Use Your Brain - Overhauled S1E16
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Want to be a guest on Overhauled? - https://www.diesellaptops.com/pages/podcast-guests
In this podcast your host Melissa Petersmann (The Diesel Queen) discusses Entrepreneurship, using your brain, dealing with co-workers, and many more interesting topics in a style that only she can bring - raw and unfiltered.
Melissa welcomes Sam Bryant, Heavy Diesel mechanic, and business owner.
As always, thank you for watching and listening!
Connect with Sam Bryant
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gosmartdecision
Website – https://www.wefixitsmart.com/
Transcript for Use Your Brain - Overhauled S1E16
The Diesel Queen:
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Overhauled with The Diesel Queen. Today I have on here Sam, who is a heavy diesel mechanic, and she now runs her own business. So Sam, why don't you do an introduction and talk us through your career path?
Sam:
As of right now, I've been in the industry for about 20 years now. I started off as a mechanic in the Army, got certified as a Mechanic at 63 Bravo, which changed over to a 91 Bravo. After I got out the Army, I pursued my degree in automotive and diesel technology. So I got plenty of certifications along the way, got some ASC certifications just by being in the field for a while.
My business has been established for seven years now. I currently do mobile repairs, so all of my technicians, they go out. We do preventive maintenance, repairs, we do clutches, transmissions, and we not doing more so internal engines since we're in the field, but we definitely do a lot of repairs when it comes to the engine. We specialize in doing diagnostics, so we are very acute when it comes to doing diagnostic repair. A lot of our customers come to us for that type of stuff. And that's pretty much it. Just a little small background of us.
The Diesel Queen:
Well, that's cool. The field work, that's hard work. Some people look down on it and they're like, "Oh well, you know the jobs you're doing aren't that hard." And it's like, yeah, but they're also doing it on the side of the fucking road, or in a fucking field. Right? It's way harder than doing an engine rebuild in the shop, in a nice enclosed, heated shop.
Sam:
Nice, comfortable, cozy. You know.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah.
Sam:
Yeah, it's definitely a difference. Being in a shop environment, like I said, I worked in shop work for a lot of Fortune 500 companies, so that's where I gained a lot of experience as far as my hands on. Because even once you get the education, you still got to get the hands on experience.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
That's when you really [inaudible 00:02:14] how to do what you do. So I acquired a lot of my hands on by working at different companies and learning different... Working on forklifts, just pretty much anything. Once you learn, you just apply the same things. You got different things, but for the most part you just apply the same principles.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah. Well you know, the first step in being a mechanic, and being a good mechanic, is understanding how the systems work, right? That's the main thing. So that's where the schooling comes in, right? Knowing how those systems work and understanding how they work. Because if you don't know how they work and you don't know how it's supposed to work properly, you're never going to be able to figure out what's wrong with it.
But you then also have to be able to apply that hands on. You have to be able to apply that knowledge. I've met a lot of kids that are really book smart and really know their shit, but they can't transfer that and apply it to what they're doing. So.
Sam:
Yeah, I do. I would say being in this field, you'll see a lot of men. [inaudible 00:03:22] you got to be very diverse where you can mix... even with certain mechanics, when they say, "I only know how to work on this." I feel like if you a mechanic and you really good at what you do, then you should be able to work on anything. Especially with certain... Nothing's going to change. Of course if it's Diesel, Diesel and stuff like that. But for the most part, you going to use the same principles.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
And then lot of times with the guys, they'll have all the book sense, like you said, but they won't know how to apply it. I can be technical sometimes, but I like to be straightforward with it and just get stuff done, and not really be so technical with it.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah.
Sam:
But they'll come and tell you all the specs on the engine. That's all cool, but can you fix it?
The Diesel Queen:
Yep, exactly. Well that's what manuals are there for, right? You don't need to fucking remember all the shit.
Sam:
I'm not an encyclopedia where I just need to remember every specs for every truck, but I know how to go get the information though. So.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah. Yep. I've met mechanics that can quote every single line from every single Will Ferrell movie on the planet, and songs and movies. It's like, "Man, if you fucking applied that to service manuals, you would be a walking... Like, 'Hey, come here. Okay, what's the torque spec on this 6068 head bolt?' 'Hey, come here.' If you would apply that, that'd be fucking great."
This particular person, he was a really good mechanic. He actually started off as a military airplane mechanic. Boy was his commentary... He was a comedian. He was hilarious. Well, that's kind of a given if he knows every single line from every Will Ferrell movie. That gives you a insight on his humor level. But yeah. I was like, "Man, if you would use that part of your brain that stores all of Will Ferrell jokes and apply it to manuals, dude, you wouldn't even need your computers."
Sam:
Right. [inaudible 00:05:28]
The Diesel Queen:
I can't fucking remember shit like that. I have to have manuals. There's no fucking way. If you do it enough times, eventually I remember it, but I'm definitely not-
Sam:
If it [inaudible 00:05:39] all the time, then of course some stuff becomes repetitious, but I know with us, we work on somewhat different equipment, so you got to go reference a manual, because a lot of stuff changes.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
[inaudible 00:05:55] tweaking. That sensor might change on this truck and then you can't use that sensor on this. So you still got to reference that [inaudible 00:06:03], because it's always changing. Stuff always changes.
The Diesel Queen:
Agreed. It's a learning curve. Every day you're learning something new, and any mechanic that tells you they know it all, they don't know shit.
Sam:
"Done it for 25 years. I've been doing this longer than you've been alive!" I'm like, "Yeah, you've been doing the same thing for 25 years. Okay?"
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. And it's still... You learn something new every day. Right? You never stop learning.
Sam:
Never. If you say you know it all, then you're not going to know it all. Because-
The Diesel Queen:
You're not trying hard enough. If you think you know everything, you're not trying hard enough.
Sam:
Helps. Because it is forever changing. There's so many different things. That's why I love what I do, because I'm always challenged to do different things, instead of just doing repetitions working, and that makes me bored.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep.
Sam:
So I like just the variety of it.
The Diesel Queen:
Well, the diagnostics side of machines nowadays with the hydraulics and the electrical and the complex components and transmissions and shit like that, I think it's cool. I think it's fun. It's like a puzzle. It's a puzzle you have to figure out, and I enjoy that challenge. There's definitely mechanics that don't, but I enjoy that part of it. Every now and then you get especially electrical jobs that just fucking run you through the mud, because you can't... It's just a fucking disaster. But for the most part, I like it. I like the steps, I like figuring shit out. To me that's fun.
Sam:
You've definitely got to have some type of challenges at some point some times and stuff like that, just to keep your brain conditioned a little bit so you can always be more alert and figure things out, and just keep some skills sharpened, I would say.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep.
Sam:
But it definitely can [inaudible 00:08:06] mind boggling, and a lot of people don't want to tap into that part of it. But I feel like because a lot of what we're doing and how technology is going and how it's just being implemented on everything with these trucks and equipment, it's almost inevitable that you're going to have to tap into it at some point.
