Reel Turf Techs Podcast

Episode 148: Brad Bailey

• Trent Manning • Episode 148

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Welcome to Episode 148 of the Reel Turf Techs Podcast! Today we’re talking with Brad Bailey, Equipment Manager at Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club in Orlando, Florida, an 18-hole course serving both resort guests and private members. Brad leads a team of three technicians and works primarily with John Deere equipment. With a background in chemistry and a hands-on upbringing working with his dad, Brad found his way into the turf industry during college and never looked back. He shares his expertise in small engines, his thoughts on the less glamorous office side of the job, and his experience managing a team in Florida’s year-round golf climate. Trent and Brad dig into everything Stihl, explore his work with Husqvarna autonomous mowers, and chat about his favorite ways to unwind - fishing, Disney, and building with Lego.

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 Text Podcast, episode 1 48. Today we're talking to Brad Bailey, equipment Manager at Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club in Orlando, Florida. Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club. It is an 18 hole course that is open to resort guest and private membership. Brad has three techs in the shop. He has mostly John Deere equipment. Let's talk to Brad.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

What kind of car is that right behind you? The white one up

Brad Bailey:

It's a Porsche nine 11.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Nine 11

Brad Bailey:

Lego. Oh, this is Lego.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

GGT, three or

Brad Bailey:

No, it's an old Carrera

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Iola? Carrera. Okay.

Brad Bailey:

yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Awesome. I got a buddy of mine, he had a career four SI don't remember. Yeah. A GT three. Yeah, it was, yeah, so much fun hanging around that dude.

Brad Bailey:

I've I've got a buddy that works for Porsche that I went to school with, and he does the track days at, you know, road Atlanta there all the time.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Brad Bailey:

yeah. It's on my bucket list.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. Heck yeah, man. Road Atlanta is awesome. Yeah. Good stuff. All right, so we're recording. Welcome Brad to the Real Turf Text podcast. Thanks for being on. How you doing today?

Brad Bailey:

Pretty good. Trent, how about yourself? Thanks for having me on. Finally,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

yeah, finally.

Brad Bailey:

We finally made it happen.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah, we finally made it happen. We will not tell the listeners all the drama that happened. No, there wasn't any drama at all. Life's busy and I get it, and I completely understand. And I appreciate you being here tonight. So

Brad Bailey:

for having me. Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

without Father Ado, tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Brad Bailey:

Well, started working on a golf course when I was in my sophomore year of college. The golf course I was working at was right across the street from the college, so it was very convenient. The assistant would take me up on the golf cart, drop me off some days I'd go to class, come back. So I wound up, worked there for five years, wound up graduating with a chemistry degree. Started looking for jobs, but I had a desire to stay in golf. I liked being outside. I never really played the game. But I knew I had to do something else other than work on the crew, make more money. So I'd already always been hands-on growing up. My dad was always the type we were fixing stuff together, those kinds of things. So started helping the guy in the shop who actually is will Watson, that works out at the lotion club in Little Rock.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

No way. Are you serious right now? Okay. It's such a small world. Okay. Yeah, that is

Brad Bailey:

So helped him out in the shop when I could. He ended up leaving and going to a Cherokee country club in Knoxville. And lo and behold my girlfriend at the time got into grad school at ut, so we moved to Knoxville as well. I started working there. Was on the crew. Again, helping out in the shop when I could. And then when he left and went out to the lotion club, his assistant took over and I was half and half in the shop and in the crew helping the crew. And worked there for a couple years. Got an opportunity at a course in Cleveland Tennessee, which is about an hour or so south of Knoxville. So that was my first EM job and was there. And yeah, kind of, just kind of worked my way up. Moved around and, yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah, that's really good. So what club did you work? With Will at before Knoxville.

Brad Bailey:

sunset Hills Country Club in Carrollton.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Oh, Man. All right. Yeah, you're right down the road for not that far from me.

Brad Bailey:

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I mean, I don't know. Yeah. Hour and a half or something like that. Two hours to Carrollton

Brad Bailey:

Out. I out I 20 So I grew up in Florida. I grew up on the east coast south of Daytona area called Port Orange. So my family was down here. So when I did some, I got outta the golf business for a little bit. I started building houses out in blue Ridge, Georgia, which is where I graduated high school. Went over there for a little bit, working for a buddy of mine, and then wanted to be back close to family. So

Trent Manning, CTEM:

But you were in Knoxville and had you, you get to Florida.

