Is it time to get in, or time to get out?

[Freudianfloyd]

Luckily I live in Ohio, but I saw my old state of California passed some legislation that no new internal combustion engines are to be sold after 2035 or some nonsense like that. Seeing as how California is big enough that other states may follow suit, what do you think the future holds for small engine repair?

On one side, you have a bunch of people abandoning their gas engines and going electric, but on the other hand, you have people more likely to get their gas powered equipment repaired instead of replacing it.

I have toyed around with the idea of starting a small engine repair service part time but just curious. Those of you in the business, is business going to boom, or go boom?

 

[Chainmale]

Is an interesting thought, anyone who wants a gas saw will have to have it repaired, bit there will be less and less out there. So does that mean the market should stay the same?

 

[MooneyPilot]

Since you’re not in California, you know you have more than fifteen years. I’m 71 and retired from a career in automation software and controls. I saw the technology change drastically, but when one thing started going away, something always took its place. My crystal ball is not tuned any better than yours, but I believe that if gas saws go awayl there will b a need to keep the electric ones going. If you have the desire to go into this bus8ness, especially part time where you and your family aren’t dependent on it, then you obviously have a skill and an interest so go for it.

what I would suggest is that you make sure that if you don’t already have an understanding of electricity, or better yet some basic electronics knowledge, star learning about it. Take a few courses at the junior college in your area or even learn from something on line. A fundamental electrical knowledge would help you be ready to pick up the electrical work if and when it comes to that.

Best of luck with it. If it’s something you like to do then go for it. My Grandpa told me when I was a kid; “ find a job you love and you’ll never have to work another day of your life.”

 

[Vintage Engine Repairs]

Since you’re not in California, you know you have more than fifteen years. I’m 71 and retired from a career in automation software and controls. I saw the technology change drastically, but when one thing started going away, something always took its place. My crystal ball is not tuned any better than yours, but I believe that if gas saws go awayl there will b a need to keep the electric ones going. If you have the desire to go into this bus8ness, especially part time where you and your family aren’t dependent on it, then you obviously have a skill and an interest so go for it.

what I would suggest is that you make sure that if you don’t already have an understanding of electricity, or better yet some basic electronics knowledge, star learning about it. Take a few courses at the junior college in your area or even learn from something on line. A fundamental electrical knowledge would help you be ready to pick up the electrical work if and when it comes to that.

Best of luck with it. If it’s something you like to do then go for it. My Grandpa told me when I was a kid; “ find a job you love and you’ll never have to work another day of your life.”

I really like this advice about getting some electrical knowledge, good call!

 

[stihl86]

Industry as a whole is dying. Legit shops are closing at record levels. Second generation are about the longest.
Service updates are 90% 50 plus.
Whole good margins are shrinking to the point one can’t survive.
Major brands, like toro, scag, stihl etc will be online within five years imo.
Getting it fixed, really isn’t their concern. They say it is, but, as I’ve told a few to their face, they are fos
I’m curious how it will turn out.
Perhaps factory service outlets? No more free work. Warranty work will drop to near zero.
You will pay.
No gloom and doom Just over four decades + in the industry.

 

[sundance]

As a whole it's become a disposable society. Seems most run (or use) something until it breaks or needs work then get rid of it and replace rather than have it repaired.
In the past 6 months my neighbor has passed along a Ryobi cordless miter saw, Ryobi cordless nailer and a Stihl 036 Pro. None were difficult to fix, the miter saw needed a $20 switch, the nailer just freed up and the 036 a good cleaning and a new carb plus a couple minor parts. I spent less than $150 on it and its running well. I offered it back to him, he said he had a new MS311 so wasn't interested. So I've got a nice backup to my own 036Pro. Wife doesn't understand the concept but makes sense to me.

 

[Justsaws]

Locally to me in regards to residential owned equipment...
Gas powered push mower sales has started to dip, battery powered is taking the share.
Gas powered blowers dipped, battery powered took a big bite. It is what I use.
Gas powered trimmers about the same as the blowers. It is what I use.
Saws, not much shift, however it is starting to to. If the manufactures can get chain speed up and reduce the cost of batteries there will be a big shift. Folks are trying to step away from the 2cycle saws, battery power is just not there yet for lots of them, if it gets there a lot of +/-50cc gas saws are going to get replaced quickly.
The lack of new gas powered sales will show up with a decrease in the money making tune ups and repairs, parts sales, this is will be hard for some shops to overcome with the current operating ideology.

