, I do appreciate it for sure.
Bryan Epland: 5:40
I
Trent Manning: 5:40
And
Bryan Epland: 5:41
I think after we had breakfast there and it was really good buffet, I thought, anyway, maybe I’m, maybe I’m just not picky, but didn’t we, what was the college called? The Horry Georgetown. Is that right?
Trent Manning: 5:50
Yeah. Horry Georgetown, and that’s where, for the listeners, that’s where they have the education for the technicians or equipment managers is at Hary, Georgetown. They, I don’t know what the deal is. I got, I’m assuming they rent a room over there. Huge room and first day, which we’ll get to in a minute. I think there was 140 people there. So it’s good size rooms. It’s got like three TV screens in it. yeah, so we ate breakfast, we went over there, helped, uh, Chad unload some true fuel. Fuel’s. Always a big sponsor of Ttac events.
Bryan Epland: 6:27
a couple coolers of soda.
Trent Manning: 6:29
Mm-hmm.
Bryan Epland: 6:30
Yeah. Chad’s right. I, I was glad I got to meet him. He’s a, he’s a great guy and has a great personality on him.
Trent Manning: 6:36
Yeah. Yeah, he’s a, he’s a big teddy bear.
Bryan Epland: 6:39
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 6:40
I went to shake his hand. He is like, come on man, gimme a hug.
Bryan Epland: 6:43
he did the same thing to me.
Trent Manning: 6:44
Yeah, no, he is a good dude. He’s awesome. And I mean, last year was, let’s see, I’d met him at East Lake last year, and then when I went to the show last year, He was my personal tour guide, you know, so this was my first time there and he took me all around the town and, you know, showed me where everything was and introduced me to everybody. We walked by. He said, this is Trent, he’s got a podcast. It was, I mean, it was hilarious. It was a little uncomfortable at times, but I mean, it was really nice of him to, to do that. Cause I’m not one to run around and, you know, wave my hand. Say, Hey, look at me. I got a podcast.
Bryan Epland: 7:22
Yeah, I mean, I think there a lot of, I equip manager that way. Were kind of the, uh, we were trying to stay out of the, the spotlight, if you would. I don’t think Chad’s one of him though. He’s, he’s the guy that gets out and, you know, he’s out. He’s, he’s loud. He’s, he’s, uh, got a great personality so,
Trent Manning: 7:36
Yeah, yeah. Yep, for sure. So we helped him unload the stuff and then we went over to the legends where they were having the golf tournament
Bryan Epland: 7:45
Yeah. Is that just where they had the Ttac tournament?
Trent Manning: 7:47
Yes. Yep. Just, and I don’t remember, it was like 35, 40 of the Ttac guys was playing golf there. Pretty small group. But it was pretty
Bryan Epland: 7:57
back, yeah. Oh yeah. It was like, what was it that day? Like 45 or something? It was
Trent Manning: 8:01
Yeah. For, for them. Not, not for you. It wasn’t chilly. For you. It
Bryan Epland: 8:04
No, no, that’s right. It was, it was 12 degrees when I left here the day before, so,
Trent Manning: 8:10
What was the attempt when you got back?
Bryan Epland: 8:11
it was in the low twenties.
Trent Manning: 8:13
Okay.
Bryan Epland: 8:13
And then today, right now, Sunday, it’s, it was 50 degrees here, so it’s, it’s a pretty big swing for whatever reason, I’m not sure. Just the time of year, I guess.
Trent Manning: 8:22
Well, and I’d always, you know, growing up, I’ve only grew up in Georgia and everybody says, oh, if you don’t like the weather, you know, wait, whatever, an hour or whatever it is. But what I’ve found in my travels, they say that everywhere you go
Bryan Epland: 8:35
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 8:36
and it’s pretty much true unless you’re in like San Diego, where it’s always 75 degrees and
Bryan Epland: 8:42
Yeah. Yeah. Like perfect. All the.
Trent Manning: 8:45
yeah, most other places, uh, weather shifting all the time.
Bryan Epland: 8:49
I mean, yeah, there’s, you know, and the guys north of me even would attest to it, but there’s days where the temperature’s just seven all day, you know, so,
Trent Manning: 8:56
Mm.
Bryan Epland: 8:56
so there’s no wait in an hour, but it’s, uh, you know, you get used to it. I grew up here, so it’s, it’s no big deal for me to walk outta the house at seven degrees in a sweatshirt and go to work.
Trent Manning: 9:06
Yeah. Yep. yeah, so we hung out over there for a little while, had lunch,
Bryan Epland: 9:11
Yeah. Who, who all came to lunch? I had like a sandwich and soup. That was really good. Kayla and Chad and then, uh, somebody else sat with us for a while, but
Trent Manning: 9:20
Yeah, I thought Jake, he sat
Bryan Epland: 9:22
Oh, yeah, yeah. It was Jake. He sat to my right. But I, uh, I was thinking about that yesterday, that waitress that kept giving Chad a hard time. It was funny.
Trent Manning: 9:29
oh, he was eating it up too. He’s like, oh, I love a waitress like that. Yeah, that, that was awesome. I mean, we just, we have a good time no matter what we’re doing.
Bryan Epland: 9:38
Oh yeah. I mean, and that’s why I was there cuz I was, you know, small mini vacation. So I was up for whatever and ended up having a great time. Every single thing we did, so.
