Episode 131: Ben Herberger

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Trent Manning (00:00):
It's getting real.

(00:01):
That's right.
It's getting real.
So tell me how to say your lastname.

Ben Herberger (00:06):
Ha! My last name is pronounced Herberger.

Herberger.
Okay.
Maybe, yeah, maybe I canremember that.
Herberger.
That's, yeah, that's prettysimple.
That's pretty easy.

It's pretty close to hamburger.
I got joked joked about that alot in high school.
So,

yeah.
Did they call you the Hamburglaror anything like that?
Or

Every variation you could possibly imagine.
Every variation.

I'm sure.
Herberger.
All right.
Good stuff.
this episode are real turf techson golf course industries
Superintendent radio network ispresented by Foley county a
strong supporter of equipmenttechnicians and golf course
maintenance departmentseverywhere Foley county offers a
proven solution for above andbelow the turf for turf

(00:52):
professionals To learn moreabout Foley company's line of
real grinders bed knife grindersand the air to G2 family of
products or to find adistributor visit www dot Foley
C o.com Foley Ready for playwelcome to the real turf techs

(01:13):
podcast episode 1 31.
Today, we're talking to BenHerberger equipment manager at
shooting star golf club in Tetonvillage, Wyoming.
Ben is the loan tech and hisfleet are primarily Toro
equipment.
Let's talk to Ben.

(01:36):
Welcome Ben to the real turftext podcast.
Thanks for coming on.
How you doing today?

Hey, you know, I'm doing great.
Thanks for having me, Trent.
It's a pleasure to get to talkto you.

Yeah, no, I'm really excited and what I'm
really excited about is you'rein one of the most Beautiful
places I've ever been to And notthat I've been to a lot of
places.
I stayed in the South for a longtime, but I have started
traveling recently and I waslucky enough.
We took my sister and I, she'sfour years younger than me, took

(02:07):
my dad for his 80th birthdaylast September.
And we flew into Jackson holeand then spent whatever, well,
we spent a day at the Tetons andthen the next three or four days
at Yellowstone.
And then flew out of JacksonHall and man, it was, yeah,
something else.

There you go.
I gotta ask.
Which park was your favoriteone?
Did you enjoy Yellowstone moreor Grand Teton?

Well, so my sister asked me this question
and I said, it's apples andoranges to me.
You know, I mean, I really like,I really enjoyed both of them
and I couldn't pick one over theother.
I mean, they're different intheir own right.
I mean, Yellowstone, what I sawof it anyway, is a whole lot
bigger than what I saw of theTetons.

(02:55):
But the Tetons, we seen a mooseand we didn't see it.
We didn't see any moose inYellowstone.

There

We did see plenty of Buffalo though.

Yeah.
they're they're

of Buffalo.
Yeah.
That was crazy.
Tell us how you got into theturf industry.

Well, I I don't know, I got kind of a boring
story, I guess.
My family actually owns a golfcourse, so I was kind of born
into it.
far as I can tell, I'm about thefourth generation that's worked
in the industry.
My great grandpa was asuperintendent down in Salem,
Oregon, where I'm from.

Okay.

And then my grandpa was a superintendent and
bought a nine hole country clubat the time back in 1950.
That's that's been the familycourse that's in Oregon city.
And that's actually where I grewup.
So

Oh, that's awesome though.
So cool.
I mean, a lot of history there.

yeah, man, shoot.

stuff.

think I was five years old going out and help my,
well, helping my dad changecups, carrying his bucket for
him and running after the flag.
But

No, that's cool stuff.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
So what got you into turningwrenches and on that side?

well that's yeah, that's a little bit more of an
interesting part of the story.
My dad had a mechanic thatworked for him for a number of
years that moved on.
While he was there working formy dad, I.
I needed a method oftransportation, so he helped me
pick out what every good 18 yearold boy needs, and that's a
motorcycle.

Yes.

got that, he helped me fix it up, rebuild the
engine, rebuild thetransmission, go through the
whole thing, and basically thatwas kind of my introduction to
actually turning wrenches.
Before that, my dad always kindof saw something in me, would
bring home broken pieces ofequipment from the golf course.
You know, motor here, a boardthere, and let me just tear it
apart with some little tools Ihad at home.

(04:51):
So it's kind of always been aninclination of mine.

That's cool.
Super cool.

yeah, a couple years after my dad's mechanic
moved on, he gave me a call oneday out of the blue.
I think I was working somecrummy construction job at the
time, and in all fairness, Iwasn't any good at it.
And he rang me up and asked if Iwanted to be his assistant
mechanic working with him at acountry club in North Portland.
And at the time, the gentlemanwas 72 years old, and so his

(05:19):
plan was to show me their upsfor a couple of years and then
transition on to a beautifulretirement.
Well, I worked there for acouple of years and then he
never seemed like he was gettingsuper uncomfortable in his
chair.
So I found a job with a localtour distributor

Oh, okay.

applied there and was a mobile tech for a couple
of years.
So that was kind of my overallintroduction into wrenching.
After that, I worked for shoot,worked there for a couple of
years, got married, moved closeto the wife's family into
central Oregon, worked for aplace called Black Butte ranch.
And then.
And then last place before thisone was Sun River Resort,

(05:57):
Crosswater Golf Course, and allof that stuff.

Okay.
Yeah.
So how did you get to JacksonHole or why are you there?

Why am I in

because it's yeah, because it's so beautiful.

No it's beautiful.
Um, yeah, honestly, it was, it'skind of, more pragmatic for me
than that.
What it kind of came down to wasWhen we moved to Central Oregon
initially, it was the cheap partof the state to live in, which
was great for a young, broke,married couple.
Well, it became the mostexpensive part of the state, and
then kept going up and going up,and I basically got to the point

(06:32):
where we couldn't afford rent,and we had to move one way or
another.
Um, this job in Jackson came up,and my wife and I looked at it,
and we're like, Okay, we knowwhat prices are like in Jackson.
Well, there's no way we can makethis work.
Oh.
But my wife encouraged me toapply and talk with the
superintendent and get to seewhat was going on, see how they

(06:53):
make it work here and, you know,you know, talking to him and
honestly, him and I have a greatrelationship and that, you know,
we had a two hour conversationthat first time.
So we just hit it off and waswilling to make the leap.
And we're, you know, we're doinglife here now and gorgeous
Jackson, Wyoming.

