Reel Turf Techs Podcast

Episode 134: Zach Spence

• Trent Manning • Episode 134

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Welcome to the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, Episode 134! Today, we’re chatting with Zach Spence, Equipment Manager at The Landings Golf and Athletic Club in Savannah, GA. The Landings features six championship courses, and Zach oversees equipment for the Palmetto and Terrapin Point layouts.

Zach shares his journey from tinkering in Florida to managing a fleet in Georgia, where he’s transitioning from aged Toro equipment to a new John Deere lease. Tune in as we discuss the value of schematics for all techs, the crucial role of safety switches (never bypass them!), and why taking your time is key to success in this field.

Whether you’re new to the industry or a seasoned pro, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss!



Trent Manning:

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 Techs podcast episode 134. Today we're talking to Zach Spence, equipment manager at the Landings Golf and Athletic Club in Savannah, Georgia. The Landings is a private golf community with six championship courses. Zach oversees the equipment at Palmetto and the Terrapin Point courses. He has mainly an aging fleet of Toro equipment that they're in the process of transitioning over to John Deere. He is currently looking for help in the shop. If anyone is interested, let's talk to Zach. Welcome Zach to the RealTurf Techs podcast. Thanks for being here, man. And you,

Zach Spence:

me, man.

Trent Manning:

yeah, absolutely. So we've been we met, was it last year?

Zach Spence:

Yes. It was last year.

Trent Manning:

Last year at the Carolinas get together T TAC and you weren't able to make it this year because you were having a baby or your wife was having a baby.

Zach Spence:

Right.

Trent Manning:

Yeah not you. Just so the listeners are clear. It was not you. No, congratulations on that. And baby's doing good. Is it sleeping through the night?

Zach Spence:

Yeah. As much as you can be for a breastfed baby. So,

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, good deal. That's awesome. Well, tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Zach Spence:

One of the, one of my good friends from high school that was where he started working at and got me a job out there and I've been in it ever since.

Trent Manning:

Oh, wow. Okay.

Zach Spence:

Yeah,

Trent Manning:

I'll always at the landings.

Zach Spence:

No, I started it because I, this was in Southwest Florida

Trent Manning:

Okay. Okay.

Zach Spence:

where there is no off season.

Trent Manning:

Yes. Yeah. Another friend of mine from Florida said it's hot and really effing hot in Florida. That's the two seasons or something like that. When I was surprised, so I was down there back first of September and got to hang out with Chris Johnson and Haas and a bunch of the guys down there. But anyway, it's 1st of September and they're all getting ready for the season to start. And I'm like, man, we're getting ready to shut down. You know, hopefully another month we'll be taking a break. Yeah. So I couldn't imagine that's that's too much. So did you have I mean, what got you on the mechanics side of things?

Zach Spence:

I've worked on stuff ever since I was a kid. I had a really big interest in taking stuff apart and seeing if I could put it back together and then it just never stopped.

Trent Manning:

No, I hear you. I can totally relate to that. Taking stuff apart and maybe getting it back together. Maybe not. Yeah. Yeah. You never know. You

Zach Spence:

yeah, the mechanic approached me and asked one day if I had interest. Brought me in there for a few days. After morning jobs and that was that.

Trent Manning:

Okay. Awesome. Did you go straight to like a system mechanic or were you a little back and forth like on the crew some in the shop some?

Zach Spence:

Yeah, I was full straight into being a system mechanic.

Trent Manning:

Okay. And was that at the landings or

Zach Spence:

No, that

Trent Manning:

the course in Florida?

Zach Spence:

That was at the time it was called gateway golf and country club. I believe it changed since, but

Trent Manning:

Well, how did you get up to Savannah?

Zach Spence:

so my dad moved from. Where we lived in North Fork Pires up to Guyton, which is about an hour outside. More inland. And I was ready for a change. My wife and I were, and moved up here.

Trent Manning:

Awesome. And you're in Richmond Hill, right? Yeah. How are you liking it there?

Zach Spence:

It's really quiet. Well, not so much now since this whole mega plant has been built, but

Trent Manning:

What's the mega

Zach Spence:

It's a Hyundai plant. It's what I think it's the biggest Hyundai plant in the country.

Trent Manning:

Oh, wow.

Zach Spence:

It's huge, but that's out. That's about 20 minutes away, but every people got to live.

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, do you ever go over to the military base Fort Stewart?

Zach Spence:

Yeah. Every now and

Trent Manning:

right, right through there.

Zach Spence:

Oh yeah.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, one of my biggest or I don't know, I shouldn't say biggest but one of my customers when I worked for Jerry Pate was the Ash facility and they helped maintain inside the gate and it was crazy. The guy had I think it was like a 30 man weed eater crew that would go out and yeah, we'd eaten roadsides and so he was just constantly working on red max string tremors. He had a whole stack of them and I'm down there one time and he's like, you need one of these. I'm like, well, it doesn't run right. And he's like, oh, I'll get you enough parts. So I mean, he had, you know, cylinder heads and pistons and everything anyway. fun times. I always enjoyed working with that guy down there.

