August 6, 2025 • 41 mins
Welcome to Episode 148 of the Reel Turf Techs Podcast! Today we’re talking with Brad Bailey, Equipment Manager at Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club in Orlando, Florida, an 18-hole course serving both resort guests and private members. Brad leads a team of three technicians and works primarily with John Deere equipment. With a background in chemistry and a hands-on upbringing working with his dad, Brad found his way into the turf industry during college and never looked back. He shares his expertise in small engines, his thoughts on the less glamorous office side of the job, and his experience managing a team in Florida’s year-round golf climate. Trent and Brad dig into everything Stihl, explore his work with Husqvarna autonomous mowers, and chat about his favorite ways to unwind - fishing, Disney, and building with Lego.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Trent Manning (00:56):
Welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the
technician that wants to getreel follow along.
As we talk to industryprofessionals and address hot
topics that we all face alongthe way we'll learn tips and
tricks.
I'm your host, Trent.
Manning let's have some Welcometo The Real Turf Text Podcast,
(01:19):
episode 1 48.
Today we're talking to BradBailey, equipment Manager at
Four Seasons Golf and SportsClub in Orlando, Florida.
Four Seasons Golf and SportsClub.
It is an 18 hole course that isopen to resort guest and private
membership.
Brad has three techs in theshop.
(01:39):
He has mostly John Deereequipment.
Let's talk to Brad.
Trent Manning, CTEM (01:42):
What kind of car is that right behind you?
The white one up
Brad Bailey (01:47):
It's a Porsche nine 11.
Trent Manning, CTEM (01:49):
Nine 11
Brad Bailey (01:51):
Lego.
Oh, this is Lego.
Trent Manning, CTEM (01:52):
GGT, three or
Brad Bailey (01:54):
No, it's an old Carrera
Trent Manning, CTEM (01:56):
Iola?
Carrera.
Okay.
Brad Bailey (01:57):
yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (01:59):
Awesome.
I got a buddy of mine, he had acareer four SI don't remember.
Yeah.
A GT three.
Yeah, it was, yeah, so much funhanging around that dude.
Brad Bailey (02:13):
I've I've got a buddy that works for Porsche
that I went to school with, andhe does the track days at, you
know, road Atlanta there all thetime.
Trent Manning, CTEM (02:20):
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (02:21):
yeah.
It's on my bucket list.
Trent Manning, CTEM (02:23):
Yeah.
Heck yeah, man.
Road Atlanta is awesome.
Yeah.
Good stuff.
All right, so we're recording.
Welcome Brad to the Real TurfText podcast.
Thanks for being on.
How you doing today?
Brad Bailey (02:34):
Pretty good.
Trent, how about yourself?
Thanks for having me on.
Finally,
Trent Manning, CTEM (02:38):
yeah, finally.
Brad Bailey (02:39):
We finally made it happen.
Trent Manning, CTEM (02:41):
Yeah, we finally made it happen.
We will not tell the listenersall the drama that happened.
No, there wasn't any drama atall.
Life's busy and I get it, and Icompletely understand.
And I appreciate you being heretonight.
So
Brad Bailey (02:54):
for having me.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (02:56):
without Father Ado, tell us how you got
into the turf industry.
Brad Bailey (03:00):
Well, started working on a golf course when I
was in my sophomore year ofcollege.
The golf course I was working atwas right across the street from
the college, so it was veryconvenient.
The assistant would take me upon the golf cart, drop me off
some days I'd go to class, comeback.
So I wound up, worked there forfive years, wound up graduating
with a chemistry degree.
(03:22):
Started looking for jobs, but Ihad a desire to stay in golf.
I liked being outside.
I never really played the game.
But I knew I had to do somethingelse other than work on the
crew, make more money.
So I'd already always beenhands-on growing up.
My dad was always the type wewere fixing stuff together,
those kinds of things.
So started helping the guy inthe shop who actually is will
(03:45):
Watson, that works out at thelotion club in Little Rock.
Trent Manning, CTEM (03:48):
No way.
Are you serious right now?
Okay.
It's such a small world.
Okay.
Yeah, that is
Brad Bailey (03:55):
So helped him out in the shop when I could.
He ended up leaving and going toa Cherokee country club in
Knoxville.
And lo and behold my girlfriendat the time got into grad school
at ut, so we moved to Knoxvilleas well.
I started working there.
Was on the crew.
Again, helping out in the shopwhen I could.
And then when he left and wentout to the lotion club, his
(04:17):
assistant took over and I washalf and half in the shop and in
the crew helping the crew.
And worked there for a coupleyears.
Got an opportunity at a coursein Cleveland Tennessee, which is
about an hour or so south ofKnoxville.
So that was my first EM job andwas there.
And yeah, kind of, just kind ofworked my way up.
(04:37):
Moved around and, yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (04:39):
Yeah, that's really good.
So what club did you work?
With Will at before Knoxville.
Brad Bailey (04:46):
sunset Hills Country Club in Carrollton.
Trent Manning, CTEM (04:49):
Oh, Man.
All right.
Yeah, you're right down the roadfor not that far from me.
Brad Bailey (04:54):
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (04:54):
I mean, I don't know.
Yeah.
Hour and a half or somethinglike that.
Two hours to Carrollton
Brad Bailey (04:58):
Out.
I out I 20 So I grew up inFlorida.
I grew up on the east coastsouth of Daytona area called
Port Orange.
So my family was down here.
So when I did some, I got outtathe golf business for a little
bit.
I started building houses out inblue Ridge, Georgia, which is
where I graduated high school.
Went over there for a littlebit, working for a buddy of
mine, and then wanted to be backclose to family.
(05:21):
So
Trent Manning, CTEM (05:22):
But you were in Knoxville and had you,
you get to Florida.
Brad Bailey (05:27):
So I grew up in Florida.
I grew up on the east coastsouth of Daytona area called
Port Orange.
So my family was down here.
So when I did some, I got outtathe golf business for a little
bit.
I started building houses out inblue Ridge, Georgia, which is
where I graduated high school.
Went over there for a littlebit, working for a buddy of
mine, and then wanted to be backclose to family.
So I took a job at the city ofMelbourne, down in Melbourne,
(05:49):
Florida.
I was the head mechanic,whatever was titled there,
equipment manager.
They on, they got two golfcourses there I was the only.
Mechanic tech for 36 holes ofgolf.
But that got me back to Florida,so Melbourne's about an hour and
a half south of where my familylives.
So that got me back closer tohome,
Trent Manning, CTEM (06:10):
okay, I got you.
And where you're at now, is thatclose to home?
Brad Bailey (06:15):
so yeah, Orlando.
Yeah.
My family and actually my wife'sfamily both live in Edgewater,
Florida, which is about an hourand a hour and 15 or so east of
here,
Trent Manning, CTEM (06:23):
Okay.
Nice.
That's just far enough away,isn't
Brad Bailey (06:26):
It's, yep, it's close enough.
We can go over there on a whim,but it's not too close to where,
you know, we're committed toeverything going
Trent Manning, CTEM (06:33):
Right, right, right.
I understand that.
I hear you.
What's your least favorite partof the job?
Brad Bailey (06:39):
Office work
Trent Manning, CTEM (06:40):
Okay.
Brad Bailey (06:41):
Sitting in front of the computer.
Yeah.
I like to wrench.
I like fixing stuff, so I get,you know, and I know it's an
important part of the jobsitting in there.
I mean, staying organized, youknow, bordering parts, all that
good stuff.
But I like being out in theshop.
Yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEM (06:56):
I don't, do you got a favorite thing you
like to work on?
Brad Bailey (06:59):
I would say small engines are my strong suit.
Yep.
So anytime we've got some smallengine problems you know, 26
horse and lower so the job I hadbefore where I'm at now is
actually working for a powersports company in Melbourne.
So we deal with, I was the headtech there.
We sell, sold zero turns.
(07:20):
Field two cycle equipment.
So that's where the guy thatowned that business, him and his
wife owned it for like 35 years.
He knew small engines like theback of his hand.
And so that was probably themost valuable thing along my
journey that I've learned.
I mean, as you know,everything's got an engine on
it.
So being able to quicklydiagnose and being able to
(07:42):
repair most any.
Small engine and two cycleproblems.
We got that come in there is,and being able to share that
knowledge, you know, with theguys in the shop.
Trent Manning, CTEM (07:51):
Yeah.
That's huge.
Brad Bailey (07:52):
yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (07:52):
Yeah.
I got a good friend, KentCarson.
I've talked about him plenty onthe podcast.
I've yet to have him on.
I don't know why I don't know.
It's pretty, pretty sad, Iguess.
But anyway, I mean, he's a goodfriend.
But he's like that, I mean, twostroke, and I don't, he's pro
he's in his sixties, earlysixties, but, anything small
engine, you just say can't, youknow, give him a small idea of
(08:14):
what's going on.
He's like, oh yeah, that's yeah,that's what this is.
You know, I mean, he just knowshe is been doing it so long, and
I wanna say he worked for asteel dealership, like when he
was a kid, you know,
Brad Bailey (08:27):
Okay.
Okay.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (08:29):
you know, or
Brad Bailey (08:30):
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (08:30):
Mom and pop steel dealership,
Brad Bailey (08:32):
Yep.
That's kind of, that's kind ofwhat this was.
We dealt hu we sold Hustler andSnapper.
So obviously most of the stuffwe worked on was that.
And then, yeah, we were a steeldealer, so that's, I got to go
to steel school.
I got bronze certified.
I got halfway through the silvertraining before I left there,
but,
Trent Manning, CTEM (08:50):
Okay.
That's
Brad Bailey (08:51):
yeah and luckily that's what we have is steel
Trent Manning, CTEM (08:53):
Okay, that works all good.
Brad Bailey (08:55):
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (08:56):
I don't, did you happen, this is a side
note, but did you happen to seethe shop tour?
I'd done with Jeff Ello at I'mtrying to remember the name of
the club he's at.
He's up in Chicago.
I can't think of the name of theclub.
Anyway, he had it was like aFord drawer, gray Steel toolbox.
(09:17):
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (09:17):
all the specialty
Trent Manning, CTEM (09:19):
Yeah.
Oh, I was so jealous.
I was like, oh, that's soawesome.
It's good stuff.
Brad Bailey (09:23):
Yep.
Yet to add that to the shop.
But on the list of course, youknow, there's a lot of things
that once these two cycleengines get enough use on'em
it's almost even working on'em,on yourself, it's almost not
even worth diving into'em, youknow, if, especially if the
cylinder scored or whatever, Imean, it's trash it, move on.
Trent Manning, CTEM (09:43):
I don't it's, it can be fun too,
Brad Bailey (09:46):
yeah.