The Diesel Queen:
Agreed, agreed. I agree. And well, there's always that one kid in the shop that can't diagnose for fuck, and he's just given oil changes and [inaudible 00:08:40]. You got them sitting next to you. That motherfucker [inaudible 00:08:50]. Here's an example. But you know, there's always that one fucker that you can't trust to do big jobs. They fuck up everything they touch. Which, everybody fucks shit up, but some people take that as a challenge. I fucking swear they take it as a challenge.
Sam:
You're going to mess [inaudible 00:09:13] got to know how to fix it. You know?
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
When you mess up, you just got to know how to correct it before it gets out.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep. So that's the thing, is it's only a fuck-up if A, you do it twice, or B, it leaves the shop fucked up.
Sam:
Right.
The Diesel Queen:
Everybody here has fucked up.
Sam:
Right. If you haven't... Like I said, we're not perfect man. Sometimes you might have a bad day and then you just not feeling it, so.
The Diesel Queen:
Well, sometimes you're looking at a problem and you're just trying to brain, but your brain doesn't want to brain. So yeah, we all have those days.
Sam:
[inaudible 00:09:54] you like, "Man, I knew that," but your brain, you just can't go any further, because you done maxed out.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep, been there. I've met a couple mechanics before that claim they have never fucked anything up and that they're just God's gift to the planet. And it's like, "Bro, I just watched you. You know why you don't fuck anything up and why you're never wrong? Because you replace the entire fucking machine for everything that you fix." Right? "I just watched you replace four wiring harnesses, 18 sensors, and two controllers on a backhoe. Okay? Of course you were right. You replaced the entire electrical system!"
Sam:
He said, "We leaving no stone unturned. We changing everything in the system."
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah. "Of course you fixed it. You put an entire new electrical system on the motherfucker."
Sam:
He don't understand [inaudible 00:10:52] right there.
The Diesel Queen:
He got away with it too, and the customer paid for it. I'm like, [inaudible 00:10:58]. And then I just saw this particular individual, which I will not name names, but I just saw in the company profile on LinkedIn that he was named technician of the year or something like that. I'm like, "Oh, God. Oh my god. What has your shop come to? No!"
Sam:
[inaudible 00:11:24] after spending a hundred thousand dollars on [inaudible 00:11:28].
The Diesel Queen:
Some things, that guy understood pretty well, and I'm not saying he was the worst mechanic I've ever seen in my life. But he loved to just change everything. I watched him. He was pulling a transmission on a backhoe, and on John Deere backhoes, you lift them all the way up with the outrigger in the bucket, because you have to drop the transmission out the bottom. I've done a thousand of these things, a thousand of these things, and I've always just ratchet strapped the hydraulic pump up to the steering wheel bracket and pried it out of the way. That's how I've done all of them.
If you want to remove the hydraulic pump, it's not that heavy. If you really feel the need to take it off. This motherfucker spent four and a half hours or five hours making a fucking bracket for this fucking hydraulic pump to bolt it up. I don't know why. But it's like, "Dude, you just spent wasted... This job is a 16 hour job, or it's an eight hour job. It should take like four hours to pull it out, four or five hours to put it back in. If you know what you're doing, that's what it should take. And you spent five hours making a fucking bracket that you didn't even need because you were too lazy to fucking just either A... I'm 120 pounds. I can lift it out, I'm pretty sure you can. Or just ratchet strap it to the steering wheel. That works great too. I've done that on every single one of them."
Sam:
To get it out the way.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah, I told him that too. I tried to help him, like, "Hey, you know you can just ratchet strap..." This is a trick that my first boss showed me. Like, "Oh hey, you just run a ratchet strap up in the steering column bracket and ratchet up and then pry bar it out of the way, and it works great." All right motherfucker, you know better, go for it. Have fun.
Sam:
He one of those ones, you can't tell him nothing.
The Diesel Queen:
Oh, and no one could tell him anything either. It wasn't just because I was a girl. And anybody in the shop that tried to help him out or tell him anything, he knew better. So you couldn't help him. Like, "Whatever."
Sam:
[inaudible 00:13:42] that's crazy. Yeah, that's what I would say. In this industry, dealing with guys, they think they know it all, and they're like, "You being a female, you can't know more than me because I'm a male, so I'm supposed to know more than you." And that's just crazy to me. That theory is just crazy. It's like man, you know what I mean? You'll get a hundred of these and this probably his first and second one, and he won't even listen to you because you got more experience than him in what you're doing. Crazy.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah. Well, so there's two extremes, right? There's the guys that assume that you're stupid because you're a girl, which honestly I rarely come across. Or there's the guys that think you're God's gift to the planet and you've been sent down from heaven just because you're a girl, and then they expect you to just be able to poof magic at shit and it's fixed because you're a girl. And it's like, "Dude, I'm the same as everybody else here." There's good women mechanics and there's bad women mechanics and there's average. We're the same, it's just there's not as many of us, so it's more noticeable.
If you're in a shop, a lot of the average guys or the guys that are a little below average can just skate through and not really be noticed. But the women, if you're not good at what you do, people will notice. So.
Sam:
And with me, that's why I've always just been so hard on myself in terms of where... as far as studying and challenging myself, just because I always had to prove myself. No matter where I was at, no matter what job I was at, it was automatically assumed that, "You got to show me." We have to prove ourselves, but a guy could come in and then it's just automatically assumed that if he say he this, then that's what it is. You know?
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah. I'm the same way. I was really hard on myself, still am hard on myself. Especially when I first started in the industry, I was super hard on myself. I would fuck shit up and I'd be so fucking mad at myself. But I was new, right? It was my first year in the industry. Everybody knows the first year you try and work on stuff, you fuck up everything you touch. Everything you fucking touch. And I was fucking shit up, and what did I fuck up? I don't remember what I fucked up. I did a clean out on a skid steer, which, a contamination clean out is where there's metal in the system because something got fucked up, and it was so bad that I had to replace every single hydraulic component and sponge out all the lines and clean the tank. It was like a hundred hour job.
I was given that within seven months of working there. They gave it to me because they're like, "We don't really care how long you it takes you. This is a great learning experience. You'll learn where all the parts are, because you got to take all of them out, so you'll know where all of them are." And I put the hydraulic pump back onto the hydrostatic pump stack without an O-ring. And I didn't know any better, because I'm like, "I don't think there was an O-ring on there." There were brand new hydrostatic pumps and brand new hydraulic pump, and I got the hydrostatic pumps bolted onto the engine, and I went to go slap the little fucking hydraulic pump on there, and I just fucking slapped it on and [inaudible 00:17:14].
