The equipment get's so mush use I don't want to get further out than 90 days on PMs so synthetic oil isn't cost effective for me. I've got Clark C25s that are 2 years old with over 4000 hours on em. With 30 LPs, 3 diesels and 56 electrics just trying to keep my head above water on PMs!

BRRR!! Its been in the high seventies and nice. I dont have that many lp units (8 total) and I have been running the full synthetic 5w30 and extending them out to 800 or 1000. Every now and then between services I blow out the radiators and check the coolant. They pretty much stay out of the rain so its been working out.

I've had to kick the Combilifts and a couple of the standard LPs up to a 60 day cycle from 90 due to hour use...500-600 hours in 90 days! The Raymonds and the rest aren't far behind.

It was record heat of 105 (before humidity!) for a couple of days but it's back down to a chilly 95 degrees....time to break out the jackets.

I just got my holiday rentals off site yesterday, 10 riders and 8 walkies. The batter changer took a dump on me yesterday, thank you bolt on option!!! Stuck a spare rider under it and am currently rebuilding the chassis, (7 series Toyota). Have some delivery jack stuff pending, nothing major though. Should be a good week. Is it hot down there yet Joe?

Yeah, chublil, but then us in-housers have days like today. For the past 2 weeks the operators have been working 12s with the 2 shifts over-lapping from 8am-3pm. EVERYTHING that rolls is on the floor so I've been spending all that time (after running out of self induced "make-work" and "gov't projects") sitting at my desk reading or playing on my PC.....until I walked in this morning.....Pkg. line/auto stretch wrapper down, conveyor system jacked up, 2 reach trucks and a LP Clark down and an E-mail from my boss to rent more orderpickers and spec a 15K lift for a branch in Arkansas...today. It's gonna be a long day.

Looking back over the last 22 years, I would have to say I prefer in house now, and I say that with the understanding that all that road service experience I got over the years prepared me for being really good at in-house. 10 years ago I loved the road, different people-different truck and problem, it was challanging and fun. I am in the same boat as JOED currently, (Hi Joe!) and would not go back to the road unless I absolutlely had to. Do road service work until you are a B+ to A- guy on everybodies truck, then steal a nice big in house gig close to home and worth devouting some effort to refineing. I did 4 years ago and its the only way to go.

My primary occupation for the first 15 years of employment was as an in house maintenance machinist/mechanic. Repairing and rebuilding various engine lathes, mills, auto feed saws and conveyor systems. It was the only thing I knew until my last employer decided to take a machinist/mechanic and make a road service forklift tech. I thought it was the greatest thing since whitebread! Get to visit various customers (and if I did my job right then the best customers would make a point of calling me and only me back for additional service), run the roads, and no supervisor looking over my shoulder all day, every day. Operating out of my service van was like having my own little company. I always had work so my dispatchers pretty much left me to my own devices and schedule. Then along came GPS, lap tops and micro-management. That supervisor peering over my shoulder all day and asking stupid questions was back. Fortunately I was made an offer I couldn't refuse and now I'm back in a "shop" enviroment but I am my own supervisor. Aside from internal, ISO, and the occasional customer audits, I don't have to answer many questions, stupid or otherwise. I miss the variety of road service (along with not having to pay for my vehicle, insurance or GAS!) but I don't think I could go back to it.

It's the road for me. The shop tech is a thankless job, hardcore nasty stuff you can't do in the field. When and if you get enough experience on what you do, you gain a level of confidence that tells you no matter what the day will bring you, you will have the knowledge and resources to effect that repair and make a new friend. Taking time to talk with the customer, operator and having a general attitude of " how can I be of service" will take you far and is in fact very rewarding, personally satisfying and separates the rookies from the pro's. You just can't get that in a shop environment.
On the other hand if you like being treated like a mushroom...

I think that is a very good question, and I eagerly await others input.

For myself, I usually say that "gravity pulls on me the same all the time, and overcoming gravity is the most work I do all day".
I also use the analogy that "I get paid by the hour, and I will do what whomever is paying me wants me to do for that hour, and I will do it to the best of my ability, if what the customer wants is for me to go around and flush all the toilettes in the building, I will flush all the toilettes." (but I may just be the very most well paid toilette flusher within a number of miles).

So I guess it would be fair to say that for me, it is all "a wash" as to which job is better.

When I started in the industry I was a shop tech for 7 years and it is a great way to learn how equipment works from the inside. It really is kinda like grunt work as it is stuff the road techs are not equipted to do. Some people love the shop and some dont.

Now I prefer being a road tech for over the last 10 years and have no desire to go back into the shop to work. I look at it from the point of what is going to make me happy for the next 30 years and that is not a shop position. There is something to be said of not showing up to the same office everyday to punch the same time clock. Sure my van has GPS to track when I get to customers but I go to different locations and meet different people everyday. I run my van like its my own little business cause if you think about it its the customers that pay your bills, not your comapny. With out the customers the company would have no money. Lets show up and do an honest 8 hours worth of work for 8 hours pay pay then go home and enjoy life.