Episode 159: Bruce Alexander

Welcome to the Reel Turf Techs Podcast, Episode 159.

This week we sit down with Bruce Alexander, Product Performance Manager at Ransomes Jacobsen in Ipswich, England. Bruce grew up on a farm and worked his way into the turf industry, and today he’s the guy helping make sure the machines being built actually work for the people using them every day.

Bruce works across all departments at Ransomes Jacobsen, spending time with dealers, technicians, and end users to gather real feedback and bring it straight back to the product teams. We talk about why that loop matters, how good ideas make their way from the shop or the field into future machines, and what happens when manufacturers really listen.

We also get into his role providing tournament support, including working at the Summer Games in France, and what it’s like supporting equipment when the eyes of the world are on the turf. From there, Bruce dives into cutting unit geometry, bedknife selection, and the small setup details that can make or break performance.

It’s a down-to-earth conversation packed with practical insight, real-world experience, and plenty of takeaways for techs who care about doing the job right and getting the most out of their equipment.

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• Email us at ReelTurfTechs@gmail.com
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Transcript

Trent Manning: 0:56

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 this episode are real turf techs on golf course industries Superintendent radio network is presented by Foley county a strong supporter of equipment technicians and golf course maintenance departments everywhere Foley county offers a proven solution for above and below the turf for turf professionals To learn more about Foley company's line of real grinders bed knife grinders and the air to G2 family of products or to find a distributor visit www dot Foley C o.com Foley Ready for play Welcome to The Real Turf Text Podcast, episode 1 59. Today we're talking to Bruce Alexander, product Performance Manager at Ransom Jacobson in Ipswich, England. He works across all departments with dealers end users. To bring feedback to ensure they produce products for the end user. He also provides tournament support like he did at the summer games last year in France. Let's talk to Bruce.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 2:24

Welcome Bruce to the Real Turf Text podcast. Thanks for coming on. I think you might be one of the longest loyalist fans, so it's kinda interesting to have you on the podcast.

Bruce Alexander: 2:38

Th thanks for having me and yeah I'm, I, I'm in awe of being on the Real Turf Text podcast. It's a, it's an honor Trent. So thank you very much indeed.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 2:47

you're too kind. And Bruce has called me out over the years. And I think that's kinda, honestly, and I appreciate it. And I think that's I don't know. I think it's good for the industry, right? And not that I'd said anything terrible or anything, but he was like, Hey maybe you wanna look at this. And I'm all for that. I wanna learn just like everybody else and we only know what we know. So I appreciate you sending an email. And then since then we've emailed back and forth. I got to meet you in San Diego. You got to show me one of Jacobson's finest machines.

Bruce Alexander: 3:22

Oh, To chase you down though. You're a busy man.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 3:25

I know it's hard. I get pulled in all different directions and you go across the shape trade show floor, and I do have an agenda and I wanna look at a certain piece of equipment or whatever, and then you run into somebody that you hadn't seen in a long time. It's all really good problems too. Tell us how you got into the turf industry.

Bruce Alexander: 3:44

I don't think I'm alone when I say that. I didn't leave school thinking turf. I want to be involved in turf equipment. So the, I'll try and keep it short, but it's quite long story. So I left

Trent Manning, CTEM: 3:59

We got a, we got an hour to fill, so just go ahead.

Bruce Alexander: 4:03

Some of my colleagues now, if they're listening, are thinking an hour. He's gonna want more than that.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 4:11

That's fair. We can go

Bruce Alexander: 4:12

I'm a farmer's son, so I grew up down in, in Surrey farmer's son grew up on a farm and the farm was owned by my dad and his brother. And not a good story for them was the farm wasn't really big enough to support the two families. My dad back in the, probably early seventies or late seventies, somewhere when I was still very young anyway set up a car repair garage on the farm. So now Trent, imagine that you are, you're a young lad. I've got two older brothers, and you're growing up on a farm with a car repair garage. To me that's an idyllic situation. So all I wanted to do was be involved in farming, to be honest.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 4:55

Okay.

Bruce Alexander: 4:56

I left school worked on a farm for a year, then went off to Maris Wood Agricultural College, just to do a, an agricultural years course. And even before I finished, I'd been back to the farm that I'd spent my student year at wanting to work there. Cutting the story a bit shorter. I ended up back there for three or four years I think it was. And at the time there were nine people on that farm. We ran a couple of other courses, a couple of other courses.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 5:25

Ha. You bet you've been in tar for a long time.

Bruce Alexander: 5:30

a couple of other farms. Interestingly, one was givens Grove Farm, which is now a golf course. But it went down from nine people through the farming rough years of late eighties. And it went down to three and I was still there. It went down to one and I was made redundant and I just didn't know what I was gonna do. So I was self-employed. I'd always liked playing with cars things like that. Mechanicing. so I ended up going back to Ryko Wood College. And I went to Riker Wood College in Tame because I'd gone round several of the agricultural dealers in the area. None of them were really interested in me as a mechanic because my education, my paperwork wasn't to do with agriculture engineering. But four or five of the service managers from those dealers had actually been to Riker Wood College. And I thought if that's where these guys have been, that's where I'm gonna go. So I went and I actually did the three year course as a one year course. I, obviously I was a mature student, then I went back and and came outta that after a year as being the top student, which I'm quite proud of. And then went back round to the same agricultural dealers and started with a firm called scats, Southern Counties Agricultural Trading Society. And within a short period of starting, I was called into the office and the workshop manager said to me that they were taking on this new franchise Jacobson, and gonna be the guy that they wanted to look after this Jacobson equipment. Yeah. And again,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 7:08

That's interesting. That's cool,

Bruce Alexander: 7:10

picture a young guy, never played golf, only interested in working on tractors, forages, and combines, told he's gonna work on surf equipment?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 7:19

Okay. So what year is this?

Bruce Alexander: 7:22

oh, now my memory's a terrible thing, but I was back to Kot Wood I think in 93, 94.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 7:30

Okay. All right.

Bruce Alexander: 7:31

95, 96, something like that. I think so. I.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 7:36

When did Jacobson get their start?

Bruce Alexander: 7:39

Ooh, a lot of years before that.'cause

Trent Manning, CTEM: 7:43

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I knew they'd been around for a while, but I didn't

Bruce Alexander: 7:46

Yeah. I think

Trent Manning, CTEM: 7:47

or

Bruce Alexander: 7:48

oh no,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 7:49

that.

Bruce Alexander: 7:50

certainly in America they'd been a lot longer, hadn't they? In the uk. I'm not sure,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 7:53

okay.

Bruce Alexander: 7:55

to me that, golf wasn't an interest. Golf equipment wasn't an interest until Jacobson came along.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 8:01

But did Ransom start over there?

Bruce Alexander: 8:04

Now ransoms, you are back to where it all began. Trent, now you are

Trent Manning, CTEM: 8:07

Okay. Okay. All

Bruce Alexander: 8:09

cylinder mowing and the budding

Trent Manning, CTEM: 8:10

Yeah. Okay.

Bruce Alexander: 8:12

pin me down on years, but you are back into the 18 hundreds.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 8:15

Okay.

Bruce Alexander: 8:16

yeah, so that the Ransoms Jacobson site now as you're probably well aware all turf manufacturing came across from America into Ransoms Jacobson. Ipswich. and that was really because Textron, the parent company, had identified Ipswich as as they termed it a center of excellence. however that decision happened further up, all manufacturing came across to Ipswich, possibly at the worst possible time when COVID was just coming on as well. So Was not a comfortable experience. But yeah, ransoms goes back to the late 18 hundreds and or even mid 18 hundreds and the budding Peyton and that's where it all began. So yeah, so coming back to Scats was with Scats for a number of years and then scats decided they were pulling out of agricultural and turf machinery. And at that time I moved across to work for a large dealer in the uk, Ernest Doe and Sons. They took on the patch I was working and I was with them for about a year. And that would be 99. I was with them, I think. And then was asked or had a conversation with Alan Prickett, who then was with Ransoms Jacobson and was suggesting that a move out to the Middle East might be a good career move for me. And by that time I'd switched into sales. So I was a sort of technical sales person, and that was what they were looking for over in the Middle East, based in Dubai, working for Ttag as a distributor for the Middle East and India. Was out there for three years, came back and took a break from Ransoms Jacobson working for Derman UK Limited Derman UK Limited. Still one of the absolute top companies that you could work for. David Ray, the owner and the team at FEEDER and uk, they're fantastic time great product.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 10:22

are they still around? I'm

Bruce Alexander: 10:24

they're still yeah, they're still around. And in actual fact David Ray, the owner started up Fairways Grass Machinery as a Ransoms Jacobson dealer for Scotland. And that's still the case. So still, always at trade shows. Always like to think. I'll go across there and have a chat to the guys there.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 10:43

Okay. All right.

