Pile of Scrap Ep. 33: Dave Wolf of JWR - The Jack of All Trades 

Initially establishing itself as a small welding and repair shop in 1972, JWR has evolved into a national waste and recycling equipment company offering additional services over the years, such as sandblasting, painting, truck and hoist repair, and container repair. Traveling to Johnson Creek, Wisconsin, John Sacco joins Dave Wolf, Owner of JWR, to talk about the lack of recycling in rural America, how COVID-19 has affected business, and present safety concerns.

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John Sacco and Dave Wolf

Transcription:

Introduction: The following is an original audio series from Sierra International Machinery: Pile of Scrap, with your host, John Sacco.

John Sacco: I'm with Dave Wolf of JWR.

Dave Wolf: How are you doing, John?

John: I'm great. Thank you for joining me on Pile of Scrap.

Dave: Oh, thanks for having me.

John: So, JWR, for full disclosure – I always like to have full disclosure – you are not in the recycling business as a recycler. You are an equipment provider and service provider in the recycling industry.

Dave: That is correct.

John: And, you are Sierra’s only – only distributor dealer that we have in all the world.

Dave: Yes, we are…

John: You’re the man. Thank you for joining us.

Dave: Hey, very proud of that.

John: So, does the W stand for Wolf somewhere? Jim Wolf? What?

Dave: Jim's Welding Repair. JWR.

John: You do a lot more than welding repair, don’t you?

Dave: Yes, we do.

John: Is that because of your growth or did your dad take you to that other level?

Dave: My dad obviously started the company as Jim's Welding Repair and we graduated it to JWR.

John: I have a guy whose company I bought on the East coast. Name's Wayne Wolf. You guys related?

Dave: No relation.

John: Did you guys trick me on this?

Dave: No, no, no, no.

John: You somehow maneuver me? No? You guys aren't related?

Dave: Been asked that question before, but no. No relation.

John: You know what? You Wolf guys are okay, man.

Dave: Yeah. Thank you.

John: You've done an amazing job for Sierra. So, let's, um, you know, it's ­– it's been fun. We've had a good day today. We've been, you know, touring your facility. I gotta tell you… Right across the street over there, that brand new truck service facility you have is something spectacular. Tell us about it. Tell us what made you go to it and because you've put some money in there. Tell us about it, Dave.

Dave: Yeah, well, thank you. Uh, yes. So, we st–we… Just another piece of the puzzle and we wanted to add some more diversification to JWR. So, we have – had been a Galbreath dealer. So, we've been – we were selling to Hoist ­– to all of Hoist, and you know, that has taken off and we ended up put – bringing in curb tender, who is a refuse body line. So, we're distributed for curb tender. Our goal with the refuse truck stop is to be a full service refuse vehicle facility.

John: Okay, so you're putting the bodies onto the roll-offs. Uh, the rails you're putting that on the chassis of, uh, Peterbilts, Kenworth, internationals, who am I missing?

Dave: Max…

John: Max. Which one sells the most? Out of curiosity, which is the biggest truck in your area?

Dave: I – it's, uh, you know, they all – they all fight hard. They, they, they all fight hard and they all have their place and they all have the customer base, you know.

John: And – and ­– and the New York East that, uh, New England corridor from Boston down to New York and Jersey, it's Mac, California at Sierra and our facility, we run Kenworth roll-off. We do have some Peterbilt as well.

Dave: Right.

John: No Max out in California.

Dave: There's a lot of Max in Wisconsin.

John: Yeah?

Dave: Oh yeah. So, that's really cool. So, you guys mount… You provide the service for the dealerships and mounting the bodies for the, uh, front-end loaders, rear-end loaders and roll-offs, right?

Dave: Yes.

John: Good business for you. Has to be. Tell us about this new facility built because it's impressive, Dave.

Dave: Yeah, the it's, uh, obviously… Uh, in a way, with the curb tender and some of the mobile refuse, we're the new kids on the block. Um, but obviously, you know, put some hard work behind it and, and, uh, build some good relationships, which is what our plan is. Um, we, uh, decided to build a state of the art facility that, uh, we can encompass, uh, the upfitting of anybody, any hoist, uh, any drive-in repair, um, along with a full-scale refurb repair, um, from a front loader to a hook lift, um, and back it up with quality service and parts.

