Our Equipment over the years...

[PR0 TURF]

Originally Posted by noahb195

Love your uniforms! That 20ft haulmark is PUUURRRRRTTTTY!!!! What year was that old service body? That thing was beautiful!!
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Noah...the GMC utility body we had a while back was a 1992...had the 6.5 diesel...I loved that truck! It had over 200k miles on it & eventually we scrapped it I believe.

[PR0 TURF]

Originally Posted by Z-master man

Quick question PRO-TURF, who manufactures the dump bodies that you have on the smaller dumps?

We have an Iroquois body on our F-350 & a Smith body on our F-550. I absolutely love the stainless bodies. They're bullet proof, year after year they never show signs of aging. We plan on keeping the bodies and transferring them from truck to truck as we sell the older trucks. The bodies last forever...our Smith body is 12 years old & looks good as new.

[PR0 TURF]

Originally Posted by trt01

Hey Pro Turf,
Its taken me a few days to get through this whole forum. I have been educated. I am wondering if you have any more info on Service Autopilot? You mentioned it earlier and just wondering what your experience was. Or are you still using Groundskeeper Pro? Thanks

Trt01...we no longer use Groundskeeper. Groundskeeper treated us well & I definitely recommend it for someone starting out due to the low cost & ease of use etc. We eventually out grew GKeeper & switched to SAP. I love SAP. It's not perfect, but for what we do it's great. The company is also great to deal with...their technical support team is very helpful whenever you have a question. If you have any specific questions about it just let me know and I'll try to answer them.

[PR0 TURF]

Originally Posted by roeslandscaping

sq/ft or cubic feet?

It's listed as square feet. Here is the link for the same stove that we have...http://www.homedepot.com/buy/buildin...ace-65532.html

Thanks for posting the video of the New Castle puller...definitely going to try one of those out this year.

[PR0 TURF]

Originally Posted by burnsyscapes

question for you. . . how did you learn how to do irrigation? took some classes or are you self taught?

Burnsy...I had a friend who was in the irrigation business teach me the ropes. He let me work with him on the weekends one summer so I could learn hands on. He then came out & helped on our first few systems until we were good to go. His knowledge & teaching was very valuable. It would have been difficult trying to learn everything from a book. I still occasionally call him when I'm in a jam on a job and need some input. Learning hands on out in the field is the way to do it if you have the opportunity. I was hesitant to jump into irrigation back then, but looking back it was definitely one of the best business decisions I've ever made. Irrigation is a very big part of our business nowadays.

[PR0 TURF]

Originally Posted by SmokeyBacon

Pro Turf! I meant to ask how your snow season has been going. Hope all is well.

Smokey...our snow season has been non-existent this year! Since December we have had 7" of snow...at this time last year we had over 70"...uggghhh! How's Mother Nature treating you up in Ontario??

[PR0 TURF]

Originally Posted by stockie

Hey man

Saw your rig at NE Grows. Pretty sweet set up. Do you get many calls from that from other contractors?

Stockie...thank you! It was nice having the machine in the show this year. We do get quite a few calls from other contractors. We do a fair share of sub-contracting work for companies that do not own hydroseeders.

[CriderLawn09]

Pro-Turf ,
Thanks for the info on the mini, I demoed one and I think it will be a must have this year! I found a used vermeer, i think im gonna go pick up, i'm a bobcat man but the price of this one is pretty good along with no one around rents bobcat attachments but they do rent dingo and ditch witch and that all fits vermeer. But, anyway i feel you on the snow we have had 4inches this year last year i think we were around 30inches, we dont get as much as you guys. And as for the superbowl sorry bout the patriots i really know nothing about football but i do know that the BUD SHOOT OUT is next sunday!!! Boooga-dee, Boooga-dee,Boooga-dee!! Lets go racing boys!!

[PR0 TURF]

Originally Posted by lukemelo216

I agree with you on using the tt's over the ztr's besides the reduction in maintenance expenses etc your really not going to be losing any productivity especially since your using the velkes. On the bigger sites yes you will, but on the midsized properties I noticed a huge difference. I was doing a 35k property and it took a 2 man crew about 1.5 hours to mow, trim and collect trash/weed the beds each week using 1 ztr. I switched it to a 3 man crew using 2 wbs and we were in and out in 45-50 minutes consistantly each week. The two guys did all the mowing in about 40 minutes and the other did the trimming, checked for weeds and all 3 blew the property at the end. Now weekly it doesnt add up to much, but I figured it this way at a cost of $25/man hour it saved me on average $15.00/week, which over a 28 week season saves me about $420 on that account, and this crew was running 10 accounts per week in which they were only using wb's. I did that A as an experiment to test it, and b I only utilized them on the properties that it made sense, 2 acres and under. Since I did this middle of the season I wasnt able to acutually see the true savings over the entire season, but theoretically it would have saved me $4000.00 in labor. Secondly, you will notice a nice savings in fuel. We were using about 15 gal of gas per day using two wb's which at my prices here is about $50/day. Using the ztrs your talking about a full tank per day which on the new ones is about 24 gal between 2 mowers, on the older two tank units about 20 gal a day, average was about $25.00/day for me which would save me about $3000.00 for the season in fuel. Right there for me I figured $7000.00 in savings alone for the season.

Frankly I told my guys yes it was harder work but it was the way we were moving. Most of them like you said were not happy initially, but then they actually enjoyed it becasue they were getting a little more exercise each day so they felt better and realized it was what was needed to keep their jobs. I was out there on days with them walking right along with them on a wb mower. I was never the type of owner that said im only riding the zero turn or skid loader or what ever. I dont like that management technique. Now that im a manager for another company, I am the same way. Some weeeks Im out week Ill be out there pulling weeds or trimming the grass or turning over the mulch. It earns the respect of your employees and when I did that, the guys were not complaining anymore about the walk behinds.

Luke...GREAT write up for the debate of walk behind vs. ZTR. I am very much looking forward to the fuel savings. Our new mowers have 20hp Kohler engines...our ZTR's had 31 & 35hp Briggs. Should be a noticeable change in fuel consumption. Great write up...thanks for your two cents...

[PR0 TURF]

Originally Posted by Earthlinklandscaping

Is thtt a hydro seeder bhind the dumo truck??

Im not sure which picture you're asking about...but if I'm thinking of the right picture, that is a Finn Bark Blower in the background.