Brad Bailey:

So I grew up in Florida. I grew up on the east coast south of Daytona area called Port Orange. So my family was down here. So when I did some, I got outta the golf business for a little bit. I started building houses out in blue Ridge, Georgia, which is where I graduated high school. Went over there for a little bit, working for a buddy of mine, and then wanted to be back close to family. So I took a job at the city of Melbourne, down in Melbourne, Florida. I was the head mechanic, whatever was titled there, equipment manager. They on, they got two golf courses there I was the only. Mechanic tech for 36 holes of golf. But that got me back to Florida, so Melbourne's about an hour and a half south of where my family lives. So that got me back closer to home,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

okay, I got you. And where you're at now, is that close to home?

Brad Bailey:

so yeah, Orlando. Yeah. My family and actually my wife's family both live in Edgewater, Florida, which is about an hour and a hour and 15 or so east of here,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay. Nice. That's just far enough away, isn't

Brad Bailey:

It's, yep, it's close enough. We can go over there on a whim, but it's not too close to where, you know, we're committed to everything going

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Right, right, right. I understand that. I hear you. What's your least favorite part of the job?

Brad Bailey:

Office work

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay.

Brad Bailey:

Sitting in front of the computer. Yeah. I like to wrench. I like fixing stuff, so I get, you know, and I know it's an important part of the job sitting in there. I mean, staying organized, you know, bordering parts, all that good stuff. But I like being out in the shop. Yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I don't, do you got a favorite thing you like to work on?

Brad Bailey:

I would say small engines are my strong suit. Yep. So anytime we've got some small engine problems you know, 26 horse and lower so the job I had before where I'm at now is actually working for a power sports company in Melbourne. So we deal with, I was the head tech there. We sell, sold zero turns. Field two cycle equipment. So that's where the guy that owned that business, him and his wife owned it for like 35 years. He knew small engines like the back of his hand. And so that was probably the most valuable thing along my journey that I've learned. I mean, as you know, everything's got an engine on it. So being able to quickly diagnose and being able to repair most any. Small engine and two cycle problems. We got that come in there is, and being able to share that knowledge, you know, with the guys in the shop.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. That's huge.

Brad Bailey:

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. I got a good friend, Kent Carson. I've talked about him plenty on the podcast. I've yet to have him on. I don't know why I don't know. It's pretty, pretty sad, I guess. But anyway, I mean, he's a good friend. But he's like that, I mean, two stroke, and I don't, he's pro he's in his sixties, early sixties, but, anything small engine, you just say can't, you know, give him a small idea of what's going on. He's like, oh yeah, that's yeah, that's what this is. You know, I mean, he just knows he is been doing it so long, and I wanna say he worked for a steel dealership, like when he was a kid, you know,

Brad Bailey:

Okay. Okay. Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

you know, or

Brad Bailey:

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Mom and pop steel dealership,

Brad Bailey:

Yep. That's kind of, that's kind of what this was. We dealt hu we sold Hustler and Snapper. So obviously most of the stuff we worked on was that. And then, yeah, we were a steel dealer, so that's, I got to go to steel school. I got bronze certified. I got halfway through the silver training before I left there, but,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay. That's

Brad Bailey:

yeah and luckily that's what we have is steel

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay, that works all good.

Brad Bailey:

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I don't, did you happen, this is a side note, but did you happen to see the shop tour? I'd done with Jeff Ello at I'm trying to remember the name of the club he's at. He's up in Chicago. I can't think of the name of the club. Anyway, he had it was like a Ford drawer, gray Steel toolbox. Yeah.

Brad Bailey:

all the specialty

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. Oh, I was so jealous. I was like, oh, that's so awesome. It's good stuff.

Brad Bailey:

Yep. Yet to add that to the shop. But on the list of course, you know, there's a lot of things that once these two cycle engines get enough use on'em it's almost even working on'em, on yourself, it's almost not even worth diving into'em, you know, if, especially if the cylinder scored or whatever, I mean, it's trash it, move on.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I don't it's, it can be fun too,

