1

J.J.’s Picks 2016

A collection of the finest products featured this year for Landscape Professionals

TABLE OF CONTENTS

pg

2) Greatest mower, blower, and trimmer in the store

2) Echo Bed Redefiner

3) Greatest hedge trimmer

3) Greatest chainsaw

4) Special Report: The Operator Controlled Discharge for your Exmark Lazer Z

4) Special Report: Different Bagging options for the Exmark Lazer Z’s

5) Other attachments available for your Exmark Lazer Z

6) Expanded Services = Expanded Bank Account; a look at dethatching as a profit enhancer

7) Cool product award 2016

7+8) J.J.’s Tips and Tricks

-lube hedge trimmer with Stihl BioPlus

-choosing a good 2 cycle oil

2

By far, the best lawn mower in the store is the 60” Lazer Z X-Series with RED Technology and Electronic

Fuel Injection. A masterpiece from Exmark, this mower pays for itself in a short period of time by saving labor

costs and reducing the need to double cut while allowing you to take on more clientele without sacrificing

reliability. This mower uses up to 25% less gas than carbureted 60” Lazers. If you save $650 per year in gas,

that can translate into a savings of $9750 over the life of the mower. A penny saved is a penny earned,

right? Lazers come in 3 different series; E, S, and X. The X series is the Rolls Royce of Mowers.

By far the greatest back-pack blower in the store is the Redmax EBZ-8500. Coming in at a whopping 908

cubic feet per minute, this blower allows the operator to come in like a tornado and get the job done. Some

operators are known to use this back pack blower while simultaneously using a hand held blower in their left

hand. Talk about getting things done!

My own personal favorite trimmer is the Redmax BCZ3060TS. It is rated at commercial maximum torque.

Compare to others at 29.5 cc, 1.4 hp, and only weighs 12.2 lbs. One of the advantages of having a powerful

trimmer on the job is it can be used to maintain pristine vertical edges on curbs and sidewalks which equates to

getting the stick edger out far less often. Not to mention, during the heavy growing season, it’s nice to have

some power and the ability to trim at a walking pace rather than being slowed down.

What a great labor and time saving product. The Echo Bed Redefiner is so much easier to use than a bed edger

or shovels. You know that all of your customers need their beds redefined once a year. What a great way to go

above and beyond just a mulch installation, or add this to your menu of services as well as your profitability…

3

Greatly reduce bending over, walking, and climbing up and down and moving the step ladder with the Stihl HL

100 K (135 degree) Hedge Trimmer with articulating head

Every hedge is unique – which is quite a challenge when you’re trying to trim them. Whether

tall or short, skinny or wide, hedges everywhere can’t escape the STIHL HL 100 K (135º) extended reach

hedge trimmer. With its 42” long shaft and adjustable cutting blade angles, this professional hedge trimmer

helps turn those unruly hedges into uniform walls of green. For power and versatility, this hedge trimmer has it

all. If you could cut back on going up and down and moving a ladder by 80%, you would wouldn’t you?

J.J.’s pick for best chainsaw is the Stihl MS-362. A few of my colleagues and I got the privilege of touring

the Warehouse of one of Stihl’s largest suppliers in February of 2014 down in Ohio. We were given the

opportunity of test driving every chainsaw that Stihl makes. Hands down, the winner for power to weight ratio

was the MS-362. It is a mean saw coming in at 59 cc and nothing even came close. You can get anywhere

from a 16” to a 25” bar on it.

4

Special Report: The Operator Controlled Discharge for your Exmark Lazer Z

Who hasn’t ever had a customer who is discouraged because grass has gotten into their beds? With the

intricacy of some landscapes, there are some lawns where there is one spot that it is tough to keep the grass

out of the mulch bed. Then there are times when your last line in the lawn that you’re cutting has the deck

pointed right at the long bed all the way down. Of course you can cut backwards, but to make life easier,

Exmark offers the Operator Controlled Discharge. Simply put, there is a foot pedal for your left foot that

opens and closes the discharge chute where the grass comes out. You can, at your discretion, control whether

or not grass is shooting out the side of the mower deck. It’s also nice to keep your deck closed off when

cutting around swimming pools too. You can also minimize your blowing on driveways and sidewalks too. The

Operator Controlled Discharge is one of the best accessories that you can possibly get for your Exmark Lazer Z.