Oh,
Trent Manning, CTEM (09:46):
I'll tell you another story.
So you get me fired up on steelstuff.
So I had steel, I still got it.
Steel three 10 chainsaw and Idon't know why, but, and this
was, I don't know, mid twothousands or something, you
know.
So the internet's just gettinggoing and I found this cool
website called arboristsite.com.
(10:10):
Okay.
And all these guys are on theretalking about, yeah, anything
arborist.
But they were talking about hotrod and chainsaws.
So they said you take yourmuffler off, you drill a three
eights hole in the muffler, youopen up the end you can adjust
the carburetor.
I just used this chainsaw lastweek and I mean, I've had it for
whatever, 20 years or longer.
(10:32):
And, it goes through a lot ofgas, but man, it'll cut.
That there's just nothing likeit.
I mean, so Good.
And on that model still.
So the two 90, the three 10 andthe three 90, the bottom end is
all the same.
But, so my dad, he had a three10 and he actually straight
(10:54):
gassed it.
Poor guy.
Sorry for his luck, but I boughta three 90 cylinder piston and
cylinder.
And put on his lower end three10 and tune the carburetor.
Man, it cuts.
Anyway, I go on all day.
Tell
Brad Bailey (11:13):
those things are the, those things are the F1 car
of hand tools, you know,
Trent Manning, CTEM (11:17):
Oh, it is bad.
Yeah.
So good.
What's your favorite tool?
And don't tell me
Brad Bailey (11:22):
I just recently got it.
It's a, i'm sucked into thesnap-on truck.
But anyways just got a coupleweeks ago.
It's a 14 inch long double-endedwrench, it's ratchet wrench on
one end and it's an offsetclosed in on the other 15
millimeter.
So it's game changer for QA fivemotor mountain weight bolts.
So leverage and being able toget in there with a ratchet
(11:43):
wrench is
Trent Manning, CTEM (11:45):
okay.
Yeah, no, that is, that's a goodone.
That's a really
Brad Bailey (11:48):
My, my second option would probably be my
torque wrenches
Trent Manning, CTEM (11:52):
on also.
yeah, they make really good, isit the tech angle that
Brad Bailey (11:57):
Yeah, so that was yep.
That was something I learnedfrom the last job, you know, the
importance of torquing,especially engine head bolts and
all that.
So any of that kind of stuffgets torqued in our shop.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:10):
Yeah.
Do you torque bed knife screws?
I,
Brad Bailey (12:14):
Yes
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:15):
All fair enough.
Brad Bailey (12:16):
With the little the little hand torque.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:18):
well, yeah.
Brad Bailey (12:19):
t torque handle.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:20):
Uhhuh.
yeah.
Where do you get those from?
Amazon.
Brad Bailey (12:24):
yeah.
It seems like the last one camefrom Amazon or Granger.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:28):
Okay.
Brad Bailey (12:29):
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:29):
Yeah, I mean that's, you know, it makes
it so easy if it's in a T handlelike that, you know, if you
gotta pull out your three eightstort wrench and set it to
Brad Bailey (12:39):
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:39):
each time to do 13 bed knife screws or
whatever.
Yeah.
What do you do to relax or findyour balance?
Brad Bailey (12:47):
growing up in Florida I grew up on the water
fishing, so that's probably oneof the big things I do is fish.
My dad, my brother, and I playgolf.
Not well, but I do.
My brother recently got into ita couple years ago, so that's
been a fun addition to our hobbylist, going out and playing golf
together.
This time of year, not so much.
It's too dang hot to, to get outthere, especially after working
(13:10):
all day.
Trent Manning, CTEM (13:11):
Yeah, I don't see how y'all guys do it.
Brad Bailey (13:13):
Yep.
And then my wife and I are passorders at Disney, so we do
Disney a lot.
And then Lego's, my inside, turnthe brain off, fill out and do
some brainless work.
You know, just tinkering Legobuilding sets and those kinds of
things.
Trent Manning, CTEM (13:29):
I don't what?
I don't know if I would callthat.
Brainless.
I mean, you gotta think,
Brad Bailey (13:34):
Yeah, I guess
Trent Manning, CTEM (13:35):
I mean, yeah, you can really focus and,
but I can see
Brad Bailey (13:39):
an expensive hobby, but
Trent Manning, CTEM (13:42):
you zone out probably doing that.
And I am envious of, I'm lookingat Porsche career and the only
reason I know that is you toldme when we first started
recording, but, yeah, I got to.
I'm trying to think.
Oh, actually it was 2005.
I got to crew for GT two threeat the Daytona 24 hour,
Brad Bailey (14:08):
Okay.
Trent Manning, CTEM (14:09):
and that was awesome and I had a really
huge job.
I went to the Sunoco station,every other pit stop and filled
up a 55 gallon drum with racingfuel.
That was my job.
But hey, I don't care.
It got me there.
We got down there on Thursday,done the practice test, all that
(14:31):
stuff.
Super cool experience.
Brad Bailey (14:34):
That's a good time.
I've been to the, I've beendoing it not for the full 24
hour stretch, but I've been tothe Rolex few times.
That's a.
That's a good time,
Trent Manning, CTEM (14:43):
Yeah.
No, it was, yeah, so much funand yeah, I met so many people.
I mean, it makes me think alittle bit like the golf
industry, you know, everybodyknows everybody kind of in the
racing cliques and, you know,but met some really cool people
and had a really good time.
Brad Bailey (14:58):
Cool.
Yeah.
That's cool.
Trent Manning, CTEM (14:59):
What's been one of your biggest challenges?
To date?
Brad Bailey (15:03):
Managing people.
Trent Manning, CTEM (15:05):
Yeah
Brad Bailey (15:05):
yep.
So before this job, I was alwayskind of the solo guy in the
shop.
I've got three other guys in theshop with me, so a lot of moving
parts between the golf courseand all the stuff up at the
resort.
managing people, keepingeverybody busy.
You know, making out a daily, aweekly schedule.
Trying to think ahead.
That's probably been the biggestchallenge is just being a boss,
(15:27):
you know, having to be a boss.
Trent Manning, CTEM (15:29):
Right.
No I can definitely yeah, relateto that too, because I mean,
just, and it kind of sounds likeyou too.
You said, you know, your leastfavorite part is sitting behind
the, in the office or behind acomputer screen.
We like to be out there with ourhands on and not necessarily
managing other employees, butthe longer you do it that's
(15:49):
where we end up.
That's kind of, yeah.
And if you.
Make a decent wage.
That's part of it.
Brad Bailey (15:57):
yep.
For sure.
Trent Manning, CTEM (15:58):
Well, tell me one of the strangest things
you've seen at work.
Any good stories.
Brad Bailey (16:03):
So I thought about this question for a bit.
Trying to come up with somethingand of course, see lots of
strange things over the years.
Right.
So I broke it up into worstthing I've seen and craziest
thing I've seen.
So worst thing I've seen was thefirst golf course I worked at in
Carrollton at Sunset Hills.
The 14th Green backed up to themaintenance shop and we came in
(16:25):
one morning and somebody hadripped a few donuts on the green
tore it up.
And I was the lucky one that gotto plug it out.
I probably put.
200 plus plugs in that from our
Trent Manning, CTEM (16:35):
wow.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (16:36):
that was that was the worst thing I've
experienced.
Craziest thing would be when Iwas at the city of Melbourne, we
had a pull behind land pride,rough unit, and one of the guys,
lo and behold, went to raise thewings up on, on a slope, out a
pond, and.
In the pond it went yep.
So fun recovery, but you know.
Trent Manning, CTEM (16:57):
yeah.
Yep.
I don't, it's amazing all thestuff that's got fished out of
ponds over the years at golfcourses.
I got a John Deere 7,500 in myshop right now with that, had a
vent connecting rod, and it didnot go in a lake, but the
operator was washing it off onthe wash pad and for some
(17:21):
reason, I mean the engine wasrunning, but for some reason he
raised the seat up.
And he was on the passenger sideand decided to clean off the
radiator with a one inch hose.
And I mean, he flooded theintake.
And with the turbo it suckedenough water in there to bend,
(17:43):
bend a rod so you can try tocompress water, but I guarantee
you cannot compress it.
Every diesel engine that I'veexperienced.
Going into a lake while it wasrunning, it bent a rod.
And the weird thing is, so thisis the third bent rod that I can
recall, and every one of'em isnumber one cylinder.
(18:08):
So I don't, it's just strangeoutta three and they're all
number one.
Brad Bailey (18:14):
Well, I mean, kudos to the guy for trying to clean
it for you, right?
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:17):
well, I don't
Brad Bailey (18:17):
tried.
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:18):
He tried, I guess.
You know, this particularoperator, I have asked him
multiple times to blow that outwith a air hose, but he was
being creative, I guess.
Brad Bailey (18:29):
Yep.
Do you do you have a, like a airblow off
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:33):
Yes.
Well, not necessarily a blow offstation, but I do have air hose
reel and, you know, blow gunright there on the wash pad.
I mean, it's pretty easy
Brad Bailey (18:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:45):
blow stuff off.
The guys, they mainly just useit to clean mud off their boots.
Brad Bailey (18:50):
Yep,
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:50):
I don't, we use it, you know, to blow out
radiators or whatever
Brad Bailey (18:54):
yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:55):
do you have a mentor in the industry?
Brad Bailey (18:58):
Not really.
I guess I got two.
One would be the guy from myprevious job just'cause of what
I learned from him on smallengines and stuff.
So not really in the industry,but definitely helped me out a
lot.
The other one's probably StevenTucker.
This is probably, I mean, thisis the biggest EM job that I've
had and taking on new roles suchas managing people.
(19:19):
Managing things to the extentthat I do now.
Having him there as a resourceand a teacher to not micromanage
me through it but guide me andgimme the resources I need to
succeed at it.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (19:32):
Yeah.
I mean, how.
Talk about that for a minute.
How important is that to workfor someone that you know has
your back and gives you theresources?
Brad Bailey (19:44):
It's huge.
I mean.
It's, I feel like it's adifferent dynamic than most
because he's now in the shoesthat most EMS fight against, you
know, trying to show theimportance of the equipment, of
the role of the maintenance.
And he knows all that.
So I've automatically got allthat support from the get go.
(20:06):
When I first got the job, I'dhear through the grapevine of
people avoiding the job becauseof, oh, well, going to work for
Steven Tucker.
You know, he's constantly gonnabe watching over your shoulder
and micromanaging, and it's theopposite.
I mean, he's, he really doesknow how to lead and lets you
(20:28):
fail to figure it out.
You know, sometimes the hardway, but sometimes that's the
best way.
Trent Manning, CTEM (20:33):
Yeah.
That's the way we learn.
Brad Bailey (20:34):
yep.