Dude, I test ran that thing for 20 hours. Not a leak. Not a drip. I send it back to the customer, and within a week it's pouring fucking oil out of there. Because that's where all the [inaudible 00:17:27] is. And my boss is so mad at me. Yeah, dude, I ran that thing forever and it didn't leak, and then the customer gets it and it fucking leaked. So I'm mad at myself, I'm irritated as fuck. And my boss comes out and he's all mad, and he looks at me and he's like, "You know, I was going to come out and chew your ass and be mad at you for this, but you are clearly being harder on yourself than I was going to be. So I'm going to let you beat yourself up, and I'm going to go back to the office. Just don't let this last longer than 15 minutes, because you got other shit you got to do. So just whatever." And he went back to the office.
So yeah, I've always been really hard on myself with things like that. Especially if I think something's good and I try really hard and I think it's right, and it leaves and then it has a problem later. I hate that. I hate that. It eats at my soul.
Sam:
And a lot of times, like you said, once they put a load on it, that's probably when they're actually... Because they was working it harder, when you had it running, it wasn't working hard, it was just idling really. Sometimes it's just some things happen where you might not get to the bottom of it right then. So it's no big deal.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah. Yeah, shit happens. I swear to God some machines are just that way. You can run them... Well, especially when I ran this machine, I was just starting out. And I was digging it in the work pile. I distinctly remember it had the foot controls, and this was the first time I ran a skid steer that extensively. And I thought I was running it hard enough, but apparently, as my boss told me later, he's like, "You got to run it like you want to break it. Run it like you want to break it." And I'm like, "Well, doesn't that defeat the purpose of what I just fixed?"
But he's right. Because people run these machines, run it like a rental, run it like you want to break it. That's how you got to run them to test run them, because if you don't, the guy that is supposed to run it will. And he will break it.
Sam:
They going to let you know [inaudible 00:19:36], like, "Hey, it's not right." They definitely will make it hard for you. Definitely. But that's cool. [inaudible 00:19:43] a lot of industrial equipment, mostly heavy equipment?
The Diesel Queen:
I actually went to college for semis, and I worked on semis for four months for International, and they cut my hours really bad. Me and the other new kid didn't have any work, and they cut me and the new kid's hours way down to where I was only getting 40 hour paychecks, and paychecks were every two weeks, so that was only averaging like 20 hours a week. So dude, I interviewed every semi truck shop in the area. I interviewed with all of them, put my application in, nobody would hire me. Or if they wanted to hire me, it was for night shift, and I didn't want to do that.
I actually had one truck dealership... It wasn't a dealership, it was a hauling company, I think it's called Western Distributing Co. And they have beautiful... They spit shine their chrome every day. Gorgeous records and semis, Peterbilts. And at the time I'm like, "Oh my god, this is perfect. I want to work here." And I toured their shop and I interviewed, and the boss didn't have the nerve to tell me, but one of the other people that was in the shop, I was sitting in my truck, and he came out and he's like, "Hey, I just want to let you know that our boss told us that he's not hiring you because he thinks you'll be a distraction." And I'm like, "Well, fuck. That sucks. What? I'm just trying to go to work, man."
Yeah, so that was one of the very few instances I've had where I haven't been hired. Caterpillar kind of did the same thing. The guy interviewed me and he asked me all the... I had never even worked in a shop at this point. I was fresh out of school, and he knew that. I didn't lie. And he's like, "Well, do you have experience at International?" [inaudible 00:21:47] on the truck side of Caterpillar, and they run International trucks. He's like, "Oh, do you have experience in this and this and this?" I'm like, "Dude, I told you I don't have any experience."
And he's like, "Well, I don't know if we can hire you." I'm like, "I told you I didn't have any experience." I'm like 90% sure he agreed to do an interview because he wanted to see who I was, because he saw a girl apply. He had no interest in hiring me. Probably because of my experience level, I didn't have any experience. But just tell me that. Don't waste my time. Just tell me, "Hey, we need someone with more experience." I don't know if you've ran into anything like that.
Sam:
When it come to jobs and stuff, I would say I ran into more so not being selected for a job just because, and I'm like, "Why not? Because I have all the credentials." So it was one of those things where I was like, "Why won't you hire me?" But when that stuff did happen to me, I don't want to say the company name, but I ended up working for another company. So it still worked out, because even by them not selecting me, I wouldn't even want to work for that company anyway.
The Diesel Queen:
Exactly.
Sam:
You know? No. So that was cool. Everything just kind of works out. Whatever was meant to be, it's meant for me, so that's how I look at it. But I-
The Diesel Queen:
I agree with that.
Sam:
... process. It has always been very challenging, and they ask a lot of questions, and sometimes on some of the jobs I've had, you have to do a hands-on test. So we will do a written test and then hands-on test. Once I do those, they really can't deny you in terms of what you can do once you prove yourself, honestly.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah.
Sam:
Unless they [inaudible 00:23:38] other issues, but yeah.
The Diesel Queen:
Well, that's what I always try and tell women that are entering this industry, or women that are worried about stuff like that, is, I tell them all the time. I'm like, "You know what? If you happen to run across a shop or a boss that is a problem..." I've always told women, "Don't fucking fight it. If these guys don't want you there or they think you're a problem or they don't want to do this or that, there is a thousand shops out there that would love to have you. Go work for someone else. It's not worth it."
Sam:
In big companies, right? I work for a government, not in the Army but another government institution, and when I work for them, everything goes by seniority. So when it came up for me to apply for another position, I applied for the position, I was qualified for the position, but then it was other people that had been there longer than me that wasn't qualified. But because I applied and got it, it was just automatically so much negativity.
The Diesel Queen:
Probably said it was because you're a girl that you got it. Yeah.
Sam:
"She was in the Army and that's why she got it." Not because of... No, I'm just that. So they started just blackballing me in terms of just trying to do stuff to get under my skin, and just constantly doing [inaudible 00:25:12]. They were just doing stuff, because basically once I got awarded the position, and it was two other guys that was working in the same shop that wanted the position, they made it hard. I ended up leaving because it was just like, "I don't want to work in an environment where I feel like I'm not protected, and then I have to deal with harassment and stuff like that." So-
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah.
Sam:
[inaudible 00:25:38] different. You just got to find the right company to work for, that's going to appreciate you and what you bring to the company.
The Diesel Queen:
And there's a lot of companies that will. There are a lot of companies that are more than happy to have you, and right now companies just need mechanics. So if you got good credentials, if you got experience, they don't give a fuck if you're male, female, the letters people, they don't care who you are. If you're a good mechanic, they want to have you. And I think right now is a great time to be in the industry, because especially if you are a female trying to get into the industry, I think now's a great time. Because people want anybody. They don't have the ability to be discriminatory. They can't!
Sam:
There's a shortage of mechanics and there's a shortage of good mechanics.
The Diesel Queen:
Yes.
Sam:
So I encourage any female that want to learn and try to get into this industry, tap in.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
Because it's so many different variables. You working on machines, I'm working on trucks and stuff like that. It's just so many ways that you can come into this industry and make money and be successful, so.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Well, most shops will give you all of the tools you need to be successful. Right? They'll give you the training, give you the experience. You know? And right now they're so strapped for mechanics that most shops can't just leave you. A lot of people and a lot of women I've talked to are scared. Like, "They're just going to make me [inaudible 00:27:19] tech for the rest of my life." I'm like, "Not right now. They can't fucking afford to leave you as a [inaudible 00:27:23] tech. They're going to need you to step the fuck up and do other work."