John: How many feet you have underroof there?

Dave: 42,000.

John: That's impressive. How many bay doors? There, I saw…

Dave: I think… I think we're 11 or 12 bays.

John: And, you got a big overhead – two overhead gantry cranes for lifting the bodies onto the chassis and stuff.

Dave: Yep. Yes.

John: Care to tell us how much you spent on that?

Dave: On the grains?

John: No, the whole thing.

Dave: The whole thing?

John: Because, I think… Here's why…

Dave: Yeah.

John: I asked the question. You know, at Sierra… Look, we have 72,000 square feet underroof now in Jesup, Georgia, at our manufacturing plant.

Dave: Right. And we added, uh, last summer, we completed a 24,000 square foot expansion. I mean, we spent… With the new overhead cranes and everything, we spent over, uh, close to $4 million. And, the reason we did that is we just needed another facility to handle our inventory for pumping units for our two-ram balers, to handle the shears and portable balers that come in and all the stocking for cylinders and electric motors. And, you know what? When I walked in there, the first time it was completed a year ago in August or end of July, it already looked too small.

Dave: Yeah.

John: You told me that today. Your new facilities.

Dave: Oh yeah. We have, uh, we have, uh, an expansion plan already in place for another 250…

John: So, approximately how much you spent on this?

Dave: Just a little under four.

John: Okay, you know why, because the fact that you could spend that kind of money is it is testimony to the quality of work you do. You know, you are a dealer for Sierra, you sell two-ram balers for Sierra, in-feed conveyors, and soon you're going to be handling our material handlers, but you also handle a lot of different products in the recycling and waste stream. Tell us more what you're handling.

Dave: Uh, well, you know our goal is to become the one-stop shop in the industry. Uh, so compactors, you know, small, small, compact, anything from, uh, apartment compact or to a transfer compactor. Um, obviously, um, Sierra’s our premier product, uh, on the two-ram baler side of it. But, you know, we'll sell anything from a little, uh, vertical baler, you know, and graduated all the way up to a, um, a REB-2 250, REB-4.

John: When you got involved with the business. It – was it right after you graduated college?

Dave: Yes.

John: You and I are very similar. We’re the same age.

Dave: Yup.

John: We graduated college at the same time. So, I am like you; I am second generation. You know, my brother and I, Philip, he's my partner, 50/50. We have our scrap metal recycling, of course, Sierra International Machinery with all the equipment – equipment we do. But, you are the sole owner of JWR.

Dave: Correct.

John: And, you don't have any partners. So, you're the captain of a pretty big ship and you're growing.

Dave: Yep.

John: What's the success? What's the – what's – give me the one thing, if you had to, why is JWR so successful?

Dave: I have great people. I have a great team. I have a fantastic team. Um, you know, we do… We come to work to – to work, but we also come to work to enjoy our job and do – do the things we do. Um, you know, it's – I have – I have loyal people and – and we build relationships. You know, we're – we're not our selling equipment. We're – we're all building relationships.

John: Well, that's part of your success. You're good people. You're honest people. I know that. You're, you know, you're a man of your word and, you know, my dad told me and I bet your dad told you the same thing… Without your word honor, you have nothing.

Dave: Absolutely.

John: And, you know, that's why I think we have a successful relationship. And, uh, so you're – – but you are – you handle some national stuff versus…  You – you handle a pretty big region from, you know, you're hearing wi–lower Wisconsin, uh, you handle... So, tell us all the States of your active in with – with, you know, the trucks with the mounting of the, the truck bodies and the roll-offs. What ­­– what's your – what is your radius? What –– where – where are you?

Dave: Well, um, you know, arrangements per – per dealership distributor agreements vary. Um, but our primary local area for JWR... Uh, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota are typically…

John: That’s a big territory. There's a lot of ground to cover in that territory.

Dave: There is a lot of ground to cover. Absolutely.

John: And, in your territory now, in the recycling… Let's – let's ­– instead of talk about waste, let's talk about the actual recycling part of the industry. You seeing a lot of growth? Not necessarily… But, as far as communities really getting out there, even the small… You know, rural America, and this is where we are in Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and Iowa, and Illinois… You know, there's just a lot of rural communities. Are they investing more into the greenness of the recycling industry?

