I could! Just got off the phone with the folks at Jacobsen and we’ll be getting some of their new Synthetic Hydraulic fluid to try. I’ll post more tonight where I can use a bigger keyboard 
Most in golf know that Jacobsen has pioneered electric mowers in the industry. Currently they are producing the Eclipse 322 (3 reels, 22 inches wide??) that either comes as a full electric with battery pack, or a diesel or gas engined hybrid. There are no hydraulics on the machine. Which brings us to their Bio Hydraulic oil. Years ago they also pioneered factory fills of biodegradable hydraulic fluid in all their mowers. The first and as far as I know, only manufacture to do that.
About 10 years ago we changed our fleet over to Bio fluid. It was not without some anxiety. There weren’t that many people doing it and we were playing around with some pretty expensive equipment. But just because not that many were doing it didn’t mean it wasn’t something that would work fine. I talked to the manufacture, who were very helpful as one could imagine but they gave some references and that worked great. And actually one if my tech friends had already been working with them on bio, so he was a great source of info (Thanks BobQ 
So we made the switch. Why?? Well, if you ever drained your car on your lawn you’d see. And if you haven’t, you can imagine. Petroleum and grass don’t mix. The second part of this is if you have hoses on a machine, it’s not a question of will they leak, but when. I change the reel hoses on all the machines that go on the greens. That’s a lot. Still, you can’t change all the hoses all the time, and the one that you didn’t get, or missed, or did change but rubbed against something, will get you.. It happens. It may be years since it happened, but it will happen..
Which brings us back to Bio. We use a vegetable based bio. I’ve looked at synthetics and others. Some look fine, some raise questions. In debating the pros and cons of the new crop, I decided to stay with what we had been using. Terresolve. We have 10 years with it and no bare spots on the course because of it, which says a lot. We’ve been buying it at R&R, buying over $400 at a time and getting free freight, which is a killer. We just found out that we can buy Jacobsen Greenscare, made by Terresolve, for less.. It has a better additive pack then what we had been buying so I’m looking forward to trying it.
And that brings us to Jacobsen’s new Synthetic oil. It’s made by Terresolve and since we have a long history with them I’m pretty comfortable trying it. AS to the benefits. Right off the bat, it has a longer life. Depending on how long and how much it costs that could possibly be a wash. I’ve asked about spills and what would need to be done. Hose it down is what I’ve been told and that’s a bit less then with the vegetable. Other benefits, I’ll see what I can find.
It’s on it’s way. I’ll keep you posted.
I just heard that the GCSAA (Golf Course Superintendents Association) MAY be starting a tech award called “The Most Valuable Technician” Award. Currently there are two awards for techs in the industry, TurfNet’s (SuperNEWS) Technician of the Year, started in 2002 ; and The IGCEMA (International Golf Course Equipment Managers Association) and Ransomes Jacobsen’s, ”The Edwin Budding Award, started in 2008.
I think everyone enjoys a bit of recognition but this award puzzles me since the GCSAA doesn’t recognize the position of Equipment Manager/Technicians in their association. This has been a pet peeve of more than a few of us over the years. I think most would rather forgo an award and settle for aknowledgement of the position.
 