Trent Manning: 9:47
okay, so Monday night or afternoon, five 30 or so, we met, PRI and Matt Loel, Russ Warner.
Bryan Epland: 9:57
Yeah, and Jimmy, I probably got their card sitting right here. I didn’t, I kept, didn’t catch her last names, but
Trent Manning: 10:03
From, uh, golf course Industry magazine. And then we had a surprise guest, drew Miller,
Bryan Epland: 10:09
yeah, he was great too.
Trent Manning: 10:11
was really really excited to, to meet him. And hopefully we will be working on a podcast in the near future
Bryan Epland: 10:18
I hope so. I watched a, watched a couple of his recent ones and he, he, he has a pretty good setup. I like it.
Trent Manning: 10:23
Yeah, he, he was showing us pictures of his whole studio and
Bryan Epland: 10:27
yeah, really cool setup with the TV behind him. And
Trent Manning: 10:30
yeah,
Bryan Epland: 10:30
what was the, that was the Ti Creek, uh, brew House. That was that, is that what That was called?
Trent Manning: 10:35
yep. Ti Creek Brew House.
Bryan Epland: 10:37
great.
Trent Manning: 10:38
Yeah. And it was cool cuz they were handing out stickers, so I gave em some real turf tech stickers while they’re hand em out. It was like, Hey, I got stickers too.
Bryan Epland: 10:46
yeah. I don’t, I don’t remember what you had. It looked really good. I had the forelle tacos there. They were really good.
Trent Manning: 10:51
Well, I had, uh, shrimp and grits and I mean, I’ve had shrimp and grits a lot and I love shrimp and grits, but this was like a different, a little different take on shrimp and grits. And it was a a grit cake.
Bryan Epland: 11:06
Yeah. Cause I asked you one point if it was cornbread. It,
Trent Manning: 11:09
Yeah. it looked more like cornbread.
Bryan Epland: 11:12
it looked good though.
Trent Manning: 11:13
Yeah, it was, it was delicious. It was so good. Good. How was the beer?
Bryan Epland: 11:18
Uh, I was, I was drinking vodka. I have no idea.
Trent Manning: 11:21
right, that’s right. Yep.
Bryan Epland: 11:23
Yeah, they looked at me weird, but I went and ordered a bobcat, a brewery, but I stay away from the brewery So,
Trent Manning: 11:27
Yep. That’s self development right there.
Bryan Epland: 11:30
Yeah.
Trent Manning: 11:31
You gotta know. You gotta know what to drink.
Bryan Epland: 11:33
Mm-hmm. and how much
Trent Manning: 11:35
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And how much. I made the mistake cuz I got into drinking, uh, IPAs for a long time and I still love an ipa. And then I, I realized if I was going out drinking at these things that I couldn’t drink. IPAs not near as many anyway, so
Bryan Epland: 11:53
yeah, cuz it’s easy to get carried away. You know, you get to talking and then your, your beer is gone before you know it, Yeah. But
Trent Manning: 11:59
Self control people what it is self.
Bryan Epland: 12:03
Yeah. I didn’t have it that night for sure. After the, GCI dinner,
Trent Manning: 12:07
Yeah. So after, uh, gci, we went over back to Bums. That was like the, the local hangout. And, uh, JRM had a little shindig, the hvs, and I was so full, I didn’t even eat anything, but it was packed in there too. And the other thing, the, uh, acoustics and. Bombs is really good, I guess, because you can’t hear anything. What I mean, it gets D roaring in there.
Bryan Epland: 12:32
That corner we found in the back that night, the JRM night, um, it was a little better. You could actually talk to the folks sitting right next to you. But the first night we were there, you couldn’t, I was yelling, talking to you right next to me. So,
Trent Manning: 12:42
Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, so that’s the night Justin showed up. Uh, Michael Shelton was in
Bryan Epland: 12:48
yeah. Yeah, I talked to both them, at both them. yeah, I don’t, I don’t know how every time, it seemed like every time I turned around whether somebody bought it or. I definitely over indulged, that’s for sure. You were just talking about how to
Trent Manning: 12:59
Well, yeah. They were, uh, handing out drink tickets left and right.
Bryan Epland: 13:03
Oh yeah. I mean, I staggered back to the motel at, I don’t know what time it was 1230 and I still had three or four in my pocket. So
Trent Manning: 13:10
Oh, wow.
Bryan Epland: 13:11
yeah, I got a little outta control, but it was fun. I had a great
Trent Manning: 13:15
Uh, it was good. It was a really good time. And then, yeah, we got to see, uh, Thad Thompson
Bryan Epland: 13:21
yeah, yeah. He
Trent Manning: 13:22
his and his brother. That was very cool running into them.
Bryan Epland: 13:26
Yeah, I talked to a gentleman by the name of Ben Ashburn about fixing his Bernhard grinders. I guess he’s granted a smile on it, and I was trying to explain to him how to, how to fix it, but I said, it’s just easier to do in person somebody close by that knows how to
Trent Manning: 13:38
Yep. Yep, yep. And I mean, that’s the great thing about, about that, yeah. You’re networking and making connections and you can help somebody out too, or you can get help, you know, two way street for sure. And yeah, hopefully, uh, I tried to get Ben linked up with Chris Langley too, so I don’t know. Hope. Hopefully he gets some help and he’s in the watch out group. He hears this. Just reach out to us and uh, we, we’ll get, we’ll get you some help somehow. I was on the phone with, uh, Dan Williams on FaceTime Friday afternoon, talking about Foley Grinder.