That's awesome though.
So cool.
And I think that's so importantto getting along with the
superintendent or your director,you know, whatever their title
might be is that relationship.
If that relationship is good, itcan be the best work environment
in the world.
And if that relationship is bad,it can be the worst work

(07:34):
environment in the world.

Yeah,

That is, and I think, you know, like you're
saying, when you interviewed andyou have a two hour
conversation, you can have apretty good idea, like, okay, I
think I can get along with thisguy or gal or whatever the case
may be.
But I want to hear a little bitabout your time on the road with
the Toro distributor, becausethat, that brings back memories

(07:59):
for me.

Oh, dude, it was crazy.
It was yeah, me and another techbasically covered the whole
state of Oregon, um, and all theshop work and part of, and the
southwest side of Washington.
So we were everywhere.
It was fix this, fix that, youknow, a lot of the warranty
calls.
I'm sure you saw it.
It's all hydraulic or wiring,essentially, unless something

(08:21):
truly breaks in warranty.
Um, yeah, so it was, man, wewere everywhere.
I think I saw the majority ofthe state of Oregon in the
couple years I worked there.
And, man, I learned so muchbecause you're constantly
chasing after a different repairon a different piece of
equipment that maybe you haven'tseen, maybe it's brand new to
the customer, it's a freshrelease.

(08:42):
I mean, there was so much stuff.
Um, That was kind of how I gotintroduced to the guys over in
Central Oregon and was able tomake that connection and that
move,

Oh yeah.
Yeah.

wife and I got married.
So, yeah, no,

Yeah, it's a great network opportunity and I
know I spent a lot of time onthe phone with the tack team at
Toro and getting to know thoseguys up there.
And I mean, the amount ofknowledge that I gained talking
to them and troubleshooting, youknow, cause that's what they've
done every day, all day long.
And I mean, they were experts onthese pieces of equipment.

(09:20):
And yeah, I don't know if Iended up working on more rough
mowers, but I talked to EricBowmeister and Ryan, I can't
remember Ryan's last name.
Um, anyway, I talked to thosetwo because they were over the
rough series of mowers and Italked to them to a lot and
learned a ton of stuff.

(09:42):
And just like you're saying, Imean, you can learn so much
working for a distributor likethat in a short amount of time.
Because I mean, it's a newproblem every single day where
at the golf course, I mean, likenow, and we don't, we buy all
our equipment, we don't leaseanything.
So, I mean, our stuff gets old,but the random weird problems,

(10:06):
you know, I mean, maybe you getone a month where, you know, at
the distributor, it's everysingle day, maybe two or three
during the day.
If you can knock them out quick.

I don't know about you, but that was some of
my favorite stuff to chase down.
It was that kind of random weirdstuff.
I like, shoot, I think we had aoutcross right when that tractor
unit, not a tractor if you talkto an engineer, but that thing
came out.

Yep.
Yep.

It, they'd thrown an AC kit on it from the factory
which is great, but it wouldn'twork.
And it was at the yard.
I'm like, gosh, we gotta figurethis thing out.
It won't even kick on.
So I had to climb up on the roofof that thing and pull off the
vent to get to the actual wires.
crossed a couple wires, theywere in the wrong spot, popped
them back together and like,that was great, but I mean, that
took like, you know, 45 minutes,an hour of chasing down

Yeah.

Okay, how the heck does this thing even work?

Yeah.

And I mean, yeah, talking to the TAC guys was
great.
I think, shoot, it would seemlike a brand new problem to me,
but they'd be like, yeah, youknow, we've had 20 of these this
week.
What's yours?
I'm like, yeah, sorry, man.
Thrown on the pile, but thisrelay or whatever went out and
you guys seen it.
Okay.

Yep.

Not a biggie.

That was another thing that I always made sure to
tell the customer.
This is not the first time I'veseen that.

Yep.

And if it was the first time, I really tried to
resist saying that because, youknow, I don't know why, but it
seems like the end user, here'sthat a lot like, Oh, you're the
only one with this problem.
So if it was a known problem,I'd say, Oh, we're seeing this
everywhere.
You know, just be straight upand honest with them.

(11:52):
And I think that definitelymakes them feel a whole lot
better.
Cause when you tell them they'rethe only one.

yep.
You're the only crazy out therehaving this problem.
No, I would, I'd do the samething.
I'd, shoot, like the 4000 seriesback in 2013 when they were
putting that shoot, they werefirst putting the tier 4 in it.
a bad run of wiring harnesses.
Just bellhousing and they wouldbreak.

(12:18):
And we were chasing those downfor years.
So every time I had a customercall up with some DPF issue on
their 4000, I don't know why itwas always the DPF, but that's
what it would freak out about.
Like, okay, man, don't worryabout it.
I know what the part number is.
We'll chase it down.
It's probably going to be awiring harness, but we'll come
out there and look at it just tomake sure you're not the only
one.

(12:38):
This is a problem.
And Toro knows it was a problem.
They fixed it since.
So,

Yep.
Well, I remember the 4500 onceit got up around 2500 hours,
maybe 3000 hours.
Customer would call and say, youknow, it won't go forward.
It won't go reverse or theywould say it'll, you know, work
in low, but it won't work inhigh or to work in high, but it

(13:06):
won't work in low.
So the first thing have youcheck the o rings on the spool
valves and the four wheel drivevalve and what's that just pull
them out so underneath thefloorboard and see how many o
rings are missing and replacethose and then get back to me
and see what's happening

yep.

because yeah I mean it was just gonna happen.

no, I loved taking calls like that.
It was fun trying to diagnosestuff with guys.
Um, there was one guy, I thinkI'm free to talk about his, I
don't think I don't think he'sstill in that position.
But he called me up and I thinkhe was brand new on the job at
this little nine hole mom andpop course.
And he could not figure out forthe life of him, why the reels

(13:51):
would not go down on a 5410.
And he called me up after twodays of ripping apart the whole
operator console, ripping apartevery control, testing it all.
And he calls me up on the phoneand asks, okay.
So what the heck's going on?
I'm like, well, okay.
So where's your foot pedal at?

