Everybody doubted here on Lawnsite and said my idea wouldn't work. Which I still to this day can't understand. As TJ Justice with Just Mowing made a GREAT NAME for himself through here with his method and strategies of small mow and go properties, and driving all ford rangers, with push mowers.

As I mentioned before, I have a 2500, small truck, and multiple trailers. However, after moving to Houston, my windshield time has literally doubled. All of my properties on my new route that I've built over the last year are on Highway 6 through Houston. Traffic is heavy, red lights every 1/2 mile, rush hour, and 25-50 mph speeds all the way down it. I have 17 properties through Lawn Starter all up and down highway 6.

Pulling a 16 foot trailer, my 2500 work truck, including 33" tires, and equipment loaded, with 4.10 gears, averaged a total of 8 mpg city (highway 6), and 11 if I got out on I-10 on the interstate.

My Monday route yesterday, currently (12) yards. I (NET) $350.00 off of these properties.

Instead of filling up the big truck, stand on mowers, and dealing with a 16-foot trailer in bumper to bumper traffic, I used the Prius.

I put $5.00 in when I left the house in the PRIUS. $5.00 in regular gas for the 21" Honda, and small handheld fuel. I saved nearly $40.00 in expenses alone yesterday in one day.

The big catch is, I STILL GOT ALL 12 yards cut, with absolutely no problems.

So again, it may sound stupid to Lawn Site guys, it may look stupid to Lawn Guys. But the fact is, $40.00 a day is a lot of money. In fact, that's half of what some people take home a day. I'll take all the additional income and savings I can get, as I didn't run into any problems, and again $40.00 a day extra is tremendous to me.

Not only was it great dealing with traffic and peace at mind of not worrying about equipment out in the open at stops.

Thought I would share this and get some laughs and let you guys know I am loving it!

As I previously state, there are a lot of ways to get things done. However, some may create a bit of a complex.

 

So why do you need a 16' trailer for a 21" push?

 

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Because before moving I was using all Stand-On mowers and Ztr's.

I parked them all. Hit the gym. Went on a 5,000 calorie per day diet. And now I'm grinding it out with a Prius and a Push Mower and using that $40.00 a day I save towards retirement.

 

Where do you find the time to push mow out of a prius, eat 5,000 calories, and hit the gym, while having a life where you could spend that extra $40/day?

I'm all for improving your biz by cutting costs and improving efficiency. Those are 2 things that will help your biz succeed. Only improving 1 of those things tho means the other one takes a hit. Sacrifice your personal life and you'll get burnt out real quick. Sacrifice efficiency for fuel savings doesn't actually save you anything. What you save in fuel gets spent in labor. Being a solo guy this is usually the 1st mistake since your labor is essentially 0. It's actually not 0 and is why most fail.

Think about it, takes an extra hour per day using push mowers instead of standers or z's. If you charge $50/hr, you've actually lost $10 that day if you saved $40 in fuel.

There are only so many hours in a day. Sacrificing efficiency generally doesn't ever work out.

What I would do however is keep the Prius as a sales/marketing vehicle and work on tightening the route and use your truck/trailer setup.

 

good idea but doesn't it make the inside of the prius smell like gas and dog poo and whatever else? i would at least put down some sort of mat to keep the floor clean in the back of the prius. that way when you go to use it on the weekend or whatever it doesn't smell bad.

 

I have a custom cut rubber mat that covers the entire carpet area and also plastic layering underneath that. The problem you mentioned was on my TO SOLVE list. However, after getting it set-up, smell hasn't been a problem at all, especially if the windows are cracked throughout the day. I use "No Spill" fuel cans, and I'm pretty sure the Honda seals up good. I may run into issues later on down the road if the trimmers and handhelds aren't kept up with and develop any small leaks. As of right now, I haven't encountered a problem with it.

I also cut my marketing cost this year. I did set up a commercial printer, and find a supplier for card stock and gallons of ink to help keep cost down. However, I'm not doing too much flyering this year other then 4-ups. I cut marketing cost also, by doing this. I signed up for Lawn Starter. So far, they've got me in a lot of new neighborhoods across Southwest Houston. Every yard I pick up, I ensure to go the extra mile, and flyer all the surrounding yards. I always seem to get a much better response from neighboring houses and flyers than randomly passing them out.

 

Gas is a minimal expense if you really think about it. My gas expense last year was 4% and we drive a lot. But good luck with your Prius method.

Would love to know how your holding up in 2 years.