That's
Trent Manning, CTEM (20:35):
That's the way I learn anyway.
Brad Bailey (20:36):
yep.
Some of the guys in the shop,sometimes, you know, they'll get
upset at themselves'cause theydid something that had an
adverse reaction.
I'm like, Hey, you'll never dothat again.
Trent Manning, CTEM (20:47):
Right, right.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (20:47):
you know, look at it that way.
But yeah, I mean, it's beenhuge.
I mean, I owe a lot of what Iknow and why I succeed at my job
now to him
Trent Manning, CTEM (20:57):
awesome, man.
That's really good.
What would be your dream job?
Okay.
Got anything fun?
Brad Bailey (21:06):
most people probably say top 100, you know,
work in a p somewhere with a PGAevent as, as great as that would
be.
I think my goal is to, I wannawork somewhere that's kind of a
ground up build you know, newmaintenance facility, new golf
course, being able to design theshop, outfit it with tools and
equipment and, the thought ofgoing somewhere that nothing's
(21:28):
come outta that shop that youhaven't had your hands on.
And I'm a little OCD when itcomes to that.
So knowing, being able to havethat much control over those
would be pretty cool.
Trent Manning, CTEM (21:39):
Yeah, no, that would be super cool.
And so Bob Smith, he was, he'sout in Texas.
When I asked him what his dreamjob would be, he wants to own an
NFL team.
Brad Bailey (21:51):
Okay.
Trent Manning, CTEM (21:51):
I mean, you know, it's,
Brad Bailey (21:52):
Big aspirations.
I love it.
Trent Manning, CT (21:54):
possibilities are endless
Brad Bailey (21:56):
Yep.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (21:58):
and yeah if you're ready to do something in
the next, you know, three orfour years I mean, they're
building a lot of courses right
Brad Bailey (22:05):
yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:05):
From the ground up.
Yeah, I've heard about, yeah,quite a few happening.
Brad Bailey (22:12):
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:13):
Do you have.
Brad Bailey (22:13):
I mean, it's great for the industry
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:15):
Oh yeah.
No, it's, yeah.
It's amazing how much it'sturned around from oh eight.
So I was working for a golfcourse construction company as
their mechanic in oh eight.
I remember my boss saying, I cankeep you busy for a couple more
months.
And at the time, so my youngestdaughter was three and.
(22:40):
Yeah, I had a 3-year-old and a1-year-old and I was like okay,
I guess I'm going to be findinganother job here pretty soon.
Brad Bailey (22:46):
No doubt.
No doubt.
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:48):
I called the mortgage company and they
said, nah, we're not gonna giveyou any any breaks.
So
Brad Bailey (22:52):
yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:53):
I had to find something else to do.
Brad Bailey (22:55):
Exactly.
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:56):
Do you have a technician you'd like to work
with for a day?
Brad Bailey (23:00):
John Patterson.
Trent Manning, CTEM (23:01):
Okay.
Alright.
Well, I think he and Steven arepretty close, so I'm sure that
could be arranged real
Brad Bailey (23:09):
yeah.
Anytime.
The problem is I work inFlorida, so there's, we don't
get much downtime.
That's the struggle,
Trent Manning, CTEM (23:17):
Well, yeah, and I remember, I think when
Wyatt first started workingthere, Steven sent him up to
work
Brad Bailey (23:23):
yep, he did.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (23:24):
few days and man.
I mean, any person, not just ayoung person, but any person in
the industry, if you could spenda couple days with somebody like
John Patterson, it's only gonnahelp your career for And you
know, and maybe, you know, ifyou live on the West Coast and
it's not feasible to come toGeorgia to spend a day or two
(23:48):
with John Patterson, there'sguys out there too, you know, I
mean.
So find your local JohnPatterson and go spend a day or
two with him, or at least gethis phone number where you can
call and harass him from time
Brad Bailey (24:01):
Yep.
Yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEM (24:03):
but yeah, no, John's great and I'm glad to
have him right down the road.
It was funny, he texted me theother Sunday, he's like, where
are you getting DPF filtersbaked?
And so I tell him where it was.
He's like, oh man, I'm so sorry.
I'm in tournament mode.
I didn't even realize it wasSunday.
I'm like, it's okay, man.
You know.
I get it.
It's all good, man.
Brad Bailey (24:22):
yep.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (24:23):
Yep.
What do you know now you wishyou'd known on day one?
Brad Bailey (24:28):
The importance of being organized.
At least day one of, you know,being an em I think my first job
was, you know, you're justfaking it till you make it
right.
But, you know, being organizedthe importance of it.
The importance of keeping.
your techs organized and busy.
You know, last thing, you wantsome standing around waiting for
(24:49):
something to do.
So I try to be as organized aspossible.
So that's something I've learnedthat's very important to this
job when there's, when we gottadeal with and handle so many
different things going on.
Trent Manning, CTEM (25:02):
Oh yeah, it's crazy.
And I mean, yeah, like all theparts that we stock and
inventory and I mean, there'sjust a ton of moving parts and
it's.
A shame for me.
'cause I, and not just me, but Iknow there's others that are
like me where we keep a lotright here.
(25:24):
But you know what, this don't dopeople good when this is not
around.
Brad Bailey (25:28):
I find myself doing that a lot.
I'll be like, Wyatt, I don'tknow if I told you this or not,
but we got this going ontomorrow where he is like, no,
you didn't tell me.
He is like, it was here.
Trent Manning, CTEM (25:39):
huh.
Right?
Yep.
I thought about telling you.
And then, I mean, that's theother thing, and everybody
that's listening can relate is,you know, you're thinking about
whatever and then you know, whoknows what's walking in the shop
you know, in two minutes andeverything you've been thinking
about or working on for the lasthowever many hours just went out
the window and now you'refocused on this.
(26:00):
So you're just constantlyrunning around.
But it keeps it interesting,right?
Brad Bailey (26:05):
Yeah, for sure.
Interesting.
That's a that's a good way toput it.
Trent Manning, CTEM (26:09):
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Trent Manning (26:11):
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(26:32):
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Let's get back to the episode.
Get ready for tips and tricks
Trent Manning, CTEM (26:46):
Well, let's do some tips and tricks.
You got any tips and tricks youwanna share with us?
Brad Bailey (26:51):
Let me check my cheat sheet
Trent Manning, CTEM (26:53):
Yeah, there you go.
Brad Bailey (26:54):
So I guess really, and I've kind of touched on it
already, but having a, you know,a good strong hold on, small
engines and two cycle equipmentjust'cause aside from the diesel
equipment that we've all got inour fleets, you know, that's a
big part of the job.
I know before, before I gainedthe knowledge, I do, I have on
(27:15):
it now.
That was definitely a bigstruggle of mine was.
Trent Manning, CTEM (27:19):
I don't, do you have any resources or
recommendations on, you know,like where do you learn how to
work on small engine stuff?
Brad Bailey (27:27):
That's a great question.
Trent Manning, CTEM (27:28):
I'm just curious.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (27:29):
Again it's up here.
Trent Manning, CTEM (27:30):
right, right.
Yep.
Yeah, and I wasn't like tryingto put you on the spot'cause I
was thinking the same thing,like, where do you learn other
than just being in the shop anddoing it and, you know, luckily
good mentors and
Brad Bailey (27:43):
Yeah, tech manuals.
Trent Manning, CTEM (27:44):
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (27:45):
I know I visit those quite often, if you can
get ahold of'em.
You know, some manufacturers area little more stingy about
making them public knowledgeversus others, but, you know,
great resource obviously if youcan get ahold of a tech manual
Trent Manning, CTEM (27:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Brad Bailey (28:00):
yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (28:00):
Well, and yeah, so for manuals, it's kinda
like a roadmap basically.
Right.
On how you're gonna getsomewhere.
Like, I could drive from here toCalifornia, but if I had a map,
I'd be a lot more efficient atit,
Brad Bailey (28:13):
No doubt.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (28:16):
any other tips and tricks
Brad Bailey (28:19):
No, I think that's no, I think that's.
Trent Manning, CTEM (28:22):
Well, something that I thought of a
minute ago when you were talkingabout being organized and it's
something I've.
Started to try to do recently,and especially with the cost of
everything, you know, I buy alot of stuff aftermarket if I
can you know, and not to try toharm our distributors, but the
(28:43):
prices of some of this stuff isjust ridiculous.
So what I've started doing is Istock whatever part by the OEM
part number.
So if it's John Deere or Torahor whatever.
I stock it that part number.
Normally in a bag and in thatbag I put a Kanban card in there
(29:05):
and that card is just the indexcard.
And I write on that index cardwhere I order this part from.
Because what I started runninginto is like, okay, I get that
from Amazon, I get that fromMcMaster car, I get that from
Grainger, you know, and then Icouldn't keep track.
Like, damn it, where do I getthis solenoid from?
So anyway, index card in theplastic baggie, and I
Brad Bailey (29:30):
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Trent Manning, CTEM (29:32):
to know.
So that's my tip for the day.
Brad Bailey (29:34):
Yeah, my my digital way of doing that similar so we
use a program called Trello.
It's kind of like a workplaceorganization tool.
But we use it for, I mean,that's where kind of I lay out
our schedule.
Stuff that's broke down, needingparts, stuff we need for the
shop, those kinds of things.
But every part I order gets putthrough Trello, kind of similar
(29:57):
to what you're doing, but I'lljust get on the computer, I can
go there and I can type ineither the name of the part or
the machine it was for, andit'll populate any keywords that
match up cards for that.
So that's, yeah.
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (30:11):
That's super cool.
Yeah, I'd like to see that alittle bit closer.
I've actually used that app'cause with the YouTube channel
the vid, my video guy, theeditor, the guy that makes
everything look nice turn meonto Trello and that's kind of
how we keep, and he's from thefilm industry and I guess they
use it a lot in the filmindustry.
(30:32):
But that's, you know, like wegot a whole page that's like
ideas and then we got, this hasbeen filmed, this is in editing,
you know, and kind of track itthrough the progression of
whatever the videos are.
So yeah, that's super
Brad Bailey (30:46):
We use it pretty heavily.
I guess you could, I guess youcould add that to the tips and
trick list.
Trent Manning, CTEM (30:51):
Yeah.
Yeah.
For.
Brad Bailey (30:52):
yeah, we use that pretty heavily.
It's very user-friendly for allof us in the shop.
The app or the interface on the,like on the iPhone, the app is
great.
Very friendly.
You know, I, the guys can go onthere, they can check off that
they'd done it, or if theyencounter a problem, somebody
tells'em about something, it'squick and easy to get your phone
out, make a card for it, then Ican assign it later on.
(31:15):
Or, you know, gotta order partsfor it.