Bruce Alexander: 10:44

And for the for Derman, I was like a technical guy for the uk. And also had a sort of looking after sales across the central area of the uk. But at that time now we're getting back to about after I'd been there for a few years, I think about 2008. I got two daughters and they were just coming in teenage years. And I needed really to be at home a bit more. I The UK with Edem and there was a lot of traveling. And I'd been involved with an engineering company in Nottingham. We were trying to work some things out and do some special little projects with Erman. And just at the time when I was really thinking I needed to be at home, more was at a time when they were looking for a service manager. So that was Howard Marshall Engineering. now certainly dealers over here and a number of customers will have dealt with Howard Marshall Engineering. I do think the tagline would be bespoke engineering solutions, and Howard Marshall, himself an absolute guru learned from Howard every day. So I had a great time there. And was there from 2008 up to 2015. in 2015 a couple of guys from Ransoms Jacobson, Rupert Price and Will Carr came and asked for a chat and we had a chat and

Trent Manning, CTEM: 12:10

One chat leads

Bruce Alexander: 12:11

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 12:12

we say over here in the States

Bruce Alexander: 12:14

Yeah. it certainly doesn't it? And they'd come up with a plan to sell direct. So you had, Jacobson had a direct selling model in the States. they were looking to set up a direct selling model in the uk, a different format, a different type but covering Staffordshire and Schrock share. And they were looking really for somebody that could run that from a sales and a technical point of view, keeping overheads very low but the service, if you like, the number one priority. So end users were really getting well looked after. And that was a great time. That was a great time. To this day, that was at a time when JCB golf course was being built. And, I, great time being involved with the guys there. Knew the guys there from construction through, and still now really pleased to have a good relationship with the guys in there. So then 2019, just as COVID was breaking that within the business, there was a change of direction. And I moved to becoming A-A-P-S-M-A product support manager, which is technical support for the dealers. And I think I've heard you on the podcast talk about if you want to be stretched, then you know, you work as a dealer guy and you are certainly stretched every day.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 13:37

Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Bruce Alexander: 13:38

what I can tell you is working as a technical support guy for those dealer guys. Another level of of stress and strain.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 13:47

Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 13:49

but I don't know if there is any good problems, but you get to work on exciting problems and you're stressed, stretched and tested, aren't you?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 13:56

that's one of the things that I really enjoyed about it is, each day was a new problem. And most problems, not all of them, obviously but a lot of the problems were challenging

Bruce Alexander: 14:10

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 14:11

figure out. And I would call, I was working for a Toro distributor, so I would call the Ttac team, I think, or the TAC team. No, they called'em the TAC team. Ttac, that's the Carolinas group. But anyway, getting old man. Anyway I would call the TAC team at Toro, which, and talk to, your counterpart right up there that, it's all, they are technical advisors. And they would walk you through all the stuff like, you gotta look at this, all the things. And that was really fun. I really enjoyed it.

Bruce Alexander: 14:45

I think behind that, when you are ringing those guys certainly for me, I will be keeping a spreadsheet of problems that that they will be bringing that, that we were working to together. And

Trent Manning, CTEM: 14:57

Oh, yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 14:58

And the amount of learning and understanding that you go through from head scratching some of those problems, it's pretty special. And I think, I'm sure that Toro and John Deere teams are the same. For me. One of the best teams I've worked with has been the product support guys within Ransoms Jacobson over in your way. There was, James Jensen, Dean Morris, and Ron Lata, that's just taken earlier time. But those three guys over there, this way, the likes of Simon sson, Steve Turner, Hanford Seavers, all guys of a hell of a lot of experience. And when I newly stepped into that role, they were great, brilliant guys. And then the last bit of the picture, if you like to get up to today was the creation of this product performance manager role where. The role now that I'm doing is working across all departments and bringing in dealer feedback and end user feedback to try and make sure that we are producing equipment and machines that are meeting exactly what the end user expects of that machine to do, and that's to be working across the different departments is a real good side of the business to be in,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 16:07

yeah, no, it sounds yeah, that would be a fun place to be. And I really think, all distributor or all manufacturers should be doing, should be talking to the end user more. and I'm not saying you're not doing it enough. I don't know if you're doing it enough or not, but I, a lot of times it seems like these big corporations, they don't really wanna listen to customer feedback too much. And I think it's really important because. If anyone is gonna tell you what you need to do with your equipment, it's the end user. And I ain't saying, there's definitely some that you probably don't wanna listen to, you, you, like you said, you got your list. And I was thinking about that when you were saying your list.'cause I remember I'd call the TAC team and say, I got, a Toro 4,500 and it's doing this. And they'd say, go do this. They'd heard the problem 10 times. They knew exactly what it was, common, fail point, whatever we, maybe were gonna do a rework on it or whatever it is. So yeah, interviewing those customers and getting that feedback from them that tells you what they need.

Bruce Alexander: 17:22

I think it is really good to stand in front of a customer. I, the example I give of where communication is so critical a dealer may do a demonstration of a machine and the machine for whatever reason. The guys haven't liked it, and the feedback may come back from the dealer. He didn't find the operator's platform. He didn't find it comfortable. That's the information you get. And that's where it needs to be a lot more detailed. What didn't he find comfortable?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 17:48

Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 17:49

So the seat actually is a grammar seat and it's really comfortable. And the In exactly the right place. And he loved that. Actually, what he really meant was the steering wheel didn't have quite enough rake adjustment on it or something like that. And to pin down the feedback that you can, so you can give it to the engineer that's responsible. That guy doesn't wanna know the operator's platform's, not comfortable, it doesn't mean anything to him, but to tell him the steering wheel needs a little bit more rake on it. That's a, it's a little bit easier to handle but,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 18:17

I think a lot of mechanics can relate to that too, because when a machine breaks right that's what we wanna know? And when an operator tells you it doesn't work well that don't tell me anything. Okay. It doesn't work. What doesn't work about it? Did the tire fall off? What are we

Bruce Alexander: 18:36

Yeah. How many times have you had an operator say to the machine didn't start, and you say what do you mean it didn't start? It didn't start. You mean it's turning over? Or it's turning over? Is it firing? Is it like that is,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 18:48

Uhhuh. Yeah. Yeah. It's so frustrating.

Bruce Alexander: 18:52

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 18:52

Little nuggets of information out of some of these operators, so I could Yeah. Relate to your story.

Bruce Alexander: 19:00

so

Trent Manning, CTEM: 19:01

the engineers, it's gotta be really hard.

Bruce Alexander: 19:03

yeah. So we've got a great group of engineers now that that again, in this role, being able to build that relationship up with to the point where when I'm at the factory, it's a case of, oh, let's make sure we get together just do a bit of brainstorming ahead of any official report or anything else coming in. But. The other thing that you'll be familiar with, Trent, is, when an end user is telling you there's a design problem, there's a design issue there may or may not be, but it's usually not unknown. That manufacturer usually knows that they want to rework something, but you can't just rework everything or It has to And everything else, doesn't it? Yeah. but that's a great side of the role. And the other thing that I've been doing quite a bit more of more recently is what we call technical sales expert training. And that was primarily aimed at the dealers dealer sales guys to Try and make sure that when. You guys are talking to the sales guys from your dealers that, you start wanting to talk about bottom blade selection, B, c, D and geometry, that they've got a guy that's fairly expert in cutting unit geometry and can engage in those conversations with confidence and try Specific issues that you are trying to solve around the course. So we've rolled that out in the UK so far and a couple in Europe which has gone down really well. We've got dealer sales guys, we have dealer workshop guys, workshop managers come on that course as well. it, with without fail, at the end of it, they all say, look, we've been in the trade a long time, but. We've never gone into it in that level of detail before or it's been helpful just to spend a few days only talking about cutting units. The total focus is on cutting units,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 20:54

No, that's awesome that y'all are doing that. And I don't, we talked a little bit before we got started here. I think there's a huge, I don't, I mean there's a lot of, I don't wanna say misinformation out there, but there's definitely some misinformation. There's some myths that probably need to be corrected, but from all the manufacturers and not calling out just one, they, we all talk about stuff a little bit different and use different terminology and it gets, it gets really confusing and that's at the manufacturer level, and then it filters down to the distributor level and then it really goes against the wall. It's crazy. I had this happen, so I had fairway mowers and it was John Deere fairway Mower, 77 hundreds, and we traded that. Long story short, we've got new ones and they were, I don't know, three years old, four years old, whatever it was. So it hadn't been that long, right? Three years. We get these new mowers and we had an extra set of cutting units from the original mowers. Nothing wrong with'em, all this stuff. and we've been mowing all year with the new mowers and we need to grind one of the new mowers. So we take that set of reels off, put on the other set of reels, that was fresh ground, same height, everything. We go out, we scalp like crazy and we're like, what is happening? The John Deere had went to an extended bed knife on the new mowers

Bruce Alexander: 22:37

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 22:38

and we didn't know anything about it. So I called a guy at Deere and he said, I wrote the service bulletin. We done all kind of stuff telling the dealers that this was happening, that they needed to be telling the customers. Deere was doing their job, but it didn't get past the dealer to me. And it's hard.

Bruce Alexander: 23:02

and I think having been on the end of some of those kind of things, Trent, it's that service bulletin went to the workshop manager, it go to the sales team or actually what you're speaking to really relates back to what I'm saying about the technical sales expert guy that. That expert guy needs to know, oh if we've gone from a, B, c, D of five or whatever, and now we've got an extended bed knife on there, be aware that this is gonna just be cutting slightly different than you might be expecting. and what I think we'd like to think that any sales person we're dealing with kind of understands that and knows the importance of getting that to you. And I don't know whether dear

Trent Manning, CTEM: 23:42

I don't know what, I don't know what the answer is,'cause it's, it's mistakes and everybody makes mistakes, all the time and,

Bruce Alexander: 23:50

it's more and more of a real turf text YouTube channel that's airing it. Trent,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 23:54

yeah. Yeah, that's right. just air airing my grievances here. Since I got a platform.