Dave: Yeah. I believe they are. Yep, absolutely. Um, you know, we've – we've, uh – and again, in my opinion, the commodity prices dictate and drive a lot of that. Um, but yes, there has been fair growth, um, in smaller recyclers, starting up in, you know, trying to get up and get going and recycle a variety of things.

John: What is the – what are you seeing percentage of municipal – municipalities driving the recycling efforts versus private industry? How has that – what does that play out in this area – in your area?

Dave: I would say it's, uh – it's a pretty good mix. You know, um, municipalities probably a little stronger than, than the, um, private tier at this point in time. Um, you know, we have, we have a little bit of, uh – You know, from the recycling side of things, um, you know, some recycle, some transfer, you know? And, the little guy that can't quite make it, you know, is probably transferring his recyclables to, you know, the bigger guy.

John: The bigger…

Dave: Yeah.

John: Okay. Now, you also… Okay, now I'm going to shift to waste for a second because, you know, a lot of compactors and a lot of stuff you're doing… the front-end loaders, you know, dealing with waste. In your territory, you've sold Sierra balers that are baling garbage and it's not very prevalent in the United States. Why did these customers that you sold to, why would – why do they bale? What is the reason behind it?

Dave: You know, it's about, uh, you know, footprint of the sale. You're – you're going to get better density. You're – you're going to get more material in the landfill. Um, you know, I think your overhead’s reduced, uh, it's not that the amount of cover and fill, um…

John: You said something about wind.

Dave: We have, uh… Well, our customers – especially in the Dakotas – the, you know, there are very few days that you don't have a 25-mile an hour plus wind, and it's very beneficial. You know, they do not have the big, the bale-fill – the bag, the wrapped, um, there's no debris blowing around. It's very clean. So…

John: So, by bagging it or wrapping it, they're reducing the litter that's being blown out of a landfill – a typical landfill.

Dave: Significantly.

John: Do you see that in an increasing amount in, uh, the upper, you know, the Dakotas, maybe the UPP, upper Wisconsin, upper Minnesota… Is that becoming more, uh, more prevalent?

Dave: Yes. Yes. I believe so. And, my prediction is it's going to become more prevalent nationally.

John: Yeah. Yeah. They don't do it very… You know, I have been befuddled why baling MSW. hasn't grown in this country ‘cause you can't convince me running it with a big old compactor gets better density than baling it. Just can't.

Dave: I'm right there with you.

John: Somebody sold somebody something better. We need to get better, I guess, at selling that. So, you also, okay… Let's talk about other products that you're dealing with. You deal with the compactors, you do a lot of rebuild and you do service work.

Dave: We do service work.

John: You're huge in your service work.

Dave: Yes.

John: Tell us about people rely on you and what kind of service work are you doing?

Dave: Um, service work, uh, nationally… Uh, we have a dedicated, um, group of subcontractors, uh, selectively positioned across the country. And, I think right now, the count is probably somewhere around 32 to 34,000 pieces of equipment that we service.

John: That's a lot of equipment.

Dave: It's a lot of stuff. So, it's a lot of management. Um, pretty much so, you know, the rough numbers, it would boil down to a couple hundred service calls a week, which, you know, if you have a callback rate of approximately 40%, you know, it turns into 240. Uh, from the plan maintenance side of things, um, again, anything from a – from a small vertical baler in a grocery store to a two-yard stationary to, um, uh, two-ram baler at a distribution at open-end auto tie. Uh, those… It's a vast variety of equipment, uh, that we service.

John: Yeah. What's the largest job you guys ever did? I mean, just a biggest – the enormous… And, you're like, “Whoa, this is a big job?”

Dave: We’ve been involved in a couple big single-stream setups, uh, some waste management stuff that's been pretty big. Um, but when it comes to that, you know, we try to stay in our wheelhouse, um, the system stuff that we've been involved in, we keep it, you know, our involvement in systems that are probably less than 10 tons per hour.

John: Okay.

Dave: That's our wheelhouse. And, that that's an arrangement that gives us the… You know, we'd like to go into something, you know… We believe if a manufacturer makes a variety of things, they make some things better than others. And, and we like to sort of go in little small systems and cherry pick some of the, some of the stuff that we feel

John: That you're more comfortable with it. So, I how many employees are here at JWR?

Dave: 42.

John: 42… Growing?

Dave: Growing.