Bryan Epland: 14:17
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 14:18
He’s got both sets. So he is got a set of Foley and a set of be hearts and he’s been primarily using the burn hearts and he is wanting to start learning on the Foley. So we’re kind of walking through some of the
Bryan Epland: 14:31
I mean, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a learning curve for sure. Going from burnhard to fo, that’s what I did. But now it’s, It’s, it’s so easy.
Trent Manning: 14:38
one. I mean, I think that’s one of the. Bad things about Foley is there is a little bit of learning curve and I mean, I guess burn harder. There’s a learning curve too, if you’ve never used one. But if, if you get used to one grinder and then you try to learn another grinder, that learning curve that you face kind of deters people from, you know, pushing forward. And I know now my Foley, I’m, set up pretty quick,
Bryan Epland: 15:02
Yeah,
Trent Manning: 15:03
you know, it don’t take that.
Bryan Epland: 15:05
a few minutes maybe now. And relief you stick me forever. Cause I was afraid to screw it up, you know? And now it’s, you know,
Trent Manning: 15:12
Yep.
Bryan Epland: 15:13
But I think that’s the biggest thing, you know, just going from a burn hard to a fully it.
Trent Manning: 15:18
yeah, it gets to be second nature after you do it. And I mean, I’ve talked about this before, but. Back in the days of grinding reels, once a year you would forget, you know, even though that was your only grinder, you forgot all the setup stuff. And then by the time you ground all your cutting units that winter, you had it figured out and then you didn’t do it again for nothing. But now where we’re grounded almost every day, something going through there, you just get used to the setup and flows pretty.
Bryan Epland: 15:47
Yeah, I think I’m, uh, we’re going into winter. I think I’m off the grinders until the show, so hopefully they collect some dust and I’ll have touch ’em. But we’ll see.
Trent Manning: 15:54
So Tuesday morning we went over for, uh, education at h George.
Bryan Epland: 16:00
Yeah, I, uh, I woke up with, you know, one eye open, kind of waking up, and I think he picked me up at like seven 15 or something. And I, I know sooner I got into the place and I went and got my badge and the swag that the, which was great that they handed that stuff out and. And I walked right back out the door. I went back to the motel and went back to bed until about noon, I think, and I was feeling it. I was
Trent Manning: 16:20
with that. Yeah. I remember when you got in the car like you’re right, and you’re like, I’m hurting. hurting But that’s all right. You weren’t the only one hurting. I know that, that he, he was pretty sideways that night. I don’t know how he was feeling the next morning, but he wasn’t feeling too good. And then I think, uh, Justin King too. He was, he got a little sideways too.
Bryan Epland: 16:42
Yeah, I talked to him, uh, after we left, uh, dinner that next night. I said, I said, he said, man, I’m in jail. See you. Once I found out you went back to the motel and took a nap, I was like, uh, you know,
Trent Manning: 16:52
yeah. Gotta do what you gotta do.
Bryan Epland: 16:53
I probably should have suffered through cuz it was my fault that I felt that way, but I wasn’t feeling it, that’s for sure. But,
Trent Manning: 16:59
So Monday morning, one of the first classes was a kind of split class. Greg Womble, he done tractor and then Deere Toro and Jake, along with their respected grinding companies, done a real technology class. So they done that in the morning, and then after lunch, they flip flopped and done the whole setup again. also had. A ttac meeting from one to two and elected a new president. Daniel Barnes?
Bryan Epland: 17:31
Yeah. Cause it was Greg, is that correct?
Trent Manning: 17:34
Yes.
Bryan Epland: 17:35
Cause I’m not, I’m not familiar with Ttac, so.
Trent Manning: 17:37
yeah. Uh, one, yeah, no relation, but Greg Barnes was going out and Daniel Barnes was coming in,
Bryan Epland: 17:44
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 17:44
and then I think, uh, Joe is Joe Maria’s vice president.
Bryan Epland: 17:49
That was great to see.
Trent Manning: 17:50
Yeah, there was a, I think it was a toss up between him and Chad and I don’t know, Joe drew the short end of the stick or something
Bryan Epland: 17:58
That’s all right. You know, it’s, it’s, I think it’s, uh, rewarding to do that. You.
Trent Manning: 18:03
no, it’s awesome. Awesome for those guys to do that. And then Tim Krieger came by and he’s the executive director of the Carolina’s chapter, and gave a really nice little speech about how important equipment managers. And said, if your superintendent or director’s not telling you how important you are to, uh, let him know. And he would call them and tell them to, to get with the program. And I thought that was, that was pretty cool.
Bryan Epland: 18:31
I think it’s important to have support across the board, you know, and, and the light. You know, the sunlight’s finally starting to shine on, the mechanical side of the industry a little bit, which is good.
Trent Manning: 18:39
yeah, for sure. And. I mean, just in the last five or six years, it’s, it’s amazing how much more, uh, notoriety we got. And I mean, like you said earlier, we like to be the people behind the scenes, but it’s still nice to, uh, have your work appreciated.