Bruce Alexander: 24:01

Yeah, but I think that's the other thing I dunno if Toro and John Deere do that, we stamp the back of the bottom blade as well. On the Greens machine, if you flip that unit over then you'll see markings on that bottom blade, which should tell you which blade you've got fitted. and yeah as you've said there, actually it'd be interesting. I always talk about, if it's anything over a millimeter difference in B, c, D at certain times, certain turf, then you're probably likely to see where that, that is cutting differently. which also brings me on to another topic. Back in the old days, how many times would you be grinding a bottom blade on the grinder and you'd realize there was quite a big nick out of it and you're working away at the top face and it's hard work working away Face. And actually. I can get this out pretty quick if I just take that out the front face. And you then, you've just changed your BCD completely, haven't you? From that one unit

Trent Manning, CTEM: 24:55

I'm guilty of that. And not that long ago, probably less than 10 years ago, I, I always thought, the top face is wider. It's a whole lot easier to take outta the front. A used bed knife, if I'm regrinding it, I would take a good bit outta the front, so I wouldn't have to grind as much on the top. And if you can stay within your behind center, that's fine, but you do have to be careful doing that. And the same thing is these guys that front face bed knives all the time. I've heard guys, doing it weekly, run a front face or across the bed And then the next thing you know, you're scalping like crazy. You just changed your b, c, D by a quarter inch

Bruce Alexander: 25:37

Yeah. Yeah. so we it just, it does

Trent Manning, CTEM: 25:42

I was thinking about, yeah, the conversion. What's a quarter inch in

Bruce Alexander: 25:46

inch, 6.25 was, that's just over six mil, I think, isn't it?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 25:51

Okay. Six mils. Okay.

Bruce Alexander: 25:53

Yeah. So significant.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 25:56

Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 25:56

But yeah. When you say about 10 year ago, that's exactly what I say to people, and I, when I was back in the shop, that's what I would be doing. I'd be thinking certainly for the dealer, I'd be thinking I'm doing this to earn money, I need to keep these units going through this winter service time. You've got units piling up around you and you're trying to crack through'em as quickly as you can

Trent Manning, CTEM: 26:14

And bad knives are expensive, that's I wanna save as much money as I can

Bruce Alexander: 26:18

It's only sort of recent years where it's all. All about keeping that unit relaxed, all about keeping that geometry the same, all about keeping things as close as you can to where you need'em to be. Yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 26:32

yeah. I don't know if, yeah, if people,'cause I'm with you in the last five years, I think it's came a long way, cutting unit and not that anything's changed in the manufacturing side. At the end user level, I think there are more people realizing and talking about it than ever before.

Bruce Alexander: 26:55

I would certainly say that there's some younger guys coming through now who are much more into understanding the geometry than certainly I was years ago. I think also Trent there's, I can think of three people certainly, which would be yourself, Mike Rollins and Tom Sidder. That have really changed it really through social media. And Mike's cut line is king. That was a, an absolute game changer. That's a turf bible. And Tom Sidder I've actually, Tom worked for Scats at the same time as I did. So we've known each other for a lot of years.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 27:29

Yep.

Bruce Alexander: 27:29

and and what he's doing at the moment is great. There's a lot of really good stuff coming out from what Tom's doing. So yeah, so I think a bit more on social media, a bit more of Real Turf Text podcast. Certainly. When I discovered the Real Turf Text podcast, it was like, wow, there's a podcast for this.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 27:48

Oh wow. Yeah. That's awesome. I love it. I love it.

Bruce Alexander: 27:52

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 27:54

So you ready for a second question?

Bruce Alexander: 27:56

Fire away.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 27:57

Yeah, no, this is awesome. We've been going thir 30 minutes on question one, but No, I mean there's been a lot of

Bruce Alexander: 28:03

I there'd be some heavy editing.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 28:05

no, the other thing and honestly before we get to this, you were talking about tech technical public publications, if I can say that. Yeah. What is Jacobson doing far as technical publications? You got parts manuals, you got service manuals. I'm assuming we can find all those online. Is that correct?

Bruce Alexander: 28:25

Yeah. Yeah. If you go onto jacobson.com or ransoms.com, then you'll find a good level, all the parts, all the operators manuals, and more and more. So Trent, you'll find service manuals on there as well. Which is great.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 28:38

Yeah. No, that's awesome.

Bruce Alexander: 28:40

what.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 28:41

you all have, just'cause I don't know, does Jacobson have, and I hate to compare, but it's the only way I know to do this. Do they have Toro has a I don't remember, it's the

Bruce Alexander: 28:54

Yeah, I know. Yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 28:58

After Cutt appearance guide. Do they have anything like that?

Bruce Alexander: 29:01

we have what we call the real technology book, which our dealers have access to. I'm not sure if that's on the website or not. That's come up as it, it does, it would benefit from being updated, but it's very detailed where we'll go through things. Certainly for us with cutting units, our box frame construction is a real big thing about the welded frame. And. Pretty much covers everything from a Jacobson point of view. I'm not sure, I don't think that's on the website at the moment, but, I can certainly have a word with our guys and see if that could be

Trent Manning, CTEM: 29:38

I would love to see something like that. especially with the research and stuff I'm doing, I'm trying to get together any technical information I can get see the commonalities and the differences between manufacturers and how they recommend doing things.

Bruce Alexander: 29:57

Yeah, I think there will be, when we come to talk a bit more about the actual cutting units there's probably more to discuss there, but I think certainly for us, that box frame construction and the attention to detail on the jig, that's, that the frames welded to is a big thing for us. I think the, if we think I'm not sure which one I've. You should have a chart that I worked together with Linton Lewis to put together, which was one that gave the grinding specs and BCDs and

Trent Manning, CTEM: 30:27

Yes. Yeah. You did send that to me. And if anybody listening, if you wanna as long as I get Bruce's permission here, if anybody listening wants a copy of that, I'd be happy to share that if long as that's cool with you.

Bruce Alexander: 30:41

yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Again, I think, hopefully we'll touch on it a bit more, but we are certainly going down the avenue of trying to get as much information out there as we can and servicing diagnostics on machines and things as well.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 30:55

Yeah, because it lists, yeah, behind center distance and all that stuff, which is, yeah. Awesome. but yeah I want all manufacturers to do something like that. That's, and I understand that it changes based on your how to cut and some of those things, but for anybody that doesn't know everything, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but everything that I've heard most of the time is based on an eighth of an inch, how to cut. I know that's the way Toro does it.

Bruce Alexander: 31:28

if,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 31:28

if y'all do it any different than that far as you're talking, your behind center distance and all that kind of stuff is based on a eighth an inch.

Bruce Alexander: 31:36

yeah, so I think as long as an eighth of an inch, which is, if I set a quarter with something like six point, whatever it was 3.2 millimeters is what we use which was to try and be standard against what we saw other people using. So

Trent Manning, CTEM: 31:51

Okay.

Bruce Alexander: 31:52

3.2. So in terms of thao, what's that? That's just over is it?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 31:56

yeah, that's right there. Yeah. It's 120 eighth of an inch, 125 thousands, so

Bruce Alexander: 32:01

So 3.2 mil will be there. So yeah. And then so we'll use that. And the figures in that CAD drawing of course, are, sorry, figures in the table are from the the only thing that I would say to definitely keep in mind that will be with a new reel. So you'll be at a five inch reel with a new bottom blade as well. So of course, once the reel starts to wear, actually in the measurements on the CAD drawing, the BCD doesn't move very much at all on our five inch unit. But of course, you've got bottom blade wear, you've got reel wear that you need to take into account if you're looking at it. But it gives you that starting point to know where you're at, doesn't it?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 32:41

Yeah. Yeah. How do you get where you're going if you don't know where you're starting from?

Bruce Alexander: 32:46

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 32:46

you gotta know, I couldn't tell you how to get across the country if I didn't know where I was starting from. So that's definitely a important piece of the puzzle. Tell us what your favorite tool is.

Bruce Alexander: 32:59

I think I, I need to update myself, Trent, because

Trent Manning, CTEM: 33:03

Okay.

Bruce Alexander: 33:03

I would've historically said to you when I first saw the snap-on power probe, that change that changed my world. I love that thing. Fantastic. You start'em over. It's not going bang, let's whack 12 volts here, whack 12 volts there. Let's earth

Trent Manning, CTEM: 33:21

Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 33:22

And that was great up until we got into more complex sort of canvas systems and five volts circuits. And then Banging 12 volts around the place wasn't the

Trent Manning, CTEM: 33:31

Gotta be careful, huh?

Bruce Alexander: 33:33

But on a serious note, yeah. Now when there is a little attachment to go on the power probe, so you can dial back the voltage and things. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that power probe stands out. Now a little bit newer, you would probably say, oh, you've gotta have a decent multimeter. Wherever you're going now you, you've gotta have a decent multimeter. But what I would certainly say from our point of view, what we are trying to do is make life a lot easier for end users. We're putting so much more information into the screens on the machines and diagnostics through the screens on the machines. So now what we say in our technical training, by the way, the manuals that that we do are put together by Hanford Seavers with Simon Anderson assisting, and those two guys put together manuals like. You would not believe.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 34:25

Okay. Awesome.