They can when they repairsomething, put a description in
there, what they did, if theyuse any parts off the shelf, how
long it took them to repair itso we can track labor hours.
It's really our go-to in theshop.
Trent Manning, CTEM (31:30):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's really good.
That's awesome.
Well, let's talk about roboticor autonomous mowers.
Brad Bailey (31:37):
yeah so I'm actually part of the Husqvarna
customer council.
It's kind of a, so we've got.
Four Husqvarna Auto mowers rightnow at our place.
They do a lot of testing at ourfacility as well on some
prototypes and some unitsthey've got out that they're
kind of putting through theropes or testing some different
(31:59):
features out on.
But, you know, autonomy andelectrification is coming.
Right.
And.
When you start talking about it,you hear from a lot of people,
oh, you know, they're gonna takeour jobs and, you know, robots
are gonna take over.
And it's not to, to me, the wayI see it, not really the case
(32:19):
with these things.
I think it's gonna help take amonotonous job like mowing rough
or maybe even mowing fairwaysthrough your non-prime.
Months of the year allowingsomething else that's
autonomous, go out there and dothe job while you can reallocate
labor hours to maybe more detailwork on the golf course.
(32:40):
I think they're great.
I mean, I have a little biasnesstowards Husqvarna because of,
you know, my interaction withthem.
But from what I see on Twitterand other, you know, Facebook
and stuff, there's.
They're all doing great.
I mean, I think they're a greataddition to the turf industry
of, especially nowadays when itis really hard to find good help
(33:01):
especially to maintain the golfcourse.
So if you have the resources andthe ability to add them to your
fleet, I think it's, I thinkthey're great.
So especially for low powerconsumption, maintenance,
Trent Manning, CTEM (33:15):
primarily using them for rough then?
Brad Bailey (33:19):
No.
So we've got the ones, we have,we've got a couple out at our
practice area doing some aroundthe driving range tee.
We've got these hills that kindof back up to our clubhouse and
behind the range tee as wellthat we maintain with'em.
And then up at the resort we'vegot a couple past pal event
lines that we maintain with em.
Trent Manning, CTEM (33:39):
Okay.
Brad Bailey (33:40):
And very convenient up there just'cause of, again,
time getting up there to, youknow, put a, put some labor out
there to mow with a real moweror something.
Being able to run these thingsovernight and work around
different events that, thatthey've got going on out there.
That, and, you know, they shthey show up on time every day
to
Trent Manning, CTEM (33:59):
Right, right,
Brad Bailey (34:00):
never talk back to you, you know,
Trent Manning, CTEM (34:02):
all that good stuff.
Brad Bailey (34:03):
yeah.
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (34:04):
What's the high to cut range?
Brad Bailey (34:08):
So it varies.
They have a fairway kit you canput on'em, which puts it from 10
millimeters, which is, you know,a little less than 400 all the
way to an inch and a half onthose.
And then without the fairway kitit's 20 millimeters and up to
two inches is the range it givesyou.
Yep.
So pretty decent range.
Trent Manning, CTEM (34:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (34:27):
and I can say at 1213 millimeters, they, on our
past pound, they look reallygood,
Trent Manning, CTEM (34:33):
Yeah, I mean, that's getting down there
pretty tight.
1213 millimeters.
So what kind of powerrequirements to charge?
Is it just single phase one 20?
Brad Bailey (34:43):
yep.
Yep.
Standard one 20.
They charge takes about an hourto charge.
And they'll run for really youcan.
About four hours a day.
If you've got it running all daylong, it's gonna need about four
or five hours of charge timethroughout the day.
Just kind of varies of how muchyou're using them.
So yeah, it's pretty quick andthey go out and do their thing
and charge up and go back out.
Trent Manning, CTEM (35:05):
Yeah.
How often do y'all have to lookat the blades and that kind of
stuff?
Brad Bailey (35:11):
So the past pal, we gotta change the blades about
once a week on those, on thatone.
The other one's in the Bermuda.
And then when the hillsides, wehave'em running on wee, so on
the rye in the wintertime,sometimes I can get a month out
of those blades that easier tocut grass.
So it's kinda especially mowingat rough height.
(35:32):
It's a lot, you know, you canget away with a lot more out
there.
The low cut past pal, I can tellwhen it starts, either taking a
long time to mow its work areaor it'll air out because it's,
you know, it's spiking andcurrent to try and cut through.
That's when I know it's allright.
It's
Trent Manning, CTEM (35:49):
Oh,
Brad Bailey (35:49):
time to put some fresh blades on there
Trent Manning, CTEM (35:51):
I don't, yeah.
So is there like a display boardwhere you know all this stuff or
there's an
Brad Bailey (35:55):
So it's all it's all app controlled.
Yep.
So they've got an app andnotifications.
That's where you can that'swhere you map out the mower for
its work zones.
That's where you can set itspatterns for mow change height.
Yeah, it's all app,
Trent Manning, CTEM (36:10):
that's cool.
Brad Bailey (36:11):
it nice.
Trent Manning, CTEM (36:12):
So you can change the height right there.
And that's
Brad Bailey (36:16):
Yeah, you can on the fly.
You can change it if you
Trent Manning, CTEM (36:18):
Yeah.
That's pretty slick.
When's John Deere or Toro gonnacome up with that?
Right.
Especially for some of thesesuperintendents that want to
change the height, a couplethousandths, you know, every
couple days or whatever.
Brad Bailey (36:34):
So
Trent Manning, CTEM (36:35):
yeah.
Yeah.
I've had that conversation.
Yeah.
Before, like I'm not changingless than 5,000.
Yeah, I just I ain't doing it.
And it was funny Corey Phillips,he's a Atlanta country club now
anyway, I think it was when hewas like, first got started,
superintendent wanted to changethe height, two thousands on
greens.
(36:56):
And so he tells Cory and then hecomes back, you know, like an
hour later, whatever, howeverlong it was.
And he's like, you changed that?
And Cory's like, yeah, I changedit.
And no, he didn't change.
He didn't change the singlething.
So the guy says, well, I wannasee one.
So he sets it up, you know, inthe old thin Accu gauge, you
just push it out there, justpush it a little bit harder.
(37:17):
There's two thousands rightthere.
And he is like, okay.
Brad Bailey (37:21):
2000 site change.
That's
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:22):
I don't know.
Yeah.
Yep.
Who knows?
Yeah.
You got anything else you wannashare?
Brad Bailey (37:28):
no I think that's it.
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:30):
Well, awesome.
We'll do we'll do some rapidfire then.
Brad Bailey (37:37):
All right.
All right.
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:38):
What's your favorite movie?
Brad Bailey (37:40):
Deadpool,
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:42):
the newer or older.
Brad Bailey (37:44):
The fir Any, I mean, they're all good, but
probably the first one's myfavorite,
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:48):
Okay.
So what is the first one?
Brad Bailey (37:51):
A lot of profanity.
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:52):
Okay.
All right.
Fair enough.
Brad Bailey (37:54):
Yeah.
Yep.
So have you seen Deadpool?
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:57):
No, I don't.
So when I hear Deadpool, I thinkof Dirty Harry,
Brad Bailey (38:03):
Okay.
Okay.
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:04):
but, and
Brad Bailey (38:05):
it could be a Marvel version of that.
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:07):
Okay.
Yeah, I, so I'm not up to speedNo.
On any of the newer Deadpoolbabies.
Brad Bailey (38:14):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's good.
Good entertainment.
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:17):
Good entertainment.
Alright.
Fair enough.
Brad Bailey (38:20):
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:21):
What would be your last meal?
Brad Bailey (38:23):
Anything seafood?
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:25):
Okay.
Well, you're in the right spotfor that, right?
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (38:27):
yep.
We've got a we've got a spotover in Edgewater area called
jbs.
Every time we go out fishing,it's definitely the lunch spot.
But if I had to choose the lastmeal, it would be park me there
and just don't stop bringing outfood till I tell you to stop.
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:44):
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love it.
That's awesome.
Do you know, Haas Minlow?
Yeah.
That dude, I see him onFacebook.
He's fishing all the time,catching huge fish like, man, I
need to come down there and justhang out with you for like a
week.
Just go fishing.
Brad Bailey (39:02):
to I've been trying to organize going out fishing
with Chris Johnson that's
Trent Manning, CTEM (39:06):
Okay.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (39:06):
Yeah.
Yeah.
But,
Trent Manning, CTEM (39:08):
Yeah.
That'd be awesome too.
Brad Bailey (39:10):
we're both busy, so
Trent Manning, CTEM (39:11):
Yep.
Yep.
I don't see how y'all do.
I really don't.
I.
I wouldn't wish that on my worstenemy to work in Florida, to be
honest with
Brad Bailey (39:20):
I do miss having the break, the winter break, you
know, where you look forward tothat last MO of the year.
But I.
It's kind of a double edgedsword.
'cause it, at least, I kindalike where I'm at now that it,
it's just a steady flow, youknow, that there's no stopping
and having to ramp back up.
It's just kind of a, you justkind of flow from just trying to
(39:41):
get through verification seasonto, all right, now we can start
making the course, Lookpristine.
So at least it's just a constantflow, you know?
It's
Trent Manning, CTEM (39:51):
Do y'all?
Brad Bailey (39:51):
security.
Trent Manning, CTEM (39:53):
Yeah, you don't run out of that.
Do y'all do a summer shutdown oranything like that?
Brad Bailey (39:58):
Just on our verification weeks, we close for
the week,
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:02):
that's still, that's nice.
Yeah.
'cause we don't even do that.
You know, we're a private cluband we one.
So we have the two courses.
One course is closed on Mondayand the other course is closed
on Tuesday, and that's whenwe're supposed to do our
verification, which is, I mean,trying to do all that in one day
is
Brad Bailey (40:20):
Yeah.
No doubt.
Yeah.
The week is nice
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:22):
yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Brad Bailey (40:24):
yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:25):
What are you most proud of besides your
family?
Brad Bailey (40:29):
Probably getting my college degree, even though I
don't use it.
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:33):
Hey, that's all right.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (40:34):
that was a time of life where, you know, I stopped
going to school for a little bitand then started back up and so
yeah, probably that,
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:43):
That's awesome, man.
Brad Bailey (40:44):
you know, I'm still paying for it, so that part's a
little,
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:47):
yeah.
Brad Bailey (40:48):
hurts a little bit, but but, you know, I think
getting that kind of helped.
Held me along the way.
At least have something on paperthat says, Hey, I, I did this.
Trent Manning, CTEM (41:00):
Yeah.
No, that's cool.
That was, yeah.
Really cool.
Well, thank you so much Brad,for being on this has been been
great.
Brad Bailey (41:08):
Yeah.
I appreciate it.