(14:11):
Where's your switch, high, lowswitch.
It's like, what's that?
Like, that's that aluminum pieceof metal kind of off to the
right of the, you know, forwardreverse control.
And I don't know how you canbleep this out.
He goes, motherfucker.
And he goes and he flips it andhe drops it and it works like a
charm.
Yeah, that was the last time Iheard from that guy,

Yeah.
Yeah.

I assume he got the problem straightened out.

I know, but I don't know.
We've, I think anyway, I knowI've done it plenty of times.
I think we've all done it.
You know, you just get in yourhead and you say, you know, you
forget the, you know, everybodytells you keep it simple, but
sometimes you don't and you justjump in the rabbit hole and
start digging as deep as youcan.

Yep.

I mean, I've done the same thing.
Tear wire harnesses apart andrip all the loom off.
And then it'll be some stupid,something like, God, why did I
not look at that?
So, oh yeah,

yeah, in the heat of the moment when you got
somebody pressing for that pieceof equipment and you need it
back, man, you go into full madscientist mode and nothing's
nothing's good after that.

no.
Yeah, for sure.
Well, what is your leastfavorite part of the job?
do

Alright, it?
is not sand.
There's actually been occasionswhere I have told people where
they should probably throw somesand on there because that, that
green looks like it needs it.
We're getting grainy.
We're getting thatchy.
Let's toss some sand.
My least favorite part of thejob, I hate greasing.
I absolutely hate running thegrease gun, getting it all over.

(15:44):
That's my least favorite part ofthe job.
I will, I have I've had somegood guys, especially here, I've
got some really good guys thatdefinitely let them grease it.
In the past, I've had, ah,shoot, we don't, as an industry,
we don't attract rocketscientists, you know, so I
barely trust them to put theright fuel in it, let alone put
grease in a bearing.

Right, right, right.
Yeah.

So right now I'm handling it all myself.

don't, this just reminds me of a funny story.
It's a good friend of mine.
He worked on, for an electricalcompany on a directional boring
crew and they had a Vermeerdirectional bore, boring rig,
whatever it's called.
And something had broke on it.
And so he calls the mechanic up.

(16:29):
And the mechanics like, when'sthe last time you greased it?
He's all, we grease it everyday, you know, and he's totally
lied.
So,

Huh.
Um,

and I don't know why I was out there that day.
Just goofing off or whatever.
But anyway, he gets the greasegun and he gets a big glob of
grease on his finger and hesmears it on the grease fitting.
And I'm like, dude, a mechanicis not going to buy that at all.
Because inside where the greaseis supposed to be, he's going to

(16:58):
know it's not been greased.
You know, you can't get one overall day by doing that.
But yeah, that was good stuff.

Alright.
That reminds me of a coupletimes we had a couple smoked HDX
engines working at thedistributor and we're like,
okay, when was the last time youguys changed the oil?
Like oh, you know, we change itall the time.
It's great oil I'm like, okay,so you pull the drain plug and
it comes out crystal clear Butyou look at the cylinders you

(17:25):
pop the head off the whole scoreit up.
There's not been any oil in thisthing it's all nasty inside like
so you guys blew up the engineand then put Just be honest.
We'll figure it out.
It's not gonna be not a big dealone way or another just you know
Give me the details we can fixit quicker

That's right.
Well tell us what your favoritetool is.

Oh man, I think I've waffled on this one.
I read that question.
I'm like, man, that's myfavorite tool.

It's hard to pick one.

I know, especially as mechanics, we all
tend to be a little bit of atool hound.
I think probably my favorite oneis I carried in my pocket since
I've worked at the distributoris a little baby four inch set
of NipX.

Oh, okay.
Yep.
Yeah.
That nip X.
Those are really quality tools.

Yep.
Yep.
It's come in handy for so manythings Usually I think I got it
because or started carrying themSo I was checking hydraulic
fluid on something and the dangcap was stuck on there so tight
I couldn't get it loose by hand.
So I pull these out and Youknow, popped right off.
It was A OK.

Sometimes that's all you need.
Just a little bit more leverage.

Exactly.

Well, what do you do to relax and find your
balance up there in thebeautiful country?

Ah, it is beautiful country.
Um, Right now I've actually,I've got a two year old at home.
So I don't get to do a ton ofhobbying anymore.
Used to be big into fly fishing.
I've got an old hot rod Ford Ilike to fix up and drive around.
Used to be into motorcyclesprior.
I had a bad accident, so that,that ship sailed.

(19:05):
Hence the hot rods.
Thanks.

Okay.

These days, basically what I get to do for
fun is I go running in themorning.
That's what I do around here.
Go run before work and thescenery is gorgeous.
Watching the sunrise come upover

Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's yeah.
Something else.
Something else.

Yeah.

I love it.
What has been your biggestchallenge to date?

Shoot.
That's a really good question.

Maybe you hadn't had one and that's okay too.

no, I think

Tell us your secret.

yeah, my deep dark secret.
No, I think the biggestchallenge I've had Overall, it
kind of goes back to what wewere talking about before, not
always getting along with thesuperintendent or the director
of agronomy.
And yeah, not that I thinkanybody that works there will
ever listen to this, but theymight.
It was at a job previous, andwe'll leave it at that.

(20:03):
But it was it's rough, man.
It's rough dealing with a guythat you walk past his office
and then you just hope hedoesn't look up at you.
You just want to go and do yourthing in the shop, keep turning
out the best product youpossibly can, and just pray that
this guy doesn't need to cometalk to you for some reason.

Yeah, that's a tough situation.

can't say I always dealt with that well, but
Yeah, that one's probably thebiggest challenge.

I don't.
So I was in Florida a coupleweeks ago or whatever.
It's been a month ago now, Iguess and I got to hang out with
Haas for a little while and hewas telling me about the
superintendent.
I don't remember the guy's nameand not that it matters, but Um,
that he worked for.
And he said, this was theangriest person he had ever met.

(20:49):
Like he was just always in aterrible mood, but he had us
dying laughing because he's, hesaid, he would tell this guy,
like he'd be leaving the shop orleaving work or whatever.
And he'd be like, all right,man, have a good day.
And the guy would say, don'ttell me what to do.
And I don't know.
I just thought that was sofunny.
I said, how angry this guy was.