Sam:
Hey! Hey, they need help, okay?
The Diesel Queen:
Correct.
Sam:
It's a struggle out here. Honestly, if you stuck at doing [inaudible 00:27:40] work, it's just because that's what you want to do, that's what you're content with doing. There are just so many, like you said, opportunities out here and companies that you can work for, and pretty much they'll be happy just to have somebody that can turn wrenches and understand a 13 millimeter and things like that. You know what I mean?
The Diesel Queen:
Know the order of standard wrenches. Yeah. [inaudible 00:28:04]. What I've always told people going into this industry... Because training facilities nowadays are giving kids a way fucked up perspective on what they can expect out of the first couple years of their career. Because they're in these training facilities and they're doing engine rebuilds, and... Even in WyoTech, on semis, we were doing engine shit and transmissions. We tore Eaton Fuller 18 speed all the way down and put them all the way back together.
Growing up in a blue collar household, I had a little bit more of a realistic expectation. I knew I had to prove myself, I knew I was going to start at the bottom doing easy shit, and I'd have to work my way up. But there's a lot of kids, men and women, especially the men, that enter this industry straight out of tech school, and they are pissed off that they're not doing engine rebuilds right away. It's like, "Dude. You're tearing apart and putting back together that's been torn apart and put back together a thousand times in tech school that isn't supposed to run. You got to prove you can do an oil change right first before they start giving you other jobs."
Sam:
[inaudible 00:29:19] put you working on a twenty, thirty thousand dollar engine or more than that. No. That was just a play play. This is real life.
The Diesel Queen:
Exactly, exactly. You fuck up an engine in this industry, that's 70 grand out the window.
Sam:
"Sorry, we not going to just let you play with a customer engine like that. We going to have to start you here." So yeah.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah.
Sam:
And even still, a lot of places, like I say, they don't go and get into the rebuild of it, or they have a shop that does the rebuild and then put it in, and so it just depends. It depends on the level of the shop and what they're doing at that shop.
The Diesel Queen:
Well, nowadays it's cheaper for the customer. Coming from a dealership, John Deere made it cheaper and making more sense to do a reman or a complete engine than a rebuild. Because yeah, a rebuild costs 25 or 30 grand, and a new engine costs 65 or 70 grand, but the new engine comes with a two year warranty. It's way less downtime. That's what people don't think about, they don't think about the money people lose from downtime. So it's way less downtime, way less labor.
So people are opting into doing that, because you get a rebuild, and your laborer is only warrantied for 90 days. And you got to pay the laborer and you've got to have your machine down for the two or three weeks it takes to get all your parts and do all of the rebuilds and then put it back together and then put it back in the machine. It just makes way more sense for customers, especially things like engines, to just do a reman.
Sam:
Drop that car off, throw that on in there and keep it going. Because they rebuild [inaudible 00:31:12]-
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
... but to bring it into the shop, and then like you said, it's going to be down for weeks, just trying to do a rebuild when you can already have one done and you just throwing it in there and keeping it moving.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep.
Sam:
So.
The Diesel Queen:
Well, especially in production machines and production operations. Even John Deere with their production class machines, they have a system set up with their parts that they have super-fast shipping. And they have these engines, these [inaudible 00:31:40], sitting waiting to go out. Because the production class, they need that machine. The downtime is more expensive than the repairs. So they have it set up to where you'd trash a fucking engine in a loader like an 844 aggregate handler, and... I believe that's a 16. I don't remember what size engine [inaudible 00:32:04].
Anyways, the aggregate handler and the production class machines, you can get an engine in one of those ripped out in a day, day and a half, and get the new one put in in a day and a half, and that's way fucking faster than ripping it all down.
Sam:
Right. Waiting on parts too, that's the main thing that's going-
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
I know you said they got the expedited shipping, but still everything, it got to be perfect. You got to have everything, and sometimes something might not be right, this and that, so then we got more delays. So it definitely sometimes make it a smart way to go ahead on and just put a reman and do it that way.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah.
Sam:
Especially [inaudible 00:32:45], because they go based off hours, so it was like [inaudible 00:32:48].
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Well, and then the material moved and shit like that. It's forestry, mining, operations like that. They can't afford to be shut down. But yeah. Yeah. And you get some of these rebuild kits from John Deere themselves, and you get a rebuild kit. And they give you a motherfucking box of O-rings and none of them are labeled. It's just every O-ring from the valve cover to fucking the oil pan. Any of those little O-rings and everything in there is all just shoved into one box, and that covers multiple engines or multiple of that same engine but multiple different ones.
So you're looking at this fucking box and you got 8000 o-rings in there. It's like, "Dude, it's going to take me for fucking ever to figure out where these fucking go." And this is an internal [inaudible 00:33:45] engine and shit like that, so it's fucking important, so I can't just throw some random shit in there and pray. Yeah, John Deere loves to do that. They send you a rebuild gasket kit and all of the gaskets and O-rings just fucking clusterfuck together. It's crazy. Yeah, exactly. When something's leaking later I'll know what I missed.
Sam:
Right.
The Diesel Queen:
So you run a company now?
Sam:
Yeah. Smart Decision Truck Repair.
The Diesel Queen:
What's that like?
Sam:
Pretty much we go out to different locations. A lot of times we do a lot of maintenance and stuff, but we do major repairs. We pretty much break down everything on the engine. We'll do injectors. Only thing we won't do in the field is rebuild. So we'll do pretty much anything on the engine, outside the engine, oil pans. We'll drop the transmission through the clutches, we'll change out the actuators, the clutch actuators and stuff for the automatic transmissions. And pretty much everything, we do it in the field. So yeah.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah. That's some heavy shit to be doing in the field.
Sam:
I know, but you know what?
The Diesel Queen:
That's cool.
Sam:
I guess I like the freedom of it.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah.
Sam:
[inaudible 00:35:11], and I worked in shop for long, but you know what I didn't like about being in the shop? I guess it becomes more political, and...
The Diesel Queen:
A lot of drama.
Sam:
Yeah, it is. Men act like women sometimes, you know what I'm saying? [inaudible 00:35:30]
The Diesel Queen:
Yes. Yes! I agree. I agree. Some of the shop drama that I have witnessed in my time, it's like, "I thought I was working with men, but we're finding a bunch of fucking girls. Joe looked at you wrong and you're mad about it. Really, guys? Really? We're not the shop ladies, or the fucking office ladies. Okay? Why don't you guys go fist fight it out, and you're good, right? Men do that, fist fight it out and then you're fine. Then let's get back to work."
Sam:
Get back [inaudible 00:36:09], hit them with a wrench, and let's get it done. Get over it. Come on.
