Travels with Terry:Equipment ideas

Tow-tally efficient
At The Members Club at Grande Dunes in Myrtle Beach, S.C., turf equipment technician Joe Corsetti came up with the idea to tow a John Deere Aerocore 800 greens aerifier behind a turf vehicle to save the operator lots of walking time in-between aerifying greens.

The tow bar design uses tubular and flat steel welded together that’s attached to the tow vehicle with a hitch and pin with a chain so it won’t get lost. The other end is attached to the aerifier with a U-shaped metal bracket held in place with two lynch pins that connect/disconnect easily. The aerifier shift lever is transported in the “neutral” free-wheeling position up to 10 miles per hour from green to green. Corsetti’s concept has a patent pending; it took about three and a half hours to build and it cost about $65 in materials.

Getting Floored

The Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y., has a unique wooden floor in the shop and employee lunch room. It was implemented by golf course superintendent Rick Slattery, equipment mechanics Dan Lloyd and Rich Bournival and longtime employee Dennis Smith.

The floor, which was installed in 1960, is made of 4-inch thick yellow pine that began to splinter with age. The employees began the renovation process by using a sander to remove 35-years of paint build-up and the top 1/4-inch of the pine. They caulked the cracks and intially applied three coasts of epoxy.

They sand the floors and apply a light epoxy coat every December; sometimes another coat of epoxy is applied in the spring. It takes about an hour and a half to apply the epoxy on the 30-feet by 35-feet shop floor. Besides protecting the yellow pine, the epoxy is soft to stand on, which the equipment mechanics’ legs and backs really appreciate. They use Benjamin Moore 100% Solids Epoxy Floor Coating CM40-00 (at about $100/gallon – 4 gallons initially and 2 gallons per application for upkeep), which resists spills from petroleum products. The floor is dry mopped once a week and then washed with a benign cleaner or mild soap. GCI