Zach Spence:

There's a lot to see in that area of Fort Stewart.

Trent Manning:

Well, and that was crazy. So we're out there working on it. So he also had think four or five, five 80 DS. Do you know what a five 80 DS? All right. So for the listeners, if you don't know what a five 80 D is, it was a Toro bat wing mower and it had three 72 inch decks. so two wing decks and one in the center so you can do the math 16 foot what cut or whatever it was on this thing yeah massive machine so anyway that was a lot usually if you called me i was down there working on a 580d not a string trimmer So anyway i'm down there working on a 580d And I hear something that sounds like thunder. And, you know, I'm looking up at the sky. It's bluebird skies. So I asked Terry, I'm like, Is it supposed to rain today? He's like, I don't know. That's the big guns going off over there. Shooting the tanks off. I'm like, that's cool. That's some cool stuff.

Zach Spence:

Crazy enough, I can, whenever they're doing their exercises, I can hear that from my house.

Trent Manning:

Oh, I'm, yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, and that's probably what, 20 miles?

Zach Spence:

Yeah, easily.

Trent Manning:

yeah, something like that. Yeah, it's something else. All right. Well, we got on a tangent there. What's your least favorite part of the job? Is it sand? That

Zach Spence:

Being, starting down in Florida, we top dress twice a week, every week. Almost year round. So, you got used to sand real quick and understood that it's just a, from our side it's an evil, but it's a necessity at the same time, so. My least favorite part is trying to communicate with the crew that doesn't really speak English,

Trent Manning:

can be a challenge.

Zach Spence:

it's a challenge. We both make our best foot forward with Google Translate and usually gets a lost, but,

Trent Manning:

Well, I think that's pretty good too, though, with the Google Translate, because I 90s when we went to a primarily Latino crew. We didn't have Google Translate. So, I mean, we, you know, we were drawing pictures on the board, you know, and trying to explain things. So that is a handy thing. And I've noticed we've been lucky enough the last two years to have HTB workers and they all have phones, so they have the Google Translate on their phone and our managers are using it. So pretty handy set

Zach Spence:

Yep.

Trent Manning:

The other thing has been great for me is one of the technicians that works with me in the shop. He's a Latino too. And so, yeah, and it is really awesome. So, I mean, they avoid me like the plague and our other assistant mechanic and go straight to Francisco cause they speak any, I get it. I don't care. I speak the same language. And it's really good to have. somebody that is fluent in their native language to train them on equipment because it's really hard to get some of the nuances that we want an operator to know across to an individual.

Zach Spence:

and then when they when that can't happen, the only time that gets brought up is after they've already had that problem.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, true. Yep. That's a good point there. What would be your favorite tool?

Zach Spence:

Besides the coffee pot, probably my air hammer.

Trent Manning:

Oh, okay. Yeah. Good one.

Zach Spence:

I, so didn't have one for the longest time, borrowed one from one of the other mechanics from one of the other shops twice. And was like, all right. Time to get one.

Trent Manning:

Okay.

Zach Spence:

And now I pull that thing out for so much stuff.

Trent Manning:

That's yeah, that's a good one because I would say earlier in my career, I used it a lot and it seems like I don't use it as much now and I don't know, you know, I think it's one of those things. I just don't think about it as much as maybe I once did. Do you have a particular brand?

Zach Spence:

This, the one I have is an Ingersoll

Trent Manning:

Okay. Yeah.

Zach Spence:

fantastic. I never liked them a whole lot just because they're so on loud,

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah. They are. They are loud.

Zach Spence:

protection.

Trent Manning:

Huh. Yup. Yup. They are loud for sure.

Zach Spence:

But it definitely one big thing. It saves a lot of time on with having three 4, Is those front roller bearings

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah.

Zach Spence:

Just right.

Trent Manning:

So, with that, you can just knock them right out.

Zach Spence:

It zips them right out quick. Gotta make sure there's nobody standing around

Trent Manning:

Right. Right.

Zach Spence:

flying out. But

Trent Manning:

Yeah, that's all right. You put a towel over it or something to keep it from projectile coming out of a 45, 3, 500 roller. Yeah. I'd back to the top. It is, you said barrel mount or what would long barrel, right?

Zach Spence:

yeah, so they make ones that have a barrel. It's like about this one, like that short. Think maybe automotive industry uses that a lot more, but this one's about like this. It's just got a longer

Trent Manning:

All right. Cause I'm thinking I've used one like the little pistol grip style and it has the spring deal that holds the punch in. And I don't think those are quite as good as my original is a Mac and it's got a quick release for changing the thing out, man. It is, yeah, it is nice.

Zach Spence:

It's a lot easier than messing with that spring.