The Diesel Queen:
So some of the guy drama I've seen is like, wow.
Sam:
I'm used to it now. Like I said, I've been in this field for a long time, so it's been predominantly males. You just get immune to they stuff, you know? It just becomes like, "Okay."
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah. Yeah, "Go cry a river over there."
Sam:
... tough skin and be real strong to deal with some of the knuckleheads. I'm pretty sure I would say yours is probably a little different than mine, but they be [inaudible 00:36:52].
The Diesel Queen:
Honestly I've never really had that issue, for the most part. This is usually what happens in shops. I start there, no one talks to me for a solid week and a half at least. Solid. Everybody is scared to look at me, no one talks to me, everybody's scared to talk to me. Because they're scared of saying the wrong thing, right? They have no idea. They don't know, if they make a joke or say something, if I'm going to go to HR and fire them, right? So it's dead fucking silent, and they act like don't exist for sometimes a month.
But once they get used to me and realize that my mouth is just as bad as theirs and I can take a joke and it's fine... I was interested in knowing how... because you say you've had some challenges with some mechanics, so I was wondering if there was challenges as a business owner too that you've had, or have you just proved yourself in the area at this point to where they're like, "That chick knows what the fuck she's talking about"?
Sam:
I definitely did, just by being out here and proving myself. I've made a name, and I know a lot of customers and stuff like that, so I definitely created the clientele. But I still continually get new customers, so it's a ongoing thing to just implement that and let people see and know that "Hey, we know what we doing, we qualified at what we doing, so you can trust us as your mechanic providers." You know?
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah.
Sam:
So I think that's a ongoing thing that I'll forever have to prove myself in this industry [inaudible 00:38:32] growing, it's just going to continue to be that, you know?
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
But I'm up for the challenge, so I just feel like it is what it is.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah, I think the truck industry, for the little short time I worked in the truck industry versus the heavy equipment industry, A, it's all about location. There is a whole different social dynamic for women in the trades depending on the area you are in. And B, the industries. The semi industry, I did not find as friendly and open to the idea of me being a mechanic as the heavy equipment side. Which seems like it would be totally ass backwards.
Or the area. When I worked in Denver, Colorado, I would have the issue every now and then where the group of guys would walk into the shop to go talk to the people in the office, and they'd see me in the bay and they'd just sit there and stare. To the point where my boss would have to be like, "All right, you guys need to either get the fuck out or... She's not here for you to look at. She's here to fucking make us money."
That shop was great at protecting me. They did a great job. They were fucking awesome. Then I worked in places like Wyoming. Women in the trades is kind of a more normal thing there. There's female ranchers fucking everywhere. Every girl there likes diesels. It's just the culture of Wyoming. Women have been working on ranches and helping for so long that guys see a girl in the shop and... They still think it's cool, most of them still think it's cool, but it's not this awe-inspiring thing, because there it's more normal. I guess it's more of a normalized thing for women to do men's jobs.
In Wyoming, the last job I worked at, I ran the shop for about three months, and even when I wasn't running the shop, I was the secondhand man to the person that was. So when they were gone or they were busy or the first guy that ran the shop just decided to say "Fuck the office" for a few hours and work in the shop, I would take over the office for a little bit. I built up a built a really good clientele, to where they knew that if I wasn't working on it, they trusted me that I would pick the right mechanic to work on it. Because we had a couple mechanics that...
We had one mechanic in particular that he was good at some things and not others, which, so was the other mechanic. So they trusted me to either me myself work on it, or divvy it out to the right mechanic. And I built up a lot of people there that really liked me. Even after they hired a new boss and I wasn't the boss anymore, I had a couple of people still calling me, still wanting to go through me instead of the new guy. I had a couple people still call me Boss Lady. I had a couple of them...
Even the guys, because we would send people down from other shops to help out with other shops. It's just how that company worked. They would send people around to help. And I had this one guy that came down, he was an older guy, fucking goofy as hell, but he'd come down and help our shop with his field truck, and he helped me out a lot when I was running the shop, because I was trying to run the shop and be the only shop mechanic at the same time. So he would come down and help me.
He still, till the day I left, he called me Boss Lady. Till the day I left. And it drove the new boss fucking crazy. But he told me, he's like, "Fuck that guy, you're still my boss lady." Okay. But I tried to do right.
Sam:
Once you go out, you work, and people see [inaudible 00:42:26], they going to respect you as that, you know? And they understand your worth. So that makes me feel good when people do acknowledge, "Hey, you got that leadership in you." That it exists. So that's cool.
The Diesel Queen:
Well, and they trust you to give it to them straight, right? When I was running the shop, obviously you got to word things professionally and be on your shit when you're trying to run the shop, but when I was running the field tech and I scheduled all the field techs and I scheduled all the shop work, some people didn't like that I didn't schedule my field techs like 18 jobs in one day. Because it's Wyoming. Right? Everything is like an hour away at least. And you got to fucking get there, diagnose it, try to repair it, then get all the fucking way back to the shop.
For the most part, if it was a job that was scheduled outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming, I scheduled one field call a day per technician. Because that gave them time to get to the shop, remote into the machine, get an idea of what could be wrong with it, get parts that they may need, get to the job site, look at it, diagnose it, do whatever repairs they think they can do, and come back. And if they had time, which honestly usually they fucking didn't, but if they had time when they came back, then we might be able to get to the next customer earlier.
So it's a win-win. I'm not going to be late on the customer that's supposed to be the next day, the next customer in line. He's not going to be mad because I scheduled the other field techs so tight that he couldn't make it. But if he gets there earlier, then that guy's happy. I felt like it was a win-win, and for the field techs, compared to the boss that was before me, they thought that was great. Because we didn't have the workload to need to cram that much shit into one day. We just didn't have that workload. There was no reason to do that. So they enjoyed it.
They liked my scheduling, the customers liked it. I was realistic with customers about, "Hey, I can get out here this day. This is the day. It might be earlier, but this is when I know I'm there." And the way I scheduled it, the promises were kept, and they were happy with that. That's what customers really need. Some of them expect miracles. There are some that expect miracles, but a lot of them just want realistic shit. They want realistic pricing, they want realistic timelines, shit like that. And as long as you can give them that, they're happy.
Sam:
Of course. That communication is definitely key and very important, especially-
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
And that's what I do a lot with customers. I just try to keep them... A lot of them might not understand the machines or the equipment, but I try to inform them to the simple form of it. Send them videos, pictures, anything that can help them identify what the issue is without them having to be a mechanic.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah.
Sam:
And they kind of give you that trust, and that builds trust with them by them actually seeing what we're doing, versus just taking their money [inaudible 00:45:37].
The Diesel Queen:
Exactly. Yep. Well, customers love to see. In the shop, we'd have customers come and check on their machines all the time. Especially after you do an inspection and you're trying to sell them like $30,000's worth of shit, they want to come in and they want to see why the fuck you think their machine needs $30,000. You can't just tell them, "Hey bro, it's because your machine's ancient as fuck and you haven't done any maintenance to it. Okay?" You can't tell them that, right? So you got to show them, "Hey, this is worn out, you definitely need some servicing. I checked all this shit."