Oddly, the biggest selling point is ease of ownership. No tune ups, no fuel/mix to buy and store, hugely reduced noise, etc.. Nobody mentions the supposed environmental benefits.

Commercially, battery powered equipment is starting to show up on the trucks, not much but more than a few years ago. Cost of batteries and durability being the complaints.

The biggest drawback to setting up a repair shop will be parts. Folks should expect another large reshuffling of distribution and retailing in the near future. Electric equipment cannot be limited to brick and mortar stores, it will have to available on line to be competitive, both new equipment and parts. The two maybe three brands that ship direct to buyer for battery powered equipment will dominate the market.

Stihl, Husqvarna have close to zero of the battery market here, residential or commercial.

 

[MacAttack]

Disposable society plus the newer generation of beta-males that can't fix or operate anything with a gas engine, guys like us will be clinging to our old gas tools while everyone else buys electric.

 

[MooneyPilot]

Stihl86 and Sundance make good points and they should not be ignored. In my decades of watching change in business & technology, what I have seen is that when things change there are opportunities. The trick is recognizing the opportunity and figuring out how to capitalize on it. If the local shops close, then maybe there’s a way to find your business online. One can make online connections right here on this forum and one could develop a reputation on this forum that secures business. I have been a poster here for a very short time and see that there are people that receive business and work because of their reputation and the word being spread via this forum. There are other similar forums that you can also use.

In 2011, 5 years before I retired I bought a side by side. It was a major brand and had a 12 month warranty. After 11 months it wouldn’t go into gear. It would just grind. Since it was under warranty, I trailered it to the dealer and they cheerfully replaced the clutch at no charge. Two months later it did the same thing. I took it back and they wanted to sell me a new clutch for $400 plus installation. My response was “please help me push it back on the trailer.” I started doing research and I removed the clutch. It took special tools that I didn’t have and it took a five foot cheater bar to get it apart. I welded together a stand and lagged it to the shop floor. I was able to buy fixtures and special tools for the rest of it.

I managed to get it apart and see where their mistake lies. I was on a side by side forum during all this and people were following what I was doing. Once I sorted it out I agreed to recondition one for a major poster on the forum. Once I did he started spreading the word. One thing led to another and I had a side business going. When it started taking off i was trying to find cores so I could exchange, but a funny thing happened. Almost everyone was perfectly happy to send me their clutch with a check in the box. I would recondition it and send it back to them.

I ended up with a guy several states away doing customer service for me, watching the forums, telling People where to send it and such, because I did not want to spend my time glued to a forum or other online resources. I just wanted to recondition clutches. By the time I retired it was going really well. I was blessed with very good retirement income, but this business has flourished some and it gives me a comfortable extra income that provides me with a huge hangar for my airplanes, avgas, insurance, annual maintenance and all the other expenses involved in flying.

I have done hundreds upon Hundreds of these clutches and have never had a bounced check. It doesn’t take me very long to do one and I get paid nicely for the work. I do this for less than half the cost of a new clutch and when I’m done they don’t fail a second time unlike buying a new one. I have a reputation for good work and honest business dealings which makes the work continue to come in. I found a few performance modification products that I offer that have expanded the business.

The world is my market. I’m not limited to those who drive by and see a sign or told about by friends. I have done clutches for people all over North America and Even Hawaii. Had a guy looking into sending me one from Australia.

Since you are looking at starting part time anyway, post your work results on the arborist and outdoor power equipment forums. Try to take in some work and treat people honestly and take care of come backs with integrity. Build a reputation and keep your mind open to ways of expanding.

Anyway, it doesn’t cost anything to think about this approach. Find a good forum watcher that can do the online keyboard work for you. Give him a piece of the action to keep him surfing.

Best of luck with whatever you do.