Brad Bailey:

yeah. Oh,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I'll tell you another story. So you get me fired up on steel stuff. So I had steel, I still got it. Steel three 10 chainsaw and I don't know why, but, and this was, I don't know, mid two thousands or something, you know. So the internet's just getting going and I found this cool website called arborist site.com. Okay. And all these guys are on there talking about, yeah, anything arborist. But they were talking about hot rod and chainsaws. So they said you take your muffler off, you drill a three eights hole in the muffler, you open up the end you can adjust the carburetor. I just used this chainsaw last week and I mean, I've had it for whatever, 20 years or longer. And, it goes through a lot of gas, but man, it'll cut. That there's just nothing like it. I mean, so Good. And on that model still. So the two 90, the three 10 and the three 90, the bottom end is all the same. But, so my dad, he had a three 10 and he actually straight gassed it. Poor guy. Sorry for his luck, but I bought a three 90 cylinder piston and cylinder. And put on his lower end three 10 and tune the carburetor. Man, it cuts. Anyway, I go on all day. Tell

Brad Bailey:

those things are the, those things are the F1 car of hand tools, you know,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Oh, it is bad. Yeah. So good. What's your favorite tool? And don't tell me

Brad Bailey:

I just recently got it. It's a, i'm sucked into the snap-on truck. But anyways just got a couple weeks ago. It's a 14 inch long double-ended wrench, it's ratchet wrench on one end and it's an offset closed in on the other 15 millimeter. So it's game changer for QA five motor mountain weight bolts. So leverage and being able to get in there with a ratchet wrench is

Trent Manning, CTEM:

okay. Yeah, no, that is, that's a good one. That's a really

Brad Bailey:

My, my second option would probably be my torque wrenches

Trent Manning, CTEM:

on also. yeah, they make really good, is it the tech angle that

Brad Bailey:

Yeah, so that was yep. That was something I learned from the last job, you know, the importance of torquing, especially engine head bolts and all that. So any of that kind of stuff gets torqued in our shop.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. Do you torque bed knife screws? I,

Brad Bailey:

Yes

Trent Manning, CTEM:

All fair enough.

Brad Bailey:

With the little the little hand torque.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

well, yeah.

Brad Bailey:

t torque handle.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Uhhuh. yeah. Where do you get those from? Amazon.

Brad Bailey:

yeah. It seems like the last one came from Amazon or Granger.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay.

Brad Bailey:

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah, I mean that's, you know, it makes it so easy if it's in a T handle like that, you know, if you gotta pull out your three eights tort wrench and set it to

Brad Bailey:

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

each time to do 13 bed knife screws or whatever. Yeah. What do you do to relax or find your balance?

Brad Bailey:

growing up in Florida I grew up on the water fishing, so that's probably one of the big things I do is fish. My dad, my brother, and I play golf. Not well, but I do. My brother recently got into it a couple years ago, so that's been a fun addition to our hobby list, going out and playing golf together. This time of year, not so much. It's too dang hot to, to get out there, especially after working all day.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah, I don't see how y'all guys do it.

Brad Bailey:

Yep. And then my wife and I are pass orders at Disney, so we do Disney a lot. And then Lego's, my inside, turn the brain off, fill out and do some brainless work. You know, just tinkering Lego building sets and those kinds of things.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I don't what? I don't know if I would call that. Brainless. I mean, you gotta think,

Brad Bailey:

Yeah, I guess

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I mean, yeah, you can really focus and, but I can see

Brad Bailey:

an expensive hobby, but

Trent Manning, CTEM:

you zone out probably doing that. And I am envious of, I'm looking at Porsche career and the only reason I know that is you told me when we first started recording, but, yeah, I got to. I'm trying to think. Oh, actually it was 2005. I got to crew for GT two three at the Daytona 24 hour,

Brad Bailey:

Okay.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

and that was awesome and I had a really huge job. I went to the Sunoco station, every other pit stop and filled up a 55 gallon drum with racing fuel. That was my job. But hey, I don't care. It got me there. We got down there on Thursday, done the practice test, all that stuff. Super cool experience.

Brad Bailey:

That's a good time. I've been to the, I've been doing it not for the full 24 hour stretch, but I've been to the Rolex few times. That's a. That's a good time,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. No, it was, yeah, so much fun and yeah, I met so many people. I mean, it makes me think a little bit like the golf industry, you know, everybody knows everybody kind of in the racing cliques and, you know, but met some really cool people and had a really good time.

