Tools of the Trade: If You Love Something, Let it Go

After only two months of being together, Mark Teegan and his lawn care crews reluctantly parted ways with Toro’s new Grandstand mowers last fall.

It was a planned divorce – Acres Group employees were only to demo Toro’s entry into the stand-on mower segment – but that didn’t necessarily make the man-machine breakups any easier.

“My guys were happy to use the Grandstands,” Teegan admits. “I didn’t really get any complaints – they never needed repairs.”

If anything, such a positive experience may have left the Chicago-area workers with a permanent, sour taste for old stand-on technology.

So perhaps that’s why, as soon as the 2009 snow season ends, Teegan plans to reignite the Acres-Toro relationship. Only this time, the Acres Group fleet manager is committing to Toro for the long haul.

“We need to outfit 13 additional crews, so we’re looking at ordering probably 20 or 30 units,” Teegan explains, “Because this is the first year that Toro has made stand-ons, we already have a bunch of other models. But we’re going with Toro because of the good service, parts support and training. We do a lot with that company – they even contacted us for input when they were designing the Grandstand.”

Because Teegan has been working with Toro since the Grandstand’s inception, he is uniquely able to describe how one of the industry’s newest mowers could be valuable for similar large businesses. The Acres Group generates upwards of $37 million in annual revenue, and the Toro mowers already helped some of its 600 employees tackle the company’s “bread and butter” townhome properties.

“When they were in tight spots, workers could slow the mower down and still keep the deck running full bore,” says Teega, highlighting the Grandstand’s signature speed control feature. “It made the machine much more controllable. On other mowers, the only way you could slow them is to throttle down, but then you lose deck speed.”
Teegan adds that the speed control feature even makes it easier to train new employees.

“It’s tough for some guys when they are first learning to use stand-ons,” he explains. “The equipment is really responsive. If someone isn’t familiar with them, stand-ons can be jerky and hard to maneuver.”

Grandstand mowers also helped Teegan’s crews with a more safety-oriented control dilemma. Because the Acres Group frequently asks employees to trim close to water, the company has had issues with machines sliding down slopes and into retention ponds. In those instances, Teegan says the ability to flip up the Grandstand’s platform and transform it into a walk-behind mower was “huge.”

“Obviously, by folding the platform you can put more in a trailer, too,” Teegan says. “But our trailers are set up for riders, so size wasn’t really much of an issue. We had room for them.”

Additionally, Acres Group employees gave the Grandstand’s padded platform high marks for its “cushy,” shock-absorbing suspension, and Teegan praised the mower for its quiet demeanor.

“It didn’t seem like the deck had any whine (sound),” Teegan says. “That tells me that maybe there is little more flow.”

Still, Teegan points out there is still room to improve the mower. He says Toro’s Grandstand doesn’t seem more fuel efficient than any other stand-on in the market, and his company will likely only be purchasing models with a 52-inch deck.

“The Grandstand with a 48-inch deck was a little too small for us,” Teegan says. “It would be great for a residential guy going into backyards, but we do all commercial maintenance.”