 

So if your pushing the same lawns that you used to use standers on, your losing time then. Is 40.00 that much? Lose the big tires and go with stock ones on the truck

 

i see a couple other options here...

upgrade to a 30" mower. knock out 1 or 2 more yards per day

keep using the truck, but put a 36" walk behind in the bed with a 21" push mower. knock out 3-4 more yards per day.

i'd lean toward option 3. if your 21 goes down, what are you going to do? at least if you have 2 mowers with you, when one goes down you still have the other to keep you up and running.

i do appreciate the hustle(i'm doing the same thing using single stage snowblowers for snow removal), but eventually you will be wanting to upgrade your efficiency. work smarter not harder, right?

just a real world example here...lets say you have 12 yards you get done per day with the 21 and do it 5 days a week. that's 60 accounts. now lets say you upgrade to a 36" walk behind(or stander) and can now get 15 done a day. those same 60 accounts can be done in 4 days instead of 5. this allows you to keep one day open as a weather day(which can improve personal life as mentioned above), or you can schedule more lawns for that day further increasing your profit. so now instead of putting 200 per week into your retirement(40x5) you can now put however much you earn on that final day of the week.

 

What ever works works, but to me it seems like you you need to tighten your route and stick with the truck and big mowers. You'll be making more then that $40 that your saving. But again what ever works works. But that's just my opinion. Best of luck to you!

 

I thought it was pretty well established that 21’s are as good an option as anything else for tiny properties. Not really a new concept. I think your just throwing people off with the Prius and the enviroclean name. Both being pretty easy to want to hate on.

 

Everybody doubted here on Lawnsite and said my idea wouldn't work. Which I still to this day can't understand. As TJ Justice with Just Mowing made a GREAT NAME for himself through here with his method and strategies of small mow and go properties, and driving all ford rangers, with push mowers.

As I mentioned before, I have a 2500, small truck, and multiple trailers. However, after moving to Houston, my windshield time has literally doubled. All of my properties on my new route that I've built over the last year are on Highway 6 through Houston. Traffic is heavy, red lights every 1/2 mile, rush hour, and 25-50 mph speeds all the way down it. I have 17 properties through Lawn Starter all up and down highway 6.

Pulling a 16 foot trailer, my 2500 work truck, including 33" tires, and equipment loaded, with 4.10 gears, averaged a total of 8 mpg city (highway 6), and 11 if I got out on I-10 on the interstate.

My Monday route yesterday, currently (12) yards. I (NET) $350.00 off of these properties.

Instead of filling up the big truck, stand on mowers, and dealing with a 16-foot trailer in bumper to bumper traffic, I used the Prius.

I put $5.00 in when I left the house in the PRIUS. $5.00 in regular gas for the 21" Honda, and small handheld fuel. I saved nearly $40.00 in expenses alone yesterday in one day.

The big catch is, I STILL GOT ALL 12 yards cut, with absolutely no problems.

So again, it may sound stupid to Lawn Site guys, it may look stupid to Lawn Guys. But the fact is, $40.00 a day is a lot of money. In fact, that's half of what some people take home a day. I'll take all the additional income and savings I can get, as I didn't run into any problems, and again $40.00 a day extra is tremendous to me.

Not only was it great dealing with traffic and peace at mind of not worrying about equipment out in the open at stops.

Thought I would share this and get some laughs and let you guys know I am loving it!

No one said rangers are stupid.

You used this prius for one day?
How a bout three years?

Whats your wear and tear and replacement?
With a vehicle thats not designed to do what you are doing with it?

a new prius battery costs 3 to 8 THOUSAND dollars depending on which year you are talking about and if you're buying OEM.

The complicated transmission on it is approx $5500 to replace.

I only know this because I know someone who runs a cab company and he has a bunch of prius's... I said MAN you got to make a lot of money with those because youve got such low operating costs.
He chewed my ear off over how wrong I was.

He said the mini vans he runs actually make him more money in the long run than the prius and he likely wont buy anymore hybrids or CVT transmissions again.
He said they're GREAT the first year or two, until the repairs and heavy maintenance kick in,
He said they are not made for commercial duty use.
So if you factor in $10,000.00 for a new battery and tranny
you work 20 days a month and 8 months out of the season. thats 160 days per season...if you save $40 per day that's $6,400.00 per season 'saved'...so can you make it a season and half with no major repairs?
can you make it three seasons?
Cab guy says you wont make it two.

But reality is a ranger or even a 1500 has been doing the work lawn crews ask them to do for decades with out major repairs (snow plowing is a different story)
so $40 x 160 days x 8 years is $51,200.00...most pickups are safe to run 8 years no problem.

So saving 40 bucks on gas is NOT really that much money when i would have had to spend $60,000 on new batteries and trannys in that time frame.

 

TP, I hate to tell you, but you are 100% wrong on the battery. Dealer battery is $2,500. They last 5-7 years. Now days batteries are being rebuild all day for less than $1,000 with a 1-3 year warranty. My prius has a brand new battery installed with dealer receipt and warranty, put in weeks before I bought it.

As far as calories, 5,000 calories is easy if you know what your doing. I actually went to school for physical training and to be a dietician. Go buy one tube of peanuts from the dollar store and finish it off with a 36 oz yetti full of milk and your over 3,000 calories my friend.