Bryan Epland: 18:56
You know, I will say since I’ve pushed myself and with the N G C S A and all that stuff, and doing networking events like this, it’s brought me outta my shell a lot. Like, I don’t mind being in front of people and speaking anymore or going up and talking to people and meeting them. So it’s a really good thing to do that and, and network a little bit, but
Trent Manning: 19:13
it was funny on when I did my thing Wednesday after that was over, I was talking to Kelly and she said, do you even get nervous anymore? And I really don’t. And I remember it wasn’t that long ago, you know, five years ago. Where, I mean, I was ready to throw up in the corner. I was so nervous and so anxious about getting up in front of a group and speaking, and I mean, it’s, it’s crazy. If you would’ve told me five years ago that you would be doing this, say you’re nuts. There’s no way I can’t do it.
Bryan Epland: 19:44
Yeah. And now it comes kind of natural and it. It’s just nice. I, and, and the way they did that with the, how people kind of give feedback and ask questions and stuff, that was, that was nice, I thought, instead of waiting
Trent Manning: 19:54
On, uh, Wednesday morning.
Bryan Epland: 19:56
Yeah. Yep.
Trent Manning: 19:57
Yeah. yeah, I can’t remember the superintendent’s name. It was Jason something, and he was from somewhere in the mountain. And they were talking about trying to get more people into the industry and how we can do that and what’s it gonna take and
Bryan Epland: 20:11
Yeah, he, he actually made a lot of good points. And some of the folks from the crowd or from the class did too. I thought.
Trent Manning: 20:18
yeah, no, there, there, yeah. There’s a lot of good ideas, uh, floating around there.
Bryan Epland: 20:22
and the one that actually stood out to me the most was TikTok, because all these kids are on TikTok, right? I mean, I’m on there too, and.
Trent Manning: 20:29
Mm-hmm.
Bryan Epland: 20:30
I know some of the younger guys at our golfers make TikTok, so that could be a way to promote, like, this job can be fun too,
Trent Manning: 20:36
Yeah. One of our assistant superintendents, he is the, he has the handle of turf talk on TikTok,
Bryan Epland: 20:45
okay.
Trent Manning: 20:46
I forget, he’s got, I don’t know, like quarter million followers or something. I mean, it’s crazy that my, yeah, he’s. He really, uh, blew up. I don’t know exactly how, and he’s all the time doing, you know, talks for, uh, different things, you know, changing cups or
Bryan Epland: 21:02
Yeah, I mean, you could do that for promotional and for learning exercises, everything. I mean, just little one minute videos or short clip.
Trent Manning: 21:10
Yeah, I don’t know. I’m gonna have to get outta my comfort zone, I guess, and, uh, give it a try. I’ve been thinking about it, but I just hadn’t pulled the trigger yet.
Bryan Epland: 21:17
Well, yeah, I mean, if you need help, let me know. I, but I’m not very experienced with it either. So know
Trent Manning: 21:22
When is, is different like when you’re doing harvest and you got five minutes on a, a straight
Bryan Epland: 21:29
Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes a half hour, but yeah. Yeah, I’ve, uh, I think, uh, got, uh, Matt is supposed to be emailing me tomorrow to set up that podcast with him.
Trent Manning: 21:37
Okay. Awesome.
Bryan Epland: 21:38
So he did. I reached out to him at the show again. He said, oh yeah, I’ll get ahold of you like Monday, and I think he wants to do it sometime after Thanksgiving, which I think will be a lot of fun
Trent Manning: 21:46
Yeah, yeah,
Bryan Epland: 21:47
that that one will put me outside my comfort level for sure.
Trent Manning: 21:50
Oh no. It’ll all be good, man. That’ll be good. So to fill the listeners in, Matt Lel is gonna get Brian on Is it off course? Yeah, I think it’s off course.
Bryan Epland: 22:00
Then I think, aren’t you, you and, drew are setting something up, aren’t you?
Trent Manning: 22:03
Yeah. Yeah. I need to, I’ll probably reach out to Drew, uh, tomorrow maybe and see what we can get lined up. I would love to go up there and do it at his cool studio, you know, and kind of pick his brain too and, you know, see what kind of equipment he’s got and, All the things he’s doing up there, but, and do you remember, didn’t he have some people that might be interested in the mechanic side of things?
Bryan Epland: 22:28
yes. Um, I don’t remember exactly what we talked about. I know. I don’t know if it was like students and you wanted to get them involved or what it was.
Trent Manning: 22:35
Well, and he was talking about building a shop
Bryan Epland: 22:39
Oh, yeah. He showed me the plans for that too. And he was, yes, trying to start a, not an equipment manager, but more of a small, small engine thing. Is that what it was?
Trent Manning: 22:47
I don’t remember
Bryan Epland: 22:48
I think they had an auto lift in it too, so maybe it is that, but yeah, I told him to reach out if he needed a. the tools and things like that that we use on the day to day.
Trent Manning: 22:56
Yeah, I’ll definitely follow up with him on that too and see what he needs.
Bryan Epland: 23:00
yeah, he was a very nice guy.
Trent Manning: 23:02
Cause I, I would love to be a part and I’m sure there’s a lot of listeners that would love to be a, a part of that.