And you can show them physically, like, "Hey, this bearing is bad," or, "You've got a leak here," and physically show them stuff. Then they can be like, "All right, maybe it's worth it." But if you don't let them see it at all, then they're going to be like, "I don't understand why I need to spend $30,000. Is there shit on this paper that doesn't really need to be done, and you're just telling me that to get money out of me?" But then you show them the lake on the floor where it's leaking, and they're like, "Okay, that makes more sense. Maybe we'll fix that."
Sam:
It makes it easier to sell, anyway, just being able to identify for them and show them what you got to do.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Well, seems like you've got a pretty good handle on your shit and you've built a pretty good reputation in your area. You've built a pretty good success off of it.
Sam:
I think so. I think we doing pretty well. We actually got locations in Texas right now, where we got techs located there, in New Jersey, New York and Florida. So we trying to expand and take over the east coast, but definitely trying to get to the west and the Midwest areas.
The Diesel Queen:
Well for semi side of it, there's not that many field companies that I know of that will do all of that heavy work.
Sam:
They lazy. They lazy.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
You have some people that just stick to the most simplest stuff, they keep it simple. But you can't just do one thing, especially if you have clients and customers that's depending on you to keep their fleet going. You just can't limit yourself to what you're going to do. Otherwise you're going to lose the customer, or it's going to be have too many hands on the equipment. So you just want to be-
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah. Which is the last thing you want.
Sam:
So you always want to be [inaudible 00:48:06] for all of their needs, and that's what we try to do.
The Diesel Queen:
Well it's cool, because as a customer I can see either A, you have, like you said, the field mechanics that literally just do the easy shit, or you have a company that does do all the heavy shit, but they make you ship it back to the shop. And then you have to pay the shipping, you got to pay the tow truck to tow it, and all that shit.
Sam:
It's a lot of costs on the customer. And then you know if the truck go to the shop or equipment, it's going to be there.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
A lot of these people, they can't afford for their equipment to be down for weeks at a time. That could put them out of business just like that, just off of not being able to generate that income. So we try to get a [inaudible 00:48:52] equipment and get the trucks back up and [inaudible 00:48:55] for them.
The Diesel Queen:
Well, that's good. Like I said, I think that's part of the reason why Diesel laptops are so successful, is because just like you did, they found that niche that a lot of people needed, but there wasn't a lot of the supply for it or good supply for that need, and they fucking ran with it, and that's definitely a great way to be successful.
And that's exactly, it sounds like, what you did, is you found that niche where you're like, "Okay, there's tons of people that run field trucks, but nobody is doing heavy work as a field truck. So I'm going to do that and I'm going to create this company, and then we're not going to have much competition for a while, because we're going to be the only ones that are willing to do that." I'm sure your customers love you guys for that.
Sam:
Right? I mean, we got guys that done [inaudible 00:49:50] water pump, all that on the side of the road. Where, like you said, most shops will say, "Hey, we got to take that back in," or [inaudible 00:49:58], they not going to do that. They going to be like, "Oh no, we got to bring that back to the shop."
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
But we just get it done, so that kind of works out.
The Diesel Queen:
Do you guys run big service trucks, I take it? Big over the road service trucks?
Sam:
[inaudible 00:50:15] duty to keep down on costs and stuff, especially navigating through the Atlanta area. There's a lot of traffic, so we don't want them getting into accidents and stuff like that, so we try to make it where it's easy for them to navigate through the areas and stuff like that with they equipment. But we keep everything, and we got a lot of vendors and stuff we get parts from that accommodate and get that stuff taken care of in a expedited timeframe.
And we also use the Diesel laptop software too. I use it for-
The Diesel Queen:
Okay.
Sam:
Yeah, and I like the feature on it where we can actually go in and pull up information and stuff about any type of a truck or equipment. You can just go into that feature on it and get that, or they can pull up the fault codes and it gives you a description of everything. So I don't know how user-friendly it is to some people, but it is definitely a good device.
The Diesel Queen:
Well diesel laptops is. The programming has the same issue. This is what I told people at the trade show that I just went to, that CONEXPO thing, is it's the same issue as Service Advisor, [inaudible 00:51:26], CATSYS, all that shit. All of those systems have a learning curve. All of them. The difference is that people like me who use Service Advisor... I used Service Advisor for seven years. I had to use Service Advisor every day. I had people there to teach me how to use it, I had people there to teach me how to navigate it, and I had the training to learn how to do it.
Diesel laptops is an option. That's not something that at a dealership, that's what they use. So I like the system. I watched demo guy, I watched the guy do the demo quite a bit, and I played with it a little bit at CONEXPO, and I liked it. I was actually impressed with it. For me, I liked it better than Service Advisor. I love the function where you can be in a schematic and click on a sensor and it gives you all the information on that sensor. That's shit I've been wanting John Deere to do with Service Advisor for fucking years. That's great. I think that's great.
But I think a lot of these people that bitch about it are the same people that about Service Advisor, and bitch about all the other computer programs. They don't take the time to figure out how to use it.
Sam:
Exactly. Exactly. Every software you use, you going to have to learn how to utilize it, and they all have different perks and stuff.
The Diesel Queen:
Yes.
Sam:
You got to understand what you're doing, and once you do then it just becomes second nature, and you're like, "Oh, I really like it." Yeah. Because now you know how to use it and how to use the functions the right way. So I [inaudible 00:53:02] about that.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep. No, I agree. Like I said, I thought the system was great. I wish I could... They're going to get me in to where I can actually really look through it and play with it a lot. But I thought it was great. Like I said, I had a bunch of customers, or we had a bunch of customers, that are people that came to the booth that said they have five or six laptops just to do what one Diesel laptop does. Because they got to have one for CAD and they got to have one for [inaudible 00:53:39].
To me, that never crossed my mind before now. Because as a dealership, you deal with Service Advisor, or work in... We had the one dealership I worked at was a John Deere dealership, a [inaudible 00:53:55] equipment dealership, and a Manitowoc crane dealership. Even then, that's only three systems, and we were dealership level on all three. So we had all that shit. Now I could only fucking imagine trying to be somebody not at a dealership level trying to do that. And I've always wondered, "How the fuck do these people even figure any of this out without this stuff? How the fuck?"
Sam:
You going in there blind without it. You know?
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
[inaudible 00:54:24] of it if you don't have the right equipment to check it out and run the right tests to get to the bottom of it.
The Diesel Queen:
Well yeah, and you can know how to diagnose electrical all you want. You can know the ins and outs, you can understand how electrical works and everything. But if you don't got the goddamn diagram to tell you which wires you're supposed to be testing? All that information is fucking useless.