Trent Manning, CTEM (41:09):
Yep.
Until next time, we'll see you.
Bye.
Brad Bailey (41:12):
thanks Trent.
I appreciate it.
Have a good one.
Trent Manning (41:19):
thank you so much for listening to 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.
Welcome to the reel turf techs podcast for the
technician that wants to getreel follow along.
As we talk to industryprofessionals and address hot
topics that we all face alongthe way we'll learn tips and
tricks.
I'm your host, Trent.
Manning let's have some Welcometo The Real Turf Text Podcast,
(01:19):
episode 1 48.
Today we're talking to BradBailey, equipment Manager at
Four Seasons Golf and SportsClub in Orlando, Florida.
Four Seasons Golf and SportsClub.
It is an 18 hole course that isopen to resort guest and private
membership.
Brad has three techs in theshop.
(01:39):
He has mostly John Deereequipment.
Let's talk to Brad.
Trent Manning, CTEM (01:42):
What kind of car is that right behind you?
The white one up
Brad Bailey (01:47):
It's a Porsche nine 11.
Trent Manning, CTEM (01:49):
Nine 11
Brad Bailey (01:51):
Lego.
Oh, this is Lego.
Trent Manning, CTEM (01:52):
GGT, three or
Brad Bailey (01:54):
No, it's an old Carrera
Trent Manning, CTEM (01:56):
Iola?
Carrera.
Okay.
Brad Bailey (01:57):
yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (01:59):
Awesome.
I got a buddy of mine, he had acareer four SI don't remember.
Yeah.
A GT three.
Yeah, it was, yeah, so much funhanging around that dude.
Brad Bailey (02:13):
I've I've got a buddy that works for Porsche
that I went to school with, andhe does the track days at, you
know, road Atlanta there all thetime.
Trent Manning, CTEM (02:20):
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (02:21):
yeah.
It's on my bucket list.
Trent Manning, CTEM (02:23):
Yeah.
Heck yeah, man.
Road Atlanta is awesome.
Yeah.
Good stuff.
All right, so we're recording.
Welcome Brad to the Real TurfText podcast.
Thanks for being on.
How you doing today?
Brad Bailey (02:34):
Pretty good.
Trent, how about yourself?
Thanks for having me on.
Finally,
Trent Manning, CTEM (02:38):
yeah, finally.
Brad Bailey (02:39):
We finally made it happen.
Trent Manning, CTEM (02:41):
Yeah, we finally made it happen.
We will not tell the listenersall the drama that happened.
No, there wasn't any drama atall.
Life's busy and I get it, and Icompletely understand.
And I appreciate you being heretonight.
So
Brad Bailey (02:54):
for having me.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (02:56):
without Father Ado, tell us how you got
into the turf industry.
Brad Bailey (03:00):
Well, started working on a golf course when I
was in my sophomore year ofcollege.
The golf course I was working atwas right across the street from
the college, so it was veryconvenient.
The assistant would take me upon the golf cart, drop me off
some days I'd go to class, comeback.
So I wound up, worked there forfive years, wound up graduating
with a chemistry degree.
(03:22):
Started looking for jobs, but Ihad a desire to stay in golf.
I liked being outside.
I never really played the game.
But I knew I had to do somethingelse other than work on the
crew, make more money.
So I'd already always beenhands-on growing up.
My dad was always the type wewere fixing stuff together,
those kinds of things.
So started helping the guy inthe shop who actually is will
(03:45):
Watson, that works out at thelotion club in Little Rock.
Trent Manning, CTEM (03:48):
No way.
Are you serious right now?
Okay.
It's such a small world.
Okay.
Yeah, that is
Brad Bailey (03:55):
So helped him out in the shop when I could.
He ended up leaving and going toa Cherokee country club in
Knoxville.
And lo and behold my girlfriendat the time got into grad school
at ut, so we moved to Knoxvilleas well.
I started working there.
Was on the crew.
Again, helping out in the shopwhen I could.
And then when he left and wentout to the lotion club, his
(04:17):
assistant took over and I washalf and half in the shop and in
the crew helping the crew.
And worked there for a coupleyears.
Got an opportunity at a coursein Cleveland Tennessee, which is
about an hour or so south ofKnoxville.
So that was my first EM job andwas there.
And yeah, kind of, just kind ofworked my way up.
(04:37):
Moved around and, yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (04:39):
Yeah, that's really good.
So what club did you work?
With Will at before Knoxville.
Brad Bailey (04:46):
sunset Hills Country Club in Carrollton.
Trent Manning, CTEM (04:49):
Oh, Man.
All right.
Yeah, you're right down the roadfor not that far from me.
Brad Bailey (04:54):
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (04:54):
I mean, I don't know.
Yeah.
Hour and a half or somethinglike that.
Two hours to Carrollton
Brad Bailey (04:58):
Out.
I out I 20 So I grew up inFlorida.
I grew up on the east coastsouth of Daytona area called
Port Orange.
So my family was down here.
So when I did some, I got outtathe golf business for a little
bit.
I started building houses out inblue Ridge, Georgia, which is
where I graduated high school.
Went over there for a littlebit, working for a buddy of
mine, and then wanted to be backclose to family.
(05:21):
So
Trent Manning, CTEM (05:22):
But you were in Knoxville and had you,
you get to Florida.
Brad Bailey (05:27):
So I grew up in Florida.
I grew up on the east coastsouth of Daytona area called
Port Orange.
So my family was down here.
So when I did some, I got outtathe golf business for a little
bit.
I started building houses out inblue Ridge, Georgia, which is
where I graduated high school.
Went over there for a littlebit, working for a buddy of
mine, and then wanted to be backclose to family.
So I took a job at the city ofMelbourne, down in Melbourne,
(05:49):
Florida.
I was the head mechanic,whatever was titled there,
equipment manager.
They on, they got two golfcourses there I was the only.
Mechanic tech for 36 holes ofgolf.
But that got me back to Florida,so Melbourne's about an hour and
a half south of where my familylives.
So that got me back closer tohome,
Trent Manning, CTEM (06:10):
okay, I got you.
And where you're at now, is thatclose to home?
Brad Bailey (06:15):
so yeah, Orlando.
Yeah.
My family and actually my wife'sfamily both live in Edgewater,
Florida, which is about an hourand a hour and 15 or so east of
here,
Trent Manning, CTEM (06:23):
Okay.
Nice.
That's just far enough away,isn't
Brad Bailey (06:26):
It's, yep, it's close enough.
We can go over there on a whim,but it's not too close to where,
you know, we're committed toeverything going
Trent Manning, CTEM (06:33):
Right, right, right.
I understand that.
I hear you.
What's your least favorite partof the job?
Brad Bailey (06:39):
Office work
Trent Manning, CTEM (06:40):
Okay.
Brad Bailey (06:41):
Sitting in front of the computer.
Yeah.
I like to wrench.
I like fixing stuff, so I get,you know, and I know it's an
important part of the jobsitting in there.
I mean, staying organized, youknow, bordering parts, all that
good stuff.
But I like being out in theshop.
Yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEM (06:56):
I don't, do you got a favorite thing you
like to work on?
Brad Bailey (06:59):
I would say small engines are my strong suit.
Yep.
So anytime we've got some smallengine problems you know, 26
horse and lower so the job I hadbefore where I'm at now is
actually working for a powersports company in Melbourne.
So we deal with, I was the headtech there.
We sell, sold zero turns.
(07:20):
Field two cycle equipment.
So that's where the guy thatowned that business, him and his
wife owned it for like 35 years.
He knew small engines like theback of his hand.
And so that was probably themost valuable thing along my
journey that I've learned.
I mean, as you know,everything's got an engine on
it.
So being able to quicklydiagnose and being able to
(07:42):
repair most any.
Small engine and two cycleproblems.
We got that come in there is,and being able to share that
knowledge, you know, with theguys in the shop.
Trent Manning, CTEM (07:51):
Yeah.
That's huge.
Brad Bailey (07:52):
yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (07:52):
Yeah.
I got a good friend, KentCarson.
I've talked about him plenty onthe podcast.
I've yet to have him on.
I don't know why I don't know.
It's pretty, pretty sad, Iguess.
But anyway, I mean, he's a goodfriend.
But he's like that, I mean, twostroke, and I don't, he's pro
he's in his sixties, earlysixties, but, anything small
engine, you just say can't, youknow, give him a small idea of
(08:14):
what's going on.
He's like, oh yeah, that's yeah,that's what this is.
You know, I mean, he just knowshe is been doing it so long, and
I wanna say he worked for asteel dealership, like when he
was a kid, you know,
Brad Bailey (08:27):
Okay.
Okay.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (08:29):
you know, or
Brad Bailey (08:30):
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (08:30):
Mom and pop steel dealership,
Brad Bailey (08:32):
Yep.
That's kind of, that's kind ofwhat this was.
We dealt hu we sold Hustler andSnapper.
So obviously most of the stuffwe worked on was that.
And then, yeah, we were a steeldealer, so that's, I got to go
to steel school.
I got bronze certified.
I got halfway through the silvertraining before I left there,
but,
Trent Manning, CTEM (08:50):
Okay.
That's
Brad Bailey (08:51):
yeah and luckily that's what we have is steel
Trent Manning, CTEM (08:53):
Okay, that works all good.
Brad Bailey (08:55):
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (08:56):
I don't, did you happen, this is a side
note, but did you happen to seethe shop tour?
I'd done with Jeff Ello at I'mtrying to remember the name of
the club he's at.
He's up in Chicago.
I can't think of the name of theclub.
Anyway, he had it was like aFord drawer, gray Steel toolbox.
(09:17):
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (09:17):
all the specialty
Trent Manning, CTEM (09:19):
Yeah.
Oh, I was so jealous.
I was like, oh, that's soawesome.
It's good stuff.
Brad Bailey (09:23):
Yep.
Yet to add that to the shop.
But on the list of course, youknow, there's a lot of things
that once these two cycleengines get enough use on'em
it's almost even working on'em,on yourself, it's almost not
even worth diving into'em, youknow, if, especially if the
cylinder scored or whatever, Imean, it's trash it, move on.
Trent Manning, CTEM (09:43):
I don't it's, it can be fun too,
Brad Bailey (09:46):
yeah.
Oh,
Trent Manning, CTEM (09:46):
I'll tell you another story.
So you get me fired up on steelstuff.
So I had steel, I still got it.
Steel three 10 chainsaw and Idon't know why, but, and this
was, I don't know, mid twothousands or something, you
know.
So the internet's just gettinggoing and I found this cool
website called arboristsite.com.
(10:10):
Okay.
And all these guys are on theretalking about, yeah, anything
arborist.
But they were talking about hotrod and chainsaws.