(21:10):
You tell him to have a good dayand he yells at you, don't tell
me what to do.
yeah, he had us rolling on that.
It was good stuff.

That's great, man.
Yeah,

what's one of the, what's one of the strangest
things you've seen around thegolf

shoot, man.
I waffled on this one, too,because I swear I've seen just
about everything, especiallyworking for a dealer.
Gosh, the stuff that you comeacross is just mind boggling.
Sometimes I kind of had to boilit down to two things.
I think.
Probably the single strangestwas working out at my folks

(21:48):
place.
We were trimming up trees rightaround one of the greens, and I
was looking up, I was runningthe pole saw, and I saw this
metal thing glinting up by thetree.
It was on hole number five.
Well, my little brother climbsup there and he pulls down a
putter.
Somebody had gotten so, so madat their shot on number five

(22:10):
green, they chucked their putterinto a tree.
And these are old you know, PortOrford cedar trees, so the
branches are super thick.
So that thing did not give itup.
It was, I don't even know whathappened to that thing.
We gave it to my dad and I thinkhe said he knew whose it was and
that was kind of the end ofthat.

That's good stuff.

There was a, there was another time we had a.
A close call, probably theclosest call I've had to
somebody like getting seriouslyhurt on the golf course at
Blackbeard Ranch behind ourdriving range.
It's pretty hilly there.
It's built right in themountains and it starts to go up
a grade.
This guy was running a, I thinkit was a 3000 series John Deere
tractor with a little air firein the back to just go and, you

(22:50):
know, spot air fire some roughspots and compacted spots.
And he was driving back down thehill.
So, when he noticed what hethought was water pouring off of
the steering wheel, angleadjust.
And all of a sudden, he losessteering, he loses everything,
because that steering pump isjust gushing fluid out onto his
foot, and he keeps driving.

(23:14):
Eventually the steering goescompletely out, and he's heading
towards this cliff, and thething won't stop, it won't do
anything.
So he eventually kills it, justas the front tire catches on a
rock, right on the edge of thesoft soft gravel, just before
he's about to go off the edge.
And that was probably thescariest thing we saw because it

(23:34):
would have been a, you know, 20yard drop into rocks and trees.
And yeah, that was scary.
So, the next day I got to go sitdown with the crew and be like,
Hey guys, if you see waterpouring off of anything on one
of these machines, Just shut itoff and call me.
Don't try and run it back to theshop.
There's no water on any of thisstuff that looks crystal clear.

(23:56):
Um, so that's probably thescariest close call we've had.
Um, that would have been, thatwould have been bad.

Do you have a mentor in the industry?

You know, I thought about this a little bit.
My mentor probably would have tobe the, my dad's old mechanic
who hired me on.
He was a old pipe fitter and arough and tumble sort of guy, ex
Navy, um, ex biker, just lived ahard life and he was the easiest

(24:28):
talking Sort of guy you couldever meet just laughed at
everything always had a joke Ialways would put people in a
good mood And I tried to takethat with me in the shop because
I've known a lot of mechanicswho dude you just don't want to
Talk to that guy.
He's got a problem every singleday and he's more than happy to
lean to you whether it's yourfault or not Um, so yeah he

(24:50):
taught me how to laugh and howto try and keep the guys
laughing and I tried to keep asmuch of that as possible, um,
going through my career.

That's a really good trait to hang on there and
that's a super good mentor andwhen you were describing this
person, I was not, that's notwhat I was picturing somebody
that's happy go lucky that'sbeen in the Navy and they're,
you know, a biker and probablyhave tattoos, you know, I mean,
all the things that go alongwith that.

(25:20):
Yeah, you can't always judge abook by its cover and that's a
fact.
I knew this guy that was coveredhead to toe in tattoos, and he
even had five stars around hisneck.
Super nice guy, most down toearth.
I mean, just normal, like yourun into him and he'd talk about

(25:42):
his garden and how his gardenwas doing.
And I mean, you know, that's notwhat you expect to come out of
this.
And he was a big dude too,probably six, four, six, five,
you know, 300 pounds.
I mean, monster of a guy thatlooked really scary.
And he'd talk about his garden,you know, just crazy.

you never know yeah, never know whether you'll
meet a gentle soul, man.
yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

yeah, that was my my mentor there, Terry.

It's good stuff.
What would be your dream job oropportunity?

Oh, shoot, man.
I think I'm in it.
Um, I've worked enough placesand I've seen enough operations
that the type of, facility it isholds less attraction to me than
the people I work with and workfor.
I, not yeah.
I think that the biggestdeciding factor in coming to

(26:39):
Jackson wasn't pay, it wasn'tbenefits, wasn't even the
Jackson whole area and thebeauty of the T Tons.
It was the fact that mysuperintendent and I were able
to have this wonderful, hour tohour long conversations.
You know, I was able to seelike, this is a guy I can not
only work for, but I can respectand I like, and you know, I want
to see where this relationshipgoes.

(27:01):
Um, yeah.
So right now it's here as longas the.

But yeah, lucky you.
That's really good stuff.

Yeah, dude.

Yeah, that is that's awesome to have that kind
of relationship with.
Somebody that you have to seemore than your wife and kid
probably, you know, I mean, alot of times we do, we spend
more time with these people atwork than we do with our family.

Yeah, we do.
My, my wife likes to joke thatI've got a budding bromance
going on and

yeah.

I talk

Oh yeah.
Huh.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
I've been the butt of thosejokes several times.

Yep.
Yep.
Shoot.

What technician would you like to work with for
a day?

I think I think the guy I'd like to work with
for a day it'd be probably JohnPatterson over there.
What is it?
Atlantic?
Or Atlanta Country?
Or Athletic Club?

Atlanta Athletic Club.
Yep.

There we go.
I got it right in the end, so.

That's all good.
Yeah.
No.
And yes, he would be a great oneto spend a day or two or a month
as long as you can and just be asponge.
Absorb as much knowledge as youcan.

Yeah.
So, yeah.
If not him, then I'd love tospend a day with That old mentor
of mine, Terry, um, haven't seenthat guy in years.
I think he retired last I knew,but

Mhm.

yeah,

Yeah, that'd

those two guys be solid.

Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, do you think he's stillaround Oregon somewhere?

Oh, yeah.
Yep.
I know he's still still back inOregon and I'm sure he'd love to
come out here.
It's easy to tempt people overthis direction, as maybe you can
believe, so.

Oh yeah.
And I mean, if you ever need meout there, you know what I mean?
If you need help changing thetire or something, you just let
me know.
I'm your guy.

Oh yeah, go consider yourself formally
invited.
Come

I'll jump on a plane right now.
Um,

there's

And I'll change the smallest tire in your shop.
Cause I know how big a pain inthe, that is.

oh yeah, it's funny, the guys whenever I'm
changing a tire, we have amanual tire changer here, so
it's all, brute force.
They think the big ones are theones that suck.
I'm like, no guys, these onesare easy.
You want to change one of thoselittle eight, eight inch rim
tires for me.
That one sucks.
Especially if it's a trailertire and it's an eight ply on
top of it.
Oh,

Yeah.
Terrible.
Yep.
That's

Well, I'll save one for ya.
I'll

All right.
Yep.
Save one.

Justify the trip.

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

I wish I had known on day one that so much of
this job comes down to Peopleand how you relate to people and
on top of that kind of hand inhand is managing those
expectations Especially workingat the dealer working at the
distributor.
You want to try and please thecustomer as best you can But I
think it's better when you whatis it under sell but over

(29:59):
deliver

Yeah.

Yeah.
Sorry, dude This is gonna be 2,500 bucks and it's gonna take us
ten plus hours and if you canknock it out and four and it's
Thousand bucks the guy is happysame with your superintendent,
like, if you know a job is goingto take a bit, yeah, plan for
some unexpected occurrences tohappen, guys are going to come
in the shop and grab you forwhatever out in the course, you

(30:24):
know, say it's going to take alittle bit longer, and then if
you can deliver it quicker,absolutely, that's great, you'll
be happy, you'll be happy, andnobody will have mismanaged or
poor, unmet expectations.

I think that is super good advice.
That's one of the best answers Ithink I've heard from that
question, but the advice of notover promising what you can
deliver on.
And I don't know if it's justbuilt into my nature, but I was
always really reluctant to sayhow fast I could fix something

(30:57):
unless I knew exactly, you know,if I'd done it a hundred times,
I'd say this takes about thisamount of time, but if I had not
done the job, I'm not gonna puta time limit.
I don't need that pressure onmyself or our crew or, you know,
anybody else.
We'll get it done.
You go play somewhere and we'll,

Yep.

we'll get it taken care of.

Well, and you know, you're always one broken
bolts away from absoluteheartache in any job, so it's,

Oh, for sure.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.
And podcast before, but I hadthe superintendent call me.
Um, he was down the road.
I didn't know him that well,but, and I didn't know his
mechanic at all.
But he says, how long does ittake to grind a triplex?

(31:48):
And I'm like I said, I have noidea how long, I don't know what
shape the reels are in.
I don't know if you're replacingthe bed knives.
I don't know how old the reelsare, what kind of condition
they're in.
I mean, I've got some junk fromball fields that I've spent a
day on one reel.
You know, and maybe not evenfinished it in that day.

(32:11):
It was so bad.
So, you know, I don't know.
There's too many variablesthere.
And I was not going topotentially throw his technician
under the bus, not knowing whatthe situation is.

Oh yeah,

you never know.

No, I mean there's all the quick answers,
but yeah, you never know theactual condition and the shape
of it is.
I mean, for all you know, he'sbeen mowing rocks for the last
month, and there's not astraight edge left on that dang
reel.
It could take him all day.
He

Oh, yeah, right.

the dang thing, so.

Yeah, it could have a 50, 000th cone in it or
something.
It's going to take you an hourto ground out.
Yeah.
I mean, who knows?
So how do you deal with thatperson or do you have any of
those persons working on yourcrew?

I currently don't really have any of those people.
Um, when I, thank you, that,that's great.
Yeah, that's partly because weare seasonal and people who are
generally not good, you know,get cycled out.
That said, you know, I triedonce again, I try not to lose my
cool at just about anything,unless the guy has gone and

(33:16):
intentionally banged up one ofmy pieces of equipment, running
into a tree on purpose, youknow, dropped it in a lake.
I mean, the most he's probablygoing to get from me is, come
on, man.
Can we, what were you thinkinghere?
But outside of that, I mean,shoot, I'll let them know what
they think, I think they shouldhave done or how they should

(33:37):
have operated the piece to avoidthat problem in the future.
Thanks for sharing.
You know, if it keeps being aproblem, I'll go and take it to
the, you know, superintendentand let him sort it out.
I know you've got that threestrike rule with the blower
nozzle.
And I think that's brilliant.

I love it.
Yes.
I do, I got to confesssomething.
And so I don't, it wasn't lastyear.
I think it was the year beforewhen the show was in Orlando and
I went by the Buffalo turbinebooth and the gentleman there
was showing me the new band theyhave that holds the shoot on and

(34:14):
it's, you know, it's extra wideand it, you don't need a wrench
or anything to tighten it.
And it clips on.
That thing is legit.
It's awesome.
And you hear me knocking knockon wood.
Um, hopefully it doesn't popoff, but it hadn't been popping
off since we went to those.

Oh,

just, yeah, hold it on.
And they're not cheap.
I mean, they're a hundred bucksor something, but not to have to
put that thing on once a day inthe fall, that's worth a hundred
dollars

Oh yeah.
Are you able to retrofit that onthe older ones or is

Yeah.
Yeah.
Cuz I mean, I still have, um,golly, I think mine's, I don't
know.
It's an early 2000 model Buffaloblower on its second engine and
second turbine.
I think the axles are the axlesmaybe are original.
The hubs aren't for sure but Ithink the axles are original.

(35:10):
That's about it.
Original paint.