Trent Manning:

Great. I don't know why it's so awkward to get it to turn around there or whatever. That's a good one. Yeah. What do you do to relax or find your balance?

Zach Spence:

really just spend time with the family. Luckily I've got a superintendent that is big on work life balance. So he understands that work is going to be there tomorrow. The grass isn't going anywhere.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, it ain't. Yeah, we had a whole pandemic and the grass didn't stop growing.

Zach Spence:

no, it didn't at least at our club. In fact, we did absolutely fantastic. During COVID.

Trent Manning:

We had, I mean, yeah, record rounds during COVID because that was the only thing you could do. Nobody was working. And even after people went back to work or they were working from home, I think on the golf course. Yeah, we had a lot of people enjoying the course. I mean, it's great. Good exercise. Get outside, enjoy

Zach Spence:

Yeah. The four year old keeps us pretty on our toes.

Trent Manning:

Do y'all do any camping or

Zach Spence:

Not

Trent Manning:

spot? You beach person, a mountain person?

Zach Spence:

So it's going to sound crazy living in Florida, 20, almost. 20 some years. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've been to a beach.

Trent Manning:

Yeah.

Zach Spence:

Never really liked it. If I went to the beach, I was going to the pier to go fishing.

Trent Manning:

Right, right. No that's cool. I understand that. I'm trying to, so I was talking to, I think it was Tyler Barrett and he's in South Florida and he said, yeah, him and his family go to the beach maybe. Maybe once a year, you know, live in Florida 365 days out of the year and they go to the beach maybe once. That's honestly one more time than I care to go to the beach. I'm like you if I was going to fish or like, I see Haas, he posts all these pictures, all these fish he's catching, you know, surf fishing. Now I could go to the beach to do that. But just to go be hot. And no not my thing, not at all,

Zach Spence:

not mine either.

Trent Manning:

but to each his own for sure.

Zach Spence:

Oh yeah.

Trent Manning:

What's been one of your biggest challenges to date?

Zach Spence:

Biggest challenge. It's having to learn on the fly. Before I knew that Toro had all of their service manuals

Trent Manning:

Yep.

Zach Spence:

me. Line easily accessible like when I moved up here I don't know if they was if it wasn't one of the mechanics that worked on island I didn't know anybody until I get listen to the podcast and got on in to all this had no clue

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I mean, that's actually maybe we can talk about it more in tips and tricks, but Just knowing the resources that are available out there for a new person in the industry you know if you're working on especially electrical system or Hydraulic system and you don't have that roadmap of the schematic on what does what and how you get here from there I mean, you know, you're going at it blind

Zach Spence:

Oh yeah,

Trent Manning:

So

Zach Spence:

gonna take you 10 times longer than if you have an actual map.

Trent Manning:

Oh, yeah. And I mean, I've worked on, you know, old junk that I don't couldn't find a schematic for and I end up drawing my own. You know, like with this red wire is over here and it's I think this is the same one. You know, and you end up drawing your own schematic if you have to.

Zach Spence:

Yeah, like some of the like peripheral stuff. Like if any, if you guys have any like tree stuff, trying to find manuals for like stump grinders or the man lifts that's like pulling teeth.

Trent Manning:

Do y'all still so I know this cuz yeah, working with Jerry Peyton, y'all were one of my customers too at the Landon's. Do y'all still have a man lift that mounts on a workman?

Zach Spence:

So we had two when I started working there and one was at the marwood shop and the one was at the shop I met. And when we got the, when we got the last run of new. HDXs, I think three years ago or four years ago, I don't remember exactly. They got rid of the one, luckily we kept the one at the Palmetto shop, because the Trion lift that was there up until last year kept having problems. And that thing came in handy to work on the lift.

Trent Manning:

Oh, okay. Yeah. I wasn't even thinking about working on an equipment lift with it.

Zach Spence:

well, there was a 7, 700 stuck up there for a week

Trent Manning:

Oh, okay. Well,

Zach Spence:

big cylinder up top it pulled the end out of the cylinder. It just pulled the threads right out.

Trent Manning:

Oh, wow. Yeah.

Zach Spence:

thankfully the stops worked

Trent Manning:

Yeah.

Zach Spence:

because that would've been a bad day.

Trent Manning:

Oh man. Yeah. That's terrible. Do you have any idea how old the lift was?

Zach Spence:

Yeah, it's from, it was from the late nineties, I believe.

Trent Manning:

Okay. And then that environment down there on an Island. Yeah. Not the most favorable conditions.

Zach Spence:

Yeah, we got a new golf lift, GL 9, last year. it.

Trent Manning:

Okay. That's good stuff. What's been the strangest thing? Was it the 4, 700 stuck on the lift? That's up there for a strange.