Brad Bailey:

Cool. Yeah. That's cool.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

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

Brad Bailey:

Managing people.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah

Brad Bailey:

yep. So before this job, I was always kind of the solo guy in the shop. I've got three other guys in the shop with me, so a lot of moving parts between the golf course and all the stuff up at the resort. managing people, keeping everybody busy. You know, making out a daily, a weekly schedule. Trying to think ahead. That's probably been the biggest challenge is just being a boss, you know, having to be a boss.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Right. No I can definitely yeah, relate to that too, because I mean, just, and it kind of sounds like you too. You said, you know, your least favorite part is sitting behind the, in the office or behind a computer screen. We like to be out there with our hands on and not necessarily managing other employees, but the longer you do it that's where we end up. That's kind of, yeah. And if you. Make a decent wage. That's part of it.

Brad Bailey:

yep. For sure.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Well, tell me one of the strangest things you've seen at work. Any good stories.

Brad Bailey:

So I thought about this question for a bit. Trying to come up with something and of course, see lots of strange things over the years. Right. So I broke it up into worst thing I've seen and craziest thing I've seen. So worst thing I've seen was the first golf course I worked at in Carrollton at Sunset Hills. The 14th Green backed up to the maintenance shop and we came in one morning and somebody had ripped a few donuts on the green tore it up. And I was the lucky one that got to plug it out. I probably put. 200 plus plugs in that from our

Trent Manning, CTEM:

wow. Yeah.

Brad Bailey:

that was that was the worst thing I've experienced. Craziest thing would be when I was at the city of Melbourne, we had a pull behind land pride, rough unit, and one of the guys, lo and behold, went to raise the wings up on, on a slope, out a pond, and. In the pond it went yep. So fun recovery, but you know.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

yeah. Yep. I don't, it's amazing all the stuff that's got fished out of ponds over the years at golf courses. I got a John Deere 7,500 in my shop right now with that, had a vent connecting rod, and it did not go in a lake, but the operator was washing it off on the wash pad and for some reason, I mean the engine was running, but for some reason he raised the seat up. And he was on the passenger side and decided to clean off the radiator with a one inch hose. And I mean, he flooded the intake. And with the turbo it sucked enough water in there to bend, bend a rod so you can try to compress water, but I guarantee you cannot compress it. Every diesel engine that I've experienced. Going into a lake while it was running, it bent a rod. And the weird thing is, so this is the third bent rod that I can recall, and every one of'em is number one cylinder. So I don't, it's just strange outta three and they're all number one.

Brad Bailey:

Well, I mean, kudos to the guy for trying to clean it for you, right?

Trent Manning, CTEM:

well, I don't

Brad Bailey:

tried.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

He tried, I guess. You know, this particular operator, I have asked him multiple times to blow that out with a air hose, but he was being creative, I guess.

Brad Bailey:

Yep. Do you do you have a, like a air blow off

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yes. Well, not necessarily a blow off station, but I do have air hose reel and, you know, blow gun right there on the wash pad. I mean, it's pretty easy

Brad Bailey:

Yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

blow stuff off. The guys, they mainly just use it to clean mud off their boots.

Brad Bailey:

Yep,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I don't, we use it, you know, to blow out radiators or whatever

Brad Bailey:

yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

do you have a mentor in the industry?

Brad Bailey:

Not really. I guess I got two. One would be the guy from my previous job just'cause of what I learned from him on small engines and stuff. So not really in the industry, but definitely helped me out a lot. The other one's probably Steven Tucker. This is probably, I mean, this is the biggest EM job that I've had and taking on new roles such as managing people. Managing things to the extent that I do now. Having him there as a resource and a teacher to not micromanage me through it but guide me and gimme the resources I need to succeed at it. Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. I mean, how. Talk about that for a minute. How important is that to work for someone that you know has your back and gives you the resources?

Brad Bailey:

It's huge. I mean. It's, I feel like it's a different dynamic than most because he's now in the shoes that most EMS fight against, you know, trying to show the importance of the equipment, of the role of the maintenance. And he knows all that. So I've automatically got all that support from the get go. When I first got the job, I'd hear through the grapevine of people avoiding the job because of, oh, well, going to work for Steven Tucker. You know, he's constantly gonna be watching over your shoulder and micromanaging, and it's the opposite. I mean, he's, he really does know how to lead and lets you fail to figure it out. You know, sometimes the hard way, but sometimes that's the best way.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. That's the way we learn.

Brad Bailey:

yep. That's

Trent Manning, CTEM:

That's the way I learn anyway.

Brad Bailey:

yep. Some of the guys in the shop, sometimes, you know, they'll get upset at themselves'cause they did something that had an adverse reaction. I'm like, Hey, you'll never do that again.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Right, right. Yeah.

