Naperville Country Club Green Department: equipment

Showing posts with label equipment. Show all posts

The other big project for the winter months involves maintenance on the equipment. With the equipment not being used on a daily basis, it gives our mechanic, Greg, time to perform a more thorough inspection of all the moving parts. Greg also spends time sharpening all of the cutting units on all equipment. Our equipment fleet is new within the last 4 years, so much of the maintenance is still preventative.

Having equipment that is sharp for cutting the grass is very important for maintaining the highest quality turf. Through the winter Greg spends most of his time in our grinding room making sure all of the cutting units are ready to go for the spring. This picture shows one of our two grinders used for sharpening reels. At this point in the winter, all of the green, tee and fairway mowers have been sharpened and are ready to go for the spring.

Our annual equipment maintenance has been underway for a few weeks now. We started with a thorough cleaning after the equipment is done with its work on the golf course. Once that is completed we bring it inside for greasing, cleaning and changing of filters and fluids, then sharpening the blades. All of the equipment has been cleaned and we are moving on to the detailed maintenance for each piece of equipment. Here, Mario is removing the blades from one of the Sidewinders that we use to mow around the fairway and between the tee and fairway.

Here are a few of our reel cutting units that have been removed and are ready for Greg to rebuild and sharpen for next year.

We spent this morning removing the first snow from the sidewalks this season. It was not a lot, and with the sun out today, will likely melt off quick. This year doesn't deviate from our usual schedule of 1st-2nd week of Dec. for seeing snow. In 2009 the first snow was Dec. 1st, and 2010 the first snow was Dec. 6th.

Our winter preparation checklist is complete for the year. We are now in the process of beginning our seasonal maintenance on the equipment, starting with a thorough cleaning.

The drainage project on 11 fairway is now complete. A heavy layer of topdressing was applied to the fairway when the project was completed. One objective for the heavy topdressing is to protect the turf through the winter (like was done for the greens). The sod that was laid will not have a chance to root this fall, so any extra protection will help. This fairway was very heavily traffic with our equipment during this project as well. This topdressing will aide the recovery of any weakened plants in the spring. This picture shows a turf blanket down the middle which will remain through the winter. The purpose of the blanket is the same as the heavy topdressing. The blanket just add more protection.

We had a small whoops today while mowing around the pond on 13. Our operator traveled a little too close while on a slope and skidded into the pond. Thankfully employee and equipment will both be fine.

We were asked to test another product recently. Thankfully, this test will not turn out like the last test(click here). This product is a GPS mapping system for our spray equipment. We currently are only utilizing the mapping system for this test, but additional features can be added, including more precise boom control, and steering capabilities. These types of systems are regularly utilized in the agriculture market but are just now being adapted for use on golf courses. We were asked to use it for a couple of weeks and give feedback on which features were useful and what type of features we may want added.

This picture shows the control that we use on our sprayer on the left. The GPS mapping unit is the screen on the right. It utilizes a common GPS signal that is free to use. A more precise GPS signal can be acquired but it will cost money. As this technology is advanced further the free GPS signal will become more precise. Most of the agriculture industry uses a more precise GPS signal that can be acquired through a subscription through a local co-op or similar organization.

This picture shows the graphics on the screen as you are spraying a product. The blue line shows the area that has been covered. A small red line can be seen also, this indicates an area of overlap. As you are spraying, the unit will direct you with arrows if you are skipping an area or overlapping too far. This is where the steering control can be used.

A feature can be added to this unit that turns the spray booms on and off automatically. When you begin to apply, you can trace the area you want covered. As you drive over this area, the unit will turn the spray booms on and off automatically as you drive in and out of the area.

After an application, the data can be downloaded from the unit and a print-out of the application details is available. There is also a file that allows a map to be dropped in to Google Earth and printed out for record keeping purposes.

Even though this technology has been around for several years in the agriculture industry, it is in its infancy for the golf industry. I do believe this technology will become more common for the golf industry in the years to come.

An update on some maintenance we completed last Monday, June 21st: we verticut the fairways. This verticutting on the fairways was a little different than what we do to the greens. These blades are set deeper to remove more material. You can get more information from an earlier post on verticutting here.

These verticutting units are a separate set of attachments for our fairway mowers. We can remove the cutting units and replace them with the verticutting units.

After the verticutting is completed on the fairway, we mowed the fairways to pick up the excess clippings.

The last of our capital equipment improvements for the year have arrived. The final pieces include a sod cutter and a set of verticutting units for a new-to-us used mower. The picture on the left is of the new sod cutter. This piece of equipment is replacing another sod cutter that looks very similar. The old machine has been on the property for several years and weather the course renovation.

The machine in the foreground of this picture is the new-to-us used machine that will be used for the new set of verticutting units that was purchased as well. The club had two of these machines prior to this purchase. The used machine was purchased to take advantage of interchangeable parts and cutting units.

A few more of our capital equipment purchases arrived this week. This round we received our much needed utility carts. These carts are Cushman Trucksters. We purchased 3 identical Trucksters like the two in the picture on the left. These carts will be used regularly for hauling heavy loads.

The new Trucksters replace 2 Trucksters that came to the course in the middle 80's. 1 of the old Trucksters will be traded in, and the other Truckster will be follow one of our old tractors as a donation to The Golf House in Lemont.

More of our capital equipment improvement have arrived this week. Two new tractors this year will replace two older one that have been on the property since the early 1970's.

We have purchased two identical tractors, Kubota L4740. One tractor will be used for mowing the rough with the gang mower, while the other tractor will be used to operate our fairway topdresser.

This is the tractor that the new one will be replacing. The other old tractor is similar. One of the old tractors will be donated to The Golf House in Lemont to be used on their research course.

Our new equipment purchases began arriving a little over a week ago. I will highlight each one as we receive them. The first piece of equipment is a seeder that is replacing an older seeder in our fleet. The new seeder is much easier to operate, quicker that the older machine and causes less disturbance to the surface while it is being used.

The machine seeds by cutting grooves into the turf surface while simultaneously dropping seed into the grooves. After the seed drops into the grooves, a set of wheels runs over the grooves to close them up, and provide better seed contact with the soil.

We have had this machine on the course several times this week to overseed the driving range tee, chipping fairway, the par 3 tees, and thin areas in the fairways caused by winter damage.

Here, Conny is using the seeder for the first time in the chipping fairway.

A look at the turf after the machine has made a pass.

After the equipments use for the season is done, it is thoroughly cleaned before the start of it's winter work. Our crew spends several days going through all of the equipment with degreaser, brushes, power washer, towels, and wax. The equipment cleaning was started on Monday, and continue into next week.

The guys power washing and scrubbing the equipment.

Our finished fairway mowers.

Once the equipment cleaning has been finished, the winter work on the equipment is done. This involves sharpening all the reels and blades, oil changes, touch-up paint, etc. Look for more updates on winter work of the equipment over the next few months.

Last Tuesday we attended the Illinois Turf Expo at the USGA golf house in Lemont. This was the first year for the Expo at this location. We were able to view research plots for several different products, equipment demonstrations, and the trade show. The new wave of equipment technology for golf courses is heavily directed towards electric drives, and electric motors to operate the cutting units. I had the opportunity to operate a new mower from Jacobsen that is fully electric and could not help but think about how far equipment for golf courses has come.

Early mower for golf course use. The marketing notes the benefits of not using horses: "They leave no hoof-prints as horses do," "They are of no expense when not in use."

A new fully electric mower that will be available soon. This mower leaves no hoof-prints also!

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