There you go.

everything else has been replaced.
So yeah you call them up andthey can get you the part
numbers for that.
And the other thing I did, theyhave well, a little bit of a
story to Wade Borthwick at, Ithink it's Uplands golf club and
British Columbia.
He made his own bearing kit forthe turbine, you know, so the

(35:38):
way it rotates Instead of beingin that plastic,

Uhhuh.

he machined some stuff and put some barons in
there.
And anyway, super cool setup.
And now Buffalo offers a kit,but Buffalo's kit is not cheap.
I want to say it was like 600bucks or something, but it is
really nice.
Um, and I don't, if you go backthrough my Twitter, I'm pretty

(36:03):
sure I posted a video after Iinstalled it.
And you just push it one timeand the whole thing will just
spin around and around.
It's pretty cool.

Well, that's

with the belt obviously.

does that replace those plastic?

Yes.

okay.
Yeah.
That's gonna be way better.
yeah.

And I think that's one reason it's
expensive.
It's not just the bearings, it'sthe metal band that the guide
is, I guess, for lack of abetter term.
Cause you replace that and thenyou put the bearings on there
and they have little spacers andit comes with the screws and all
that stuff.
Um, but pretty nice setup.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'll have to look into that.

yeah.
Um, if you remind me, I'm prettysure I still have the part and I
was actually going through mydesk the other day cause I'm a
hoarder and I never throwanything away.
But I found that card, thebusiness card, and they had
wrote the part numbers on thebusiness card.
So I have that in my desk drawerand I even know where it is.

(37:03):
And usually for most of ushoarders, we don't know where
anything is.
But this one particular item, Iknow where it is.

Well, I'll shoot you a message and try and get
that from you.

Yes, do it.
Get ready for tips and tricks.
What kind of tips and tricks you want to share
with us?

Oh man.
So this tip is yeah, it's notmine.
And I came across it working atthe distributor and I don't know
if you have to replace many ofthose like hydraulic blocks
before.
It's got, you know, 10 hosesgoing to it.
What I ended up doing, I'vetried the paint pen technique
or, magic marker, all that,trying to get some indication of

(37:47):
where each hose is supposed togo.
It always seemed like it'd getrubbed off either between
removing it or cleaning it up orwhatever.
And so what I ended up doing wasgrabbing a center punch.
And putting a little dimple oneither the crimp on the hose or
on the block itself.
And as long as those dimplesmatched up, I know that hose is

(38:09):
going in the right slot on thenew block.

Ah, okay.

so that was that was something I came across when
I was having to swap a block onan old 580d batwing mower.

Okay.

Yeah,

the old 580, man.
I had a love hate relationshipwith those.
I had a customer and theymaintained a military base, Fort
Stewart.
It was outside, a little southof Savannah.
Extremely hot down there,swampy, buggy.
Not a very friendly place.

(38:46):
This gentleman had five of thoseand they were all old and he
could work on them kind of, buthe hated working on them.
So he would call me and I mean,we've become pretty good friends
and he was a good guy and allthose things, but I spent a lot
of time down there.
And the craziest thing, thehydrostat on the 580D, you know,

(39:09):
it's a huge hydrostat, but youknow what I want to say?

I got an idea.
Go for it.

All right.
The charge pump.
So it's a little G rotor gearpump that's inside.
It has a 16th inch keyway thatdrives the G rotor and that
thing would shear.
But so that, you know, thosethings had a metal hood, which
was a heavy duty hood.

(39:37):
We would raise the hood up andit had ROPS.
And we'd take a four by four andput it over the rops and over
the back of the hood.
And then we had a chain hoistand we would unbolt everything
and hoist the hydrostat up, takeit apart right there, replace
the 16th inch key and put it allback together again.

(39:59):
You know, I mean, it was a day'swork, but he had five of these
machines and we did all five ofthem, you know, over a period of
a year and a half.

There you go, you got it perfected.

Yeah.
Crazy

shoot.
I think the worst part ofworking on those 580Ds is trying
to switch out those wheelmotors.
That one hard line, and it wasalways packed in there with
grass and whatever, and becomewelded to the fitting, and there
was no room to work underneath.
Gosh, those things sucked.

Well, and so for the listeners, if you're not
familiar with a Toro 580D, ithas three 72 inch decks.
So, it's yeah, whatever, sixteenfeet of cut or whatever.
So, they're, you know, it's Sixfoot that deck in the middle and
the two wing decks that are sixfeet.

(40:49):
And it was, yeah, it was a beastof a

Yeah, did you did yours have the Persia or did it
have the Cummins in it?

Now I think that's a good question.
I want to say some of his hadthe Peugeot and some had the
comics cause he had somedifferent, yeah.
And then I left the companybefore the 5, 900 came out,
which replaced the five

Yep.

Yep, good times.

Yeah, dude.
I, so I never had to yank one ofthose Hydrostats out of the 580,
but I did have to change one ona 5910

Oh, okay.
Same thing.
Yeah,

a school district up in Vancouver and they
probably hate my guts but nothat thing was in the shop
forever because Tori would onlyapprove us to do so much work at
any given time All right, so wehad to test the wheel motors
Well wheel motors were shot rearwheel motors were shot and it
thrown shrapnel through thehydrostat And so by the time

(41:59):
this thing left the shop, it hadall four wheel motors and a
hydrostat done.
And this is probably the singlesketchiest thing I've ever done.
I had that 5910 up on the liftwith the rear axle up on jack
stands, the front wheelssupported by, you know, those
lift jacks.

(42:19):
And I had to run the dang thing.
And I had to do that to pull thehoses from the bottom of pump,
do all this stuff.
And then I had to run that thingup on the lift, you know, six
feet in the air to try and bleedthe system to see if the thing
worked or if I had any leaks.
And, man, I was so happy whenthat thing finally left the
shop, but yeah, that tookforever.

That's crazy.
I remember Toro came out rightas right before I left.
They came out with a filtrationkit and it was mainly for the
5510.
because they would have a wheelmotor go out and it would take
out the whole hydrostatic systemand take out every motor and the

(43:01):
hydrostat and everything.
And yeah, so you had to filterthe whole thing.
I was a process.

Yep.

Yeah.
Crazy

Yeah, we had one of those.
Used that too.
That thing.
We only had one and we, that onebounced between the three shops
that were up in the P& W and soyou had to try and organize with
a truck that was going that wayor a salesman that was going up
and yeah, it was fun, it wasgood times.

Yep.
Good stuff.
You got anything else you wantto share with us?

