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| Toro Rake O Vac |
What do we do in the Winter? I've been asked that countless times over the course of my career. Now with a little technology, I'm going to report back to you with the tasks we do during our "off season" all in preparation for the upcoming golf season. One of the big jobs we targeted for rehab before our mandated six week furlough was to rebuild our 20 plus year old leaf and debris sweeper. It is a manner of routine on our part to inspect each and every piece of equipment for wear and tear and to fix it BEFORE it breaks possibly costing the club thousands of dollars more in additional repair costs. It's too cliche to mention "pay me now or pay me later," but I've witnessed the consequences brought on by the latter first hand.
Our investigation is best seen via the following photo's.
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| These blades are supposed to be straight. |
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| Note hairline crack in blade. How dangerous was that? |
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| New blower fan and shaft replacement installed. |
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| Wear seen on the draw bar -birds eye view. |
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| Side view of draw bar wear. Extensive. |
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| The engine was overhauled as well. |
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the blower assembly alone, if purchased new from Toro would have cost the club a pricey $1,250 plus tax and freight. We had a local machine shop refurbish ours for a cost just around $250 saving the club some serious money. The draw bar has been rebuilt and reinstalled. Believe this or not, but this is the third hitch fastened to this unit. That's how much we depend on this unit in caring for your course.
Rebuilding your equipment is not cheap, but necessary as we would hate to have it break at the moment we need it most. BTW, a new unit now lists over $35K. A replacement is not in the cards in the foreseeable future. We do a lot of refurbishing in house. In the past when we had more time to care for your equipment, this unit would have been painted from top to bottom with new decals installed.
Hope you are enjoying your off season as we are scrambling to get everything ready for the upcoming season.