Zach Spence:

When I was working at the Municipal Course for the City of Cape Coral. Myself and another guy that worked there were mowing rough with 4500s. And we got, we were mowing on number 7, I'll never forget this. We're going along, and I felt something crawling on me, didn't think much of it, until I felt it all over the back of my neck. There was bees all over me. So, I get off, I quickly get off, after the other guy stopped and, like, getting my attention to tell me, I try to swat him off, whatever, throw my jacket off, my radio goes flying. So, the only, my first instinct was just pull my shirt up over my head. Now, golf is going on at this time, because it's mid morning,​and the other guys also got them all over him. Well, we get off the 4500s, and the mechanic apparently had bypassed the C switch, because they were, they kept going until they finally stopped moving and reached their neutral. And just kept mowing the same spot for six hours until the beekeeper got there. And it ended up being a swarm of European honeybees in a nest that had 30, 60, 000 bees. And I had, I think they pulled like 20 stingers out of me and the other guy had a lot more. I think it was 30 or 40.

Trent Manning:

Wow, that's crazy.

Zach Spence:

Yeah. And the,

Trent Manning:

Sorry, I'm laughing. That's not nothing funny about it. That's yeah, serious

Zach Spence:

no. Okay. And at that point, I had never been stung by a bee, so I didn't know if I was allergic. Thankfully, I wasn't. Figured that out the hard way. Unfortunately for the other guy, he was allergic to bees. when he threw his jacket off, his phone went with it and everything. And when the super, the assistant super drove us to the urgent care the only reason his wife was able to find out is because of his Apple watch

Trent Manning:

Oh, huh.

Zach Spence:

and met us there.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, did he have an EpiPen or something he kept with him?

Zach Spence:

didn't. He started to swell up on the drive there. Thankfully it was like five minutes up the road and they were able to give him a shot when we got there

Trent Manning:

Yeah, man,

Zach Spence:

he was okay,

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah, that'll go down in history for sure for you.

Zach Spence:

Oh yeah. I've still got the video because I had lost all spatial awareness. I ended up in the middle of the fairway, walking towards golfers, teeing off with my shirt over my head because I couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything because the two 4, 500s are still mowing with the decks on still

Trent Manning:

Yeah.

Zach Spence:

the homeowner where the tree was. Sent the video to me. So I still have it to this day.

Trent Manning:

Wow. That's, yeah, that's nuts. Yeah. And yeah. Friendly reminder. Don't bypass your safety switches.

Zach Spence:

They're there for a reason.

Trent Manning:

they are there for a reason. And how dangerous is that? A 4500, you know, mowing by itself.

Zach Spence:

Yeah

Trent Manning:

Yeah, that's yeah, enough said. Don't do it, please.

Zach Spence:

That from that moment on that stuck with me something I still uphold to this day.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. And I mean, right, you know, and I'm sorry that Maybe it didn't have to happen, but sorry that happened to you, but the, it drives the point home for sure that, Hey, I shouldn't do that. Do you have a mentor in the industry?

Zach Spence:

Do his name is Troy Schneider.

Trent Manning:

Okay. Tell me about Troy.

Zach Spence:

So he I started working with him when I started working at the landings

Trent Manning:

Okay.

Zach Spence:

he taught me more in the three or four years I worked with him than I probably could have in, say, ten years working by myself.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Yeah.

Zach Spence:

That introduced this thing. This is super handy, too, for people that don't know the website. McMasterCar, he's the one that introduced me to that.

Trent Manning:

Oh,

Zach Spence:

Though the wide variety of stuff that you can get from there

Trent Manning:

Yep.

Zach Spence:

Fastener anything you can imagine. It's like a Granger.

Trent Manning:

Yes, it's just like a Granger, but it's definitely my go to. And if for some reason they don't have it and I go to Granger, I get so frustrated with Granger's website.

Zach Spence:

Oh, it's so hard to use.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, you have to be the biggest, you know, Granger's got is the brand, right? They're the biggest ones. Why do they have such a terrible website? I don't understand.

Zach Spence:

know and another good website is it's called Zorro. Z O R O

Trent Manning:

Yep. Yep. Okay.

Zach Spence:

It's also

Trent Manning:

I've seen that.

Zach Spence:

their websites a little hinky and sometimes there's problems with it But anything over, I don't remember if it's 50 or 75 of free shipping, no matter what it is,

Trent Manning:

Oh, nice. Yeah. What's the shipping like with McMaster car at your place?

Zach Spence:

I get everything up until now, which I chalking this up to this time of year, I get everything next day.

Trent Manning:

Okay. Yeah, I was just curious. I mean in Atlanta because the where one of the warehouses is there if I order and yeah people can say what they want to about me but I want to brag because if I order before noon I get it that afternoon and I've ordered stuff as late as 9 p. m and had it at nine o'clock the next morning. You know I mean it's just it's nuts how quick they get you stuff.