Man, I think probably the only thing that
I've got that might be somethingI'd like to talk about and I
think it might be good and kindof tie into some of the other
stuff we brought up is when youare on a job hunt or you're
looking at the jobs on the jobboard.
It's not just, it's not just thebottom line.
It's not just the benefitspackage or the name associated

(43:51):
with it.
It really comes down to, can youwork with whoever your boss is?
Can you, are you two going to bea good match?
Are you going to be the jiang?
Are you guys going to be oil andwater and just completely.
into a toxic relationship.
Um, and in that, you know, havea conversation.
Remember, the interview goesboth ways.

(44:13):
He's interviewing you to see ifyou are good for the job and
you're interviewing him to seeif you're going to be good for
the job.
God knows I've taken jobs in thepast where I wasn't the guy.
I shouldn't have been the guy,but I took it and I got into a
bunch of hot water by doing it.
So yeah,

that's some really good advice.
Really good advice.
Yeah, I love it.
And I do think, you know, I knowpeople that they just kind of,
they jump, they're alwayslooking for the next dollar and
a lot of times it don't work outthe best for them.

Nah,

and not for a dollar, you know, if it's
something substantial, you know,life changing money, you know,
maybe, but still.
I mean, there's a lot of goodjobs out there.
I mean, a lot of high end jobs.
I'm not gonna say they're goodjobs.
A lot of high paying jobs.
And I don't even think twiceabout them because I'm so happy

(45:09):
where I'm at.
And I know what I got.
You know, I know what I'mworking with.
I'm very fortunate where I'm at.
Um, we have, you know, plenty ofresources and I'm compensated.
well enough and you know, I'mhappy, you know, and

That's what it

what is the price of being happy,

Exactly.
I think there's a number someguys have in their mind they put
up with for, oh, I'll put upwith the raging angry guy or the
alcoholic or whatever for Xdollars.
Well, won't be long before thatpaycheck doesn't seem big enough
to put up with the BS you'rehaving to deal with.

Oh yeah, for

Man, if you've got it good someplace that's
worth its weight in gold.
If you're happy with the placeyou have to spend the majority
of your waking hours, thenthat's not a bad thing.

Yep.

not a bad thing at all.

Well, and the other thing I want to say is if
you're not that happy at yourplace, is there a way you can
become happy?
At that same place, you know,and not, I know there's times
it's probably better just towalk away, but I do think
there's times where you cancommunicate.

(46:21):
And I mean, everything I'velearned, in my life is open
communication.
If you're open with somebody, itain't easy.
I'm not saying it's easy to beopen, but if you openly
communicate with somebody morethan likely.
the situation is going to getbetter.
And if not, you go your separateways.

Yeah, you know, I think most good things, most
important things that are worthdoing in life are not the easy
things.
Like, it's yeah, it's worthhaving that conversation.
It's worth trying to see if itis something you can work out,
and I think that, honestly, ifyou can, well, we're a mechanic,

(47:04):
we diagnose things, right?
Now, it's not too long before wecan spot the flaws in whatever.
Our boss our relationships, allof these different things.
If you can see that flaw, andyou know that's a problem, and
you can do something to fill it.
And or communicate that or bethe gap between whatever that is
and the rest of the guys I meanyou can make that a really good

(47:28):
relationship and you just got toput in the effort to do it.

And if you're going to spend that much time
with other people, might as wellmake it worth everybody's wild.

Absolutely.
Do your best to make sure you atleast like the guy Yeah

you sign the dotted line, definitely.

Absolutely.

Oh, let's do some rapid fire.

Yeah, hit me.

What's your favorite movie?

Dude, master and commander for me.
That's

Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that's a good one.

Yeah, man, anytime that comes on I'm like,
oh, okay.
This is where I'm parking it forthe next bit Yeah,

Won't be your last meal.

yeah, my last meal would probably be a, you
know, prime rib, some roastedpotatoes, and a nice peaty
scotch

Okay.
Yeah.
What is a PD scotch?

oh man, I take it you're not much of a scotch guy

No, not at all.
Um I do not like lighter fluidin the least.

Well, then I definitely won't be offering you
any, but a nice a peaty scotch.
It's kind of got that campfireflavor towards the back end.
It's that smoky

Okay.
All right.
All right.

Yeah.
And it's acquired taste, but

Oh yes.
Let's see.
When was this?
A couple of weeks ago, I went upfor the Eric Duncanson Memorial
Golf Tournament in NorthCarolina.
And Eric Duncanson was a fellowequipment manager that passed
away three years ago.
Luckily his wife and daughterwas at the tournament and I got
to see them.
Um, really great, humble, greatpeople.

(49:10):
And Eric was a close friend ofmine.
And every year he would have asteel class at his shop in North
Carolina.
And I would drive up usually theday before, and I'd spend the
night at his house and hang outwith him and his family and go
to the class the next day andcome back home.
But Eric.

(49:30):
was from Scotland.
And he really liked his scotch.
Really liked his scotch.
So I'm at his house one nightand he says try this.
And he's telling me all aboutscotch and for it to be a
scotch, it's got to be aged inScotland for 10 years.
I don't remember all the rules,but you know, just ad libbing

(49:51):
here, but he's telling me allthese rules and he's telling me
how old this one was.
And he's like, what do you thinkabout that?
And I'm like, It's terrible,Eric.
This is the worst thing I'veever put in my mouth.

Silence.

And he says, okay, hang on.
And he gets this other one outthat's supposed to be a lot
better.
And I'm like no difference.
It is terrible.
It's just as terrible.

Yeah.

And then we get to the third one that's supposed
to be, you know, the creme de lacreme, I guess, of scotches.
And he's like, Oh, you're goingto love this one.
And I'm like, no, Eric, ittastes just like the first day
you gave me.
They're terrible.

Yep.
Yep.

so I understand it's an acquired taste.

Yeah, absolutely.
And I take it you're not much ofa drinker, then.

Not anymore.
Um, so yeah, I quit, I guess, Idon't know, two years ago,
probably drinking.
And yeah, I mean, before that Iwasn't ever much on whiskey or
liquor, you know, I was more ofa beer drinker.
I really enjoy an IPA.
Um, you know, I'm a big IPA guy.

