Loss of talent worsening

Been to the local Hydraulic shop more than had in the last four years, shop is nuts, stacks LITERALLY stacks of cylinders, motors, pumps for repair or inspection, machines In the shop and on the yard where allows for little parking. Four issues, available technician shortage where seems few to any want to enter, shop is EPA permitted and to add on or build anew or even to just swap to a larger facility will take MONTHS to Years of EPA evals, other shops are shutting down due to age of owners, age of employees or both and unable to entice the remnant workers into this shop, last, the dealerships for HE are sending out their own work due to SAME conditions where he is getting much of it.

Pretty sad to see, and the techs are burning out.

DMiller said:

shop is EPA permitted and to add on or build anew or even to just swap to a larger facility will take MONTHS to Years of EPA evals,

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I just don't understand why anyone would bother with them. If you have an up and running place, just open a shop somewhere else that no public traffic would ever see. Take the extra work there, then bring it back to the 'retail location' when completed.

The fines are fairly severe WHEN caught. Oils, Solvents, cleaning materials, trash with oil contaminates, metal residuals from building cylinders or rebuilding them, it all ends up poorly.

DMiller said:

The fines are fairly severe WHEN caught. Oils, Solvents, cleaning materials, trash with oil contaminates, metal residuals from building cylinders or rebuilding them, it all ends up poorly.

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If one is conscientious with safety and environmental practices, that should be a non issue.

What judge would grant a search warrant in a private farm/home/garage for a potential 'business venture' that may or may not be 'up to snuff'.

Keep the 'other location' on the down low and one would never have any issues. I would laugh at any prosecutor that would attempt to prove a business venture was happening vs. a home hobby.

One way around this would be for the techs to be mobile. That way all the dismantling and reassembly is at the clients premises and that is where most of the oil is spilt. Any machining and fitting of parts takes place back at the hydraulic shop. I know of an out fit who does this mostly because of a lack of space.

These guys are already road techs. The overflow from those that CAN bring stuff to them is what is at the shop. As I picked up the PTO shaft pieces they were accepting a auto parts factory(Henninges of New Haven MO) load of machine cylinders and control valves, FOUR heaped pallets of goods, they then picked up the last load that was ready to go back. About the same time a excavation company from MN called as to the cylinders their local Deere Dealer sent from their machines, estimating time of return shipment, two to three weeks. Any and everything under the Sun as to hydraulic or hydromechanical even had an old White farm tractor sitting outside getting a pump replaced. Trash trucks, electrically safe boom trucks, not seen the likes of it and has five service trucks running amok Every work day.

Local trucking company has two trucks sitting there to get unloader blowers installed aside the already installed Hydraulic pump drives, doing double duty dump truck/wet kit or dry bulk trailer deliveries. Only seventeen employees on the floor and five wives of employees doing the office work.

That's OK, I can work anytime I want to or not. I can almost name any price I want now. Life is getting expensive for everyone.

Sounds like an opportunity for someone that likes working with hydro cylinders & such .

For me it was cost prohibitive to remove a cylinder & take it to a shop for repair .

Hydro shop cat's in my area are pretty proud of there work when it comes to money $ .

Always the long sad story of how hard it was to rebuild the cylinder …….


" We ran in to this " and " Had to do that " , " took longer then expected " .

After one episode of that BS we decided to keep it all " in house " on the repairs .

It aint like were tryin to put another feller on the Moon , just need a cylinder rebuilt cost effective fellers .


https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/outriger-repack.11843/

This shop is the most effective I have been thru as to least expense and best service attainable. They are now getting 75% of their business from the HE dealers in the region as those shops cannot compete time or quality wise. Pretty amazing when a 17 man shop can out perform even overloaded the structured dealers.

There is a severe shortage of experienced service techs in all areas, and its not going to get better anytime soon.