Zach Spence:

That's where I got the traversal shaft for my Foley grinder. That was on back order

Trent Manning:

okay,

Zach Spence:

for, I think, I don't remember what Jerry Peyton said, if it was two or three months, but I had it next day from them.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. Yeah, all kind of stuff you can get from McMaster car. They're not a sponsor but I really need to reach out to them and see cuz in my tips and tricks class that I do, I talk about McMaster car a lot because they're just, I mean, a good company to, to get stuff from and if I've ever had any kind of issue, I make a phone call and right away it's solved. Fixed. No problem. You know, they take care of it. If I order the wrong stuff they say, just send it back. Like you don't have to put nothing in the box. You just send it back and they figure it out somehow where it goes. Yeah. Really good customer service. What I love about task tracker is they're constantly innovating and listening to their users. They've added dozens of updates to make our job easier. One new feature is the ability to upload manuals to the equipment. All you have to do is scan the equipment. QR code. And you have the manual and all other information at the tip of your fingers. You can even create links to those manuals and the work orders. And it goes directly to the page that you need. Make your life a lot easier and check them out at AASB task. tracker.com. Let's get back to the episode Yeah. Do you, you want to talk about your mentor anymore?

Zach Spence:

Yeah. So he's been in the industry. I think it's 13 or 14 years, maybe 15. I can't remember exactly. Like when it comes to just specifically fasteners, he'll look at something and it's rattle off just like that, and he'll be able to tell you what it is, doesn't matter what.

Trent Manning:

No, that's cool. Yep. Five sixteenths by 18

Zach Spence:

yeah.

Trent Manning:

grade five, you know, so yeah, I get it.

Zach Spence:

and he's the one that taught me how to weld.

Trent Manning:

Okay.

Zach Spence:

I knew how to stick two pieces of metal together before I started working there and getting down to like the fabrication side of things. He taught me a lot.

Trent Manning:

Okay. Yeah, that's awesome. He had a friend that he said every time he tried to MIG weld, all he could accomplish was piling up wire. But if you think about it, that's all you're really doing anyway, but hopefully that wire melts into the puddle and you weld some stuff together instead of just pop, piling it up on the top. What would be your dream job or opportunity?

Zach Spence:

So I really wanted to do. Was I wanted to be on a NASCAR pit crew

Trent Manning:

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Zach Spence:

Not sure why I always liked watching cars. I don't know. No, it's boring. Some people watching cars turn left for hours and hours, I was always fascinated with the pit crew side of things.

Trent Manning:

No, yeah. It'd be fun.

Zach Spence:

Oh yeah.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, I don't think there's a whole lot of work life balance with the, that, that type stuff. But yeah, that would be a lot of fun. I was fortunate enough and through a friend of a friend in 2005, I got to crew at the Daytona 24 hour with a Porsche gt three car. And it was Baldwin Tafel Racing was the race team. And they were only together for the one year. Jack Baldwin, he's been around racing forever. And Tafel, his grandfather owned or was in horses and horse racing. And he was a very wealthy gentleman. I think he financed this race team, but anyway, it was a super fun, cool experience. We went down, I think on Thursday, the race started at noon on Saturday, it goes to noon on Sunday and yeah, we pitted every hour and my job, I had a really important job of taking a 55 gallon drum to the Sunoco station. Which was, I mean, it was probably a hundred yards and filling that up every other pit stop, because every pit stop, we were putting about 25 gallons in the car every hour. One of the cool things that they did is, So you get the engine from Porsche and it's sealed and you can't open it, you know, part of the rules, right? So you can't go in and make any modifications. And this engine was burning about a quart of oil every two hours. So every other pit stop, they come up with this thing. And I don't know exactly what it's called. It looked like a fire extinguisher. That's what it reminded me of. You know, a tank. and they would put a quarter oil in it and they would pressurize this tank and then they had a quick connect fitting on the car so every other pit stop they would put an oil a quarter oil in the car and they didn't check the oil they just they knew about how much it was burning so so we don't want it to run out so we're just going to keep adding oil maybe we get too much at some point I don't remember how we finished. Obviously, we did not win. But the experience was a lot of fun. A whole lot of fun. And I would kind of rack it up a lot like volunteering at a golf tournament. So, you know, you start early in the morning, you go late at night, you know, because we were practice rounds, testing, qualifying, all that stuff on Thursday and Friday. So, you get there at 7 a. m. and you don't leave till 11 p. m. So, I mean, it's some long days and long hours. But a whole lot of fun. And my buddy that I went with, somehow, He slept through a pit stop. I don't know how because those cars, I mean, they're so loud. I know I damaged my hearing for sure. Not having headphones on one of the pit stops. Yeah, he slept through a pit stop. So I don't know. But anyway you got a technician you would like to work with for a day?

Zach Spence:

It would have to be between Corey Phillips or John Patterson, I think.

Trent Manning:

Oh, well, they're both in Atlanta. So come on up and we can make it happen. I'm sure. Yeah, I mean they're both really good dudes. Are you, speaking of which the flyer just went out today for the Georgia seminar and I should remember it off the top of my head, but I don't. It's the 16th or 17th of January and it's gonna be at John Patterson's shop. So you need to talk to your superintendent and your other techs and see if they can get you up here. And if they can definitely let me know.