Brad Bailey:

you know, look at it that way. But yeah, I mean, it's been huge. I mean, I owe a lot of what I know and why I succeed at my job now to him

Trent Manning, CTEM:

awesome, man. That's really good. What would be your dream job? Okay. Got anything fun?

Brad Bailey:

most people probably say top 100, you know, work in a p somewhere with a PGA event as, as great as that would be. I think my goal is to, I wanna work somewhere that's kind of a ground up build you know, new maintenance facility, new golf course, being able to design the shop, outfit it with tools and equipment and, the thought of going somewhere that nothing's come outta that shop that you haven't had your hands on. And I'm a little OCD when it comes to that. So knowing, being able to have that much control over those would be pretty cool.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah, no, that would be super cool. And so Bob Smith, he was, he's out in Texas. When I asked him what his dream job would be, he wants to own an NFL team.

Brad Bailey:

Okay.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I mean, you know, it's,

Brad Bailey:

Big aspirations. I love it.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

possibilities are endless

Brad Bailey:

Yep. Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

and yeah if you're ready to do something in the next, you know, three or four years I mean, they're building a lot of courses right

Brad Bailey:

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

From the ground up. Yeah, I've heard about, yeah, quite a few happening.

Brad Bailey:

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Do you have.

Brad Bailey:

I mean, it's great for the industry

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Oh yeah. No, it's, yeah. It's amazing how much it's turned around from oh eight. So I was working for a golf course construction company as their mechanic in oh eight. I remember my boss saying, I can keep you busy for a couple more months. And at the time, so my youngest daughter was three and. Yeah, I had a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old and I was like okay, I guess I'm going to be finding another job here pretty soon.

Brad Bailey:

No doubt. No doubt.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I called the mortgage company and they said, nah, we're not gonna give you any any breaks. So

Brad Bailey:

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I had to find something else to do.

Brad Bailey:

Exactly.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Do you have a technician you'd like to work with for a day?

Brad Bailey:

John Patterson.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay. Alright. Well, I think he and Steven are pretty close, so I'm sure that could be arranged real

Brad Bailey:

yeah. Anytime. The problem is I work in Florida, so there's, we don't get much downtime. That's the struggle,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Well, yeah, and I remember, I think when Wyatt first started working there, Steven sent him up to work

Brad Bailey:

yep, he did. Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

few days and man. I mean, any person, not just a young person, but any person in the industry, if you could spend a couple days with somebody like John Patterson, it's only gonna help your career for And you know, and maybe, you know, if you live on the West Coast and it's not feasible to come to Georgia to spend a day or two with John Patterson, there's guys out there too, you know, I mean. So find your local John Patterson and go spend a day or two with him, or at least get his phone number where you can call and harass him from time

Brad Bailey:

Yep. Yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

but yeah, no, John's great and I'm glad to have him right down the road. It was funny, he texted me the other Sunday, he's like, where are you getting DPF filters baked? And so I tell him where it was. He's like, oh man, I'm so sorry. I'm in tournament mode. I didn't even realize it was Sunday. I'm like, it's okay, man. You know. I get it. It's all good, man.

Brad Bailey:

yep. Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yep. What do you know now you wish you'd known on day one?

Brad Bailey:

The importance of being organized. At least day one of, you know, being an em I think my first job was, you know, you're just faking it till you make it right. But, you know, being organized the importance of it. The importance of keeping. your techs organized and busy. You know, last thing, you want some standing around waiting for something to do. So I try to be as organized as possible. So that's something I've learned that's very important to this job when there's, when we gotta deal with and handle so many different things going on.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Oh yeah, it's crazy. And I mean, yeah, like all the parts that we stock and inventory and I mean, there's just a ton of moving parts and it's. A shame for me.'cause I, and not just me, but I know there's others that are like me where we keep a lot right here. But you know what, this don't do people good when this is not around.

Brad Bailey:

I find myself doing that a lot. I'll be like, Wyatt, I don't know if I told you this or not, but we got this going on tomorrow where he is like, no, you didn't tell me. He is like, it was here.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

huh. Right? Yep. I thought about telling you. And then, I mean, that's the other thing, and everybody that's listening can relate is, you know, you're thinking about whatever and then you know, who knows what's walking in the shop you know, in two minutes and everything you've been thinking about or working on for the last however many hours just went out the window and now you're focused on this. So you're just constantly running around. But it keeps it interesting, right?