Spectacular!!
 reprinted from TurfNet (SuperNEWS) with permission.
This is an article off the original TurfTech site in 2001. I had asked on the bulletin board what were the good, bad and ugly parts of techs jobs in golf were.
The Good:
From Minnesota,
- Fresh air, sunshine, green grass, mountains in the back ground, a river running through it and Lake Superior just out the shop window. Working outside in the summer and inside in the winter. Doing something that I can take pride in, like a freshly ground reel. Sometimes I’ll give it a quick spin and let it turn a whole strip of paper into confetti, just cause I like that crisp shearing whisper that it makes. Being able to take a machine that has been designed by a team of engineers, and thousands of dollars of research and come up with a few little things to make it even better. Taking an old machine that really should be laid to rest, tearing it down and then giving it new life.
- Knowing that your boss and his boss and 20,000+ golfers are depending on you to keep this whole operation above water and best of all knowing that, while to you that feat is a piece of cake, they all expect you will be walking on water any day now. (11/3/01 – the whole crew, tech included, at this club, were just terminated by the management company)
From Oregon,
- Regardless of the name we choose to be refered by. It takes a special person to be a golf course mechanic or tech. Not just anybody can do it, that is why there is a shortage of people who can do what we do. If you think about all the many hats we have to wear during any given day, just how many people do you know that can do what we do. Not very many. We have to know so much about so many different types of equipment and have the skills and knowledge to keep them running at all times. That is what makes us so special and that is why I say that WE are the best. And I am proud to be a part of this group.
From New Jersey,
- I can not think of a better way to start a day @5:30 or 6:00 am and watch the sunrise over the beauty of the course. Seeing the results of my hard work preparing the equipment that produce the fine cuts on the greens, fairways and the stripes in the rough!!!!! And hearing the compliments from the membership on how beautiful the course looks and plays!
From Colorado,
- It seems there is a common thread in these posts, a love of beauty (not bad for just mechanics) and an appreciation for the independence our jobs afford us.
The Bad:
From New Jersey,
1. Its 2:15pm and your done at 2:30pm , Friday afternoon and you have everything wrapped up and the radio comes to life. The operator thats on the 2653 is screaming something about oil all over the place !!!
2. How did that happen I didn’t hit anything, and your looking at 3 of the 7 blades on a reel folded over.
3. How did that ball mark repair tool get in my grass basket.
4. Yes I did check the oil before I took it out this morning.
5. Mix gas, what’s that ?
6. Those days when the stress starts as soon as you walk in the door and dosen’t stop until you pull the covers over your head at night.
7. Honest it was in forward and your looking at a utility cart smashed into your fairway mower in the barn.
8. I set the parking brake before I got off, why did it roll away into the woods like that or the triplex just barely surfaced in the beautiful pond next to the green.
All the more reasons why I do like what I do it makes the job interesting.
From Ohio,
1. Filthy equip. (“fairway mowers take too long to wash!” and why wash off the bunker rakes, it’s kinda neat to see how much sand we can bring in the shop!)
2. Assistant “wannabe” Supers who appear to be the missing link in evolution.
3. Topdressing and then having to mow with all 4 triplexes instead of 1 mower with “sand” units on it.
4. Treating the shop like there’s a housekeeper to pickup all the mud and sand and garbage everyone else tracks in and leaves laying around.
5. no budget for new equipment ever ever again and lucky just to get parts to “get us by”
6. I guess I better stop there. . .
From Massachusetts,
1. The funny look the children give you when they hit something, brought it into the shop, you are working on it….and you have the nerve to ask them to sweep the floor (instead of getting in my way!)
2. When the golf course doubles from 18 to 36 holes; twice the headaches,twice the equipment, and twice the responsibilty……….without a penny more an hour????
3. The children come in every day thinking that we mechanics have the easiest job on the golf course…..until they come into the shop for one hour. But strange how quickly they forget.
4. How many times do I have to answer;
- what do you do in the winter?
- oh…so you just work on the golf carts?
- is this gas or diesel? (can know one read?)
- 2 cycle oil….whats that?
- Where is the super?
- can you get me on the golf course for free?
5. Machinery that “looks clean”…till you bend over.(don’t the children realize the equipment is in 3 dimensions…) I think they believe that we wouldn’t notice???
6. Spray equipment that isn’t washed and rinsed… because we are going out tomorrow…. then three days later; when it does go out… that call on the radio to come fix it, ’cause its not working properly…. duhhh
7. Completely new part numbers, why can’t they just add a version number on the end???
8. Salespeople who make cold calls to sell you something way overpriced…just when you were under the machine at a critical moment.
9. Is part of every dealership training teaching the line “GEE, WE HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THAT BEFORE, WELL YOU LET US KNOW WHEN YOU GET IT FIGUIRED OUT !”
10. The attitude amongest some that “WE JUST FIX LAWNMOWERS !!!!”
And The Ugly:
From Colorado,
- Assistant Superintendents that think the only way up is over the Superintendents dead body. Superintendents that are tyrants and the arrogant children of members. Taking care of the superintendents jet skis, outboards, motor homes, and such and having them change your time card to remove overtime.
From Massachusetts,
- The smell coming from the wash down pit and from all the old beer cans the were collected off the course. The look of the equipment after a season of college workers playing “bumper cars” with trees. …and finally….the look of how small the number on the paycheck is !!!
From British Columbia,
- The three guys on our crew named “It wasn’t me”, “It was like that” and “I didn’t hit anything”.
From Michigan,
- Having your only assistant tell you on Friday that he won’t be in on Monday or any other day and feeling sorry for him since you know he quit because of the low pay and lack of benefits and because he was tired of being told by the ass-istant super about the one thing he did wrong this week and never hearing a word about the 200 things he did right by anyone other than me.
In the ’90’s we were getting hammered by residents on the course for noise so I experimented with mufflers. Club Car seemed to have the best one on the market. Their carts were quiet and their muffler weighed a lot more than other manufactures. Seemed like a good candidate. So we got one and tried it on a bunker rake. It quieted it down significantly. The next version I put on a Toro 3100. This was a bit harder, I had to re-work the manifold and muffler quite a bit to make them fit in the available space.
  
The 3100 sounded like a stealth machine. It was used as a Tee Mower. Problem with it was the operator backed into an immovable object and tore up the manifold. I repaired it but a week later the same thing happened. We opted not to fix it another time and to go back with the original. A pretty good idea but a little costly. In 97 I left the company for a couple years and when I got back, the Bunker Rake had a standard muffler back on it as well..
 So we’ve had frost two days in a row. Today we started at 7AM. Which is what we had done a year ago when I took this pic. Then I was riding my bicycle to work and even though I rode over this bridge for years, I had never done it at sunrise, only in the dark. This was so nice I stopped and pulled out my camera to take a shot. This really captures the spirit of our city..
The weather report for AM:
It will be a cloudy overnight. Expect a mix of wet snow and rain. The snowfall is expected to begin near 6:00am. Total snow fall for the day should reach less than an inch.
Last snow we saw snow here was in 1977.
If there is, pictures to follow
 
 
A morning frost in Florida..
 Frost on the greens. Really unusual in this part of FL. Particularly as it’s the second day I’n a row.
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