Zach Spence:

I will definitely come. I already talked to the super about it. About one to go this year again. He's got no problem with

Trent Manning:

Oh, awesome.

Zach Spence:

with me in the shop. It's a three person shop, but I'm the only one there.

Trent Manning:

Well, at least they're going to let you come up. That is that's awesome. So yeah, definitely. Yeah, it just, I just saw it today. And I don't know if you know, David Precop. He's starts with an S it's all it's in the, it's Hilton head area, secession or something like that.

Zach Spence:

Oh yeah, I think it is to session.

Trent Manning:

yeah. Yeah. Anyway, super nice guy. He's a nice guy. out and sent me a text a couple weeks ago, wanting to know when ours was going to be because I don't remember why something come up and he wasn't able to make it to the Carolinas. So he was going to try to come to ours. So yeah, I look forward to seeing you and we can we can talk off air here. And if you're coming up early or whatever we'll get a little visit lined up or something. That'd be awesome.

Zach Spence:

Yeah, I could definitely do that.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, for sure. What do you know now? You wish you'd known on day one.

Zach Spence:

Slow down.

Trent Manning:

Ah, that's a good one. Yeah, slow down.

Zach Spence:

Everything is not an emergency in the moment. Now yes, there are actual emergencies. And to just take your time. I could have saved myself so much time if I would have just slowed.

Trent Manning:

That's, I mean, that's really good advice. And I think it's something that's pretty easy to do, or not, it's not necessarily easy to slow down. But I think it's really easy to get wrapped up in the moment and put more pressure on yourself than is needed. And I don't remember who told me this, but somebody said, don't let somebody else's problem become your emergency.

Zach Spence:

Yes, absolutely.

Trent Manning:

That really resonated with me. It might be their emergency, but it don't have to be your emergency. So, yeah.

Zach Spence:

have to catch myself doing that even still to this day.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's easy to think like that and say, okay, yeah, I mean, I've been doing this a long time. I still do it, you know, I mean, I don't, maybe that's part of the fun, the excitement or whatever to, you know, like, oh, gotta get this fixed, gotta get this going. They really need this, you know, whatever the, yeah, they're just cutting grass. You know, but it does not feel that way, you know, in the heat of the moment.

Zach Spence:

No. Especially when it's along the lines of, Oh, Hey, can you get this going? We want to use it today when it hasn't been used in six or eight months.

Trent Manning:

Yeah.

Zach Spence:

So, you know, it's not going to start or anything. It's got to be set up. It's going to be problems And then you use it and then oh, yeah, we decided not to use that today We probably won't even use it again for the next six months and then it just

Trent Manning:

That, yeah, right, right. That's frustrating for sure. And I think a lot of us deal with that. Yeah. Do you have that person on your crew?

Zach Spence:

I do

Trent Manning:

Okay. How do you deal with them?

Zach Spence:

When I first got to this shop used to get really angry But something I worked on is not getting angry because I noticed I get a little bit farther with these guys With this one He just knows That if he messes up, he doesn't come tell me. He comes to the assistant super or the super, and then they come to me.

Trent Manning:

Okay. I mean, you know, you got to work it out however you can work it out, right? You know, I get that. Yeah. So at least you have a system in place where he still can't communicate and everybody can keep their cool.

Zach Spence:

He anything he touches, it's either going to end up in a lagoon or it's going to get broke. It never fails.

Trent Manning:

And I mean, it's a shame and I doubt that individual shows up and says, oh, I want to destroy something today. I don't know if they just, you know, like pure luck like that old movie, you know, if it's just, you know, that's their luck. Yeah, I don't know. Get ready for tips and tricks. What kind of tips and tricks you got you want to share with us? Some of your favorite ones anyway.

Zach Spence:

I think the only tip that I have wrote down is just to. If you're not familiar with McMaster car to, to at least go on the website and see what they have, because you'd be surprised what you can get cheaper from there than you can from anywhere locally. And it's going to be better quality.

Trent Manning:

One. Yeah. And that is another thing that we didn't mention before with them. Everything they sell is quality stuff. It's they don't sell any kind of cheap Chinese crap that is out there on the market. Everything they sells high. I ain't gonna say high end but definitely quality stuff and then I don't know. what their deal is either, but it's something to do because they don't advertise for brands like the wall or rigid or any, you don't really know what you're getting sometimes, you know, if you were to buy a power tool or something.

Zach Spence:

Yeah. I do think that they sell a couple of different brands of power tools now.