Bruce Alexander: 34:26

But more and more we're telling the mechanics before you even put your overalls on, make sure you've sat on the seat. Make sure you've gone through the screen. Now we'll be able to see inputs and outputs on that screen. And the latest I think is what I was trying to show you at the show, Trent, where we've, we're actually on the screen itself there, you'll see the circuit diagram for traction lift lower mo you know, and you'll see individual circuit diagrams. And on those diagrams are the actual voltages that are being seen by the controller and the outputs that the controller's putting out. It's a game changer.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 35:07

That's really cool.

Bruce Alexander: 35:09

and the real big advantage to that is. Years ago, we would say if you were using your multimeter, you shouldn't be probing into insulated lines. you'd have your super glue to try and if you had to, back probing, didn't we? And we said, oh Yeah. Back probing iss. Okay. Now we're talking on circuits that are dealing with such low voltages and milliamps and things really don't wanna be doing that either. So for us, having that information available right there on the screen is fantastic. And even if you've got an operator that hasn't got the benefit of a Trent in the shop go through that nowadays, of course probably the tool that we should all be talking about is probably more to do with your phone

Trent Manning, CTEM: 35:53

Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yep.

Bruce Alexander: 35:55

and you're FaceTiming with them and you're guiding them through the screen to get you to that screen to see that information. So that's a very long-winded answer to a question about favorite tool, but it's

Trent Manning, CTEM: 36:06

No, that is, that's really good and it is changing just like you say, and I'm wondering, you went from power probe to multimeter. Do you know anybody using a oscilloscope?

Bruce Alexander: 36:21

Ah, now that, that's your next step, isn't it? Because now I think the oscilloscope is gonna become a necessity. And only last week I was with one of our dealers up north and they were talking about tracking a problem and they were struggling with tracking that problem, but they're a fairly big dealer and having oscilloscope and it's what they could see on the oscilloscope that was

Trent Manning, CTEM: 36:42

Wow. I love it. I love it.

Bruce Alexander: 36:44

I Dunno. A picoscope big in America. Pico. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 36:49

I don't know how big they are. I don't know, and I do know quite a few turf guys, mechanics, I don't know anybody using a oscilloscope or a picoscope, which is the same thing. Pico for the, if any. The listeners don't know. Pico is just a brand of oscilloscope. There's a guy and he's in the UK somewhere, and I want to say it's like mechanical mindset. He's got a YouTube channel

Bruce Alexander: 37:19

Oh

Trent Manning, CTEM: 37:19

and I think he's sponsored by Picoscope and he recommends a Picoscope 2 0 4 A, which I just bought one and

Bruce Alexander: 37:29

Oh,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 37:30

because I, and that, so this was a loaded question, I guess'cause I, I think it's going there. So a lot of people in automotive are using scopes. And all of a oscilloscope is you can measure vol, you can measure all kind of stuff, but it's over a period of time where with a multimeter, you, it's, some things happen so fast you don't see it on the multimeter. Just like a starter, you hit the starter switch and that current draw jumps to 400 amps, and then it jumps back down to 125 in no time, and you're not able to see that on your multimeter. So anyway, go ahead.

Bruce Alexander: 38:10

I think that just to touch on that,'cause you'll get the guy who will tell you, look, I've got this multimeter, it's only 20 pounds, oh, it's great. I dunno. And you're just thinking to yourself, yeah. That's got the rate of nothing really. And then you've got your fluke one that's, that really is picking up a lot more, but you move it on to Pico or on oscilloscope and. I mentioned about my dad and the car garage. To this day I'm still a member of the IMI Institute of the Motor Industry. And to keep up on the professional register you need to do your CPD or whatever you call it, continued professional development. So my local group would throw on seminars every month. And I remember going, I'm probably going back this was when I was still working at Howard, so it's over 10 years ago. And Pico came in and did a fantastic seminar that blew my socks off. Analyzing compression and all sorts from

Trent Manning, CTEM: 39:08

Oh

Bruce Alexander: 39:08

injectors, but I think we're definitely going down that way. Trend, aren't we? So you are you're just on that, you're treading into new territory for us. And I really interesting to see. I'll be keeping an eye out on the YouTube channel.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 39:20

all all right. And so I let the cat outta the bag just like I do a lot of things. I jumped the gun a little bit'cause in my mind I said I would be able to diagnose a loose timing belt on a John Deere prog EFI

Bruce Alexander: 39:38

Okay.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 39:39

And I bought the picoscope and the leads. Then I'll pop the bed and it does not have a cam sensor, so it's gonna be really hard to tell if it is got a crank sensor, not a cam sensor. So it's gonna be really hard to

Bruce Alexander: 39:55

Do Do you know what? I think we're all the same. We are just looking for a problem that we can use as an excuse to say, I need one of those.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 40:04

Yeah, I know, I, that's, I gotta make an excuse up in my mind to buy a tool. So that's what I did. And yeah, we will use it here eventually. But I do think it's coming for sure. Just like you said. And I was talking to a tech the other day and he had, it was one of the dealers, maybe Toro, come out under warranty looking he was having a trouble with the Toro pro force blower or something, and I don't even remember what the problem was, but the guy used a oscilloscope to see where it was losing power.

Bruce Alexander: 40:38

Just seeing that tiny fluctuation on the wave Form and tracking it that way, which is, yeah, I mean it's definitely coming and I think, we mentioned before we come on, Jacobson, we're right there at the front with the electrification of equipment and there's a lot of good reasons for that. And if you think about problem solving, how many times do you look at something and say, that's got hot. It's got too, it's too close to the engine or with a vibration or something like So electrifying the thing cuts out the noise, cuts out the heat, the vibration, all of that good stuff. But we also talked about can bus systems, super low voltages and then you start getting pushback pins in plugs or opened out terminals in plugs, don't you, where your connections not so great. And I think it's, that's where u oscilloscopes really gonna start to come to good use and it yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 41:27

Yeah. Do you want to talk about the electrification that Jacobson's doing and some of the new machines you got out and,

Bruce Alexander: 41:36

I think we are very fortunate with the easy go side of the business. We've been running with Samsung batteries right from the start, really with the lithium on the buggies, which then electrifying turf equipment, obviously. Then Samsung and the natural partner for us. And the great thing there is we'll use the battery management system, the BMS from So it's a Samsung supply, the batteries and the BMS, which is great. And the Eclipse Elite Greens mower, the E 360. We've been now with that now for a number of years. And that's just gone from strength to strength. Still want to be able to bring that machine to you, Trent, and I'd love to go through it and really put it through its paces with you, but

Trent Manning, CTEM: 42:25

I would love to see it. I would In action.

Bruce Alexander: 42:29

yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 42:30

got any trips planned over here?

Bruce Alexander: 42:33

I'm coming across for the show,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 42:35

Okay. All right.

Bruce Alexander: 42:36

would be good. and then there may be a trip coming up in March with a training manager looking at some training that we're doing over there. So that's not confirmed or being spoken about just yet.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 42:48

Okay.

Bruce Alexander: 42:50

but I, I'd love to, to do something like that. Obviously you've got the American dealers, you've got the American backup guys, as I've said to you, the guys over there are really good guys, but

Trent Manning, CTEM: 43:00

if you're coming over to Augusta or something,

Bruce Alexander: 43:03

yeah. Yeah. That's not a million miles,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 43:06

hour, I'm three hours away.

Bruce Alexander: 43:08

yeah. Which for you guys is a hop and a skip and a jump.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 43:11

it is for us. Yeah. I don't, you gotta drive three hours to get anywhere. It seems like even to downtown Atlanta,

Bruce Alexander: 43:18

yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 43:19

60 miles takes you three hours in Atlanta traffic, it's nuts,

Bruce Alexander: 43:23

yeah. So I think then now the ESL F1 is released, which, if you go back historically, we had the super lightweight 1880. So it's the five inch reels, 18 inch wide. so that became the SLF five 30, which is still out there, but the ESLF is the electrified version. So we're getting, over six hours run time on that depending on conditions and everything else that's out there.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 43:52

that's

Bruce Alexander: 43:53

And the really nice thing there is controlling that frequency of cut. So programmable frequency of cut, all of that is available on the. to the point where I describe it as like radio channels. So you might go out and you might be targeting your broadleaf in your fairways. So you might have set a frequency of cut up most speed up to suit, trying to capture the broadleaf, and then you're a hit of a button under another setting. And we can have up to four settings. We can program four preset modes of frequency, a cut. All in that package of that super lightweight 18 inch, five inch reel. So really at the top end where we wanna be quality cut wise.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 44:41

Tell me a little this is very interesting, so tell me a little bit more about that. What would be your frequency of cut for broadleaf? Would that be a slower frequency of cut?

Bruce Alexander: 44:56

I'm gonna say yes, and there's always more ways to, to skin a cat as they say. But I've talked with Tom Sidder a lot about this as well, about what he finds. And certainly what I've found is slowing the frequency of cut down, opening it up. Often you can get confused if you're saying, tightening it or lowering it, but in other words, slowing the reel down for the Just to give that a little bit more time to get into that real less wind wider mouth, if you like. If we think

Trent Manning, CTEM: 45:28

Yeah. yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 45:29

the blades so slowing that right down to the point of where it's ribbing. I've stolen that if you like, or from Tom where Gone through a process of slowing it down until it's ribbing and then bringing. The FOC back a bit tighter.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 45:44

Ah, okay.