 

TP, I hate to tell you, but you are 100% wrong on the battery. Dealer battery is $2,500. They last 5-7 years. Now days batteries are being rebuild all day for less than $1,000 with a 1-3 year warranty. My prius has a brand new battery installed with dealer receipt and warranty, put in weeks before I bought it.

As far as calories, 5,000 calories is easy if you know what your doing. I actually went to school for physical training and to be a dietician. Go buy one tube of peanuts from the dollar store and finish it off with a 36 oz yetti full of milk and your over 3,000 calories my friend.

youre replacing the new battery yourself are you? disposing of the old one?
All that tech time is free?
battery will last 5 years with NORMAL commuter use, NOT commercial use and/or towing.
I listened to prius for hours from a guy who owns half a dozen.

https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-.../calories-nutrition/usda/milk-(whole-milk)?portionid=41888&portionamount=36.000

https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/can-eating-handful-peanuts-make-gain-weight-2879.html

according to the above you would have to eat 550 peanuts and drink all that milk (5 glasses) for 3,000 calories.

and according to you this is a "healthy" diet?

there's about 1200 calories in a steak the same volume of the peanuts you are trying to say you buy at the dollar store.

 

32 ounces of milk and a 1 dollar bag of peanuts is over 3000 calories?

I think I understand why you think you're actually saving $40 doing it this way.

 

32 ounces of milk and a 1 dollar bag of peanuts is over 3000 calories?

I think I understand why you think you're actually saving $40 doing it this way.

dont feed the trolls

 

This thread is HILARIOUS!!!!

 

I’m concerned with the legality of hauling gas cans in the passengers compartment. Definitely not safe

 

I'm concerned with the legality of hauling gas cans in the passengers compartment. Definitely not safe

Or gas powered equipment, not like the stuff is in the trunk, that would be a different story. I think this is absolutely ridiculous and nothing short of a low ball hack operation that cuts/scalps granny's yard on Saturdays for beer money. At least get a small $400 tractor supply trailer and have u-haul install a hitch. Not to mention using a Prius with GAS powered equipment is kind of an oxymoron. Go all the way green and invest in electric. Then label yourself a "green" company

 

I always end up having limbs and clippings and debris to take away. I want to see a picture of the setup. It sounds interesting

 

Pictures in the very first post

 

How’d we start on mowing in a Prius and end on p90x?

 

How'd we start on mowing in a Prius and end on p90x?

i guess because they both are a "work out"!

 

You could put some blades on a Toyota Prius and mow in style:usflag::laugh:

 

Remember Jesse james' show Monster Garage?

:usflag::yow!:

 

If you are really going to do it, do it right! 0 (zero) gas used, can do 2 -3 houses a day. Save all my money to retire at the age of 35 because it is the best way to do it. You can't convince me any other way. I am right, you are wrong, my way or the highway.................yada yada yada.....

 

View attachment 373849
View attachment 373851
If you are really going to do it, do it right! 0 (zero) gas used, can do 2 -3 houses a day. Save all my money to retire at the age of 35 because it is the best way to do it. You can't convince me any other way. I am right, you are wrong, my way or the highway.................yada yada yada.....

https://knoxville.craigslist.org/grd/d/madisonville-lawn-mower/6755062059.html

 

There ya go. For 50 bucks you're in business...

 

No more gym, you can save your membership cost and retire at 30!!!!! You can put little generators on each wheel and keep your batteries charged, never use electricity again!!!

 

Or put a hitch on the Prius and pull one of his small trailers loaded with solar panels. Run all electric and charge between lawns.

Clean portable power station lawn care. ---- Bet no one has that name registered.

 

Envirocleanhouston : I've done a lot of work out of my car for the same reason your stating, saving gas, plus its easier and more comfortable to get around. any weekend estimates get done out of my car also for the same reason, but did you already own the car? or did you buy the car for this reason because then any extra profit your making is right out the window. If your mowing postage stamps its a great idea, if you can finish your route, 40 a day is 200+ a week, more power to you

 

Where are your gas cans? Blower? Trash can? It would better serve your business to have a small truck, you will get 20 mpg+ and you can haul a branch or two, or trash (you do pick up trash?) how about dog-dirt? Or do your customers allow you to dump onsite?

 

It may be hilarious, but I'll be sure to report back after the first year.

And to the post about ensuring to report back if I'm still in business. I've been at it for a decade. Longer than most here, so I'll ensure to report back.

Thanks!

 

It may be hilarious, but I'll be sure to report back after the first year.

And to the post about ensuring to report back if I'm still in business. I've been at it for a decade. Longer than most here, so I'll ensure to report back.

Thanks!

You've been doing this for a decade and all you can afford is a Prius and a push mower?

Sniffing rotting grass and gas fumes is the definition of success?

 

 

Is TJ Justice related to Buford Justice by chance?