Bryan Epland: 23:08
So where, where is that at? I know it’s Brentsville.
Trent Manning: 23:10
Yeah, I think it’s outside DC
Bryan Epland: 23:12
Okay. Oh, so maybe is it in Virginia then?
Trent Manning: 23:15
I’m not, yeah, that I’m not a hundred percent sure. I’ll have to look
Bryan Epland: 23:19
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 23:20
that I’ve got, uh, I got quite a few things to look up here. off to slow start.
Bryan Epland: 23:26
Yeah. It never ends. Does.
Trent Manning: 23:28
No, it doesn’t. Yeah, all the things that you run across. And Kayla told me, uh, about this old, it was made by a caterpillar and it’s, uh, shake hands with danger on YouTubes. Yeah. And it was like 20 minutes long or something, but it was so good.
Bryan Epland: 23:47
Oh, they’re funny. They’re, they’re cheat. Super cheesy. You’ve never seen those.
Trent Manning: 23:51
Uh, no, no, I hadn’t.
Bryan Epland: 23:54
funny.
Trent Manning: 23:54
was uh, that was really.
Bryan Epland: 23:56
Wow. They’re not funny, but the, the cheesiness to em is funny.
Trent Manning: 23:59
Yeah, they’re pretty cheesy and a little gory too.
Bryan Epland: 24:02
Yep.
Trent Manning: 24:03
Yeah. Like, like the guy that sticks his, uh, hand through a cylinder and then it gets retracted and
Bryan Epland: 24:08
Yes.
Trent Manning: 24:09
yeah. Oh yeah. Rough times. But no, that, that was good stuff. Well, what else do we do?
Bryan Epland: 24:15
I mean, yeah, we’ve, we’ve kind of compressed it down into, you know, we could have talked about each subject a lot more, but, one thing we haven’t touched on is the trade show, which I had a blast there and I met a ton of people and talked to folks that I wouldn’t normally talk to. So, I had, I had a great time, talking with, Phil, Phillip, uh, The, Engineer for JR.
Trent Manning: 24:33
Oh yeah, yeah. The,
Bryan Epland: 24:34
I I spent like 45 minutes talking to him about the reels and the steel and all that stuff. And it was, it was super informative and it was a lot of valuable information and I, I really want to try him. So we’re gonna set up a meeting with him, I hope soon and do a Zoom call.
Trent Manning: 24:48
Yeah, definitely. Uh, keep us posted too, if you try the reels
Bryan Epland: 24:51
Yeah. I think for me being Bentgrass, it’s not gonna be, you know, super informative for you guys, but anybody with bank rats, I think it will. I definitely wanna try ’em. I’m getting ready to replace a bunch of reels, so,
Trent Manning: 25:03
Don’t I have a spare set of QA five s for fairway mowers that needs a new set of reels, and I was kind of thinking about giving
Bryan Epland: 25:14
yeah. And that, that thicker steel, you would think, I don’t know.
Trent Manning: 25:18
on that. Yeah.
Bryan Epland: 25:19
And the hardness they’ve got, it worked, worked out. It’s, they’re a little harder than I think the JD reels is what he was telling me. But they’re, they’re, they’re less harder than bed knives, so they’re right in between.
Trent Manning: 25:29
Right, right. Yeah. I mean, it sounded like he’d put in a lot of work, a lot of time and effort, really dialing it in and
Bryan Epland: 25:36
they’re, they’ve got the pedigree the, the Tys, so I gotta imagine have come a long ways.
Trent Manning: 25:42
be. Yeah. I definitely think their business model and the, the company. You know, they want to make a quality product and then stand behind it.
Bryan Epland: 25:52
I hope to get down the factory next time I’m down there. So
Trent Manning: 25:55
Oh yeah, for sure.
Bryan Epland: 25:56
is That is that in North Carolina or is that at,
Trent Manning: 25:58
Yep. I don’t remember the na. Yeah, it’s north of Charlotte in North Carolina. But before you get to Raleigh, kind of in between Raleigh and
Bryan Epland: 26:09
Well, I’ll be down there in February I think. So maybe I’ll stop by.
Trent Manning: 26:12
So who else do you meet on the trade show floor?
Bryan Epland: 26:14
so I talked to the GCI guys again. I talked to the Weedman rep cuz we run a bunch of weedman equipment. They learned to learn about one of their new pieces of equipment and then, uh, I talked to John Deere and he ran me through their sprayer cuz we were, uh, we’re up going to the HD 300 with the GPS and the individual nozzle control. So I ran the ag side of, John Deere gps and I knew how to run all that. And he said, okay, well it’s the exact same, it’s just a little different. So he ran me through everything and how to set up, uh, like tease, fair, raise your perimeters and all that stuff. Pretty straightforward and simple. Then you’ve got a map online, which, uh, kinda like Google Maps and I’d never seen that before. So it was pretty neat to see all
Trent Manning: 26:58
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. And that’s the John Deere gps.
Bryan Epland: 27:03
Yes. Yep. I didn’t stop by the other couple boos. I just, I, for me it wasn’t an interest because I wasn’t really gonna be dealing with that currently,
Trent Manning: 27:12
right, right. Yeah. One of the classes they had, I think Tuesday morning, the first class they had, it was, uh, some guys that they have some kind of GPS sprayer retrofit on to the ear Toro.