So they said you take yourmuffler off, you drill a three
eights hole in the muffler, youopen up the end you can adjust
the carburetor.
I just used this chainsaw lastweek and I mean, I've had it for
whatever, 20 years or longer.
(10:32):
And, it goes through a lot ofgas, but man, it'll cut.
That there's just nothing likeit.
I mean, so Good.
And on that model still.
So the two 90, the three 10 andthe three 90, the bottom end is
all the same.
But, so my dad, he had a three10 and he actually straight
(10:54):
gassed it.
Poor guy.
Sorry for his luck, but I boughta three 90 cylinder piston and
cylinder.
And put on his lower end three10 and tune the carburetor.
Man, it cuts.
Anyway, I go on all day.
Tell
Brad Bailey (11:13):
those things are the, those things are the F1 car
of hand tools, you know,
Trent Manning, CTEM (11:17):
Oh, it is bad.
Yeah.
So good.
What's your favorite tool?
And don't tell me
Brad Bailey (11:22):
I just recently got it.
It's a, i'm sucked into thesnap-on truck.
But anyways just got a coupleweeks ago.
It's a 14 inch long double-endedwrench, it's ratchet wrench on
one end and it's an offsetclosed in on the other 15
millimeter.
So it's game changer for QA fivemotor mountain weight bolts.
So leverage and being able toget in there with a ratchet
(11:43):
wrench is
Trent Manning, CTEM (11:45):
okay.
Yeah, no, that is, that's a goodone.
That's a really
Brad Bailey (11:48):
My, my second option would probably be my
torque wrenches
Trent Manning, CTEM (11:52):
on also.
yeah, they make really good, isit the tech angle that
Brad Bailey (11:57):
Yeah, so that was yep.
That was something I learnedfrom the last job, you know, the
importance of torquing,especially engine head bolts and
all that.
So any of that kind of stuffgets torqued in our shop.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:10):
Yeah.
Do you torque bed knife screws?
I,
Brad Bailey (12:14):
Yes
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:15):
All fair enough.
Brad Bailey (12:16):
With the little the little hand torque.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:18):
well, yeah.
Brad Bailey (12:19):
t torque handle.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:20):
Uhhuh.
yeah.
Where do you get those from?
Amazon.
Brad Bailey (12:24):
yeah.
It seems like the last one camefrom Amazon or Granger.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:28):
Okay.
Brad Bailey (12:29):
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:29):
Yeah, I mean that's, you know, it makes
it so easy if it's in a T handlelike that, you know, if you
gotta pull out your three eightstort wrench and set it to
Brad Bailey (12:39):
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (12:39):
each time to do 13 bed knife screws or
whatever.
Yeah.
What do you do to relax or findyour balance?
Brad Bailey (12:47):
growing up in Florida I grew up on the water
fishing, so that's probably oneof the big things I do is fish.
My dad, my brother, and I playgolf.
Not well, but I do.
My brother recently got into ita couple years ago, so that's
been a fun addition to our hobbylist, going out and playing golf
together.
This time of year, not so much.
It's too dang hot to, to get outthere, especially after working
(13:10):
all day.
Trent Manning, CTEM (13:11):
Yeah, I don't see how y'all guys do it.
Brad Bailey (13:13):
Yep.
And then my wife and I are passorders at Disney, so we do
Disney a lot.
And then Lego's, my inside, turnthe brain off, fill out and do
some brainless work.
You know, just tinkering Legobuilding sets and those kinds of
things.
Trent Manning, CTEM (13:29):
I don't what?
I don't know if I would callthat.
Brainless.
I mean, you gotta think,
Brad Bailey (13:34):
Yeah, I guess
Trent Manning, CTEM (13:35):
I mean, yeah, you can really focus and,
but I can see
Brad Bailey (13:39):
an expensive hobby, but
Trent Manning, CTEM (13:42):
you zone out probably doing that.
And I am envious of, I'm lookingat Porsche career and the only
reason I know that is you toldme when we first started
recording, but, yeah, I got to.
I'm trying to think.
Oh, actually it was 2005.
I got to crew for GT two threeat the Daytona 24 hour,
Brad Bailey (14:08):
Okay.
Trent Manning, CTEM (14:09):
and that was awesome and I had a really
huge job.
I went to the Sunoco station,every other pit stop and filled
up a 55 gallon drum with racingfuel.
That was my job.
But hey, I don't care.
It got me there.
We got down there on Thursday,done the practice test, all that
(14:31):
stuff.
Super cool experience.
Brad Bailey (14:34):
That's a good time.
I've been to the, I've beendoing it not for the full 24
hour stretch, but I've been tothe Rolex few times.
That's a.
That's a good time,
Trent Manning, CTEM (14:43):
Yeah.
No, it was, yeah, so much funand yeah, I met so many people.
I mean, it makes me think alittle bit like the golf
industry, you know, everybodyknows everybody kind of in the
racing cliques and, you know,but met some really cool people
and had a really good time.
Brad Bailey (14:58):
Cool.
Yeah.
That's cool.
Trent Manning, CTEM (14:59):
What's been one of your biggest challenges?
To date?
Brad Bailey (15:03):
Managing people.
Trent Manning, CTEM (15:05):
Yeah
Brad Bailey (15:05):
yep.
So before this job, I was alwayskind of the solo guy in the
shop.
I've got three other guys in theshop with me, so a lot of moving
parts between the golf courseand all the stuff up at the
resort.
managing people, keepingeverybody busy.
You know, making out a daily, aweekly schedule.
Trying to think ahead.
That's probably been the biggestchallenge is just being a boss,
(15:27):
you know, having to be a boss.
Trent Manning, CTEM (15:29):
Right.
No I can definitely yeah, relateto that too, because I mean,
just, and it kind of sounds likeyou too.
You said, you know, your leastfavorite part is sitting behind
the, in the office or behind acomputer screen.
We like to be out there with ourhands on and not necessarily
managing other employees, butthe longer you do it that's
(15:49):
where we end up.
That's kind of, yeah.
And if you.
Make a decent wage.
That's part of it.
Brad Bailey (15:57):
yep.
For sure.
Trent Manning, CTEM (15:58):
Well, tell me one of the strangest things
you've seen at work.
Any good stories.
Brad Bailey (16:03):
So I thought about this question for a bit.
Trying to come up with somethingand of course, see lots of
strange things over the years.
Right.
So I broke it up into worstthing I've seen and craziest
thing I've seen.
So worst thing I've seen was thefirst golf course I worked at in
Carrollton at Sunset Hills.
The 14th Green backed up to themaintenance shop and we came in
(16:25):
one morning and somebody hadripped a few donuts on the green
tore it up.
And I was the lucky one that gotto plug it out.
I probably put.
200 plus plugs in that from our
Trent Manning, CTEM (16:35):
wow.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (16:36):
that was that was the worst thing I've
experienced.
Craziest thing would be when Iwas at the city of Melbourne, we
had a pull behind land pride,rough unit, and one of the guys,
lo and behold, went to raise thewings up on, on a slope, out a
pond, and.
In the pond it went yep.
So fun recovery, but you know.
Trent Manning, CTEM (16:57):
yeah.
Yep.
I don't, it's amazing all thestuff that's got fished out of
ponds over the years at golfcourses.
I got a John Deere 7,500 in myshop right now with that, had a
vent connecting rod, and it didnot go in a lake, but the
operator was washing it off onthe wash pad and for some
(17:21):
reason, I mean the engine wasrunning, but for some reason he
raised the seat up.
And he was on the passenger sideand decided to clean off the
radiator with a one inch hose.
And I mean, he flooded theintake.
And with the turbo it suckedenough water in there to bend,
(17:43):
bend a rod so you can try tocompress water, but I guarantee
you cannot compress it.
Every diesel engine that I'veexperienced.
Going into a lake while it wasrunning, it bent a rod.
And the weird thing is, so thisis the third bent rod that I can
recall, and every one of'em isnumber one cylinder.
(18:08):
So I don't, it's just strangeoutta three and they're all
number one.
Brad Bailey (18:14):
Well, I mean, kudos to the guy for trying to clean
it for you, right?
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:17):
well, I don't
Brad Bailey (18:17):
tried.
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:18):
He tried, I guess.
You know, this particularoperator, I have asked him
multiple times to blow that outwith a air hose, but he was
being creative, I guess.
Brad Bailey (18:29):
Yep.
Do you do you have a, like a airblow off
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:33):
Yes.
Well, not necessarily a blow offstation, but I do have air hose
reel and, you know, blow gunright there on the wash pad.
I mean, it's pretty easy
Brad Bailey (18:44):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:45):
blow stuff off.
The guys, they mainly just useit to clean mud off their boots.
Brad Bailey (18:50):
Yep,
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:50):
I don't, we use it, you know, to blow out
radiators or whatever
Brad Bailey (18:54):
yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (18:55):
do you have a mentor in the industry?
Brad Bailey (18:58):
Not really.
I guess I got two.
One would be the guy from myprevious job just'cause of what
I learned from him on smallengines and stuff.
So not really in the industry,but definitely helped me out a
lot.
The other one's probably StevenTucker.
This is probably, I mean, thisis the biggest EM job that I've
had and taking on new roles suchas managing people.
(19:19):
Managing things to the extentthat I do now.
Having him there as a resourceand a teacher to not micromanage
me through it but guide me andgimme the resources I need to
succeed at it.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (19:32):
Yeah.
I mean, how.
Talk about that for a minute.
How important is that to workfor someone that you know has
your back and gives you theresources?
Brad Bailey (19:44):
It's huge.
I mean.
It's, I feel like it's adifferent dynamic than most
because he's now in the shoesthat most EMS fight against, you
know, trying to show theimportance of the equipment, of
the role of the maintenance.
And he knows all that.
So I've automatically got allthat support from the get go.
(20:06):
When I first got the job, I'dhear through the grapevine of
people avoiding the job becauseof, oh, well, going to work for
Steven Tucker.
You know, he's constantly gonnabe watching over your shoulder
and micromanaging, and it's theopposite.
I mean, he's, he really doesknow how to lead and lets you
(20:28):
fail to figure it out.
You know, sometimes the hardway, but sometimes that's the
best way.
Trent Manning, CTEM (20:33):
Yeah.
That's the way we learn.
Brad Bailey (20:34):
yep.
That's
Trent Manning, CTEM (20:35):
That's the way I learn anyway.
Brad Bailey (20:36):
yep.
Some of the guys in the shop,sometimes, you know, they'll get
upset at themselves'cause theydid something that had an
adverse reaction.
I'm like, Hey, you'll never dothat again.
Trent Manning, CTEM (20:47):
Right, right.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (20:47):
you know, look at it that way.
But yeah, I mean, it's beenhuge.