Most every shops problems start at the top with poor management just like everything else it the mechanics that get the blame If they started treating them like there business depended on it quit whining that they don't have the time and money to train on the job instead of only wanting to hire experienced mechanics there is just not that many good experienced mechanics wandering around looking for a job there never has been they either are happy with a current job, have issues and cant keep a job , or go on there own your only choice is to work people up and you will lose plenty that cant do the job thats part of doing business same as any other industry but because that sounds like a lot of work and might cut into the bosses time off they just keep leaning harder on the guys that keep the place afloat

Ever hear the term helicopter parents from the nineties, well these days the term is bulldozer parents. Unfortunately this work problem started years ago and
has progressed to the point where we are today. Parents have bulldozed the obstacles out of the path of their children and spoiled them rotten in many cases,
not all cases but a very high percentage of them. The work the people do on this forum is dirty work and most of it doesn't come with six figure income either.
Face it the main population have become lazy and followers. JFK said it well {We do things because they are hard}. I find it interesting people going to the gym
to stay in shape, 40 years ago they stayed in shape because they worked and earned their food, today they don't work and the food they eat is garbage and
it shows on the waste line. Physical challenge and pride in workmanship/skill has taken a back seat to phony personal gain and ego.

Something my dad would say from time to time, {A mans success should never be deemed by the amount of presidents he has in his wallet}.
My dad, Charles W. Flake 1st Sargent Master-If you didn't believe the army was the army Charley would point it out to you real straight and right now.



Truck Shop

This is hard work and people are allergic to that. We have classes of high schoolers walk through the shop on tours and very few apply

We see very few incoming experienced mechanics.

Not that I’m complaining for the value of my skills and knowledge will only go up.

I know at least two boys that will grow up knowing it and one girl who’s watched it her whole life, she’s not going to bend wrenches but she knows what I’ve done to provide for her and she appreciates it. Right now that’s the best I can do!

I believe it was Thomas Edison who said "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in coveralls and looks like work".

I just got off the phone with a local Freightliner service manager, there offering a $7,500 signing
bonus to try to hire mechanics.

Truck Shop

Truck Shop said:

I just got off the phone with a local Freightliner service manager, there offering a $7,500 signing
bonus to try to hire mechanics.

Truck Shop

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Our retention and recruitment manager came around asking those of us who had been there 4-6 years why so many were leaving the company I flat out told her that other places were paying more, offering sign on bonuses and yearly bonuses, better profit sharing, better perks (tool allowances, for instance) and so on.

I think 5 years from now a true mechanic will get paid 6 figures to many old guys on there way out and even people fill there spot with no depth of experience they can't do a lot and are to scared to figure it out cause the laptop wont tell them

I know some plumbers that are just hired hands that make over 70 thousand without over time I think that trend will continue

Thing is a lot of the wrench business is just thinking logically. I've gotten thrown onto quite a few jobs this past month where guys have spent hours troubleshooting faults with no success. One or two of these jobs I had the issues fixed in under an hour. Most of it was basic stuff like chaffed wiring harnesses causing sensors to ground out. One harness was literally right in plain sight!

True story here, I saw job posted for a local dealership so I applied, after MUCH hassling around with the online 3 party recruitment people, I call the dealers service manager directly and he says he hasn't seen my resume, but please come in and talk. I arrive and we have a nice talk and discuss my experience and what not, so he asks what the $ expectations I have and I reply it's posted for $20-$30 an hour and I need the upper amount or very close to it.
He answers the job pays $20, MAYBE $21 an hour, I thank him for his time and say if I'm changing jobs, it won't be for less or the same amount of $, I'm only moving up. I realize I'm a unknown quantity, but 35 years in the trade should be worth more. It isn't different at other places really either, then they whine how they can't find good help, with tool requirements that go from 3/4" drive down to 1/4" with all the sockets in impact and chrome, deep, mid, and shallow. Wrenches from 2" down, Torque wrenches, 100 kinds of screwdrivers, and everything else you have to have, and generally multiples of all the above because time is split between shop and field work in a truck.
This isn't 5 years ago where 10 people applied for one job, now they have two or three openings and no takers and wonder why, you have to get out of the old thought process and realize you are going to have to PAY WELL then you can get good people.
Rant over.

AzIron said:

I think 5 years from now a true mechanic will get paid 6 figures to many old guys on there way out and even people fill there spot with no depth of experience they can't do a lot and are to scared to figure it out cause the laptop wont tell them

I know some plumbers that are just hired hands that make over 70 thousand without over time I think that trend will continue

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