Bryan Epland: 27:26
Yeah. I walked by it. It looked, uh, looked interesting, but I didn’t have the chance to meet him.
Trent Manning: 27:29
Now what, uh, on that, are y’all gonna have a base station on site, or are you using a sale?
Bryan Epland: 27:36
there’s a couple of ’em around us just because ag is so big here, so I don’t know if we’ll pay or if we’ll do one on site. I’m not sure how that’ll work yet, but, I know everything will have, uh, GPS on it and it’ll track hours and I’ll let everything for you. So just takes one headache away
Trent Manning: 27:51
Yeah. Yeah. No, that would be.
Bryan Epland: 27:53
and I’m not, I’m not sure. Say I had a Toro and I wanted to add it into on Lake. I’m not sure if you can add the GPS functionality to that or not. I don’t know how that works yet.
Trent Manning: 28:02
Yeah, I’m, I’m not sure. I did ask, when I was doing my tips and tricks presentation, I asked, uh, Craig Kenny, if you could add non dear equipment to the on link. And he said you could. But yeah, I don’t know
Bryan Epland: 28:16
Yeah, I remember him talking to you about that. I just don’t remember if gps or any of that was mentioned or our. And if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
Trent Manning: 28:24
Yeah, I would think they would. They’d have to incorporate some of that stuff where you can at least get the equipment in track that you might have to manually.
Bryan Epland: 28:33
Yep. Trying to see if I have their card. There was one booth I stopped by cause I told, we talked about how I want to do a class over hydraulics and some diagnostic stuff. At GIS sometime next couple years. And they had this pump system and it had pressure gauges on it and had some clear tubing so you could see flow. And I was, I was asking about their setup They walked me right through it and I, I, you know, I said I’m not really interested in the product, but I explained I wanted to educate and, and they, so they walked me through everything they had and it was really nice. But, so I got some ideas cause I don’t wanna run, hydraulic fluid. Do a class on that. I want, I wanna do it with water, so it’s safer. And even if there was a spill, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but,
Trent Manning: 29:13
That would be so cool.
Bryan Epland: 29:14
yep. So I’m gonna try and do some flow meters and some tests, low pressure testing and things like that. But
Trent Manning: 29:20
Let me know if you need help with that.
Bryan Epland: 29:21
I, yeah, I’m in the planning
Trent Manning: 29:23
that is awesome.
Bryan Epland: 29:24
I’m gonna try
Trent Manning: 29:24
and well, no, I’m holding you to it. You’re gonna get it. I’ll help you if I need to, but I mean, seriously, that’d be such a good class at gis. And we always want to do, I say we, but you know, the group of people that instruct, you want to do hydraulics and that kind of stuff, but just like you’re talking about, you can’t bring a machine in there and be breaking it apart and hydraulic
Bryan Epland: 29:48
Right. Yeah. And then, then you’re working with high pressure and it’s just, it’s just not safe. So if you’re talking 30 psi of water, that’s no big deal at all. it spills, who cares?
Trent Manning: 29:57
would be
Bryan Epland: 29:57
Yep.
Trent Manning: 29:58
That’d be super cool.
Bryan Epland: 30:00
Yeah. I’m gonna, I’m gonna look into it. I’m gonna get back. I mean, you know, first year I’ll start looking into building something, but it’ll be a lot of fun.
Trent Manning: 30:06
When, so you and the listeners know normally end of February, you gotta submit your proposal for teaching at gis or call conference and call now.
Bryan Epland: 30:19
Yeah. I can’t keep track.
Trent Manning: 30:21
show and conference or something? Conference and trade show.
Bryan Epland: 30:24
think
Trent Manning: 30:25
Conference and trade show.
Bryan Epland: 30:26
I just call it GIS still. Maybe I shouldn’t
Trent Manning: 30:29
Well, no, it’s fine. I think, I think it’ll always beat you so much
Bryan Epland: 30:34
what, what did you enjoy in the trade show? What did, what was something new that.
Trent Manning: 30:37
talk to people I knew I went by the stack booth and using some of their products. We’ve got a roary from them, so talking to them, just kinda rekindling some of those connections and talked to Ron bla with Foley.
Bryan Epland: 30:52
Mm.
Trent Manning: 30:53
Talked to Matt and Guy gci. Talked to, uh, I can’t remember the gentleman’s name, with uh, Southco to kind of see what their production was looking like cuz we were looking at getting a couple HP P 11 threes or whatever
Bryan Epland: 31:09
Yeah, we’ve, we’ve got one of those. They’re, they’re great. I wish we could get another one cause we’ve got just the HP 11 to back that up.
Trent Manning: 31:16
well, where I am now. So, and at one club, We have, uh, the true turf, so we wanna replace it with a HP 11 three. And then my club, we have one HP 11 three, and it’s fine Monday through Friday, but on the weekends when we do a double T start, we really need the
Bryan Epland: 31:37
Mm.
Trent Manning: 31:39
second’s hard to get in front of golf. So we’re looking at getting two of ’em, but talking like a year. Getting product. If we order it today, we want next December.
Bryan Epland: 31:50
Yeah, I, I asked, uh, SALs co on that, specifically at HP 11 three, there’s some grease fittings that are really, really hard to get to. I mean, you gotta about bend your arm and a pretzel to get to. I said, is it, do you offer a remote grease kit for this? He just said, no. I’m like, well, I didn’t ask. Why not, but I think I’m gonna get one.