Bruce Alexander: 45:45

and then and you'll see it, Trent, if you get a, we've seen it several times where we've get a patch of broadleaf grasses encroaching into a fairway. And it's not really been getting to grips with it, and spend a couple of cuts going over it. Like that really does cut that broad leaf out. And then

Trent Manning, CTEM: 46:04

that's interesting.

Bruce Alexander: 46:06

and then of course you, yeah. And then you might, then just, so that was, if you like, on radio channel number one,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 46:13

Yeah. Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 46:14

super comes back and he says, oh, we've got the broadleaf under control. Now I wanna get back in into this finer turf. And radio channel number two brings you back to a, I dunno whether it be a 12 mil frequency, a cut or something like that to, to come back in and get into the fine turf.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 46:31

I've never really thought about it until you're talking about it here, but something we face here in the south in the spring is seed heads on Bermuda, and they're very hard to cut.

Bruce Alexander: 46:43

yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 46:44

I've never thought about turning the real speed down to see if that would allow a little more time or less turbulence or whatever it is to let that seed head get in between the real blade and the bed enough. that's an idea,

Bruce Alexander: 46:59

Definitely.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 46:59

it first right here on Real Turf Techs. If this helps you can send money to me and Bruce.

Bruce Alexander: 47:06

Yeah. Yeah, Cash.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 47:08

I'll split it with you. Cash is king.

Bruce Alexander: 47:11

I think the, that the, what I will say there, Trent is a phrase that Linton Lewis, the design engineer who's now retired, but a phrase that he used, which I loved was when we're saying this, we're standing on the shoulders of giants. It's from other people, it's

Trent Manning, CTEM: 47:26

Oh

Bruce Alexander: 47:27

drawn from everywhere. And I wanna make sure that I'm saying that's I've used that. I've seen that work certainly in the summer games last year. It really made a big difference. And certainly in talking with Tomer then

Trent Manning, CTEM: 47:41

that's awesome.

Bruce Alexander: 47:42

he finds the same thing. Every course is different. Everybody approaches it in a slightly different way.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 47:47

yep.

Bruce Alexander: 47:48

but, and we talk about as a starting point, using the height of cut as the frequency of cut. And the only thing I'm gonna say there is when people talk about that is just remember the cutting unit isn't interesting or it doesn't know, the bench height of cut isn't the height of cut we are looking for really, we are looking to match that to the actual height of cut as a So frequency, cut the bench to actual height cut and then work it from there. And if you're trying to capture those broads, yeah, lengthen it out. If not, then bring it up or down and play with it and see where you get to.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 48:26

Yeah. That's very interesting though. I like it. And that's what I love about the podcast. That's what I love about, talking to different people because yeah, like you're saying, we all do the same thing. We all do it a little bit different and, but one person might figure something out that nobody else knows about, or only, 10% of us know about, or, whatever it is. So it is great to get that information out there. So thank you for sharing that and thanks to Tom to sharing it to you. That's the way it works, right?

Bruce Alexander: 48:59

Yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 48:59

Word of mouth and networking and. And all those things. That's how we all get better at what we do

Bruce Alexander: 49:06

That's a,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 49:07

make our job easier.

Bruce Alexander: 49:08

yeah. And Tom or yourself, or again, Mike Rollins, absolute guru. I love talking to the guys, particularly likes of Tom that's out there every day at a different course, different areas of the world bringing back a lot of information and whereas I'm coming at it more from what are we building? So what are we, what is Tom experiencing coming back to feedback to the factory, what is he experiencing that we can build in make it easier for him to achieve his end goal, which of course his end goal is to help improve courses yeah, of course. The other thing, the other big thing if, which, on the subject of that kind of stuff is actual bottom blade selection. So you mentioned B, CD, obviously and that's critical and I would. Hesitantly suggest that you and I might get down into the depths of conversations and and we get right down into the deep end of it. And stage one would be, make sure your roller bearings are okay, that's obvious, sure you've got a bottom blade on there that is giving you clearance to the turf. And that's a, that's still something that we find we're talking about a lot. And the effects of different front roller profiles to the actual height of cut. And what bottom blade is giving you enough clearance how do you check that? So

Trent Manning, CTEM: 50:34

yeah, so let's I'm happy to jump in this rabbit hole with you. It's, yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 50:38

superb.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 50:38

One of, my favorite, yeah. One of my favorite places to live. Is there a magic number on clearance? How much clearance do you need? And I obviously, I know that it's gonna vary depending on what your height is and what grass you're mowing and all those things. But is there a good rule of thumb?

Bruce Alexander: 50:58

Yeah, that is definitely a rabbit hole. And I think I'd almost defer to you to give us that answer. I know from from my point of view it often starts from a often starts from an after cutt appearance issue. Something's going differently. I won't say wrong, something's going differently or there's an after cutt appearance issue that the customer's been struggling with, the dealer may be involved with or may not be involved with. I think end user at that stage is often hesitant about involving the dealer because if it's a turf issue, of course, he might end up with somebody coming out from the dealer and he might end up with an invoice. he's and also of course, pride stops us reaching out too quickly anyway, doesn't

Trent Manning, CTEM: 51:42

Oh yeah, for sure.

Bruce Alexander: 51:43

so for me, the first thing will be to look at the actual bomb blade itself. And it sounds self-explanatory really, but we're looking at the amount of shine up on that front edge of the bottom blade, aren't we? if you are getting anything more than the first five or 10 mil that's got any shine on that front of the bottom blade, then surely, whatever you think the clearance is at that point it is not enough.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 52:12

Okay. Yeah. No I follow what you're saying.

Bruce Alexander: 52:14

and if it's shining back past the, what I would call the shafer that you end up with parallel to the turf and I'm gonna say most manufacturers are the same, where we've purposely manufactured a bottom blade so that we have a longer edge that ends up being parallel with a turf to the sheer point. if you are getting any shining up on that sha of edge, then it's a concern. And if it goes back further than that, then obviously it's a hundred percent the wrong blade. And perhaps we're jumping into tips and tricks. But often I would say it's a surprise to people that aren't using the prism regularly, when obviously conditions change. Keeping on top of that with a prism and seeing what the actual height occur is. So if we're setting. The classic one I would use, and I use 3.2 millimeter because that's, We're back at that eighth of an inch We looked at our low profile blade, we state that it's okay down to 3.2 mil. So if we said 3.2 mil there, and I'm just checking on here, the next blade down will be a tournament blade at 2.4 mil. So if I'm Ben, if I'm benching at 3.2, is 2.4 gonna be enough? That's gonna give me 0.8 of a millimeter clearance. Then you start thinking about what your front roller is. Then you think about have you got a weight transfer system on the unit that's transferring a bit of the weight from the front roller to the back? Then you think about it, maybe even thinking about things like you. Seven 11 or 15 blade reel. If you're a 15 blade reel and you are spinning at 2,200 RPM, then you've got quite a lot of ger forces coming through. so I usually think you, you end up needing to be at least one blade lower than you would've thought you needed to be at. But I guess the tip or the trick that I would say, again, standing on the shoulders of giants would be mow the green. Then with the thinnest sheet of plastic that you can find, run that over the top of the rear roller, under the bottom blade, and then back out over the top of the front roller, set the unit back down onto the green that you've just mowed, Draw forwards just a fraction. So you the unit is settled and bedded if you like onto the turf. And then from the front. Stop the machine, obviously and from the front draw that polythene out and fill the resistance on that polythene.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 54:55

Okay.

Bruce Alexander: 54:56

The resistance you fill on the polythene can only be the bottom blade on the turf. So what I would say is, if you do that's no argument about the angle that you've looked at your prism. That's no argument about turf conditions. It's, no it's not offending anybody. Feel that resistance, then move and drop that unit on the cart path or back in the shed, and there is then zero resistance on the policy.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 55:30

I got you.

Bruce Alexander: 55:31

so you've got zero resistance on the hard surface. Drop it on the green. If you've On that polythene, you need to raise your height of cup or change your bottom blade. Of course. I guess so. Yeah. The thing to be careful here is if you have a situation where you are setting at three mil height of cup, and you look at the prism and you say, oh, I think I'm less than two millimeters actual, and then you think, oh, that's with the, if it's the championship bottom blade, we're 1.6 mil. So if we're on a shaver blade or a championship blade, we're at 1.6 mil, we're at somewhere around two millimeters or whatever. That's where I would say, let's look at the bottom blade for dragging evidence, if you like witness marks, INE test as well. Then you convince a customer to raise it up by. I'm just trying to think of a 10 thou or a tiny bit anyway, and they look back and they said the height of cut hasn't, the actual height of cut hasn't changed? Clearly it was in quite hard contact there, wasn't it? Then we wanna bring that height of cut up until we've got no resistance or limited resistance on that polythene. So I haven't answered your question

Trent Manning, CTEM: 56:49

No, you've done a good job of dancing around this thing. No, I'm teasing man. I'm teasing.

Bruce Alexander: 56:54

I've danced around it. And of course, when you talk about clearance, that'll all come back to the position of the real in the unit. Is it biased towards the front or the rear roller? And which suits us better and actually the roller base itself to to

Trent Manning, CTEM: 57:08

yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of variables there for sure.

Bruce Alexander: 57:10

yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 57:12

Yeah. In that I believe, and I might misquote this, but I think John Patterson says half. Your height to cut is what he wants his clearance to be.