Special Report: Different Bagging options for the Exmark Lazer Z’s

There are 3 options for bagging leaves with your Exmark Lazer Z. There is the Grass Catcher, the 3 Bag Ultra-

Vac, and then there is the Dump Style Ultra-Vac. If you are a hard working company on a budget, the Grass

Catcher offers landscapers a very inexpensive choice. It is best used to do that “final touch” mow to get the

last couple stragglers after you are done with a clean up. It is a convenient easy on, easy off mesh cube that

hooks right up to the mower deck. The next option is the 3 Bag Ultra-Vac. If you are not familiar with an

Exmark Ultra-Vac, it is a hi speed vacuum fan that is hooked up to your deck belts. The high powered vacuum

helps direct all debris back to the hopper in the back. The hopper can either be 3 bags that come off real easy

to dump into your trailer or the hopper can be one piece that dumps out of the bottom. The one that dumps

out the bottom is awesome for backing up to the woods and without even getting out of your seat, pull a

lever, and the bottom falls out and lets the load of debris go. The Dump style has one drawback though. In

most cases, you are not able to back your rider onto your trailer to dump. The three bagger can easily be

dumped onto a trailer with little effort. The biggest advantage of having any kind of collection system is to

spend less time on the worksite and to make your life easier and your time more profitable.

5

Other attachments available for your Exmark Lazer Z

Below is a list of accessories available for your Exmark Lazer Z that perhaps you never new existed!

12 Volt Adapter (plug in your cell phone charger or an air compressor)

Equipment Cover

Floor Mat

Lights on the Roll Over Protection System

Hitch Kit (for towing carts, aerators, etc.)

Jack Kit (makes changing blades real easy)

Power Deck Lift

Striper Kit (enhances Exmark’s already famous cut lines)

Sun Shade

Trash Holder Kit

6

EXPANDED SERVICES = EXPANDED BANK ACCOUNT Dethatching is a specialized niche service that not too many companies offer but I can guarantee sooner or later

you have been asked by some of your customers if you offer it. Let’s first discuss what the benefit of

dethatching is. I must say, it is amazing how much thatch comes out of a regular, healthy subdivision lawn.

After you go over the lawn with a power rake, it looks like the whole lawn is coated with hay. The thatch

that is left on top of the lawn needs to be blown into big piles, put on a tarp, and either hauled away at an

extra fee or dragged off to the woods.

One common mistake that contractors make with dethatching is undercharging. Dethatching is a service that is

time consuming, labor intensive, and there is just simply no way of doing it quickly. An acre of dethatching can

take a couple guys 6 hours to do.

You should never, under any circumstance, dethatch a wet lawn. When the grass is wet the grass will be killed

by a power rake. So it is important to dethatch when the lawn is mostly dry. This can get tricky with call

aheads. You tell a customer you’re coming on Monday and it rains all day Sunday. The best months out of the

year to dethatch is May or September.

You never want to dethatch more than once every 5 years. It takes a long time for a thatch layer to build up

to the point of needing to be removed. Dethatching cuts through the interconnected root system of grass and

therefore can’t be done often because of that. If you do want to do something good for the soil every year or

a couple times a year, go with aerating. Also, aerating right after a dethatching makes for a nice combo for the

lawn. Throw in an overseeding too at 5 lbs per thousand square feet and then you really have a winner,

especially on your invoice to the customer.