Brad Bailey:

Yeah, for sure. Interesting. That's a that's a good way to put it.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Trent Manning:

Supercharged course maintenance with Task Tracker, the leading golf course maintenance software in the industry. Built for precision and efficiency, Task Tracker simplifies daily operations, optimizes water usage, and keeps your team on track. With real time updates and streamlined workflows, It's the essential tool for modern superintendents. Learn more at www. clubessentials. com backslash task tracker. Let's get back to the episode. Get ready for tips and tricks

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Well, let's do some tips and tricks. You got any tips and tricks you wanna share with us?

Brad Bailey:

Let me check my cheat sheet

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah, there you go.

Brad Bailey:

So I guess really, and I've kind of touched on it already, but having a, you know, a good strong hold on, small engines and two cycle equipment just'cause aside from the diesel equipment that we've all got in our fleets, you know, that's a big part of the job. I know before, before I gained the knowledge, I do, I have on it now. That was definitely a big struggle of mine was.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I don't, do you have any resources or recommendations on, you know, like where do you learn how to work on small engine stuff?

Brad Bailey:

That's a great question.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I'm just curious. Yeah.

Brad Bailey:

Again it's up here.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

right, right. Yep. Yeah, and I wasn't like trying to put you on the spot'cause I was thinking the same thing, like, where do you learn other than just being in the shop and doing it and, you know, luckily good mentors and

Brad Bailey:

Yeah, tech manuals.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah.

Brad Bailey:

I know I visit those quite often, if you can get ahold of'em. You know, some manufacturers are a little more stingy about making them public knowledge versus others, but, you know, great resource obviously if you can get ahold of a tech manual

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Brad Bailey:

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Well, and yeah, so for manuals, it's kinda like a roadmap basically. Right. On how you're gonna get somewhere. Like, I could drive from here to California, but if I had a map, I'd be a lot more efficient at it,

Brad Bailey:

No doubt. Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

any other tips and tricks

Brad Bailey:

No, I think that's no, I think that's.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Well, something that I thought of a minute ago when you were talking about being organized and it's something I've. Started to try to do recently, and especially with the cost of everything, you know, I buy a lot of stuff aftermarket if I can you know, and not to try to harm our distributors, but the prices of some of this stuff is just ridiculous. So what I've started doing is I stock whatever part by the OEM part number. So if it's John Deere or Torah or whatever. I stock it that part number. Normally in a bag and in that bag I put a Kanban card in there and that card is just the index card. And I write on that index card where I order this part from. Because what I started running into is like, okay, I get that from Amazon, I get that from McMaster car, I get that from Grainger, you know, and then I couldn't keep track. Like, damn it, where do I get this solenoid from? So anyway, index card in the plastic baggie, and I

Brad Bailey:

Yeah, that's a good idea.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

to know. So that's my tip for the day.

Brad Bailey:

Yeah, my my digital way of doing that similar so we use a program called Trello. It's kind of like a workplace organization tool. But we use it for, I mean, that's where kind of I lay out our schedule. Stuff that's broke down, needing parts, stuff we need for the shop, those kinds of things. But every part I order gets put through Trello, kind of similar to what you're doing, but I'll just get on the computer, I can go there and I can type in either the name of the part or the machine it was for, and it'll populate any keywords that match up cards for that. So that's, yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

That's super cool. Yeah, I'd like to see that a little bit closer. I've actually used that app'cause with the YouTube channel the vid, my video guy, the editor, the guy that makes everything look nice turn me onto Trello and that's kind of how we keep, and he's from the film industry and I guess they use it a lot in the film industry. But that's, you know, like we got a whole page that's like ideas and then we got, this has been filmed, this is in editing, you know, and kind of track it through the progression of whatever the videos are. So yeah, that's super

Brad Bailey:

We use it pretty heavily. I guess you could, I guess you could add that to the tips and trick list.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. Yeah. For.

Brad Bailey:

yeah, we use that pretty heavily. It's very user-friendly for all of us in the shop. The app or the interface on the, like on the iPhone, the app is great. Very friendly. You know, I, the guys can go on there, they can check off that they'd done it, or if they encounter a problem, somebody tells'em about something, it's quick and easy to get your phone out, make a card for it, then I can assign it later on. Or, you know, gotta order parts for it. They can when they repair something, put a description in there, what they did, if they use any parts off the shelf, how long it took them to repair it so we can track labor hours. It's really our go-to in the shop.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. Yeah. That's really good. That's awesome. Well, let's talk about robotic or autonomous mowers.