Bruce Alexander: 57:27

Yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 57:27

So if his height to cut is, one 20, he wants 60 thousandths of clearance.

Bruce Alexander: 57:34

I I definitely like the sound of that

Trent Manning, CTEM: 57:36

yeah. Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 57:37

One of

Trent Manning, CTEM: 57:37

It does make sense. I don't know what the minimum is or the threshold of that. If one 20, and maybe it does depend on what you're mowing and if it's rye grass versus Bermuda or, a lot of those could be factors too on how much clearance you need.

Bruce Alexander: 57:54

I think you are right. And I'm not the guy with the most experience of warm season grasses. I say there was three years in the Middle East learning about Bermuda and Pa Baum at the time, but I've not worked with Zoia stuff like that. But I,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 58:09

you're lucky if you hadn't worked with

Bruce Alexander: 58:11

but I think they do. I think the warm season grasses tend to show up issues quicker. It seems to me, I dunno, just from looking at you guys and certainly John was one of your first guests. I dunno if you remember what number guest he was on the podcast, but he

Trent Manning, CTEM: 58:29

not right off. 60 something

Bruce Alexander: 58:33

I don't think he was earlier than that, but No. Either way. He certainly caught my attention. I will say that, and it's been great to meet John and yourself and other guys when I've been over there. And also John on one of Mike Rollins's little video episodes where he features John. It's just like a two minute episode of a great workshop set up a great work ethic and the level of professionalism that this industry's really trying to make sure we achieve.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 59:01

Oh yeah, John, definitely he's one I'm glad to call him a friend, I'll put it that way. it's awesome to have him right down the road, a great resource for our industry and very humble. And, he'll help anybody, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or whatever. Give him a call and he'll help you any way he can. And I've said it a thousand times, but I'll say it again. That's what I love about this industry. Most of us are that way,

Bruce Alexander: 59:29

Yeah, for

Trent Manning, CTEM: 59:30

I get a random call today. I'll help whoever it is as best I can on to get them going or whatever the case may be. Yeah, you want to get, you wanna get a little deeper on, we were at an hour and seven minutes right now, so you wanna get a little deeper on, or you have, we got tips and tricks. If you got any more you wanna share, then I'd like to talk cutting units and then anything else you wanna talk about?

Bruce Alexander: 59:58

Yeah, I think on the tips and tricks that the polythene test is certainly a good one to think about. The other one, which every time I see it anywhere removing broken studs out of blocks or anything else which one of your guests put me on some art welding rods, which are really good as a

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:00:17

Okay. Yeah. AraC, AraC. Deloy, Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 1:00:20

So that was good to see. And then of course you hear a lot of people talking about welding and nut stud. And when the studs sheared off flush, which they often do, I always just throw out there to make sure you weld a washer onto it first, weld a washer on so you can get that penetration. weld The nut to the washer and you put two lots of heat into it, which is, has gotta be good. And you get better penetration. And so that's one that's always been a useful one for me which again will be for me, leaning back towards how Marshall and how Marshall engineering Great. For anything like that.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:00:57

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a good one. And like you said, it's easier to get an arc between the bolt or whatever it is, and the washer first than trying to go through a, a thick nut or whatever it is

Bruce Alexander: 1:01:10

yeah. And then it doesn't,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:01:12

good penetration

Bruce Alexander: 1:01:13

yeah. And then your wire pushes the nut out of position, doesn't it?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:01:17

Yeah. Yep.

Bruce Alexander: 1:01:18

Then you hold it with your finger. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:01:20

right? Yep. Yep. I've been there, done that. Yeah. Any other tips and tricks?

Bruce Alexander: 1:01:26

I'm just trying to think of any off the top of my head now. I mean it again, just in relation to our machines. If you've got any of our machines from the f from the last couple of three years make sure you're looking in that screen. If you think you've got an issue and you're gonna dive into something, look Screen first.'cause there's an awful lot of information there that's right there for you. But yeah, other than that, I think the first one that I think we all know about now that I saw way back in my farming day was running a ringer weld around a taper and I was fascinated to watch the guy do that.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:01:59

I've done that so many times. It is definitely one of the best tricks in the book for sure.

Bruce Alexander: 1:02:04

yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:02:06

Funny, that trick's been around, like you said, you learn it in your farming days. And that was one of the first tricks I learned, probably in the mechanic world. But you talk about it in a class or something and there's people that's never heard of it before, everybody's gotta hear it for the first time somewhere. So if they're hearing it here, that's fine.

Bruce Alexander: 1:02:27

If they get the same level of amazement from it when they use it and see it as I did watching a guy called Paul Jarman came out and was removing a bearing out of a map bro or something at the time. And I just stood there and watched and was amazed. I thought where's this magic coming from?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:02:43

one. So my favorite thing to do on the John Deere rear roller brush. That bearing, is it's not completely blind, but you can't get to it from the backside, and it's a regular ball bearing, but then, the balls break and the center race comes out, so you're just left with the outer race and you run that bead weld around there, and I've put the ground clamp on the bernhausen and I'll run the bead around there, and then I'll grab it with the clamp and hit it on the table and it falls out. And, it's just great. It's awesome.

Bruce Alexander: 1:03:20

You can't help

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:03:21

gets old.

Bruce Alexander: 1:03:21

Yeah, I was gonna say, you can't help but give yourself a little smile each time.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:03:25

Yeah. Never gets old.

Bruce Alexander: 1:03:26

I think that the one, one other thing that I will just throw out there is going back to not so much the power pro, but talking about starting issues. That's things like, putting a jump lead from the starter to the earth to rule out any dodgy earths and putting the volt meter across the contacts on the back of the solenoid to see if you're getting any voltage running through the multimeter, which would be a, an indication that your contacts on your starter motor are not good.'cause it's sending some voltage Through your multimeter. All that kind of stuff. But to be honest I think I'm not sure what number of episodes you're up to, but there's been an awful lot of really good tips and trick tips

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:04:04

Oh, yeah. There's

Bruce Alexander: 1:04:05

have come out.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:04:06

Been a ton shared. Yeah, we're, I don't, we're in the one sixties. I don't remember exactly where we are. Yeah, I don't keep track. I do, but I don't, I can't name that off the top of my head. My head is full of so many numbers that that's not one of'em that stays up there, but. I'm going to look right now while I'm thinking about it. Let's see. We have, you're actually, is that right? This is 1, 1 59. Getting recorded right now. Almost a one 60.

Bruce Alexander: 1:04:47

I was just thinking of when you did your first podcast, if you'd have thought to yourself, yeah, I'll be at 1 59 at some point,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:04:54

yeah. No, I never drank, I didn't really think it through that long. Hey, let's do a podcast. Let's, okay. I'll interview some people, and then, yeah, and here we are, whatever. Four. Is it going on? Five years? cause I think I started in March of 21. So yeah, this March. Yeah, that's, yeah. Just unbelievable. Never would've guessed. But I'm happy to be doing it and I still get a lot of good feedback, so I'll keep it up as long as I can. Alright, let's talk cutting units for a little bit.

Bruce Alexander: 1:05:26

Yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:05:27

And some behind center distance maybe. Again, to re-reference the sheet that you come up with. A wonderful resource for us end users to know what bed knife we put on and what our behind center distance is gonna be. And grind angles and all that stuff is in there. Wonderful resource. And y'all only make two different links of bed knives, is that right?

Bruce Alexander: 1:05:58

When you say two different lengths as in eighteens and 20 twos,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:06:02

No, that would change

Bruce Alexander: 1:06:04

change BCDs? yeah, I mean we, so I talked about earlier we punch the back of the bottom blade, so it's to reference. So if we staff at the thinnest, then that's the championship bottom blade. So that'll be stamped with an XXR. That. Is a very similar behind center distance to the next blade, which is the super tournament, and that'll be stamped xx. So the profiles of those two blades are pretty much the same. There's not a lot of difference in those at all. In fact, unless you get into the nitty gritty, I've not got the chart in front of me, which I probably should have had on one of these other

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:06:47

I don't,

Bruce Alexander: 1:06:47

But

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:06:48

hang, hang on just a second if you don't mind. Would you, mind if I shared,

Bruce Alexander: 1:06:56

yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:06:56

it here if I can find out what window it's on. Let's

Bruce Alexander: 1:07:02

it does look like there's an awful lot of information on that,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:07:06

Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 1:07:07

but a lot of

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:07:08

it there on my screen?

Bruce Alexander: 1:07:09

Yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:07:10

It's probably, you probably can't read

Bruce Alexander: 1:07:12

I was just gonna say, I was just gonna change to my other glasses.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:07:16

Yeah. You go out to get some fine glasses there for that?

Bruce Alexander: 1:07:20

But from there so just going across just the, we start off on the left with a bed knife part number. So just make, just to make people aware that's a 22 inch blade though. So if you are, if you're looking at the 18 inch units then that's a different number. And then directly referenced there is the sort of lowest bench height of cut. So realistically that's saying if we set a championship played at 1.6, you plus you want 1.6 plus your clearance, really, don't you? Then there's a description. So we give the marking there as well, which is useful. For people that aren't so familiar, at least if they've got this chart, they can flick it over and see okay, X XR championship front face thickness recommended front face thickness. And we know it's pretty critical to have that front face thickness the same across the machine, don't we, across the

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:08:14

Yep.