Sam:
You don't know where to go, you don't know where this sensor located, none of that. You can't find out that information. Like, nah.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
You got to have have the information to-
The Diesel Queen:
Well even at dealerships, I've seen people fuck that up. I've watched a kid replace a controller and it was a fucking fuse. I mean, he tried to test it, right? He tried, he tested a bunch of shit, and he came to the conclusion that this particular part of the system wasn't getting power out of the controller. What he forgot to test was, does the controller have power? Yeah. Is there an input going into the controller? And there was not. The fucking fuse for that controller was blown.
Sam:
Got to start at the basics, the beginning.
The Diesel Queen:
Exactly. Exactly. "Keep it simple, stupid," right? That's what they always say, is keep it simple, stupid.
Sam:
Sometimes you'll go too far off from the deep end and get to-
The Diesel Queen:
Oh God.
Sam:
... and the answer was already there, and you just skipped right on over it and went straight to the [inaudible 00:55:58].
The Diesel Queen:
I always tell people like the diagnostic trees and service advisor for John Deere, I've always told people, "If you don't know what the you're doing or you don't understand the system, follow it. But if you understand what you're doing, there's a lot of steps you can move around and skip." Right? Because there's a lot of things that are redundant or don't make sense. I always tell people, "If there's a test that you can do that doesn't rely on the specifications from a different part of the test, then it's easier. Do the easy shit first."
For an example, there's no reason to rip the valve cover off and do a mechanical compression test immediately. Right? There's a bunch of other shit you can do that's easy and less time consuming. Do the easy shit first. Do the simple shit first, and then try and dive into the deep shit. Because even using those diagnostic trees, like you said, you can dive way the fuck into the deep end off the fucking rabbit hole, and you are so fucking far away from what the actual problem is. But it happens. It happens.
Sam:
Learning, that's all. You get sharper, you get sharper and you sharpen up better the more and more you do it.
The Diesel Queen:
yep.
Sam:
So, just a part of the game really, honestly.
The Diesel Queen:
yep.
Sam:
Like you said, you never go [inaudible 00:57:22] everything, so it's part of it.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. You're always learning. Actually, it's kind of convenient or coincidental we're talking about that. I just made a post on Instagram today talking about how every day I judge my success on new capabilities that I give myself, new tools I'm giving myself, new skill sets. Because being a mechanic is not just what people think it is. It's not just changing parts, not just this or that. I've always been try to give myself new skill sets and new capabilities.
Before I started in the industry, I knew how to weld. I could [inaudible 00:58:04] weld pretty easily. I did that all the way through high school. But I learned how to run a thermal lance. I learned how to air arc. Anything like that that I had the possibility or the opportunity to learn, I did. And it's just another tool in your toolbox to use, because the last thing I wanted as a mechanic was to get a big job... Because I love big jobs. They're my favorite. The last thing I wanted is to be denied a big job because I didn't have the skillset, because I said no to an opportunity where I could have learned that skillset. So.
Sam:
I think that's between a male and a female too, honestly.
The Diesel Queen:
Probably. I worked with a man that he was a really good mechanic, but he got to the point in his career where he just thought he was hot shit, and he would refuse to work on cranes, for example. He thought he was too good to work on cranes. He's like, "That's not my job. Not working on it." It's like, "Bro." And then he started getting, obviously, a bad name, which is a shame because then all of his skills were wasted because people started getting pissed off, because he was denying jobs, he was too good for them. Where for the most part, women are like, "Pulling a transmission on a crane? Yes. I will do that." No one else... I pulled a transmission on a crane for one of my bosses and I was the first person in the company to ever pull a transmission on the crane. But I thought it was cool. Yeah. [inaudible 00:59:41]
Sam:
You know? So that's the beauty of it. Like I say, you always got to go above and beyond and always sharpen your skills as a female in this industry. You can't just be okay and you can't just be lukewarm. Lukewarm in the terms of, you can just be a regular mechanic. You have to be good, because if not, they going eat you up, spit you out. [inaudible 01:00:09].
The Diesel Queen:
Yep, yep. No, that was always what I strived to be, was the mechanic that if they had some fucked up job or something that was really hard or they needed the best for whatever they needed it, that was the person. Right? Or at least one of the people in the shop. That's always been my goal, and I have fucked up a lot of shit over the years and had lots of learning experiences to get there, but it was worth it. That's how you learn, right?
Sam:
Yeah, you going learn. That's it, you'll learn. That's the only way you going to learn. Like I said, you going to have to make some mistakes in this stuff, man. Sometimes they can be a little costly though. They can cost you. Especially dealing with-
The Diesel Queen:
The first... Yep.
Sam:
Oh man, them parts not cheap at all.
The Diesel Queen:
The first backhoe transmission... Remember I told you I'd done like a thousand of them? Well, my very first experience as a backhoe transmission was, I don't know, six or seven months in. Eight months maybe. My boss is like, "I know this is over your head. I don't care how fast you get it done, just do it and figure it out." Right? And what it was is the K2 clutch pack. There was a [inaudible 01:01:24], which is product improvement program, which is a really fancy John Deere term for recall. It is, they call it some fucking fancy thing. It's a recall. They had a recall on the K2 clutch pack for the transmission, so they had to pull it out, split it in half, take out the clutch pack, put a new one back in, put it back together.
Well, I did that. I got it out. Struggled, horribly struggled through that. Got it out. Got it split apart, and they have these little tiny ceiling rings in the end of these clutch packs that break, and you will never know it's broken until you put it back in and you don't have a gear. So I did the right step, right? I got the thick grease, I got the ceiling rings on there? I got all the clutch packs put back in, all nice and straight, got the half put back on. Put the torque converter on all the way, I thought. Put the torque converter on, put it back in, and I went to go bolt it up to the fucking bell housing of the transmission. And I guarantee you know exactly what I'm going to say. So there's this much gap between the bell housing and the transmission housing, and I can't get it to go all the way in.
I'm like, "You know what? It's so close. I can run that in with the bolts, right?" Yep. Yep. "I can squeeze that on with the bolts." Well, I do that and I hear a pop, and I'm like, "Oh, it must be just because... It's in there, it's fine." Right? Well I go to start it, no transmission oil pressure. Like, none. No transmission oil pressure. And I'm like, "What the fuck?"
Well, turns out after I had to take it back out... Tell you what, I cut my removal time in half the second time I did it. Once I got the transmission back out and split apart, actually I figured out that the torque converter has a bunch of different splines in there. Well, I didn't get it splined all the way to the transmission pump, and the ears were contacting, and when I stuck that transmission and bell housing together, it fucking broke the ears off the transmission pump. So I had to split it again and replace the transmission pump and then put it back in. But I tell you what, I have never made that mistake again. Not once.
Sam:
The goal is that you learn from it. That's the most important thing.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. When I fucked that up, my boss is like, "You better have this out and back in in eight hours." Or I think he gave me 10. He's like, "You better fucking have this shit in and out and you better fucking hurry up, get your shit done." And I did. I cut my removal time in half, because I don't know, I just did it yesterday. Right? I just did this.