(51:00):
Um, I love, and we got some goodIPAs around here too.

Yeah, I'm from I'm from the Portland area.
So that's kind of home for themicro brew and

Oh

iPAs are everywhere around there, man.
I Don't think I've had an IPAfrom from Georgia at all.

Let's, I'm thinking Jekyll Brewery, Hop
Dang Diggity is a really goodone.
Um, yeah, but who knows whaty'all get out there in Jackson
Hole from Atlanta.
Probably not a whole lot.
Um, Sweetwater Brewery is reallybig here in Atlanta.
I think it's a national brandnow.
Um, but you know, and it's okay,but we're going to be making

(51:39):
everybody really thirsty in thisepisode.

I have to get a feeling.
Yeah.
Scotch sales will be amazing andthe Atlanta breweries won't be
able to keep up.

That's right.
That's right.
Well, what are you most proud ofbesides your family?

Oh, well, definitely.
I'm proud of my family, but thething I'm most proud of is when
I get to watch an assistanttechnician catch something like
he figures out or he's finallymastered whatever skill I was
trying to teach him.
My last, last course I was at myassistant there, gosh, that guy
was great.

(52:14):
Yeah, he would catch on toanything after I showed him
once, and it was the best thing.
Made me made me proud, and itprobably had nothing to do with
me.
It was mostly

Oh yeah.

yeah, no, it was that's the thing that I get most
most joy out of, is watchingsomebody I'm teaching, you know,
catch on to whatever it is I'mshowing them.

Oh, yeah, for sure.
Hands down, 100%.
Nothing like it.
Probably the most rewarding youcan feel.

Yeah, absolutely.

Alright, that's been my experience anyway.

Well, that's, yeah,

you see that.

it's one of my favorite things about being an
equipment manager is getting tohave those assistants and get to
teach you know, I'm probablyfairly young really, but teach
the next generation of equipmentmanagers, the next generation of
techs, like, and watch themcatch on to it.
That's the thing that I get alot of pleasure and joy out of
working in this industry.

I get really excited about younger people
taking the initiative or, youknow, just wanting to learn, you
know, how to work with theirhands.
And I know, you know, when I wasa kid growing up, you know, it
just come natural, I guess Ialways wanted to be working with

(53:28):
my hands and figuring out howthings worked and, but It seems
like you don't see that as oftennow, but hopefully it's still
out there.
We're just not seeing it asmuch.
And I think some of it isopportunity to a lot of these
younger people don't have theopportunities that even I had

(53:50):
when I was in high schoolbecause we had a construction
class and automotive class.
You know, they did well then, Imean, all the, you know, trades
was there.
So you had a chance in highschool to kind of get your hands
on things.

Yeah, it's definitely yeah, it's dwindled a
lot in the last few years.
I think my class going throughhigh school was the last they
offered autoshop to.
Yeah, it's, yeah, it's kind ofsad to see that happen, but I
hope that more people out thereare willing to put down I don't
know, it's probably not asoapbox, but willing to put down

(54:24):
their phones and actually diveinto the real world to a certain
extent.
Like there are these machines,there are these things that are
around you that are marvels andwonders and you're stuck on Tik
Tok or Twitter and You're hopingto be an influencer and really,
I mean, maybe there's some joyand happiness in that, but I
think you'll be so much moresatisfied turning around at the

(54:45):
end of the day and being like,yeah, man, we fixed some stuff.
We built some stuff today.
pretty dang

Yeah.
Yeah.
And I've heard plenty of peoplethat went to college, got a
degree and whatever.
And then they're sitting in acubicle looking outside and
they're just miserable.
And.
You know, why, how would youwant to spend your life or why
would you spend your life short?
Why would you spend it in acubicle doing something that

(55:11):
makes you miserable?

creating widgets for somebody else to make.
Yeah.
No, it's I

And not that every day is, you know, roses at
the golf course, but all in all,it's fun.
I have fun.

oh yeah, we get the benefit.
Our shops are rarely in uglylocations or ugly settings.
So that's a huge benefit.
But no, I was I was on anengineering track in college
before I ended up in this job.
And I realized pretty quick incollege that You know what?
I hate sitting behind a computerall day.
I would rather do anything.

(55:46):
I'd rather go take a bath in atub full of scorpions than have
to do this in and out

I don't know about all that.

Oh, for me it's that way.

Yeah.

rather be doing something.
On my feet, walking around,seeing something happen in the
world.

Very good.
We'll tell the listeners howthey can get a hold of you.
You on any of the socials,email?

yeah, I think I'm on on Twitter.
I think it's just my name, BenHerberger.
And then, I think I'm onLinkedIn.
The same handle.
And email wise, if somebodywants to shoot me an email, it's
gonna be lengthy.
It's bherberger atshootingstarjh.
com and happy to talk to anybodythat, that wants to talk to me
here.
If anybody ends up in theJackson Hole area and wants to

(56:32):
take a little peek at what wegot going around the shop, reach
out.
More than happy to have anybodywho wants to walk through the
shop, come take a look.

Awesome.
And you're in the WhatsApp grouptoo, right?

Yeah, I'm in the WhatsApp group, so.

Yep.
So WhatsApp group, just reachout to me or any of the rest of
the community.
Um, you can find us, um, you canget in.
I was speaking of which,somebody tried to add somebody
today, and I gotta follow up onthat.
I just now remember, um, to dothat, you know, that's my

(57:05):
squirrel brain, hanging aroundJ.
R.
Wilson too much.
He texted me today, so I'm gonnablame it on J.
R., squirreling, squirreling outover here.
I love that dude.
Thank you so much, Ben, forbeing on, um, it's been fun, and
I really hope I can get toWyoming.
Sooner rather than later.

Absolutely.
No it's been great to sit downand talk with you.
I mean, I've watched some ofyour videos online.
I've listened to podcastsbefore.
So this is it's nice to actuallyput a real person to the damage
you see on the screen

All right.
Thank you, sir.
thank you so much for listeningto the Reel turf techs podcast.
I hope you learned somethingtoday.
Don't forget to subscribe.
If you have any topics you'dlike to discuss, or you'd like
to be a guest, find us onTwitter at Reel turf techs.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 131: Ben Herberger

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Episode 131: Ben Herberger

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