Bruce Alexander: 1:08:14

that's a much longer conversation, isn't it? When we start talking about

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:08:17

oh, yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Bruce Alexander: 1:08:20

and actually front face angles is an interesting conversation. Then the angle, top face, angle, front face angle and the front face angle. Of course, when we start talking about presentation to the turf, we've gotta then think about the attitude angle of the bottom blade. So that five degrees, it'd be five degrees if the bottom blade was flat, but we put in the attitude of that bottom blade at whatever it might be, six or seven degrees. And then we're plus that five to, to get the presentation angle. So just also referencing the units that those bottom blades are fitted to. And you mentioned about height of cut that for us, quite an important thing for us is which rear roller is being fitted. Two inch roller. And then we've used to get our BCD, we've talked about a height of cut of 3.2 millimeters, and then we're into that all important one that, that you are interested in, Trent? The B, c, d there. So I think I'm straining my eyes, but the championship and super tournament should be pretty similar.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:09:36

B, c, D.

Bruce Alexander: 1:09:37

yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:09:39

Yeah. Yeah. It's, yeah, it's close there.

Bruce Alexander: 1:09:41

And then the,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:09:43

46 to 1 29

Bruce Alexander: 1:09:46

okay.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:09:47

three? 3.7 to almost 3.3, four tenths of a millimeter or something. That's not, I would say that's close in the ballpark. Yeah. So on the, what's the bottom, angle to ground? And it's got 1, 2, 3, and

Bruce Alexander: 1:10:05

Yeah, so if you look at the green sort of section of a blade below, Then you'll

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:10:14

Oh, okay.

Bruce Alexander: 1:10:15

referenced there. So we're actually giving at those height of cuts, the actual angle that each one of those part profiles, if we like At, to at, to the ground. So

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:10:29

Okay. All right. Very good.

Bruce Alexander: 1:10:31

the interesting thing I want to look at there though, Trent, is that, so the X XR championship and XX super tournament, a similar BCDs, but if you go to the next one, the tournament blade, that's where we go to what, is our highest, if you like, B, c, d we jumped back quite a bit there. If we've got a tournament blade in, we're going, and this is again, we're interested in talking about the terminology that different manufacturers and different trainers use, and I'm not sure whether you talk about reeling the canopy or I've heard dip, or however we want to

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:11:06

Yeah. yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 1:11:07

So

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:11:07

I don't, yeah, I don't know. I've never heard of the, I've never seen anybody or heard anybody define a term, and I guess I've heard it called Dip more than anything, but I don't know that's,

Bruce Alexander: 1:11:22

no.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:11:23

bad, it is.

Bruce Alexander: 1:11:25

I like reel in the canopy.'cause it, it's descriptive of what's happening perhaps. So with our tournament blade, you've got more reel in the canopy or more dip. And then when you go into the super tournament and the championship, obviously then you're coming into lower heights of cut and that BCD is coming towards the center line more. So that chart gives a good basis. And what the other interesting thing, how heights have cut seem to be coming lower and lower on fairway mowers. And that's a trend that's been going on for some time,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:12:00

I would agree.

Bruce Alexander: 1:12:02

so it's worth knowing. For us, if you've got an LF five 70, so you're the seven inch reels, then those greens blades do fit so you can get down. The classic one that, that we here talked about a lot and certainly JCB are looking at setting to a 10 mil height of cut on the fairways. those instances, I would recommend actually fitting one of the green bottom blades. But normally I would say the low profile blade, which will go to a 3.2 mil. back to John's thing about trying to keep his clearance to half of his height of cut, which sounds sensible to me. If you've got a low profile blade at 3.2 and you are mowing, particularly if it's a bench height cut. Of 10 mil when we know we're gonna be down lower than that. So the low profile or the tournament even may be good options to put on that LF five 70. so there are just a couple of things to talk about there in that ultimately, remember this is with new reels, and new bottom blades. That in mind. Also, the limiting factor becomes with a worn reel, the limiting factor becomes how low we can get the front roller or how high, depending on which way you

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:13:32

yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get, I confuse myself all the time with that, I'm moving the roller up, but I'm lowering the height, trying to keep all that straight.

Bruce Alexander: 1:13:41

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:13:42

Yeah, no, that's that's really good stuff. The, is Jacobson five inch reel. Five inches, exactly. When it's brand new.

Bruce Alexander: 1:13:51

It is pretty, pretty close to it. It's ne it's never under it. It's never hugely more, but it's pretty close to that five inch, but it is never under it. It's always a little bit more one of the reasons I mentioned that on the seven inch unit wouldn't fit in the greens blades because the blade section itself is thinner. You may find that the, and depending on which blade is fitted, you may find that the screws on the, come through the bed block, may need just to be taken back a bit. On a new reel. Yeah, and I think we're the same. I think on that chart there you'll see we're pretty much in line with everybody. We'll say by the time you've left lost 0.4 of an inch, then it's time to be thinking about changing that reel. And certainly if you get a seven inch reel down at six and a half or a five inch reel down to four and a half, then that's done and dusted. And time Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:14:44

Does Jacobson have a minimum? I see on here you got front face thickness. Is that 35 thousandths or 0.9 millimeter? Is that If

Bruce Alexander: 1:14:59

So that'll be,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:15:00

that, your bed knife's done.

Bruce Alexander: 1:15:02

on that front face thickness, that's where we, that's the specification it should leave a factory at. So if that's 0.9 to 1.5, that should leave it, and I think. When it comes to what suits the customer, an end user and I'm willing to listen to anybody on this, but my feeling is more, it's more important to make sure it's uniform across the three units or five units than the actual front face thickness itself. Definitely, I would say you see, you will see a difference between let's say one that's under a millimeter and one that's at sort of two millimeters. If we think about that bottom blade pushing through the grass being half of the gathering action, if you like, then that front face thickness becomes critical. Of course the angles and I'm sure that angle works better, adjusted for certain grass types than others as well. that will

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:15:54

I was just curious there.

Bruce Alexander: 1:15:56

Yeah, so that will

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:15:56

a minimum spec on how much can you grind a bed knife.

Bruce Alexander: 1:16:02

I think probably like a lot of people, we start talking about once you start hitting the valley, and on the front face, the thing is, as we spoke about before, it's just having in your mind that you are altering that b, c, d by taking out that front face, each grind.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:16:18

I do think that's important for everybody to know what you're doing. The more you grind off that front face, the more you're increasing B, c, D that directly. Not arbitrarily or anything else. It's a direct measurement. If you take off a quarter inch, you moved your BCDA quarter inch. Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 1:16:40

Yeah. Yeah. And we've certainly seen it before, or I've certainly seen it before, where we've had two units on a mower with a super tournament on, and one unit with a tournament played on, and people fighting and chasing to find out what, what the heck's wrong with this unit. Why is this looking different, and and everything and being convinced that everything is fine. But sure enough, yeah, there, there's a blade with a T stamped into it and the other two are an xx.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:17:07

Wow. Okay. Yeah, that's, yep. But it happens and that's the way it goes. Yeah. You and that, that's why you have a job and I have a job and everybody else has a job, to help people out when they get in that situation.

Bruce Alexander: 1:17:25

And of

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:17:26

honestly, it can be an easy mistake too. You got a million things going on in the shop and you're, whatever. You know it is, you get distracted and you come back and you forgot all about

Bruce Alexander: 1:17:39

and I think

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:17:40

knife.

Bruce Alexander: 1:17:41

that happens to us all. Trent and I mentioned the likes of Hanford and Simon and James Jensen and Steve Turner and that and those guys, you find yourself putting a call in, don't you? And they don't actually give you the answer to the problem, but they say something that resets your mind and then bang, you've realized you've overlooked something really straightforward.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:18:02

I really like the way you put that because when I was working with Jerry Pate and we had a guy in the shop that he had been there forever a really long time. Actually, he's still working there and I don't know how he's gotta be in his seventies. super knowledgeable guy, but I would be stumped with a problem, whatever it was. And I would call up William Albertson's, his name, and I would call up William and ask, tell him my scenario or whatever. And a lot of times he wouldn't give me the answer to the problem that I needed, but just talking to him, it got my brain reset or working in a different way. And I would say, ah, that's it, that's what it is. And it's just, I don't know, a really good memory I had working there and every time I'd call say, Hey William, you got a problem? Help me out here. So for the listeners and anybody else, just pick the phone up and phone a friend. Maybe they can't give you the answer, but maybe they can reset your brain. So I like the way you put that.

Bruce Alexander: 1:19:11

Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:19:12

good stuff.

Bruce Alexander: 1:19:13

for sure. And of course, coming back to looking at the charcoal, we haven't spoken about setting of the reel setting of the reels. We are on tape of bearings which offer we feel for us offer advantages of holding we'll set with an air gap. 1000 to 3000. So somewhere on, on the small print of that. Chart will say, brand new reel, new bottom blade an air gap of, I'm not sure what it says now from memory, but it'll be between one and three thou. And for us, we feel that, the tape of bearings give that consistent hold all the way through to wear in life. And if we do hit something, then that allows, the helix allows that to unload the spring loading tension on the taper bearing and provide a certain amount of clearance. Not gonna say it

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:20:04

Oh, okay. Huh. I've never thought about it like that. Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 1:20:10

a certain amount, so it might just it could just be the difference between a damaged drill or bed knife to be in something that's recoverable who knows, But that, and I say to maintain that sort of one to 3000 clearance with that spring loaded preload, we, we keep that real. It's spinning at potentially 2,200 RPN depending on frequency of cut settings all the way through to bearing's life. We keep it on and soil. So

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:20:36

How do you feel about the lead in or a champ for on that leading edge of the bed knife?

