# I am not a happy camper



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

Today I ran my dump truck. Hauled several loads of stone for a contractor that I do a lot of work for. The route took me by the John Deere dealer where I ordered my stump grinder from. Seeing as I have not heard from them, I decided to stop and find out what the hold-up is. Paul who is the sales manager that I deal with called the distributor to find out. It seems that S.S. Woodhouse dropped the ball. The ship direct order never went anywhere. Paul did some research and got through to the president of the company. To put a cherry on it all, I will not have my machine until perhaps May 27th. Never in my life have I had so much trouble giving my money away. I am glad that I got impatient or who knows how long it would be. Paul insisted that he would make it up to me, and he got a promise of free shipping.
My major concern now is getting hold of my customers and let them know that I will be delayed getting to their stumps.This is not the way I like to run my business, prompt professional service is the way I try to keep it.


----------



## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

I agree with you totally Slip. At least you caught things when you did. Seems like that is the way of the world lately.


----------



## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

Good thing you stopped by! At least you'll save the freight money.


----------



## jodyand (Sep 16, 2003)

Yea at least you get free shipping and like the old saying goes sh!t happens. Good thing you stopped and checked on it.


----------



## MowHoward2210 (Nov 2, 2003)

My wife says I expect too much from people. Well I do my job right everyday, so expect others to do the same. I know mistakes happen, but it seems that laziness, half-assedness, and not following up on things is the norm these days.


----------



## bear (Oct 20, 2003)

good thing you checked. but it is hard to stay on a schedule when your equipment doesn't show up on time. makes keeping the customers happy a little hard to do at times


----------



## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

New word?????   "half-assedness" Or maybe "halfassery"??????:furious: :lmao: :lmao: :spinsmile


----------



## MowHoward2210 (Nov 2, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Chief _
> *New word?????   "half-assedness" Or maybe "halfassery"??????:furious: :lmao: :lmao: :spinsmile *


That thought crossed my mind when I typed it!


----------



## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

Half-assedness has to be a word. I know a lot of people to whom it "fits":furious:


----------



## Stewart (Sep 17, 2003)

I hope your customers understand, tell them by waiting they are getting better service with state of the art tools and are lucky you aren't going to charge them more!!!!! 

Hows that?:smoking:


----------



## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

Hey Slip, I realize this is HIGHLY unlikely to happen but it never hurts to ask. Do you think you can make a suggestion that perhaps they could rent you a stump grinder at a reduced rate or knock off a certain amount of the sale price based on how much you spent to rent one. At least you could get started on time and not loose your ass in rental fees. Just a thought. If nothing else it is a good rhetorical point to make. On the other hand it seems like your dealer is doing his best and feels pretty bad about it and sometimes it is best not to push things too far.


----------



## P71 (May 3, 2004)

You can allway SUE ...for Emotional Distress, Of which you will NEVER recover:furious:


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*Good things Come To Those Who Are Made To Wait*

Well I ordered my Stump Grinder way way back at the end of April. Guess what? I am the proud owner of a Shaver Model 50 at long last. It came in today at the dealer after being shipped from Iowa last tuesday. I was there when it hit the ground. Since then I have lost some customers and some credibility and that hurts.
When I got to the dealer I had my 4600 on the trailer all plumbed up and ready to rock. We had to put the snap fittings on the grinder for the hydraulics,mount it up and I was down the road. The salesman Paul has become my friend over the years and he did his level best to make it up to me. Shipping was on S.S. Woodhouse because they are the ones that screwed up the order in the first place and Paul talked the owner into giving me the plumbing I needed on my tractor for free. So overall I saved over $1,000 from when we made the original deal. Now I have to go back to some of my customers and made things right. Stump grinding was going to be a spring thing when the rain stops much of my other business,but now it is a summer thing, at least this year it is.


----------



## jodyand (Sep 16, 2003)

Thats great slip have you tried it yet. Now you can bring it down here i have four stumps you can try it out on


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*I had a go at it*

As soon as I left the dealers I went to my farm and ground the biggest fresh cut hard maple stump I had. No pictures I forgot ,too excited about finally getting the machine. There are 70 stumps of my own I have to grind. It made short work of it maybe 20 minutes total.