 

[Slotracer577]

Battery technology really needs another breakthrough like from nimh to lipo before the larger saws are going away. Current batteries just don’t have the energy density to replace gasoline yet. Weight is a big issue on saws and probably why they are still 2-st. All the other ope has moved to 4-st, but not saws.
with that said, the typical homeowner will move to electric as the price comes down. They work well enough for a short periods of use and don’t fail due to gas sitting in them. The downside of these will be that batteries fail in 3-5 years and a new one will cost more than a replacement pc of equipment. So it will go in the trash, no repair work. I see this in the motorcycle clubs already. They are replacing the gas saws with electric For trail clearing. The same saw gets used for cutting wood at camp. It replaces my little 192. where that falls apart is when you need to do a lot of cutting. We recently had a big storm and spent days clearing trees. Gas saws were sold out in 2 hrs, electrics never did sell out.

 

[Justsaws]

When the typical home owners shift to battery in mass the cost of gas powered equipment will increase dramatically. Brick and mortar stores rely on home owner business to keep the doors open, as do the manufacturers to offset the cost of R&D, marketing, distribution and commercial equipment cost.

Good news, really expensive commercial equipment tends to get repaired.
Bad news, limited customer base needing repairs, limited OEM parts distribution and sales.

 

[Gord404]

What gets me is recycling a junk saw or anything else for that matter come at a cost to the environment as well, it doesn't just end once it hits the old recycle area, where does it go from there, to pump out crap creates more crap to deal with, good $ for the manufacture companies, I think our throw away society is a far bigger problem than a gas powered chainsaw but it will go the way it goes, myself, I'm old enough to be happy just rebuilding good quality older pro-saws which there is quite a demand for up in my neck of the woods and by the time that runs out , well I will find something else to occupy my time.

 

[MacAttack]

What gets me is recycling a junk saw or anything else for that matter come at a cost to the environment as well, it doesn't just end once it hits the old recycle bins, where does it go from there, to pump out crap creates more crap to deal with, good $ for the manufacture companies, I think our throw away society is a far bigger problem than a gas powered chainsaw but it will go the way it goes, myself, I'm old enough to be happy just rebuilding good quality older pro-saws which there is quite a demand for up in my neck of the woods and by the time that runs out , well I will find something else to occupy my time.

You could probably fill the Grand Canyon with thrown-out cheap lawnmowers and weedwackers. Every "big trash" day they are everywhere.

 

[Short timer]

Battery power is making a dent, but there will always be a need for small engine mechanics for now.

 

[Gord404]

Be kind of interesting to see what they come up with for fallers and aborests that need a 36" bar for a full days work.

 

[Mad Professor]

Commie-fornia can't even have enough electric to keep their lights on, and refrigerators cold.

I guess gas/diesel electric generators will be banned to, the dead batteries will stay dead

How many have a crosscut saw, know how to use one?

 

[MooneyPilot]

I have my late Father in Laws cross cut saw, but admittedly have never used it. Sure glad I’m not in California. Sure wouldn’t want to have to use it at my age.

 

[Mad Professor]

I have my late Father in Laws cross cut saw, but admittedly have never used it. Sure glad I’m not in California. Sure wouldn’t want to have to use it at my age.

I've got crosscut felling and bucking saws. I've used them both and they are sharp / ready to go. But I'm not a 25 year old anymore.

With a team of workers, you'd be surprised how much those was can cut. We used to switch out a person on the saw for a break, two guys using a peavy or lever to keep the log from pinching the saw, 5 guys in all. That was real work.

 

[Freudianfloyd]

I'm somewhat surprised that I haven't had any votes for business taking off (besides switching to electronic saw repair). I know there are going to be those who hate change and want to keep their gas saws running forever but is there going to be enough to keep a support a business?

 

[Justsaws]

Be kind of interesting to see what they come up with for fallers and aborests that need a 36" bar for a full days work.

The days of “large scale” employment in those fields is coming to an end. Just like the days of the 60” bar. The downside will be the cost of the equipment for the few still doing the work. I would expect to see new 90cc saws easily hitting the over $2000.00 range in the next tens years in the US, with regulations in place to eliminate the old crusties from the commercial work site.

There will always be a need for the professional, however what they do and how they do will be different.