Sam:
Broken apart before. [inaudible 01:04:08] Yep.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. That was fun, so. I've fucked with so much shit, but.
Well, is there anything else you want to cover or talk about before we wrap this up, or do you have a fuck-up story you would like to share? Share time.
Sam:
On the transmission before, it's like you said. I've did stuff where, forgot to put a O-ring on, put everything back together, and then the oil was pouring out of it. So we definitely got some of the same similar stories as far as experiences that we've had. Never had any wheels off or anything like that. But in the beginning, definitely when it comes to making sure everything is aligned properly. And I know you deal with hydraulics a lot, but I hate dealing with certain hydraulics, because it's hard to line up those lines and make that so. But other than that, I think that's pretty much the same stuff that we've encountered.
The Diesel Queen:
Leaving parts... Assembling something and then realizing one of the parts is sitting on the workbench. That's fun.
Sam:
[inaudible 01:05:24]
The Diesel Queen:
Done that before. I had a grader axle that I pulled apart because it was leaking, and it had inboard planetaries and brakes, which, super long story short, it's a fucking pain in the ass to get that all splined together with all the little axle housings together. So I had it apart, put it back together. It went together way smoother than I expected. I'm like, "This is fucking nice. I'm a fucking rock star." Right?
Well, I'm cleaning up my workbench and stuff and getting shit cleaned up for the end of the day, and there's this little fucking triangle washer sitting on the workbench. And I'm looking at it, and I look at my axle, and I'm looking at it and I went, "Fuck." what they have is, the planetaries are bolted down. The little housing is bolted down, and it has this little star bolt or 12 point bolt, and it's just a stupid little anti-rotation washer just in case that bolt started to come loose. That's all it is, an anti-rotation washer that goes over the head of the bolt and sits in there. And I'm like, "Fuck me."
And I'm sitting there, I'm trying to decide how important this part is and if I really needed to put it back in there. I'm like, "I'm not going to sleep at night if I leave this out." So I had to tear apart... Obviously, I don't know which side it's for. So obviously the first side I tear down thinking that side was not the side, that side had the washer. So I had to pare down literally the entire fucking axle all over again for that one fucking washer.
Sam:
Just to have a peace of mind that you did it right, period.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep. And then going back together was not as easy, by the way. That sucked. It was horrible experience.
Sam:
Because you was already frustrated when you broke down that side [inaudible 01:07:17].
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep. Yeah, I was already mad.
Sam:
But yeah. You just throw the towel in, come back tomorrow.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep. And then nothing ever works right. After you have something like that happen, then obviously it's not going to go back together. It's easy, right? Because it wants to just be a pain in the ass. "I'm going to be a pain in the ass to get back together. Watch me do this." Fuck. So yeah, that was fun. But yeah, the mechanics joke all the time, they're like, "Oh yeah, put something back together. This is nice." Look at the parts counter. "Fuck. That's not supposed to be in there."
Sam:
Oh man. That's crazy. Well yeah, we definitely got some stories, man. Definitely got some stories. Definitely. What I would say is, when it come to size and the stuff that we do, everybody think you got to be so strong. It's not about your strength, it's about your technique.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
Once you figure out a technique, you don't need a whole bunch of strength to do stuff. You just got to... Like I said, even with the tires, they be trying to manhandle a tire. I just [inaudible 01:08:31].
The Diesel Queen:
Or the drums. Yeah.
Sam:
Yeah. Like, [inaudible 01:08:39]. So.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. I tell people that all the time too. You don't have to be big to be in this industry. Most of the shit, just work smarter, not harder. Especially in the equipment stuff, no one's lifting a 400 pound fucking hydraulic pump or hydrostatic pump stack. No one's going to lift that shit.
You can go a long ways with a ratchet strap and a pry bar. You can get a lot of shit done with a ratchet strap and a pry bar. Turbos. I've done turbos that way, I've done water pumps. Some of the loaders have water pumps on them. I have no fucking idea why, but they got a water pump on it this fucking big, and it's awkward to try and get up there. Ratchet strap.
Sam:
Yeah, we not going to fight with it, we work smart. So it's all about techniques, certain techniques that get the job done, that make you more efficient. That's it.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Well, and the button on the crane, that works great.
Sam:
You got a advantage because you can use own equipment to do stuff.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
Especially pulling lift and stuff, you can use something else to lift it up and do all that. So you got an advantage when you get your hands on the equipment.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep. That's [inaudible 01:09:54] people ask me all the time. They're like, "Heavy equipment. That's so big. How can someone so small work on something so big?" I'm like, "I think it's easier, because everything is designed to be lifted by a machine, or by a crane." None of this is designed to be done by hand. Almost everything is designed... They've got lifting brackets and all kinds of shit made for this stuff. I'm like, "Doesn't matter how much you weigh if you can press a button on a crane." Now the semis is kind of a different story, but.
Sam:
To a certain extent, we still use the ratchet straps and stuff like that. But I would say the main, the most important thing that I would use is just implementing my safety when I do my stuff. But it's not complicated. It's really not. You just got to use technique and just be careful.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Yep.
Sam:
I say my [inaudible 01:10:50] because I can fit in a lot of places, so I turn my time down in half, because-
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
... you got to take all this stuff off just to get to that one spot, my little small [inaudible 01:11:02] slide right on in there, touch it up right quick, and I can see it-
The Diesel Queen:
Yup. Up over the transmissions, in between the... yep. "I bet you can fit there but he can't. You can." Yep. Been there.
Sam:
Hey man, I'm climbing right on top of it like, "Here we go."
The Diesel Queen:
Yep, yep. I've been shoved up the auger tubes of a combine before to help do motors, because my ass can fit up the fucking combine auger tubes.
Sam:
Wow. Cutting that time [inaudible 01:11:32].
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
Saving that time, yo. That's cool.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep.
Sam:
Yeah, that's dope.
The Diesel Queen:
You got to work with your advantages, right?
Sam:
Yo. [inaudible 01:11:41] disadvantages, so hey.
The Diesel Queen:
Yeah.
Sam:
[inaudible 01:11:45] thing when, like I say, you learn techniques to do stuff, there's no such thing as disadvantage. You just use it, so.
The Diesel Queen:
Yep. Well, I usually use this part of the episode to allow people to say if you have any social media you want people to know about. LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, your business website. Whatever you want to share, now's the time.
Sam:
Okay, so pretty much you could follow us on Instagram, smartdecision, S-M-A-R-T D-E-C-I-S-I-O-N. You can also find us on Facebook at Smart Decision Motor Repair. You can visit our website at www.wefixitsmart.com, and book an appointment if you're in our area. We just come out, service your equipment wherever you at. And our phone number-
The Diesel Queen:
Oh yeah?
Sam:
... 8 431 2625. So if you can't reach us via email@smartdecision.com, then you can definitely reach us at www.wefixitsmart.com.
The Diesel Queen:
Perfect.
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