The easiest way to know if a lawn needs dethatching or not is when you are walking on the lawn, if it is very

soft and spongy then that is all the matted thatch in the lawn causing the extra cushion. Dethatching provides

a long term benefit to your customer’s lawn. Thatch acts like a sponge and prevents much needed rainwater,

fertilizer, and nutrients to get down to the roots. It more or less chokes out the grass. The long term benefit

of dethatching is that the lawn gets more efficient use of fertilizer, pesticide and fungicide. On the subject of

fungicide, excessive thatch absorbs and holds moisture and causes fungus conditions on turf. There is no short

term benefit such as extra green-up or anything like that with dethatching. The benefits are strictly long term

health of the turf.

It is very important to leave some marking flags with your customer prior to your visit so they can turn on

their underground sprinkler system and mark all of the heads. Also ask your customer if they have an invisible

fence for dogs.

Dethatching can make for a nice add on service to add to your hat full of services. At Weingartz we carry Billy

Goat and Exmark power rakes. We also carry the recommended RedMax EBZ8500 for blowing the thatch into

piles (rather than using a rake). Stop in at our Farmington Hills store and see me if you want more

information on dethatching. I’ve done around a thousand of them.

7

COOL PRODUCT AWARD 2016

This coveted title goes to the brand new Stihl BR 450 C-EF. This back pack blower added into your arsenal

might have to strictly be the “boss’s blower”. In other words, no one else is allowed to touch it! Why you

might ask? It has push button electric start and never has to be recharged because the more it is used, the

more it self charges the starting battery. You can turn it on and off without even taking the blower off of

your back. There is also an adjustable tube on the end so you can customize it to your preference.

J.J.’s Tips and Tricks and some other final notes…

In this installment of tips and tricks I wanted to cover one tip and one trick. My trick this year is how to

keep your hedge trimmer blades lubricated. In the past I always gave them a light spray of WD40 before I

started a job. I always wondered, is this good for the shrubbery? There is just no way that a fresh wound on a

plant ingesting petro chemicals could be healthy. I invented a method this year for lightly lubricating hedge

trimmer blades in an environmentally sound manner. Stihl makes an obscure, relatively unknown bar and chain oil

for chainsaws called BioPlus. It is a vegetable oil base bar and chain lubricant. We put this in an empty spray

bottle which you can buy in the cleaning aisle of any grocery store. When a customer comes in at Weingartz

and purchases a new hedge trimmer, our service department sprays a light mist over the blades as they are

running back and forth for the first time ever.

My tip for 2016 is the importance of choosing a good 2 cycle oil. I must admit when I was growing up and my

dad and I used to ride dirt bikes, he held very little regard for what 2 cycle oil to use in the gas. As a matter

of fact he would never even measure it out and would just eye ball it. I remember him telling me as a young

lad; “there is nothing special about 2 cycle oil. You could even put 10w30 in there with the gas if you were in

a pinch and it really wouldn’t matter.” He would say “Son, all of those expensive 2 cycle oils with mysterious

properties are just a bunch of B.S. made for making someone a hefty profit.” This “lack of respect for oil”

mentality carried over to my lawn maintenance career of 18 years. I was using outboard 2 cycle motor oil from

Wal-Mart because it was cheap. I constantly had a lot of carburetor issues with my trimmers. I also had to

clean out the exhaust ports quite frequently which were constantly caked with carbon deposits. It turns out

that the outboard 2 cycle oil that I was using is made for water-cooled 2 strokes where all outdoor power

equipment is air-cooled. Big difference. I started using Stihl Ultra synthetic and have never changed since. I even

8

notice a huge performance advantage in the equipment. Stihl did a really neat scientific experiment. They ran

several of their BR-600 back pack blowers for 500 hours straight. They used a variety of 2 stroke oils, to

keep it fair some was their name brand and a few competitors too. After 500 hours of running below is a

picture of what the spark plugs looked like…

Thank you for checking out my annual newsletter. If you have any tricks or tips that you would like to submit

for the 2017 edition, come in and see me at the store any time or send me an email at

jterrell@weingartz.com. Or call me whenever you need anything at my direct # 248-893-5875 (J.J. Terrell)

HAVE A SAFE AND PROSPEROUS 2016!!!