I mean, I owe a lot of what Iknow and why I succeed at my job
now to him
Trent Manning, CTEM (20:57):
awesome, man.
That's really good.
What would be your dream job?
Okay.
Got anything fun?
Brad Bailey (21:06):
most people probably say top 100, you know,
work in a p somewhere with a PGAevent as, as great as that would
be.
I think my goal is to, I wannawork somewhere that's kind of a
ground up build you know, newmaintenance facility, new golf
course, being able to design theshop, outfit it with tools and
equipment and, the thought ofgoing somewhere that nothing's
(21:28):
come outta that shop that youhaven't had your hands on.
And I'm a little OCD when itcomes to that.
So knowing, being able to havethat much control over those
would be pretty cool.
Trent Manning, CTEM (21:39):
Yeah, no, that would be super cool.
And so Bob Smith, he was, he'sout in Texas.
When I asked him what his dreamjob would be, he wants to own an
NFL team.
Brad Bailey (21:51):
Okay.
Trent Manning, CTEM (21:51):
I mean, you know, it's,
Brad Bailey (21:52):
Big aspirations.
I love it.
Trent Manning, CT (21:54):
possibilities are endless
Brad Bailey (21:56):
Yep.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (21:58):
and yeah if you're ready to do something in
the next, you know, three orfour years I mean, they're
building a lot of courses right
Brad Bailey (22:05):
yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:05):
From the ground up.
Yeah, I've heard about, yeah,quite a few happening.
Brad Bailey (22:12):
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:13):
Do you have.
Brad Bailey (22:13):
I mean, it's great for the industry
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:15):
Oh yeah.
No, it's, yeah.
It's amazing how much it'sturned around from oh eight.
So I was working for a golfcourse construction company as
their mechanic in oh eight.
I remember my boss saying, I cankeep you busy for a couple more
months.
And at the time, so my youngestdaughter was three and.
(22:40):
Yeah, I had a 3-year-old and a1-year-old and I was like okay,
I guess I'm going to be findinganother job here pretty soon.
Brad Bailey (22:46):
No doubt.
No doubt.
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:48):
I called the mortgage company and they
said, nah, we're not gonna giveyou any any breaks.
So
Brad Bailey (22:52):
yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:53):
I had to find something else to do.
Brad Bailey (22:55):
Exactly.
Trent Manning, CTEM (22:56):
Do you have a technician you'd like to work
with for a day?
Brad Bailey (23:00):
John Patterson.
Trent Manning, CTEM (23:01):
Okay.
Alright.
Well, I think he and Steven arepretty close, so I'm sure that
could be arranged real
Brad Bailey (23:09):
yeah.
Anytime.
The problem is I work inFlorida, so there's, we don't
get much downtime.
That's the struggle,
Trent Manning, CTEM (23:17):
Well, yeah, and I remember, I think when
Wyatt first started workingthere, Steven sent him up to
work
Brad Bailey (23:23):
yep, he did.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (23:24):
few days and man.
I mean, any person, not just ayoung person, but any person in
the industry, if you could spenda couple days with somebody like
John Patterson, it's only gonnahelp your career for And you
know, and maybe, you know, ifyou live on the West Coast and
it's not feasible to come toGeorgia to spend a day or two
(23:48):
with John Patterson, there'sguys out there too, you know, I
mean.
So find your local JohnPatterson and go spend a day or
two with him, or at least gethis phone number where you can
call and harass him from time
Brad Bailey (24:01):
Yep.
Yeah,
Trent Manning, CTEM (24:03):
but yeah, no, John's great and I'm glad to
have him right down the road.
It was funny, he texted me theother Sunday, he's like, where
are you getting DPF filtersbaked?
And so I tell him where it was.
He's like, oh man, I'm so sorry.
I'm in tournament mode.
I didn't even realize it wasSunday.
I'm like, it's okay, man.
You know.
I get it.
It's all good, man.
Brad Bailey (24:22):
yep.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (24:23):
Yep.
What do you know now you wishyou'd known on day one?
Brad Bailey (24:28):
The importance of being organized.
At least day one of, you know,being an em I think my first job
was, you know, you're justfaking it till you make it
right.
But, you know, being organizedthe importance of it.
The importance of keeping.
your techs organized and busy.
You know, last thing, you wantsome standing around waiting for
(24:49):
something to do.
So I try to be as organized aspossible.
So that's something I've learnedthat's very important to this
job when there's, when we gottadeal with and handle so many
different things going on.
Trent Manning, CTEM (25:02):
Oh yeah, it's crazy.
And I mean, yeah, like all theparts that we stock and
inventory and I mean, there'sjust a ton of moving parts and
it's.
A shame for me.
'cause I, and not just me, but Iknow there's others that are
like me where we keep a lotright here.
(25:24):
But you know what, this don't dopeople good when this is not
around.
Brad Bailey (25:28):
I find myself doing that a lot.
I'll be like, Wyatt, I don'tknow if I told you this or not,
but we got this going ontomorrow where he is like, no,
you didn't tell me.
He is like, it was here.
Trent Manning, CTEM (25:39):
huh.
Right?
Yep.
I thought about telling you.
And then, I mean, that's theother thing, and everybody
that's listening can relate is,you know, you're thinking about
whatever and then you know, whoknows what's walking in the shop
you know, in two minutes andeverything you've been thinking
about or working on for the lasthowever many hours just went out
the window and now you'refocused on this.
(26:00):
So you're just constantlyrunning around.
But it keeps it interesting,right?
Brad Bailey (26:05):
Yeah, for sure.
Interesting.
That's a that's a good way toput it.
Trent Manning, CTEM (26:09):
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Trent Manning (26:11):
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Let's get back to the episode.
Get ready for tips and tricks
Trent Manning, CTEM (26:46):
Well, let's do some tips and tricks.
You got any tips and tricks youwanna share with us?
Brad Bailey (26:51):
Let me check my cheat sheet
Trent Manning, CTEM (26:53):
Yeah, there you go.
Brad Bailey (26:54):
So I guess really, and I've kind of touched on it
already, but having a, you know,a good strong hold on, small
engines and two cycle equipmentjust'cause aside from the diesel
equipment that we've all got inour fleets, you know, that's a
big part of the job.
I know before, before I gainedthe knowledge, I do, I have on
(27:15):
it now.
That was definitely a bigstruggle of mine was.
Trent Manning, CTEM (27:19):
I don't, do you have any resources or
recommendations on, you know,like where do you learn how to
work on small engine stuff?
Brad Bailey (27:27):
That's a great question.
Trent Manning, CTEM (27:28):
I'm just curious.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (27:29):
Again it's up here.
Trent Manning, CTEM (27:30):
right, right.
Yep.
Yeah, and I wasn't like tryingto put you on the spot'cause I
was thinking the same thing,like, where do you learn other
than just being in the shop anddoing it and, you know, luckily
good mentors and
Brad Bailey (27:43):
Yeah, tech manuals.
Trent Manning, CTEM (27:44):
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (27:45):
I know I visit those quite often, if you can
get ahold of'em.
You know, some manufacturers area little more stingy about
making them public knowledgeversus others, but, you know,
great resource obviously if youcan get ahold of a tech manual
Trent Manning, CTEM (27:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Brad Bailey (28:00):
yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (28:00):
Well, and yeah, so for manuals, it's kinda
like a roadmap basically.
Right.
On how you're gonna getsomewhere.
Like, I could drive from here toCalifornia, but if I had a map,
I'd be a lot more efficient atit,
Brad Bailey (28:13):
No doubt.
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (28:16):
any other tips and tricks
Brad Bailey (28:19):
No, I think that's no, I think that's.
Trent Manning, CTEM (28:22):
Well, something that I thought of a
minute ago when you were talkingabout being organized and it's
something I've.
Started to try to do recently,and especially with the cost of
everything, you know, I buy alot of stuff aftermarket if I
can you know, and not to try toharm our distributors, but the
(28:43):
prices of some of this stuff isjust ridiculous.
So what I've started doing is Istock whatever part by the OEM
part number.
So if it's John Deere or Torahor whatever.
I stock it that part number.
Normally in a bag and in thatbag I put a Kanban card in there
(29:05):
and that card is just the indexcard.
And I write on that index cardwhere I order this part from.
Because what I started runninginto is like, okay, I get that
from Amazon, I get that fromMcMaster car, I get that from
Grainger, you know, and then Icouldn't keep track.
Like, damn it, where do I getthis solenoid from?
So anyway, index card in theplastic baggie, and I
Brad Bailey (29:30):
Yeah, that's a good idea.
Trent Manning, CTEM (29:32):
to know.
So that's my tip for the day.
Brad Bailey (29:34):
Yeah, my my digital way of doing that similar so we
use a program called Trello.
It's kind of like a workplaceorganization tool.
But we use it for, I mean,that's where kind of I lay out
our schedule.
Stuff that's broke down, needingparts, stuff we need for the
shop, those kinds of things.
But every part I order gets putthrough Trello, kind of similar
(29:57):
to what you're doing, but I'lljust get on the computer, I can
go there and I can type ineither the name of the part or
the machine it was for, andit'll populate any keywords that
match up cards for that.
So that's, yeah.
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (30:11):
That's super cool.
Yeah, I'd like to see that alittle bit closer.
I've actually used that app'cause with the YouTube channel
the vid, my video guy, theeditor, the guy that makes
everything look nice turn meonto Trello and that's kind of
how we keep, and he's from thefilm industry and I guess they
use it a lot in the filmindustry.
(30:32):
But that's, you know, like wegot a whole page that's like
ideas and then we got, this hasbeen filmed, this is in editing,
you know, and kind of track itthrough the progression of
whatever the videos are.
So yeah, that's super
Brad Bailey (30:46):
We use it pretty heavily.
I guess you could, I guess youcould add that to the tips and
trick list.
Trent Manning, CTEM (30:51):
Yeah.
Yeah.
For.
Brad Bailey (30:52):
yeah, we use that pretty heavily.
It's very user-friendly for allof us in the shop.
The app or the interface on the,like on the iPhone, the app is
great.
Very friendly.
You know, I, the guys can go onthere, they can check off that
they'd done it, or if theyencounter a problem, somebody
tells'em about something, it'squick and easy to get your phone
out, make a card for it, then Ican assign it later on.
(31:15):
Or, you know, gotta order partsfor it.
They can when they repairsomething, put a description in
there, what they did, if theyuse any parts off the shelf, how
long it took them to repair itso we can track labor hours.
It's really our go-to in theshop.
Trent Manning, CTEM (31:30):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's really good.
That's awesome.
Well, let's talk about roboticor autonomous mowers.
Brad Bailey (31:37):
yeah so I'm actually part of the Husqvarna
customer council.