Trent Manning:

Yes. And I think on some of that, they say what it may be, but it's not like where Granger, you know, that's all it is one big advertisement for whatever company that they're promoting. That way at all. And it's funny, like all the measuring stuff that I buy from them, it's either high quality measuring stuff or stare it like that's your two options of stuff. So they do have the stare at name brand there. Which if you don't, if you're not for the listeners, if you're not familiar with stare it's the snap on, if you will, of measuring instruments. And if you're not familiar with snap on, I don't know why you're listening to this podcast. No that's not fair either. I'm only tease. So snap on is a big tool supplier and probably my personal favorite. I don't know. I just had better luck at a snap on. I had to get quite a bit of Mac tools and the tools were fine, but all the dealers went away. I don't have any Mac dealers and same thing like Cornwell. I had a few Cornwell things, but I don't see a Cornwell guy driving around and

Zach Spence:

ones I see are Macco and Snap On. I don't even know if there is a Mac dealer for the Savannah area. I'm sure there is, but I

Trent Manning:

yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I do see the macro. And Matco makes some good stuff, but I think it's more expensive than Snap on and I didn't even know that was possible

Zach Spence:

Right.

Trent Manning:

you know, I like my Snap on stuff, but it's rare. If I buy something new, that's not on promo, you know, if they're running some kind of promotion on it, maybe I'll get it off the truck. If not Facebook marketplace or eBay, you know, and, you know, And my experience anyway, with snap on tools, basically 50 percent of new value is what the tool is worth. And it's, you know, it's hard to, uh, maybe I lie to myself and say that's an investment for me with my money is I can invest in snap on tools and my kids. My girls are going to inherit some nice stuff, hopefully one day, and then it'll be up to them to figure out what to do with it.

Zach Spence:

Another thing too, like with McMaster car, back to that we'll get some of our irrigation stuff from there, like the nineties and elbows, stuff like that. T's just because the supplier here a lot of times won't have it. So they'll just have me order it from there.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. No, I mean, I do the same thing and yeah, anything around the shop, it doesn't, not even equipment related, but you know, if I'm working on plumbing or whatever, and I mean, it's crazy. I don't. I used to go to Home Depot a lot and since I started using McMaster car, I do not go to Home Depot. I couldn't tell you the last time I went to Home Depot for work. I've went occasionally for the house, you know, to get something, but for work, I don't go. If I need some spray paint, I order it from McMaster car and have it there that afternoon.

Zach Spence:

Our, we get our spray paint from, I think Kimble Midwest, but that's just because they like it, so fine. I don't use spray paint very often unless I'm fabricating, which is also not super frequent, but as long as I got some primer and some black, it's okay.

Trent Manning:

Well, so, that's yeah. Satin black is my go to color and so I paint it satin black or satin black. That's the only two colors I'm using is satin black or satin black. And so Sutton Down Creek Golf Club is the club that I work at. It's owned by Ansley but anyway, I call it Sutton Down Black. So everything gets painted, sat down black. If it's coming out of my shop and every once in a while I get an assistant tech and they want to spice it up and throw in a different color, but I just have to say, nope, sorry, guys. So now I'm black. That's the color it's going to be while we're still kind of here on tips and tricks. I want to do want to go revisit. Toro and being able to get any manual you want, operators, parts and service. One thing with Toro to be aware of is Toro has a manual for every specific thing. So, if you have a Toro walking greens mower, there's a manual for that. Then there's a manual for the reel on the same walking greens mower. Then there is a manual for the groomer on that walking greens mower. Then there is a manual for the roller on the, you know, and I made, I could go on and on. It's crazy the amount of manuals, but the cool thing is it's all there. So yeah, kudos to Toro for doing that. I wish other manufacturers would do that. You know, I think everybody puts out their operator's manual, but. And John Deere, it's not hard to get parts, but if you want a service manual, you're going to pay for it from John Deere.

Zach Spence:

Yes. Yes.

Trent Manning:

Or you're going to borrow it from your friend

Zach Spence:

Right.

Trent Manning:

called RealTurf Techs and the WhatsApp group. I've seen somebody share a club car manual, service manual in the WhatsApp group today. You know, and that's a great resource. And

Zach Spence:

Oh

Trent Manning:

sometimes dealers will, you know, send you a manual for this or that, and, you know, try to help you out. And obviously we can't just go spreading that everywhere because of copyrights and those kinds of things. But the, to pass it along to your neighbor, I don't see the harm in that. You know, you're not. Benefiting, you know, no personal gain is, you know, coming from that. You're just trying to help out your neighbor or your friend down the road.

Zach Spence:

100%.

Trent Manning:

Any other tips and tricks they can think of?

Zach Spence:

Not really offhand.

Trent Manning:

Yeah, I don't it's it's late for me. It's about my bedtime, man. You keep giving me up too late.

Zach Spence:

Oh, no. Gettin there early for this Georgia Senior, the GSGA Senior Championship that we're hosting right now,

Trent Manning:

I know. Yeah. When is it over?

Zach Spence:

tomorrow's the last

Trent Manning:

Tomorrow. Okay. Nice.

