What was your first peice of equipment?

[PLI1]

Just curious on what you guys started out with. When I was 12 years old I bought a used 21" Lawnboy. The mower cut great and made great stripes, but it was slower than molasses in January. Shortly after that I bought a crapsman push edger and a k-mart weedeater. By the time I was 14, I had 20 lawns in my neighborhood and I would walk to all of them still using the same equipment. That was 22 years ago, and now I have every top notch peice of equipment imaginable. When I look back to what I started with, it really makes me appreciate what I have now along with good health.

 

[FFMED74]

Well since I am still newer I have those first items.
Mower 48" Land Scaper Supply mower, belt drive 15hp kohler
Land Scaper Supply 2 wheel sulky
Ryobi blower
Ryobi quick change trimmer/edger (lasted two weeks) upgraded to and Echo 31cc trimmer
trailer- don't laugh too hard, is a free old pop-up tent camper, converted to a trailer (my pastor gave it to me, $150 in wood to get it safe!!)(guys at the fire station called me Sanford and Son mowing
So is stared out last season pretty cheaply, but better than some I guess LOL.

 

[mbricker]

Wow! That's a history in the green industry I can really respect.

Like you I started with a push mower, a Rally from Walmart, and homeowner weedeater, but that was only about 8 years ago, and I was already 46. I just needed a little work to make up for the overtime my employer took away due to management spasms--a Tyson Foods tortilla plant where I was a mechanic.

I expected to do a lot of landscape maintenance and very little mowing, because it looked like there were already too many outfits mowing in this area. In a couple of years I was seeing things different and bought my first zero turn. I had already got so busy I quit Tyson after doing lawn maint part-time for about 15 months. But probably I was so busy because I was way too cheap, and not nearly selective enough about what I did or who I worked for. Now after 8 years learning things the hard way, I'm making a living. But have to face the fact a guy in the green industry better get out of the sweat work and into managing others by the time he's my age.

But mostly I do this because I get satisfaction out of it--I like to look at work I've just finished and say "There! Don't that look great?"

 

[PLI1]

You gotta start somewhere and if you don't have rich parents to buy everything for you, you have to improvise til you have the $ to buy the commercial stuff.

 

[impactlandscaping]

When I started mowing lawns 18 years ago, my dad bought me a Montgomery Wards 21 or 22" front wheel drive,cog driven,self-propelled,big bird yellow,200# solid steel push mower.Man, that thing sure felt like it weighed 200#, but it was a tank.It lasted four seasons.I also had a Green Machine brush /grass trimmer that was just as heavy.My dad had to take me around in his truck on the wekends to service 12 lawns each week.The I got smart and started hitting the townhomes above our development.I could do 10 without having to load any gear on days after school.

 

[J Hisch]

21" Honda Mower

36" Scag walk behind

 

[Richard Martin]

A Sears curved shaft trimmer and a very used Hechingers (MTD) 38" rider with a 12.5 B&S.

 

[olderthandirt]

1 goat, scissors, and a pooper scooper. LMAO I still remember pushing a reel mower when I was a kid doing my first lawn. And the best part is I remember exactly how much I was paid $1 bought a lot of candy and a magazine

Mac

 

[grass_cuttin_fool]

I started out with a John Deere stx38 12 hp 38 inch cut, Homelite trimmer and blower, was back in 1995 a very wet year, people didnt have time to cut there grass and i was looking to get some of my money back on my new mower purchase, what started out as a hobby is my job now since the factory i worked at closed and went to china

 

[impactlandscaping]

Wow Mac, a buck bought candy AND a magazine??You are older than dirt, my friend!!!LMAO!!!