Brad Bailey:

yeah so I'm actually part of the Husqvarna customer council. It's kind of a, so we've got. Four Husqvarna Auto mowers right now at our place. They do a lot of testing at our facility as well on some prototypes and some units they've got out that they're kind of putting through the ropes or testing some different features out on. But, you know, autonomy and electrification is coming. Right. And. When you start talking about it, you hear from a lot of people, oh, you know, they're gonna take our jobs and, you know, robots are gonna take over. And it's not to, to me, the way I see it, not really the case with these things. I think it's gonna help take a monotonous job like mowing rough or maybe even mowing fairways through your non-prime. Months of the year allowing something else that's autonomous, go out there and do the job while you can reallocate labor hours to maybe more detail work on the golf course. I think they're great. I mean, I have a little biasness towards Husqvarna because of, you know, my interaction with them. But from what I see on Twitter and other, you know, Facebook and stuff, there's. They're all doing great. I mean, I think they're a great addition to the turf industry of, especially nowadays when it is really hard to find good help especially to maintain the golf course. So if you have the resources and the ability to add them to your fleet, I think it's, I think they're great. So especially for low power consumption, maintenance,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

primarily using them for rough then?

Brad Bailey:

No. So we've got the ones, we have, we've got a couple out at our practice area doing some around the driving range tee. We've got these hills that kind of back up to our clubhouse and behind the range tee as well that we maintain with'em. And then up at the resort we've got a couple past pal event lines that we maintain with em.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay.

Brad Bailey:

And very convenient up there just'cause of, again, time getting up there to, you know, put a, put some labor out there to mow with a real mower or something. Being able to run these things overnight and work around different events that, that they've got going on out there. That, and, you know, they sh they show up on time every day to

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Right, right,

Brad Bailey:

never talk back to you, you know,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

all that good stuff.

Brad Bailey:

yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

What's the high to cut range?

Brad Bailey:

So it varies. They have a fairway kit you can put on'em, which puts it from 10 millimeters, which is, you know, a little less than 400 all the way to an inch and a half on those. And then without the fairway kit it's 20 millimeters and up to two inches is the range it gives you. Yep. So pretty decent range.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Bailey:

and I can say at 1213 millimeters, they, on our past pound, they look really good,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah, I mean, that's getting down there pretty tight. 1213 millimeters. So what kind of power requirements to charge? Is it just single phase one 20?

Brad Bailey:

yep. Yep. Standard one 20. They charge takes about an hour to charge. And they'll run for really you can. About four hours a day. If you've got it running all day long, it's gonna need about four or five hours of charge time throughout the day. Just kind of varies of how much you're using them. So yeah, it's pretty quick and they go out and do their thing and charge up and go back out.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. How often do y'all have to look at the blades and that kind of stuff?

Brad Bailey:

So the past pal, we gotta change the blades about once a week on those, on that one. The other one's in the Bermuda. And then when the hillsides, we have'em running on wee, so on the rye in the wintertime, sometimes I can get a month out of those blades that easier to cut grass. So it's kinda especially mowing at rough height. It's a lot, you know, you can get away with a lot more out there. The low cut past pal, I can tell when it starts, either taking a long time to mow its work area or it'll air out because it's, you know, it's spiking and current to try and cut through. That's when I know it's all right. It's

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Oh,

Brad Bailey:

time to put some fresh blades on there

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I don't, yeah. So is there like a display board where you know all this stuff or there's an

Brad Bailey:

So it's all it's all app controlled. Yep. So they've got an app and notifications. That's where you can that's where you map out the mower for its work zones. That's where you can set its patterns for mow change height. Yeah, it's all app,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

that's cool.

Brad Bailey:

it nice.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

So you can change the height right there. And that's

Brad Bailey:

Yeah, you can on the fly. You can change it if you

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. That's pretty slick. When's John Deere or Toro gonna come up with that? Right. Especially for some of these superintendents that want to change the height, a couple thousandths, you know, every couple days or whatever.