John: COVID-19… What's that done to business?

Dave: COVID-19 was, you know, a strange thing. Something that none of us have ever experienced, obviously. And, uh, you know, it's, uh… I guess my best analogy of the COVID experience was – from a business owner standpoint – if I came to you and said, “Hey, John, you know, you’re going to see a, um, a reduction in revenue or business in general by 45% over the next 90 or 120 days…” Would you like it? No, but you could plan for it.

John: Right.

Dave: And, I think the most difficult part of this COVID experience is, we've A) have never experienced it before.

John: Right.

Dave: And, B) you didn't know what the endgame was. You ­– there was nothing from the management side of that. You could say, “I need to plan for this.”

John: Right. So, it just dropped – it just dropped in our laps and…

Dave:  Absolutely.

John: And, even today, we're all still scrambling to do, you know… There's been some spikes in some areas, but you know, in some areas not. In, you know, South Dakota really never had it and what have you... So, you know, it's been an interesting, you know… You just opened up this beautiful shop and COVID hits.

Dave: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

John: You're not alone. We opened up Jesup in October of 2008 when the World stopped.

Dave: Right.

John: You know…

Dave: I remember that.

John: So, you know, that… We survive – we're survivors, you know?

Dave: Absolutely.

John: You know, and I think that's part of, probably, how our fathers trained us…

Dave: It's absolutely…

John: On the fiscal responsibility and putting our money back into our company and not someplace where never gonna make any money.

Dave: Always have to keep your company strong.

John: So, you have a son who's 26 years old.

Dave:  Christopher.

John: Is he the next generation at JWR?

Dave: He – he will be the next generation of JWR, yeah, so. Making his way around the horn started sweeping floors, washing windows.

John: Well, the first piece of equipment I ever operated was a broom.

Dave: Absolutely. You have to learn.

John: I say that every podcast where people probably get tired of it, but it's true.

Dave: It's true. It is true.

John: It's funny how all these things, all of us in this industry… When you're related to the recycling industry… So many of us grew up… the first thing we did was sweep and, and, and it was, you know, you have to have a clean shop. You have a beautiful shop. You are very meticulously clean here at JWR and kudos to you on having that because that really… It shows the culture in your offices are just fantastic. This conference room that we're in… It's, it's impressive. I'm going to go back and tear mine down. I don't have a conference room like this. I need one like this.

Dave: You can use this any time.

John: Well, I appreciate that. A little far away though. I can't drive – I can't get up in the morning…

Dave: Long commute.

John: It is, it is a long commute. So, going forward, Dave, and in planning, how much, if your plans on your growth right now is still based on assumption where you don't know what's going on with, with the economy that has slowed, or is it like, “Damn the torpedoes. Full-speed ahead?” What is your philosophy going forward here?

Dave: We're full-speed ahead. You know, we, uh, we haven't, uh, we've been smart, you know, we we've, we've controlled some purchasing things and, and, and maybe, you know, toned it down a little bit on, on inventory. We're need be. You know, there are some things positive things that we've taken away from COVID, you know, that, uh, sort of showed us where maybe we could do a couple of things a little differently or a little better, maybe be a little more diversified within a certain aspect of our, of how we run our company. Um, but, uh, my belief coming out of this is, is, is just you, uh, to stay strong and stay ahead of it and have what people are looking for when they're ready to buy, I'm going to have, have it on the shelf ready to go.

John: Are you… At night, does this keep you up? This current situation?

Dave: No.

John: Does that worry you?

Dave: No.

John: You're a confident guy.

Dave: I'm in it for the long haul.

John: Well, you're, you're confident, you're confident and I think you have a lot of reason to be confident because our business relationships here is with JWR, has – it's a solid working relationship. You know, look. Owner to owner here, we can look at you, we've talked on the phone… You know… And knowing you for that, I've known you now, knowing how you operate and coming back out here again, it's just great to be back here with you and to see the growth. Your people are fantastic.

Dave: Thank you.

John: You know, Jerry and Mona and Amber and Kelly. You know what and they'll the other crew, the people that I don't know, but I know them. You know, you've got a fantastic crew. And, obviously, as you said, it's part of your success. And, uh, and I think, you know, that's the hardest thing. So, in this labor market, how hard is it to find people today? You know, I mean, we've got 42 million Americans unemployed, but certain parts of the country, you can't find people. What is it like here?