It's kind of a, so we've got.
Four Husqvarna Auto mowers rightnow at our place.
They do a lot of testing at ourfacility as well on some
prototypes and some unitsthey've got out that they're
kind of putting through theropes or testing some different
(31:59):
features out on.
But, you know, autonomy andelectrification is coming.
Right.
And.
When you start talking about it,you hear from a lot of people,
oh, you know, they're gonna takeour jobs and, you know, robots
are gonna take over.
And it's not to, to me, the wayI see it, not really the case
(32:19):
with these things.
I think it's gonna help take amonotonous job like mowing rough
or maybe even mowing fairwaysthrough your non-prime.
Months of the year allowingsomething else that's
autonomous, go out there and dothe job while you can reallocate
labor hours to maybe more detailwork on the golf course.
(32:40):
I think they're great.
I mean, I have a little biasnesstowards Husqvarna because of,
you know, my interaction withthem.
But from what I see on Twitterand other, you know, Facebook
and stuff, there's.
They're all doing great.
I mean, I think they're a greataddition to the turf industry
of, especially nowadays when itis really hard to find good help
(33:01):
especially to maintain the golfcourse.
So if you have the resources andthe ability to add them to your
fleet, I think it's, I thinkthey're great.
So especially for low powerconsumption, maintenance,
Trent Manning, CTEM (33:15):
primarily using them for rough then?
Brad Bailey (33:19):
No.
So we've got the ones, we have,we've got a couple out at our
practice area doing some aroundthe driving range tee.
We've got these hills that kindof back up to our clubhouse and
behind the range tee as wellthat we maintain with'em.
And then up at the resort we'vegot a couple past pal event
lines that we maintain with em.
Trent Manning, CTEM (33:39):
Okay.
Brad Bailey (33:40):
And very convenient up there just'cause of, again,
time getting up there to, youknow, put a, put some labor out
there to mow with a real moweror something.
Being able to run these thingsovernight and work around
different events that, thatthey've got going on out there.
That, and, you know, they shthey show up on time every day
to
Trent Manning, CTEM (33:59):
Right, right,
Brad Bailey (34:00):
never talk back to you, you know,
Trent Manning, CTEM (34:02):
all that good stuff.
Brad Bailey (34:03):
yeah.
Yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (34:04):
What's the high to cut range?
Brad Bailey (34:08):
So it varies.
They have a fairway kit you canput on'em, which puts it from 10
millimeters, which is, you know,a little less than 400 all the
way to an inch and a half onthose.
And then without the fairway kitit's 20 millimeters and up to
two inches is the range it givesyou.
Yep.
So pretty decent range.
Trent Manning, CTEM (34:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (34:27):
and I can say at 1213 millimeters, they, on our
past pound, they look reallygood,
Trent Manning, CTEM (34:33):
Yeah, I mean, that's getting down there
pretty tight.
1213 millimeters.
So what kind of powerrequirements to charge?
Is it just single phase one 20?
Brad Bailey (34:43):
yep.
Yep.
Standard one 20.
They charge takes about an hourto charge.
And they'll run for really youcan.
About four hours a day.
If you've got it running all daylong, it's gonna need about four
or five hours of charge timethroughout the day.
Just kind of varies of how muchyou're using them.
So yeah, it's pretty quick andthey go out and do their thing
and charge up and go back out.
Trent Manning, CTEM (35:05):
Yeah.
How often do y'all have to lookat the blades and that kind of
stuff?
Brad Bailey (35:11):
So the past pal, we gotta change the blades about
once a week on those, on thatone.
The other one's in the Bermuda.
And then when the hillsides, wehave'em running on wee, so on
the rye in the wintertime,sometimes I can get a month out
of those blades that easier tocut grass.
So it's kinda especially mowingat rough height.
(35:32):
It's a lot, you know, you canget away with a lot more out
there.
The low cut past pal, I can tellwhen it starts, either taking a
long time to mow its work areaor it'll air out because it's,
you know, it's spiking andcurrent to try and cut through.
That's when I know it's allright.
It's
Trent Manning, CTEM (35:49):
Oh,
Brad Bailey (35:49):
time to put some fresh blades on there
Trent Manning, CTEM (35:51):
I don't, yeah.
So is there like a display boardwhere you know all this stuff or
there's an
Brad Bailey (35:55):
So it's all it's all app controlled.
Yep.
So they've got an app andnotifications.
That's where you can that'swhere you map out the mower for
its work zones.
That's where you can set itspatterns for mow change height.
Yeah, it's all app,
Trent Manning, CTEM (36:10):
that's cool.
Brad Bailey (36:11):
it nice.
Trent Manning, CTEM (36:12):
So you can change the height right there.
And that's
Brad Bailey (36:16):
Yeah, you can on the fly.
You can change it if you
Trent Manning, CTEM (36:18):
Yeah.
That's pretty slick.
When's John Deere or Toro gonnacome up with that?
Right.
Especially for some of thesesuperintendents that want to
change the height, a couplethousandths, you know, every
couple days or whatever.
Brad Bailey (36:34):
So
Trent Manning, CTEM (36:35):
yeah.
Yeah.
I've had that conversation.
Yeah.
Before, like I'm not changingless than 5,000.
Yeah, I just I ain't doing it.
And it was funny Corey Phillips,he's a Atlanta country club now
anyway, I think it was when hewas like, first got started,
superintendent wanted to changethe height, two thousands on
greens.
(36:56):
And so he tells Cory and then hecomes back, you know, like an
hour later, whatever, howeverlong it was.
And he's like, you changed that?
And Cory's like, yeah, I changedit.
And no, he didn't change.
He didn't change the singlething.
So the guy says, well, I wannasee one.
So he sets it up, you know, inthe old thin Accu gauge, you
just push it out there, justpush it a little bit harder.
(37:17):
There's two thousands rightthere.
And he is like, okay.
Brad Bailey (37:21):
2000 site change.
That's
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:22):
I don't know.
Yeah.
Yep.
Who knows?
Yeah.
You got anything else you wannashare?
Brad Bailey (37:28):
no I think that's it.
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:30):
Well, awesome.
We'll do we'll do some rapidfire then.
Brad Bailey (37:37):
All right.
All right.
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:38):
What's your favorite movie?
Brad Bailey (37:40):
Deadpool,
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:42):
the newer or older.
Brad Bailey (37:44):
The fir Any, I mean, they're all good, but
probably the first one's myfavorite,
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:48):
Okay.
So what is the first one?
Brad Bailey (37:51):
A lot of profanity.
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:52):
Okay.
All right.
Fair enough.
Brad Bailey (37:54):
Yeah.
Yep.
So have you seen Deadpool?
Trent Manning, CTEM (37:57):
No, I don't.
So when I hear Deadpool, I thinkof Dirty Harry,
Brad Bailey (38:03):
Okay.
Okay.
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:04):
but, and
Brad Bailey (38:05):
it could be a Marvel version of that.
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:07):
Okay.
Yeah, I, so I'm not up to speedNo.
On any of the newer Deadpoolbabies.
Brad Bailey (38:14):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's good.
Good entertainment.
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:17):
Good entertainment.
Alright.
Fair enough.
Brad Bailey (38:20):
Yep.
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:21):
What would be your last meal?
Brad Bailey (38:23):
Anything seafood?
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:25):
Okay.
Well, you're in the right spotfor that, right?
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (38:27):
yep.
We've got a we've got a spotover in Edgewater area called
jbs.
Every time we go out fishing,it's definitely the lunch spot.
But if I had to choose the lastmeal, it would be park me there
and just don't stop bringing outfood till I tell you to stop.
Trent Manning, CTEM (38:44):
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love it.
That's awesome.
Do you know, Haas Minlow?
Yeah.
That dude, I see him onFacebook.
He's fishing all the time,catching huge fish like, man, I
need to come down there and justhang out with you for like a
week.
Just go fishing.
Brad Bailey (39:02):
to I've been trying to organize going out fishing
with Chris Johnson that's
Trent Manning, CTEM (39:06):
Okay.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (39:06):
Yeah.
Yeah.
But,
Trent Manning, CTEM (39:08):
Yeah.
That'd be awesome too.
Brad Bailey (39:10):
we're both busy, so
Trent Manning, CTEM (39:11):
Yep.
Yep.
I don't see how y'all do.
I really don't.
I.
I wouldn't wish that on my worstenemy to work in Florida, to be
honest with
Brad Bailey (39:20):
I do miss having the break, the winter break, you
know, where you look forward tothat last MO of the year.
But I.
It's kind of a double edgedsword.
'cause it, at least, I kindalike where I'm at now that it,
it's just a steady flow, youknow, that there's no stopping
and having to ramp back up.
It's just kind of a, you justkind of flow from just trying to
(39:41):
get through verification seasonto, all right, now we can start
making the course, Lookpristine.
So at least it's just a constantflow, you know?
It's
Trent Manning, CTEM (39:51):
Do y'all?
Brad Bailey (39:51):
security.
Trent Manning, CTEM (39:53):
Yeah, you don't run out of that.
Do y'all do a summer shutdown oranything like that?
Brad Bailey (39:58):
Just on our verification weeks, we close for
the week,
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:02):
that's still, that's nice.
Yeah.
'cause we don't even do that.
You know, we're a private cluband we one.
So we have the two courses.
One course is closed on Mondayand the other course is closed
on Tuesday, and that's whenwe're supposed to do our
verification, which is, I mean,trying to do all that in one day
is
Brad Bailey (40:20):
Yeah.
No doubt.
Yeah.
The week is nice
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:22):
yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Brad Bailey (40:24):
yeah.
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:25):
What are you most proud of besides your
family?
Brad Bailey (40:29):
Probably getting my college degree, even though I
don't use it.
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:33):
Hey, that's all right.
Yeah.
Brad Bailey (40:34):
that was a time of life where, you know, I stopped
going to school for a little bitand then started back up and so
yeah, probably that,
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:43):
That's awesome, man.
Brad Bailey (40:44):
you know, I'm still paying for it, so that part's a
little,
Trent Manning, CTEM (40:47):
yeah.
Brad Bailey (40:48):
hurts a little bit, but but, you know, I think
getting that kind of helped.
Held me along the way.
At least have something on paperthat says, Hey, I, I did this.
Trent Manning, CTEM (41:00):
Yeah.
No, that's cool.
That was, yeah.
Really cool.
Well, thank you so much Brad,for being on this has been been
great.
Brad Bailey (41:08):
Yeah.
I appreciate it.
Trent Manning, CTEM (41:09):
Yep.
Until next time, we'll see you.
Bye.
Brad Bailey (41:12):
thanks Trent.
I appreciate it.
Have a good one.
Trent Manning (41:19):
thank you so much for listening to 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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