Brad Bailey:

So

Trent Manning, CTEM:

yeah. Yeah. I've had that conversation. Yeah. Before, like I'm not changing less than 5,000. Yeah, I just I ain't doing it. And it was funny Corey Phillips, he's a Atlanta country club now anyway, I think it was when he was like, first got started, superintendent wanted to change the height, two thousands on greens. And so he tells Cory and then he comes back, you know, like an hour later, whatever, however long it was. And he's like, you changed that? And Cory's like, yeah, I changed it. And no, he didn't change. He didn't change the single thing. So the guy says, well, I wanna see one. So he sets it up, you know, in the old thin Accu gauge, you just push it out there, just push it a little bit harder. There's two thousands right there. And he is like, okay.

Brad Bailey:

2000 site change. That's

Trent Manning, CTEM:

I don't know. Yeah. Yep. Who knows? Yeah. You got anything else you wanna share?

Brad Bailey:

no I think that's it.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Well, awesome. We'll do we'll do some rapid fire then.

Brad Bailey:

All right. All right.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

What's your favorite movie?

Brad Bailey:

Deadpool,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

the newer or older.

Brad Bailey:

The fir Any, I mean, they're all good, but probably the first one's my favorite,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay. So what is the first one?

Brad Bailey:

A lot of profanity.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay. All right. Fair enough.

Brad Bailey:

Yeah. Yep. So have you seen Deadpool?

Trent Manning, CTEM:

No, I don't. So when I hear Deadpool, I think of Dirty Harry,

Brad Bailey:

Okay. Okay.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

but, and

Brad Bailey:

it could be a Marvel version of that.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay. Yeah, I, so I'm not up to speed No. On any of the newer Deadpool babies.

Brad Bailey:

Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Good entertainment.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Good entertainment. Alright. Fair enough.

Brad Bailey:

Yep.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

What would be your last meal?

Brad Bailey:

Anything seafood?

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay. Well, you're in the right spot for that, right? Yeah.

Brad Bailey:

yep. We've got a we've got a spot over in Edgewater area called jbs. Every time we go out fishing, it's definitely the lunch spot. But if I had to choose the last meal, it would be park me there and just don't stop bringing out food till I tell you to stop.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. That's awesome. Do you know, Haas Minlow? Yeah. That dude, I see him on Facebook. He's fishing all the time, catching huge fish like, man, I need to come down there and just hang out with you for like a week. Just go fishing.

Brad Bailey:

to I've been trying to organize going out fishing with Chris Johnson that's

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Okay. Yeah.

Brad Bailey:

Yeah. Yeah. But,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. That'd be awesome too.

Brad Bailey:

we're both busy, so

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yep. Yep. I don't see how y'all do. I really don't. I. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy to work in Florida, to be honest with

Brad Bailey:

I do miss having the break, the winter break, you know, where you look forward to that last MO of the year. But I. It's kind of a double edged sword.'cause it, at least, I kinda like where I'm at now that it, it's just a steady flow, you know, that there's no stopping and having to ramp back up. It's just kind of a, you just kind of flow from just trying to get through verification season to, all right, now we can start making the course, Look pristine. So at least it's just a constant flow, you know? It's

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Do y'all?

Brad Bailey:

security.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah, you don't run out of that. Do y'all do a summer shutdown or anything like that?

Brad Bailey:

Just on our verification weeks, we close for the week,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

that's still, that's nice. Yeah.'cause we don't even do that. You know, we're a private club and we one. So we have the two courses. One course is closed on Monday and the other course is closed on Tuesday, and that's when we're supposed to do our verification, which is, I mean, trying to do all that in one day is

Brad Bailey:

Yeah. No doubt. Yeah. The week is nice

Trent Manning, CTEM:

yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Brad Bailey:

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

What are you most proud of besides your family?

Brad Bailey:

Probably getting my college degree, even though I don't use it.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Hey, that's all right. Yeah.

Brad Bailey:

that was a time of life where, you know, I stopped going to school for a little bit and then started back up and so yeah, probably that,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

That's awesome, man.

Brad Bailey:

you know, I'm still paying for it, so that part's a little,

Trent Manning, CTEM:

yeah.

Brad Bailey:

hurts a little bit, but but, you know, I think getting that kind of helped. Held me along the way. At least have something on paper that says, Hey, I, I did this.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yeah. No, that's cool. That was, yeah. Really cool. Well, thank you so much Brad, for being on this has been been great.

Brad Bailey:

Yeah. I appreciate it.

Trent Manning, CTEM:

Yep. Until next time, we'll see you. Bye.

Brad Bailey:

thanks Trent. I appreciate it. Have a good one.

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.