Dave: Yeah. It's a – that's been a little bit of a roller coaster. Um, you know, eight, 10 months ago, it was really… You know, pre-COVID… It was, it was a little bit, a little challenging. Um, you know, and, and it's tough to… We're pretty selective as well, you know? So, that makes it a little more difficult. Um, just some way, somehow, some way we, we always end up with the right person when we need that person.

John: What skillset employee are you – did you want the most? Is it somebody who understands electrical? Is it welding? What is it…

Dave: Vast variety. Um, you know, from the skilled labor side of things at JWR, I'm a big believer in cross-training, you know, and, and it – uh, especially being a small company. And again, you know, the pride that I have in my guys that, you know, a shop fabricator… That may be your main job, but you're trained so that if you need to pop out on an install, you pop out on an install. If I need a second hand on service or someone else to jump into a service truck, I have, you know, seven or eight guys that could be the Jack of all trades.

John: How many service trucks do you have out there? You got a nice… No, they're beautiful. But, how many you got?

Dave: I think maybe six… Six units.

John: Six. And, they're beautiful units. I wish, you know, those who will listen to this audio podcast, you can't see them, but there are beautiful rigs. You had a couple older ones here in your shop and you showed me… Oh, I got to get talking about your shop. Your original Jim's Welding Repair shop…

Dave: Yeah.

John: How many square feet is that?

Dave: That was, uh…

John: 2000?

Dave: Yeah.

John: I mean…

Dave: Yeah, about. About. It was a 40x60, yeah.

John: 2,400.

Dave: Yep. 2,400. Yeah.

John: Yeah.

Dave: Yeah.

John: And, look at this now… 42,000 square foot, beautiful truck. And, then your other shop that you have here.

Dave: Yeah. It's a, it's a – we have a lot of pride in that, yeah.

John: So, your son, in five to eight years is going to go, ‘Dad, we're going to put up a 100,000 square foot facility,’ ‘Huh?’ It could happen.

Dave: It could happen.

John: It could happen. Now, well, you're good people and you're in – you're doing what, uh, you know, what's right. So, tell us… Okay. I'm from California – Bakersfield. Our coldest winter’s – is a night that gets down to 28 degrees… What’s business like up here…

Dave: In January?

John: Yeah, when it's minus a zillion degrees. What, what happens here? How does, how does it affect the jobs and the work that gets done?

Dave: It's tough. It's real tough. We get some, we get some nasty weather. Um, you know, there's days that it's just not practical. You can't send an installation team out in 20, below zero. You know, first of all, it's not safe.

John: No.

Dave: You're not efficient. Um, so there's a, you know, through the cold winter months, there's a, there's a lot of, there's a lot of, uh, you know, on the fly adjustments based on, on the weather, um, service guys sometimes have to grin and bear it. You know, they, you just keep the truck running and keep the heat going and carry ready heater.

John: Okay. In this in Johnson Creek, where JWR is located, you got Watertown just up the road. Um, how far are people traveling to come to work here? Because at our plant Jessup, I have people traveling 40, 50 miles a day to come to work at, in our plant Jessup.

Dave: We're, we're pretty, we're pretty local. I would say the longest employee commute, you know, probably 20, 25 minutes, but most of them, um, you know, may not, may not, uh, if they're not local, w when they, when they start here, you know, we get somebody good and we don't let them go. Um, you know, so they may start out in and find that we haven't had a lot of people relocate, you know, and, and, uh, move closer to JWR. So, yeah, it's, uh, we do real good with, uh, having local people.

John: Okay. As a vendor, into the recycling industry. Okay. You know, look, I processed recyclables every day at Sierra, but as a fender, you see things, how have you actually helped a customer change, how he's looking to process and made him more efficient by not necessarily selling him piece of equipment, but offering up your experience from all the different places you've seen that you thought was bad.