----------



## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

Glad you finally got the piece of equipment in Slip and they did right by you in the process. You gotta post some pics of it at work taking out some stumps! :thumbsup:


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*I am playing catch-up*



> _Originally posted by Chief _
> *Glad you finally got the piece of equipment in Slip and they did right by you in the process. You gotta post some pics of it at work taking out some stumps! :thumbsup: *


 Starting in the morning I will be doing a lot of grinding. I have a list of 29 customers that want stumps ground, so I figure by next week I should be fairly good at it.


----------



## memmurphy (Sep 18, 2003)

Looks good Slip!:thumbsup: 

Do you collect the wood chips for mulch and fill the hole with dirt or just push the chips back in?

Mark


----------



## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

Hard to tell from the picture...but it looks like it has some serious teeth on it. What RPM does the grinder turn?


----------



## Chris (Sep 15, 2003)

> _Originally posted by jodyand _
> *Thats great slip have you tried it yet. Now you can bring it down here i have four stumps you can try it out on *


Heck let him burn in his machine, I have 22 to get rid of. 

Seriously, Slippy --- What do you think you will charge for the stump grinding work? Minimum + # of stumps? Just curious.
Congrats on getting everything finally! 

Andy


----------



## Stewart (Sep 17, 2003)

Cool!!!!

Can you change out the teeth if they get dull or do you have to buy a new blade? :cheers:


----------



## guest (Sep 16, 2003)

looks good.. get some better pics of it please...
what or how do you charge? i recall paying somewhere around 25-50$ per big stump... 

those things make great mulching chips...


----------



## Chris (Sep 15, 2003)

Well they quoted me $20/stump grinded down under the surface of the soil. Maybe it was because I had so many stumps to get done. I don't know what the minimum would have been. I think I counted 22 or so, but probably going to have them down about 18-20 of the major ones in the open pasture area. I have been BH'ing around them for the last 6 years and I think it is certainly time to get rid of them. It takes me at least 3 times longer to BH this area as I have to make continual passes around to get the grass cut. I hope this will work ---- 

Andy


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*I ground Stumps Today*

First day out of the box I ground three stumps . The smallest one was 24" at ground level. The time factor on them is not too bad, it took me approximately 50 minutes per stump. This includes the clean-up, loading the chips,and grading .
There are a few things I have learned already, the biggest being , don't try to take too big a pass. The stumps I ground today were fresh cut over the winter so they were an excellent test of the capabilities of the machine. Let's just say I am inpressed, even a bit suprised how well it works. John to answer your question the cutters are carbide inserts all the same, some set at different angles, fully sharpenable and replacable. The machine came with six extra teeth.


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*Sure makes a lot of chips*

This is from three stumps. I only had to run on my property so I loaded it up. The chips are going to make great mulch, I have started a pile in an area large enough to handle a bunch. It seems to me I will have a very very large pile by the end of summer.


----------



## guest (Sep 16, 2003)

thats pretty slick slip.. you gotta change the name of the thread to 'now im a very happy camper!!!'

it wil take you some time to make youyr money back but it must add a lot of flexibility to what you can do now as a business.. 


congrats.. looks awesome.


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*I am getting happier*



> _Originally posted by simple_john _
> *thats pretty slick slip.. you gotta change the name of the thread to 'now im a very happy camper!!!'
> 
> it wil take you some time to make youyr money back but it must add a lot of flexibility to what you can do now as a business..
> ...


 I will be happy when I get caught up. For now I spent the day learning how to use my machine on my own stumps. It does not seem that I should go out and do other people's until I am comfortable with the operation and capabilities of the grinder. As far as making my money back on this purchase I feel as if 75 stumps should just about do it. With my ability to do the complete job, it makes a difference, people are excited to know that they do not have to worry about clean-up and filling the hole.


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*Teeth*



> _Originally posted by Stewart _
> *Cool!!!!
> 
> Can you change out the teeth if they get dull or do you have to buy a new blade? :cheers: *


The cutter wheel is 3/4 plate steel 34" around and the teeth are C-2 Carbide brazed on a square treaded tool holder. They are easy to replace, but they are not cheap, but if I knock out an insert and don't ruin the toolholder I can have new carbides brazed on. So far I am impressed with the machine, Shaver is a long established company and they stand behind their products.


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*The Cutter wheel*

Here is a picture of the cutter wheel.


----------



## Chris (Sep 15, 2003)

I wonder what their MTBF is on those teeth? Wonder how many stumps i.e. business/revenue that equates? Thanks for all of the info and the pics, Slippy. Good luck with it! 

Andy


----------