Trent Manning: 32:08
Yeah. It’d be easy. Easy enough to rig up.
Bryan Epland: 32:11
Mm-hmm.
Trent Manning: 32:12
I’m glad you said that. So our HP 11 three, I don’t know how long, I mean, over a year at least. And I had, uh, the pivot bearing go out on two roller side, and that’s my fault. I take all the blame. But those were not filled from the factory with grease. They had some grease around the barren, but the whole cavity was not.
Bryan Epland: 32:36
Right.
Trent Manning: 32:37
because I put like 150 pumps in each one of them. I mean, luckily I had, I had a battery powered,
Bryan Epland: 32:42
you know, I, I not you say that I’ve, I’ve pumped like 10 pumps in mine, you know, but I never did get it to come out. Maybe that’s,
Trent Manning: 32:49
Well, and that’s what I was getting at too. That’s what we had been doing. So we were doing our normal service and putting 10 pumps in each one and going about our day, and then we had that one fail. and I take it apart and there was some grease in there, but it was all right in the middle and it hadn’t worked out to the Barings. And I’m like, well, this ain’t right. So then I checked all the other ones and they were all that way, you know? And I don’t know if that was just one my one machine that made it through, or if that was
Bryan Epland: 33:18
hard tell, stuff gets forgotten. There’s a lot of grease shirts on those. So
Trent Manning: 33:24
Yep. Easy enough to forget. Hector would’ve not been proud of us. Keep those irks. Greased.
Bryan Epland: 33:31
Yeah. He just, uh, come out with a, a cutaway engine, which was really cool without the block
Trent Manning: 33:36
Yeah, I saw that on, uh, Twitter.
Bryan Epland: 33:38
but that was neat. That’s something I’m gonna do for the local chapter is do a cutaway engine for some classes and stuff, so that could be
Trent Manning: 33:45
Why don’t tell us a little bit about your, uh, local chapter that you got going.
Bryan Epland: 33:49
Yeah, so I, I contacted them last January. I sent an email out, just, just throwing the, you know, throwing the bait out, fishing, and she called me, right, I mean, Katie, uh, bogs. She called me right away like 10 minutes later and I was busy that day, so I called her back the next day. We ended up talking for like 15, 20 minutes about what I was kind of wanting to do with the EM side of things and teach classes and have some events and stuff for everybody, not just em, to attend and do some learning and have some opportunities to meet new people. And so we had a, a first, uh, EM event, EM only event kind of, uh, invite, I think it was in May. And I had three guys show up, which was great. You know, I was super happy. We kind of talked and went over kind of what we wanted to get out of it and what we wanted to do. And then, so over the whole summer, uh, we wanted to do something in late October and we planned it throughout the entire summer. Uh, ended up getting hold of our, uh, regional or our local still representative, Chris Edens. And he came in and talked about some modern battery powered things and some things they have come down the pipeline. He talked about cost effectiveness, uh, gas versus electric or battery powered. So it was pretty informative. And then, uh, we had a guy come from, I believe it was easy go to talk about some of their new lithium stuff. I think some people learned some stuff there. And then I went over some real theory, bed knife theory in relation to sand and, uh, how all those angles worked together. Had a lot of great questions come out of that and uh, had some people take some good information away from. And then, uh, guy by the name of Jordan Roth, he’s another em up here. He went over digital bolt meters and went over a lot of ways to test, circuits and everything, which I really wish I would’ve taken that and just seen his side of things. But, and a gentleman by the name of Mark Thomas and Em, and Lincoln here, uh, he went over DPF systems. He brought, brought in a, uh, a diesel exhaust filter and took it apart and showed how they worked. How it was sod on one side and clean on the other and how, how all that worked and you explained to how the chemical reaction works and all that stuff. So it was really neat and a lot of fun. And we were able to provide, uh, lunch for free through a local sponsor. So
Trent Manning: 35:51
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that was awesome.
Bryan Epland: 35:53
I think I had 40 people show up for a first event, which was crazy. I mean, I expected like 15, 20 or something. So it was really good feedback and hopefully we can do some more of that stuff in the.
Trent Manning: 36:04
No, that is awesome. Well, and Diana came up too,
Bryan Epland: 36:07
She did, she spoke about the C 10 process and which was super great, and then they ended up giving away a trip to gis and Jordan Roth was the one that got that, so it was really cool.
Trent Manning: 36:18
Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. So who gave away the trip? Was it G C S A
Bryan Epland: 36:23
Yeah. Yep. Yeah, they, they’ve got some funding for some stuff like that when they do events like that, so.
Trent Manning: 36:29
Yeah. Yeah.
Bryan Epland: 36:30
And I got to draw, I got to draw it out of the the hat so everybody would be mad at me when they didn’t get it.
Trent Manning: 36:36
Alright. Right No, that’s awesome though. Very cool. We got Diana coming down to our seminar here in Georgia in January, so super excited about that. And Chad Bro’s gonna be down here, so it’s gonna be a good time.
Bryan Epland: 36:50
yeah.