Dave: We do it all the time that that's, that's part of building relationships with your customer. Um, and it probably happens more than you would think it does. Um, you know, sometimes we all become, you know, victim of, you know, we drive so hard every day to do what we're doing to do our day to day and whatever. And you know, that guy's out there baling or, or, or running a transfer station, you know, you get, you get caught in your way and you get, you get set in your routine and, you know, most of those times you'd go in there and say, well, why are you doing it that way? You know, if you just change this and tweak that and, you know,

John: See, and I think, you know, this podcast, like I said, I've had people, a lot of people in the recycling industry, and you're the first equipment company that I've had on pile of scrap. And I think there is the relationships that are valuable for exchange of information at the efficiencies. And it doesn't matter who, what, where sometimes it's that communication, that, that conversation you have with people that can help you be more efficient. And I know that from all my friends and the recycling, that when I was chairman of Israel, and I'm very involved with Israel Institute of scrap recycling industries, I have visited so many facilities and I have learned so much about how environmental compliance, safety compliance, and some operational efficiencies markets for materials. And I've learned a lot from my fellow recyclers. And so you're, you are also exchanging ideas and information with other customers through what you learned from others. And I think people need to know

Dave: Absolutely. Yes, yes we do.

John: Yeah. You know, defenders are you're well, but you're the type of guy, and I can say this. You're just like, so you build your saying, it's just, isn't about the sell of a piece of equipment, because if you can help a customer someplace, he's going to remember you, you bet. He's going to remember, Hey, Dave Wolf helped me on something and it had nothing to do with the equipment that he was selling. Correct. And they're going to come back.

Dave:  You bet. Cause you're building a relationship.

John: Yeah. I think people need to know that there are so many quality vendors out there with experience, you know, in you, you grew up, did you come to work with your dad as a kid? Were you a grease monkey? Like your dad or not Soso? Hell, I don't even know how to use a screwdriver. Well, I do, but that's about the only tool and a broom that I know how to use, but yeah, I…

Dave: I have done every job. The one rule that I have in this company is I would never ask somebody to do something that I haven't done. So yeah. And I was the first service tech. I was the first contractor installer. I was the first shop guy. But you know, as far as the grease monkey wrench guy, I'm not the guy that's going to take a motor apart. You know, I could probably take it apart, but it's not going to run when it goes,

John: Well, I could dig it. A bar is never going back. Right. Yeah, absolutely. You know, you, you mentioned something about safety and, and the cold weather on the install. So I want to circle back to that because I did a machine install back in 1995, January of 1995 in Wabash, Indiana, the temperature was minus 48 degrees with windshield. And you said it was sunset. It was unsafe because what I did not realize it happened to Antonio Torres. Who's our head tech. And we were on this installed together, grabbed me and put me by the fire because what he told me was, is, look, you're starting to get, you know, hypo or hypothermia and you don't realize it. Right. And that's really dangerous when you're out in the elements and you know, a kid from California like Bakersfield, uh, you know, I'm not at so safety is a big thing. And so let's talk about safety for a second with JWR. What is your guys' mantra? Was safety here? What, where do you, where do you guys doing with safety here?

Dave: Well, we, uh, we don't have it in health safety director, so we contract everything through Cintas. Okay. But, uh, every, every, um, from shop, install and service, our guys are safety trained. And I think it's 21 different aspects from lockout tagout. The bloodborne pathogen is, uh, ladder safety, fall protection protection. Absolutely. Well, you just have to, you know, you want them to safe and you want your customers safe. Safety's number one. Yeah.

John: You know, that's the thing. You can't go into some of these companies with a bad safety record. They weren't.

Dave: No, you can't go on, you know, it's a confined space, you know, there's so many things. It it's as simple as a forklift operators, you know, training certificate. You're not going to get in and do the job.

John: We'll find space. People will climb inside a Baylor. They don't realize you have to be confined space trained to get inside of Baylor. Absolutely. And let's hope to God they've locked and tagged out that Baylor before they climb in there. That's what scares the crap out of me. I know lockout, tagout, most people are bells, paper, you know, some machine that bells cars and cuts iron people. Ooh, that's a powerful machine, but you know, so many people don't see a paper bag.

Dave: You're absolutely as a dangerous piece of equipment and they're sadly mistaken because it is, you know, you have to treat every piece of equipment with respect, but yeah. I mean, we're very adamant lockout tag out confined space. It's even, you know, you need to make sure that the air's right and find space. Sure. So take the sniffer along and figure it out.

John: So one last thing on safety traveling when weather hits and weather can hit in a hurry out here, you know, it could be sunny and 30, 40 degrees, and 10 minutes later, it's 25 degrees sleeting and the roads are icing up.

