Can many of us small shops survive...?

[KE4AVB]

Can many of us small shops survive if we are ordered to stop buying parts made in China? Nearly 3/4 of the parts that goes through my shop have Made in China on them.

[bgsengine]

Only the hobbyist really, I think - It's questionable if small shops will survive even today, even buying from Alibaba, no one is willing to pay the ever increasing cost to repair their equipment, or they give up and hire a landscaper to do the mowing and stuff, commercial landscapers generally have their own maintenance shops and some even have their own suppliers, or they go to the big shops that sell the equipment they run.. so it's either a mega-dealer, or a box store that people are going to any more.. If I could find a buyer for my huge ($250,000-plus at retail) inventory, plus storage, toolboxes, tools, new units, etc all in one shot, I'd take $120K and call it a day, myself.

[KE4AVB]

I know how you feel if I was able to draw my SS I quit too but I got another 6 yrs till full benefits but probably will opt for start @ 65 to pay for the mandatory Medicare. I just had a customer that final found where I moved too that was complaining how slow the larger local shops are.

They were keeping his mower for 2 months at a time. He was very surprised that I got it out in just a few days. The last shop he had it at couldn't even find what was wrong with the electrical system and suggested him to buy a battery charger. All it was $5 in terminals and connectors that had to be replaced. Part of my research I did a year or two ago is the reason I had those parts on hand along the appropriate crimpers. One of which had to be modified to do the male terminals which probably why other shop won't touch the terminal replacements.

So there is still a need for us that actually repair things instead being just a guesser as to which part assembly to replace. Just getting the parts looks to be an ever increasing problem as manufactures switch to selling only assemblies. I can't even repair 2 cycles like I did as I can't even get a PNC set when needed, just short blocks which take nearly a half day to replace due all the disassembly and reassembly that is required.

I thought I was reducing my inventory as at the first of the year I had it down close 20K from 30K but as I type it is back at 25.7K and that don't include my tools which I figure I have over 10K in.

So you still haven't had serious interested parties? I would have thought a larger local shop would want to eliminate some of the competition.

[bgsengine]

So you still haven't had serious interested parties? I would have thought a larger local shop would want to eliminate some of the competition.

Nope nobody that wants to do an all-or-none deal, any interest they might have would be to "cherry pick" and would be expecting to get things at liquidation prices (10 cents on the dollar) despite the fact that majority of parts are the more common faster-moving stuff *(if it was a bigger shop with the market area to use them) I had one box of new Polaris parts, at retail they'd be over $1800.00.. Only one shop was interested and wanted to offer $200 and only because of a NLA roller chain I have still in inventory (MSRP $120) ..

[RoyM]

I retired from the industry as a sales and tech rep in 2015, I don't see how you guys make a go of it. How do you repair a rewind on a $169 trimmer or lawnmower and be fair to yourselves? I work with a local rental yard who is a Briggs and Stihl dealer, the majority of the service work coming in is not worth looking at unless it's something minor. There is not enough of the higher end equipment worth repairing to pay the bills.

[bgsengine]

I retired from the industry as a sales and tech rep in 2015, I don't see how you guys make a go of it. How do you repair a rewind on a $169 trimmer or lawnmower and be fair to yourselves?

For an Echo, it's typically a 10 minute, $20 recoil assembly repair job... For a typical Ryobi or MTD, just the labor costs more than buying a whole new trimmer.., so it rather depends on the unit and whether it is built to be serviceable (like Echo, even the entry level units), or not..

I work with a local rental yard who is a Briggs and Stihl dealer, the majority of the service work coming in is not worth looking at unless it's something minor. There is not enough of the higher end equipment worth repairing to pay the bills.

Exactly - that's sort of the state of the industry these days.. you either gotta be high volume at a low margin, or you gotta make fat margins on the few repairable units that are left to work on.. in smaller rural areas, there's not enough market to do either, in any case, so the small mom-n-pop shops tend to die off, so people gotta either go to the mega-dealer 40 miles away, or depend on the shade-tree hobbyist mr. fix-it that, if they are lucky, will at least TRY to do a professional quality job.. .. that or they go battery powered, hire their lawn care out, or scrap the old and get a new box-store junker..

[KE4AVB]

Well gee thanks BGS for calling me a shade tree loving mechanic. Well I hopefully you know me better than but I do work under shade trees as I not gone off the deep yet but on the very edge at times. Heck a lot cooler under them than on the hot asphalt driveway which reach 145 F last week. I actually cooked an egg on it and was thinking about putting a fry pan out there with a steak in it.

Only when you got a very small overhead can you make it in the sticks as I am nearly 30 miles from of the shops which get me some local business. As said the handheld are just done basically done at cost or less by eating most if not all of the labor hoping to get the larger equipment repairs. It take me over an hour just get some screws and that when they have them; otherwise, it is the next day before I get them from Atlanta, Ga. I just barely making ends met as it is. What gets me is all the people wanting free instructions on how to do the repairs themselves. I tell them just Google it or find a Utube video. I had a couple to ask where to get the needed training and I hate to say there is no place locally for this.

This is why I start doing ATV repairs which has a huge learning curve on the first jobs not mentioning the specialized tools that are needed. Helps me make it thru the winter months. Some of the first jobs took 8 hrs just to do 1-1/2 hours job as I got to learn how things are put together. NO service manual covers every step in detail anymore. I think the worst job on these was a Kawasaki that the front drive only came out one way and back in reverse using cardboard from an oil filter box to protect the seals. Took me two hours to get it out and 30 min putting it back and that did even the rest of the front end parts. Its like they welded the frame around the gear box afterwards.

In the last couple months I repaired three Yanmar tractors. I don't really want to into these due to back and hip problems.

[bobodu]

This too shall pass....
Electing Trump isn't going to kill you any worse than hiring the Marxist before him did.

[KE4AVB]

I thinking about putting one of my roosters up for election. At least one of them can hunt and peck. Sputnik has been good pretty picking lottery numbers lately. At I am getting more back than I spend.

Just got new price files. Would you know it the prices at up yet again.

I finally got my vacuum hoses but now I got to one of the fuel solenoids (JP made) I just got in is defective. Not electrically but mechanically. Will not retract; unless, you bump it. I just wondering how many months it going to take to get a replacement.

[bgsengine]

Just got new price files. Would you know it the prices at up yet again.

.

Yeah I got half a notion that it'd be cheaper to buy a program engine and break it down for parts and even with the leftovers that dont sell (slow moving stuff, etc) you'd probably still be able to make more out of it selling off the parts than you would selling the replacement engine.