hey folks welcome to the Almond landscape YouTube channel what's up thanks for joining us our goal is to make you a better landscape contractor maybe inspire you today hopefully is a video it's going to inspire you uh if you're on the come up and trying to grow to whatever level you're trying to go to or you just want to see how we're doing it whatever today is an equipment and truck tour so here we go all right my truck this is my brand new 2024 Chevy silvero uh my first brand new vehicle ever so that's a big step and I'm really excited for I love that truck uh um I can't wait to get a Denali HD right it's always a faster car isn't it terrible folks you might check out episode 503 of the kid contractor podcast talking about why I hate trucks because I love them uh we're walking through the shop here check out our shop Tour series where uh we're we're going through here but I'm going to show you the fleet now here we go the shop area did a shop tour uh the place of the mess it's a peak season we just came in off of three big jobs so it's job one a shop two and a shop three of the boxes and crates that come in The Hardscape Academy area talk about that or whatever but today we're talking equipment this is our Toro buggy this thing is a super handy rig it doesn't get used as much as I actually thought we would when we bought it so it actually has really low hours on it but this thing is incredibly handy uh for moving mulch around when we do right like this is oh this is uh incredibly handy for placing material in a French drain the guys use it and love it for mulch applications uh they put like 20 bags of mulch in that thing and drive around properties and apply mulch that way we really love that uh that's Pap's tractor my father-in-law so that doesn't really apply to the Empire here here we go okay so I remember when I was a kid contractor I used to think just even owning a trash would be like man we're big time uh we got a ditchwitch sk1550 here absolutely love that machine if you can afford it this thing does everything that thing does it just can't reach as high but I mean it it it really it'll move around a 2500 PB skid of pavers whether or not it's supposed to I don't know but it does best mini skids here on the market in that class are even close but it costs as much as that thing so you got to kind of weigh your options there but sizewise you got that package in there it's just a wonderful machine love it uh reversible plate compactor we got a couple of those uh the ditchwitch sk750 I almost almost sold this thing to put money down on that and I decided not to and I'm so glad we kept this machine uh it's got a lot of hours on it 2500 hours on I think uh it has some downtime here and there so we have to accept that but otherwise been a solid machine Bobcat t595 my first brand new Skid Steer I ever bought I absolutely love this thing um I absolutely love this bobcat and it's mainly probably a Nostalgia thing because I uh it is my first bobcat the brand new Bobcat we had a 763 prior to this but it was old and beat up and just in horrible shape uh this we bought and I was just so excited uh so I just love that machine but it's been really handy any skid series you buy in my opinion if you're in landscape Contracting you want wide tracks wide track models wide track models cuz we got to be as easy on the yards as possible we're usually the last guy out or we're in on finished properties and we've got to be gentle on the yard so we want those wide tracks uh we got a dump trailer here been a super handy thing this is something you should have uh year one of your landscaping company if you don't have a dump truck uh really handy to put your mini skid steers in not handy to put your fulls sizee skid steers in it's a pain this thing's getting rusty we need to replace it needs to leave the fleet uh needs to get updated we want to get one of another one of these ants trailers I'll show you that here in a minute things wild this is our cabelo sk55 5 1/2 ton machine with the Beloved Steel and it's absolutely awesome absolutely love this machine I love this 6 ton uh 5 5 and 1/2 ton we had a 3 and 1/2 ton ahead of this and uh great starter machine but man this 5 1/2 ton you get into Logistics issues with the hauling cuz it is heavy uh but man at 5/2 ton the reach it's got It's got like 17t of reach and then you pair it with this bad boy and man it's just a different animal folks I will never have a excavator without a tilt Rotator on it hands down full stop never will have not have that machine on there about $330,000 right there but I don't know how to tell you otherwise like you will never go back it's the most amazing thing for your machine ever and you see lots of videos all that whatever uh this trailer tow Master here got this from Andy bought this specifically anym just specifically to haul this hoe cuz this thing wasn't heavy enough to do it uh we we buy a lot of shirt tracks we get a shirt track dealer down the road McGuire's truck they're awesome folks we we do like the sh tracks this trailer though the guys are asking for a second one they want another one of these to replace that other dump trailer over there and the reason being it's a live bottom trailer with this rubber belt gosh darn it this was not supposed to get left on here but here we are um but whatever uh but it's a live belt rubber bottom trailer and yeah it it it takes abuse pretty well I mean it gets some Nicks in it we've had this thing for 2 years now and we've been using it man we we don't take it easy on this thing and it's doing awesome um we got one little rip in the rubber right here we got to deal with other than that that's the only issue we've ever had with this thing in 2 years of hard use it's been awesome but I'll show you what this does it's absolutely awesome but here's what it and then also it tips up like this so that you can load machines whoa so you can load machines in it and um this absolutely handy as can be I love this man how that there's that much water on that mat that's crazy who would have thought but so that rubber mat goes clear back and there's a bunch of water and we got a ton of last night a so anyways that thing is handy as can be and we've used it for so many different things it's crazy uh we'll start The Hardscape trailer here and just a quick tour of this thing um this was supposed to get put in there take it nobody got through this thing yesterday we're supposed to go through and clean this thing up a little bit oh that's awesome come on folks Jee creepers um we were supposed to go through this trailer yesterday and uh man that stinks this thing was going down the road and then on side God man that sucks and that's exactly why stuff just in a company it's just consumable right like everything gets torn up and uh gosh it's just a shame that uh that happens but that's construction and I've broken plenty of stuff in my company you know when I'm out in the field I break plenty of stuff and I make plenty of mistakes and so and I really care right and it's not say my guys don't care but they don't care like