Dave: Yes. How do you deal with that? He did just have to, you know, it's a, it's easier to deal with so many of us up here born and raised in it. You know, it's the first thing you don't want to slow down, you know, you know, when to take the extra precautions. Um, and, and that's about all you can do, you know, just slow down and take your time, you know, and make it work. Yeah.

John: Well, you know, I, I, I admired that aspect of this part of the country of how people can work and the conditions that you guys have and do it and go home at the end of the day, make it your drive, the roads and what have you. But in a year's time, how many due to weather, how many days are just flat out closed? Do you get a year because it's just a blizzard or ice storm or something.

Dave: I don't know that we've ever, I think we have one day in probably the last five years that we actually just said, don't come to work. Um, you know, typically, you know, we'll like I said, installations in service. I mean, sometimes it's also not practical to go out and serve as a machine. You know, if it, if you're talking 24 below zero and there's no relief in sight, some, you know, sometimes it doesn't pay to get it running again, you know, for a day because it's going to be the same thing. Tomorrow is the same thing two hours from now. Um, but, uh, you know, we always have a few soldiers that always end up, you know, marching in and, uh, you know, there's, there's been many times that we've had to bring vehicles in the shop, you know, not a lot of activity going on anywhere so that they they'll start when they leave.

John: What do you recommend to your customers who have outdoor facilities and equipment outdoor? At what degree do you tell them just don't run it cause it's just gonna hurt it.

Dave: It's uh, you start, uh, you know, typically with anything that we turn out here, we use a minus 30 pour oil in anything that's going to sit outside, but you get to that point that, uh, you know, minus 15 minus 20 is pretty cold and it's just better off don't rush us. Just don't run it.

John: Yeah. I, I agree. Cause I think, you know, when it gets that cold seals, don't, you know, you gotta, you get the time, you have to warm up a machine and dry cycle it to just get the oil flowing, exact hydraulically. And uh, you know, that's where failures and, uh, seal failure. And you know, it's not that it's a major failure, but it's a, it's, you know, it's not fine. You still gotta repair it. You know? And, and, and I think, you know, when it gets too cold, there's some times you just got to say so tomorrow, all right, wait until the sun comes up now speak in a cold. I went to Brett Farr's last game at Lambeau field in minus 20 degree weather. I was there. Were you there? No, I went, I survived.

Dave: That's great. We're both green Bay packer fans. And I want to bring that up because I always, as a kid growing up, I, you know, the ice bowl, the famous Bart star touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys and the minus 13 degree a while. I forget what windshield was that day. And, uh, so at the NFC championship game with the giants and the Packers played, and it was minus 20 degrees, my brother and I came out for that game and had all the right gear, had all the right foot. I had everything right. And I was never cold. I wanted to experience life at minus 20 with a stadium full of screaming fans, a little bit muffled. It was loud. It was loud. It was loud. It was great. So we're going to have football this year with fans in the stands, the Lambo, huh? Sure.

John: I sure hope so. I sure hope so. It's a, yeah, I think it's sort of a toss of the coin right now. I think it is, you know, Hey, we bring it up. You don't look for all that. We do. We have, we have some fun stuff. We have some things in common here I am from Bakersfield, California, and Europe here and green Bay, packer, Atlanta, and we're both packer fans. I got to share that absolutely point of interest. You know what? I'm a green Bay packer fan. All right. So there it is. I'm sorry to all you other fans and other teams out there, I'm a packer fan. That's just what it is. Well, Dave, listen, awesome time. It's been a great day for me here. Talking with all your people, seeing your just, I I'm bragging about your new facility, because it's just that impressive.

Dave: And I congratulate you on it, congratulate you on having the, the, the incentive to, you know, to have it. I don't want to use the bad word I was going to use, but to do it, they have the courage. So I say to do it and you know, there's a reason for your success. I wish you the best success going forward. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Thanks for having me well, that's thanks for having faith in myself and JWR, um, cherish the relationship that we have and a prouder than ever to be the only Sierra distributor. Yeah, that's awesome. We're proud to have you, and that's it for another episode of pile of scrap. Thank you, Dave. Thank you. Sounds good. Awesome.

Conclusion: This has been a Sierra International Machinery original audio series. Thanks for listening. Please share this podcast and make sure to subscribe.

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