Bruce Alexander: 1:20:44

now that's a really interesting question because if it is set with our one 3000, you could argue that dub is not necessary. However, I would say certainly for myself, if ever I'm grinding the bottom blade, I will always put that dub in on that leading edge.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:21:04

Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 1:21:05

best will in the world. It goes out from, whether it be your shop or my shop or anybody's shop, it goes out set with a one to three thou. It comes to the weekend, people get a little bit keener to get something set back on cut if they've just

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:21:21

oh yeah,

Bruce Alexander: 1:21:21

yeah, the spanner comes out and it goes down a bit tighter, doesn't it?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:21:25

Yeah, and I don't know, I understand your argument but I will object to your argument because this is what really what I really think happens, whether you have a one to 3000th clearance or not, when that cutting unit is going across the ground and that corner of the bed knife goes over a sprinkler head or a drain grate. And it pushes a little force on there. I think it can move it one to three thousandths.

Bruce Alexander: 1:22:03

You make a really interesting point. A really interesting point. So I would say, I'll come back to the electrification. One of the, one of the biggest things about being on that E 360 elite or the hand mower, the only thing you can hear is the cutting units. And that's fantastic. So as soon as you pick up a bit of top dressing, grit or anything like that, you hear that straight away. So that's great. But we also talk about when it comes back to our box frame construction, welded construction, this kind of stuff and all about having that unit. Chasing down every little variable we can on that unit sure that when it's traveling across the turf, it has got no prestress sitting in that unit. So if you do hit that sprinkler head or you hit anything or go over anything the more relaxed that cutting unit is the less it's gonna move if you do hit that sprint grid. But I'm not gonna argue with you that when you hit that, that's gonna move a little bit. And I think also when we come back to talking about bottom blade dragging, it's important to understand, although this stuff looks like it's some pretty well heavy duty made stuff, if you set it with a one fell gap and you use just your thumb in the center of that bottom blade and push while you rotate the unit you will move it a out. Just with your thumb. So I would agree with you. If you are hitting a sprint Something's gonna happen. So I'm actually gonna go with what you said and say, I did say I'd always put the dub on. I did say with the air

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:23:53

Oh, you did?

Bruce Alexander: 1:23:54

I did say with the air gap, I didn't necessarily think it was necessary, but following this conversation, I would always make sure I put that dub on'cause I agree.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:24:03

Yes. Yep. Yeah, thank you for coming around and seeing what happens at the golf course that I've experienced. I don't know how many times, and I'll be honest, I didn't always put the dub on on greens, knives and stuff, because it is, not too often we're hitting stuff on greens or whatever. But I had a bed knife that looked like a curly cue, it caught the front edge and spun it up. And I posted it on Twitter and this, years ago, back when it was still Twitter. And I'll never forget Bobs shop. He's up in Nova Scotia. Anyway, good guy. He he said, do you put the dub on, or champ or whatever he called it. And I'm like, no, not on greens. He's start doing it. So I've been doing it ever since on greens, knives, and it's just whatever, a quarter inch on the end. Your over operator's overlapping that much anyway, so it don't matter. And to my memory, I do not remember having another greens knife, spin up like that. With that being said, I put that lead in on every fairway knife and we break shit all the time. So I don't, I don't know. I think that a lot of that is our course and we just went under or just finished renovation and growing in and all that stuff. So a lot of debris out there to be hit.

Bruce Alexander: 1:25:30

And usually when you're under the most time pressure and there's other stuff going on, and

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:25:35

Yeah, for sure. Let's do some rapid fire, if that's all right with you. Yep. Yeah, let's do it. What's your favorite movie?

Bruce Alexander: 1:25:48

straight off the top of my head, the one that I want to say is Tombstone

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:25:52

Oh, all right. You're my friend. I love that. That was awesome. That was a great movie.

Bruce Alexander: 1:25:58

That A cracking movie, and it's one of those I've, I dunno how many times I've watched it and I don't years ago actually on honeymoon was over on that side of the states and did a bit of a fly drive, spent some time in Tombstone and did a little bit of research then, but then watched that film and that prompted a whole more sort of interest into the Wild West.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:26:22

okay. Nice. That's awesome.

Bruce Alexander: 1:26:24

find out that a lot of it is quite factual in that film.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:26:27

yeah. Yes.

Bruce Alexander: 1:26:28

but the acting in that film is just superb too. And it,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:26:32

yeah. That's really good.

Bruce Alexander: 1:26:33

Throw in a couple more. One would be over here we would notice Lamont 66, which I think you might notice, Ford versus Ferrari over there.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:26:43

Ah, okay. Yeah.

Bruce Alexander: 1:26:44

This is a great film. comedy point of view, don't mess with a zohan. That's gotta be up there as a comedy film for

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:26:51

Say that again. I missed it.

Bruce Alexander: 1:26:53

Don't mess with the zohan.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:26:57

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I've seen that, but yeah. Yeah. I'll have to check that out.

Bruce Alexander: 1:27:02

So that's, yeah, that's but tombstone bang, that's the one,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:27:07

Good stuff. What would be your last meal?

Bruce Alexander: 1:27:11

last meal. I eat pretty much anything and everything. But it would come to no surprise that James Jensen, a man over there whenever we've been out from, I, he knows I'm gonna be ordering the sea bass.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:27:24

Okay. All right. You like the sea bass? That's good. That's

Bruce Alexander: 1:27:27

but, Yeah, a good roast or a sea bass, something like that. But if I could, I'd follow that up with a dessert of and she's no longer with us but my mom's apple crumble that

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:27:39

Ooh. Yeah, that sounds

Bruce Alexander: 1:27:41

love to get some of that back, but don't be putting blueberries in there. Blackberries in there though. No.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:27:46

Okay. The straight Apple Carm.

Bruce Alexander: 1:27:49

Yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:27:50

Yep. All right. I got that straight. Let's see. When I was at Oakmont this year for the US Open James Breeze, which I think you know,

Bruce Alexander: 1:28:00

yeah,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:28:01

over, and there were some other guys. What Lee Strut, is

Bruce Alexander: 1:28:06

Yeah. Yeah.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:28:07

yeah. Yeah, he, yeah, he was over and ah, I can't think of the other guy's name. He does a lot of teaching and stuff. Anyway, they had biscuits and gravy. For breakfast one morning, and it was so funny. Yeah. They were not, the UK guys, were not a big fan of gravy, so I don't, we had a good time with it. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Bruce Alexander: 1:28:30

Is that a bit like us trying to feed you guys some black pudding?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:28:33

yeah, that was exactly what they said is, oh, you gotta have some pudding when you come back, or when you come over yep. Yeah, same thing. What are you most proud of besides your family?

Bruce Alexander: 1:28:45

I am gonna be a bit naughty and say that I am just gonna mention my two daughters, Trent, because

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:28:50

okay. Yeah, for sure.

Bruce Alexander: 1:28:51

Amy and Laura, every parent wants their kids to exceed and take things further than they can. And every day I'm really proud of them, of who they've become. They're And 29 now. I think they'd probably

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:29:02

Oh, awesome.

Bruce Alexander: 1:29:03

wrong, but, yeah. Yeah. So them, I think from that, I think me when we moved over to the Middle East, I was just that, I was still in that mode of, I was the farm boy that had worked for the local dealer. And to move out there as a family and spend three years over there was pretty big, and then the Jacobson UK direct running that was a big, thing of pride for me anyway,

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:29:30

Oh yeah. Sure, sure.

Bruce Alexander: 1:29:31

yeah. Yeah. And then I mentioned summer games last year being asked to go over there and support, that was fantastic.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:29:39

Oh yeah. Yeah. That had to be amazing. Yeah. I'm envious. I would've loved to, to have been at that one.

Bruce Alexander: 1:29:46

Yeah. So quite, quite how you guys do as much tournament support as you do. I don't know. Because those hours are brutal, aren't they?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:29:56

Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty crazy. Yeah. The one night at Oakmont, it was like midnight and, we had to be back the next morning at whatever you, we were getting up at 3:00 AM so didn't get back to the hotel till 1230. Grab a shower. It's one o'clock, so yeah, two hours.

Bruce Alexander: 1:30:13

That's crazy, isn't it?

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:30:15

Yeah, it was rough. we do get to nap during the day, but not enough nap time.

Bruce Alexander: 1:30:20

I think if Tim from JC B's listening, then then he would be snickering now saying, oh yeah, you'll keep Bruce there. He'll work till whatever time at night, but you won't see him at that time in the morning.

Trent Manning, CTEM: 1:30:32

Oh yeah. That's funny. Yep. For sure. Thank you so much Bruce. I really appreciate you coming on. It's been a long time coming, getting our schedules worked out, but thank you so much. This has been great.

Bruce Alexander: 1:30:43

Oh, I love being a guest yeah. Yeah. Thanks a lot Trent. Really appreciate it.

Trent Manning: 1:30:54

thank you so much for listening to the Reel turf techs podcast I hope you learned something today 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.