I care right they nobody ever cares like the owner cares nobody loves the baby like like you love me right so you got to keep that in mind as an owner um doesn't mean we don't have standards and expectations and all that kind of stuff but as Leaders we have to be realistic with what we're expecting out of our people depending on how they're compensated right so that's a whole another conversation there this is uh Mr Bose's truck here and it's got everything it needs in it to see like your red paint right there you know all these things are colorcoded so anything with red paint supposed to be on this trailer anything with orange paint on it like those come alongs are supposed to be on that uh one cage so everything is uh kind of everything blue is supposed to have hardc is supposed to be Hardscape Academy tools uh this truck is outfitted with everything we need to make jobs happen and uh it's uh really well set up that's a this is an older I think it's an ' 08 F350 here with the V10 engine been a great Solid Truck for us uh been a great solid truck and that V10 is a great great engine uh basic F250 here uh nothing too fancy about it just a plain old work truck and it rides rough as can be we put an extra leaf spring in it uh that was pseudo mistake because it rides so rough it's miserable to drive I hate D I like this truck I hate driving it it's miserable to drive this is the bloid anded F or uh what is this thing uh the international 43 00 so backpack toolbox on it awesome dump body fold down sides are absolutely awesome for loading stuff in this thing really really really the way to go we absolutely love that um but just a big old truck and just remember big trucks big problems and uh that's kind of the way that goes so big big repair bills right this is our Dodge uh one ton duy uh service body really handy cuz you've got just all this stuff in here stored all the time Mr Travis is generally the person with this truck and uh it's just got again every truck is outfitted with darn near everything it needs to make each thing happen um we had a a tool storage system in this thing and apparently it's just not approved cuz everything's piled in there so we're trying to figure out a good system for that uh none has been proposed yet so we got to get on that to figure that out we've got the you know it's just it's just an awesomely outfitted truck and uh just a just a nice nice R go along that big Hemi it's a great engine again we don't live in the mountains of West Virginia we're just here in the beginning of Southeast Ohio so uh we're mostly flattish so we don't need big diesel trucks to pull stuff if we were in Mountain Country or whatever yeah diesels are going to kind of be a requirement but uh we're making gas haulers do for now so we can afford that and that's the thing I recommend anybody do is you buy the best machines and best tools and best equipment you can afford at the time and again with LMN you keep working this into your pricing and you keep putting in the stuff you need to buy in your budget so you can be recovering that cost in those overheads so you're making the kind of money you deserve to make uh with that beautiful steel wrist we got a lot of attachments for it we store this broom upside down so it doesn't warp and stuff like that but we got this broom it's super handy this asphalt cutter that we haven't really messed with yet uh this grade beam is Handy we got a cabling bucket and then just a standard 2ft dig bucket that rake is really handy we got an adapter plate for that rake that landscape rake right there this adapter plate is so cool the 3o hitch adapter plate so we put that on there and use that to clean up properties uh the broom is the next best thing augur great thing I bought years and years ago actually by the way we have an upfit attachment on that too so mini skid plate upfit to a full size and what that allows you to do obviously is use the 1550 and even the 750 to drill holes right super handy big Brom uh bucket thingy a backup bucket for the excavator the steel RIS grapple a steel risk compactor uh ELO grapple for the full size skid steer um and then uh a jib Boom for the excavator so we can reach out and lay uh or it's just you know it's just a jib boom right so uh a lot of the stuff we need to get out of the gravel or out of the dirt and mud we just we've got so much here yet that needs done on this facility uh it's going to be working progress still probably going to take us another year to get this place where we really really want it uh so that's what it is so that's the equipment tour I think that's everything you know one last thing if you're buying a mini skid steer or a fulls size even the three things you I think you need a set of forks you have to buy a tooth bucket and then a smooth bucket right so um that, 1550 is big enough it can really dig pretty good without that the teeth but this little tooth bucket is pretty handy when you got to really cut into something so tooth bucket smooth edge bucket Forks the three things you have to have with the mini skitser the steel wrist you got to have a grading bucket a cabling bucket for trenching um and then anything else on that you can afford immediately do it excuse me but anything else you can afford at the moment do it uh and then just upgrade tools that broom is handy I would recommend a broom for that that thing but anyways that's the fleet as it stands we're exploring upfitting every up upgrading all the trucks but you know the thing is with that the trucks aren't what make us our money right it's the machines and that's why we have such an emphasis on the machines and the machines being newer and reliable if a truck breaks down yeah that sucks but I can get this stuff to the facil to the job one way or another I can hire a a roll back service a towing company whatever they can get this stuff on site that's not my problem I need this stuff when it's on site it I need it working cuz if it's down it means our guys aren't working and they're sitting in trucks right so we don't put a lot of emphasis on the trucks themselves uh they need to be outfitted properly yes but we don't care so much about them being brand new top-of-the line anything because the equipment is what makes us our money and staff so we put our emphasis on the staff and the equipment that's the number one thing for us now if we were in a service business like irrigation service or mowing where the truck has to be on the road every day yeah that's that's a different animal that those Vehicles need to be reliable cuz your money is made by getting to every site with a basic tool kit right so a couple quick things there that's the thing um yeah that's it so The Hardscape Academy kid contractor podcast together in the trades almond landscape L environmental um I think that's it so uh that's that is the equipment tour here folks of what the uh the whole arsenal looks like at the moment so again buy the best stuff you can afford at the time and buy the things that going to make you most efficient that's the idea have a great one folks we'll see you