Trent Manning: 36:51
And we’re gonna try to get together a little, uh, little shop tour
Bryan Epland: 36:55
Ansley
Trent Manning: 36:55
while well, yeah. While, uh, well no. So the seminars at Cherokee Town and Country, which is not too far from, and, uh, since Chad hadn’t been down in this area, we’re gonna go over and see John at the Athletic Club, John Patterson. Try to go see Corey Phillips at Atlanta Country Club. Maybe see Charlie Carr at Hawks Ridge, but just, you know, visit some of the, Chad, see some different places.
Bryan Epland: 37:26
Yeah. It’s a different ballgame down there. Just the, the grass varieties and everything. It’s, it’s a lot different.
Trent Manning: 37:31
Yeah, yeah. And we go 365 too,
Bryan Epland: 37:34
Yep.
Trent Manning: 37:35
you know, where we’re at. There’s, and I mean, don’t get wrong, we slow down. We’re not Florida, we don’t speed up in the wintertime like they do in Florida. We stay busy for sure.
Bryan Epland: 37:45
Yeah, we’re, uh, we’re busy, but the grass isn’t grown, so we’ve always got projects, trees, and refinishing things, and there’s always something going on. If we, if the ground’s not frozen, we’ll do some, um, projects, you know, that involve digging and things like that. So,
Trent Manning: 37:59
I don’t, so when the snow falls there in Nebraska, is it on the ground for all winter?
Bryan Epland: 38:06
Uh, no. I mean, you get, you get warmups and the sun the sun will melt it too. So even if it is 25 degrees, the sun will melt the snow.
Trent Manning: 38:13
Mm-hmm.
Bryan Epland: 38:14
So, generally speaking, you’ll get, you’ll get a, if you get snow in December, it’ll stay around until like January, and then you’ll get a melt, and then you’ll get a couple more snows.
Trent Manning: 38:22
Okay. Yeah. Not like, uh, our boys up in Canada. where where once it is the ground, you’re done.
Bryan Epland: 38:29
we have years where it does stay around all year, but for the most part in the last 10 years it’s been pretty mild.
Trent Manning: 38:35
Mm-hmm. Yep. Very good. Brian, you got anything else you wanna about?
Bryan Epland: 38:41
Uh, I don’t think so. I think we pretty much covered the trip. It was, it was a great time. I mean, I’m definitely gonna try to come back next year if, if time and, budget allows. It
Trent Manning: 38:49
And another one to think about is the new English show in March.
Bryan Epland: 38:54
yeah, that would
Trent Manning: 38:55
That’s another, that’s another good show.
Bryan Epland: 38:57
when that is cuz that’s kind of right when we start picking up. So It’s hard to
Trent Manning: 39:01
It’s like the first weekend
Bryan Epland: 39:03
Oh, oh, that’d be easy to do. Yeah. I could do.
Trent Manning: 39:06
that was, that was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed that. And just, you know, with me being in the south and going to the Carolinas, I know a lot of these people down here, so it was really nice to go up. There were, I didn’t know anybody up there when I got there, so that, that was really
Bryan Epland: 39:23
Yeah. And it kind of forced you to, you wanna meet, you want to meet people versus already knowing. That’s something I noticed at the Carolinas, things I found myself going up. People I didn’t know, talking to ’em simply cuz I wanted to know who they were and network with them and, and try and spread some similar ideas maybe.
Trent Manning: 39:40
Yeah. Yeah. No, it was awesome. It was a great time. Yeah. I had so much fun. And uh, thanks for letting me be your Uber driver.
Bryan Epland: 39:46
Hey, you’re the best Uber driver I had the whole time, so you let me, let me ride in the front seat. And you only yelled at me about, about my seatbelt, I think one time. So
Trent Manning: 39:55
that’s, that’s all it took just one time.
Bryan Epland: 39:57
Yeah, no, it was a great time. I really appreciate that. It saved me money on, on a rental car too, so
Trent Manning: 40:02
Yeah. No, I mean, I was, I was going anyway and my hotel was just a mile or what, A half a mile away. So no big deal to swing by there. Yeah. No, that, that was good. Yeah. I had a really good time and uh, I’m really glad you. And to everybody else that I talked to while I was there. I’m glad I got.
Bryan Epland: 40:23
Yeah, it was, it was a lot of fun. I’m, I’m super happy. Got to meet everybody there and I hope everybody that did meet me is listening and I mean, it was great to meet you in person and I appreciate everything that you and Mike bras and everybody else that puts an effort in this industry to make it better, appreciate all the effort. it’s amazing. I mean, I’ve only been in it, what, seven years now? I mean, there’s no, there’s no limit to where you can take yourself and if you just ask for help, it’s, you know, you always get an answer.
Trent Manning: 40:47
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that’s a, it is a great point and I gu I take it for granted cuz I have been doing this so long. But you can learn so much in a short amount of time if you surround yourself by like-minded people. And at the end of the day, that’s what this podcast is about. And the real turf tech community is like-minded people. We all enjoy what we do for the most part. There might be a couple. That, uh, get a little grumpy from time to time, but for the most part, we enjoy what we do we wanna make ourselves better, and we wanna make other people better if they choose to go that route.
Bryan Epland: 41:23
Yeah, I’m not, I’m not one to hold information to myself. I’m always trying to spread it.
Trent Manning: 41:28
Yeah, for sure. 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.