Zach Spence:

was supposed to be September, the end of September, but that hurricane came through and they rescheduled.

Trent Manning:

Okay. Gotcha. We're going to do some rapid fire.

Zach Spence:

Yeah.

Trent Manning:

What's your favorite movie?

Zach Spence:

So that maximum overdrive,

Trent Manning:

I don't, I know I've heard the name, but yeah. What is maximum overdrive?

Zach Spence:

it said, I don't know if it's from the late eighties or early nineties, where all of the, everything comes alive and starts getting people.

Trent Manning:

Yes. Yes. I do remember. What's the actor's name? I'm blanking on it. Emilio Estevez. Yes, Emilio Estevez, yes. And the lady sticks her hand in the blender and then it turns on. Yeah, yep, totally remember watching that as a kid,

Zach Spence:

Sick and twisted. I know, but I

Trent Manning:

That's,

Zach Spence:

I love that that Joker truck. I love that thing.

Trent Manning:

Oh yeah, oh, awesome, good memories. What would be your last meal?

Zach Spence:

Super basic man. A good ribeye and some potatoes.

Trent Manning:

All right, best cut of meat there is, in my opinion. What are you most proud of besides your family and your newborn there?

Zach Spence:

Yeah. Probably with my progress in my career in such a short time,

Trent Manning:

Yeah. So how long have you been in

Zach Spence:

10 years next

Trent Manning:

10 years? Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's, yeah, it's doing something and you need to find some assistance, right? Yeah.

Zach Spence:

knocking on the door.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. I don't, it's tough, man. It is so, so tough finding people. Yeah, I don't know. I just been fortunate over the last few years, you know, right place, right time kind of Like one of the, well, the guy was telling you about Francisco, the way I came across him is his dad actually a stepdad was my assistant mechanic in the late nineties.

Zach Spence:

Oh, okay.

Trent Manning:

And he calls me up and he's, I don't know, he calls me I don't know exactly what that means, but he said, Hey, you need somebody? So, I said, yeah, I'm looking for somebody. So, and he's been with me for like three years. So yeah, it's awesome. And then the other guy that's working with me Jake, his dad is the head mechanic at Ansley Golf Club in Midtown. So. Keeping it in the family and Jake's, I don't know, he's 22, 21, 22. So anyway, good kid, good head on his shoulders and I don't know, it's exciting. And I would say that's probably the most rewarding part for me is trying to train these guys and teach them a thing or two and super rewarding seeing them do their thing. You know, they make me proud.

Zach Spence:

The assistant superintendent wants to learn this side, our side of things, so he's going to start coming to the shop in the afternoons. Just to learn, he's really, he wants to learn how to set up a reel.

Trent Manning:

No, that's good stuff.

Zach Spence:

learned briefly in college, but just wants to, I mean, also help give me a hand at, but,

Trent Manning:

Yeah, no, that'll be super good. And honestly I think I would not want to be a superintendent that had no idea on any of the mechanical stuff. Because if you're a superintendent and your mechanic walks out or they get injured or, you know, whatever the case is. Somebody still got to do that. Right. So, and, you know, the director that I work for, he knows, I mean, he would not want to do my job. And that's why he has me. But if, you know, if it hit the fan, he could hop in there and, you know, fix some stuff too. And I think it's also important to be able to, to Talk. I mean, it is for me anyway, is I like to be able to have a conversation on cutting units at my level with my director of agronomy, you know, and I don't think that's the case at a lot of places

Zach Spence:

No.

Trent Manning:

and I, maybe I'm off. If I'm off, leave me a comment, send me a text, send me an email or something and tell me how wrong I am. I'm fine with hearing that. But that's just been my experience. And it's just like, for instance, when I had Michael Woods on, I mean, he is a brilliant person, right? I mean, PhD, I mean, super smart guy and I ain't taking anything away from him, but he has no idea on cutting unit geometry and what's happening, you know, in the cutting unit and as far as cutting grass.

Zach Spence:

Right.

Trent Manning:

And not that he needs to know or has to know any of that stuff, but I don't know. There's a lot for all of us to learn.

Zach Spence:

Oh, yeah. And it goes a long way, too, for them to know, because you know that whenever something looks a little funny out there, they're real quick to say, oh, there's a problem with the mower. Whether it truly is a mower issue or if it's a agronomical issue, you know, that's unseen. But if they understand that part, then that conversation may not even happen.

Trent Manning:

Very true. Well, good stuff, man. I appreciate you being on.

Zach Spence:

Yeah, man.

Trent Manning:

Are you on any of the socials?

Zach Spence:

I just do Facebook.

Trent Manning:

Yeah. Nothing. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. Well, thank you again so much. And,

Zach Spence:

It was a pleasure. Glad you had me.

Trent Manning:

yeah, no, thanks for being on and we'll see you around the WhatsApp group for sure.

Zach Spence:

Yes, sir.

Trent Manning:

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.