BORN TO BE A SNOWFIGHTER - The Metal Pless™ Family Podcast
Get to know the incredible people that make the Metal Pless™ Family special. We talk with like-minded folks from throughout the snow and ice industry, all with a common goal - to EFFICIENTLY pave the way to a safer environment. Metal Pless plows are "always copied, never duplicated," and our people are originals too!
BORN TO BE A SNOWFIGHTER - The Metal Pless™ Family Podcast
2: Partnership with Midwest Machinery - Guest Mike Savage
In Episode 2 of the BORN TO BE A SNOWFIGHTER podcast, Bob and Nick sit down with Mike Savage of Midwest Machinery in Hastings, MN to discuss life on the dealership side of snow fighting, and how Midwest Machinery shows unique dedication to supplying and supporting snow contractors throughout the Upper Midwest. Mike shares the story of how the PLSS0930-15LE (the "Mike Savage Special") came to be, and we discuss other innovations the team at Midwest has developed.
Come see us at Equip Expo in Louisville, and remember - Metal Pless™ is always copied, never duplicated!
FROM THIS EPISODE:
Midwest Machinery's dedicated Metal Pless sales and information page:
Visit one of Midwest Machinery's 29 locations, or shop online:
See the P-Series John Deere 3-pin Connector AND the PLSS0930-15LE in action: (thanks to Brandon at LADC for the video!)
To reach Mike, call Midwest Machinery in Hastings, MN:
(651) 437-7747
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Watch BORN TO BE A SNOWFIGHTER episodes on YouTube:
Follow Metal Pless on Instagram:
Follow Metal Pless on Facebook:
Connect with Metal Pless on LinkedIn:
Own a Metal Pless? Join the Metal Pless Owner's Group on Facebook:
Listen to "Born for This" by Royal Deluxe on Spotify:
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Contact Metal Pless directly:
go@metalpless.com
1 (866) 362-1688
Nick Arndt (00:13)
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Born to be a Snowfighter podcast, the Metal Plus Family podcast. Today we have a very special guest from the Metal Plus Family. have Mr. Mike Savage of Midwest Machinery based in Hastings, Minnesota, a customer of mine. I'm one of your hosts, Nick, and I've got Bob Green here along with me. And today we're talking to Mike. We're gonna talk about his journey in snow removal and supporting snow fighters.
And we'll talk about how Snowfighters aren't just the guys and females out there actually pushing snow. It's the support behind the scenes, which Mike does an amazing job with. And he's worked with Metal Plus on a lot of special projects. So Mike, thank you for being here and we're excited to have you on.
Mike Savage (00:58)
Yeah, thanks Nick. Happy to be here. ⁓ You know, greatly appreciate the relationship that we've grown and the rest of the team there at Metal Plus. And, you know, I'm ⁓ just really striving to try and help our snow fighters through every storm, whether that can be from parts service or sales. And just happy to have a plow like you guys offer and to have a team.
there at Metal Plus to help me support ⁓ my customers and the support you give me, not only on the dealership level, but the personal level to help me support those customers. ⁓ Because ⁓ without a team, ⁓ this wouldn't come as easy as it does. And ⁓ the challenges that I'm faced with every snow event ⁓ wouldn't get taken care of without the team there at Metal Plus.
Yeah, thanks for having me on today. I'm looking forward to it.
Nick Arndt (01:58)
Thank you for those kind words, Mike. And I'll tell you that me and Mike sort of have similar career paths back before my Metal Plus days. I was doing the same thing sort of as Mike is now, maybe not on the scale that Mike is.
but I was at a deer dealer supporting snow fighters and let me tell ya, you know, if you're a snow fighter or snow removal company and you have 10 or 15 or one or two or whatever number of machines, that's one thing, but when you're actually selling those machines, you feel really personally responsible for them. I mean, if you're the right type of salesperson. So Mike, how many machines do you have out there? It's gotta be, holy smokes, it's gotta be a lot.
Mike Savage (02:37)
Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Just kind of where I've started and where we've grown the business to today. And I emphasize on that word, we, because I don't do it alone. Again, ⁓ with the help of you guys, and I have just a fantastic service department behind me, a fantastic parts department. If I had to guess, on any given snowfall, we have probably
250, 300 machines in the MSP area that are out pushing snow. And that might be light. I've been doing this since 2012, 2013. Really started in in-store sales and quickly found out that being out on the road, out calling on commercial customers, that's really where my passion was. I enjoy helping the guys and the folks that still come into the dealership.
⁓ But being out on the road and talking to snow contractors, PLC customers, professional lawn care customers, that's really where my passion was. you know, mowing grass is one thing, but that's a really hard, hard business model. ⁓ If you talk to the guys out there, you know, they mow the grass so they can plow the snow. And that just kind of transitioned into really focusing on snow. And...
And I quickly realized that to help to, excuse me, to grow that business, have to answer the phone, right? ⁓ You have to pick up the phone no matter what time of day. Sometimes just picking up the phone is all the customer needs. And so I think my name and our service and our support has gotten out there and more guys have started to rely on us. ⁓
really in this day and age, it doesn't matter what name is on the piece of equipment anymore, what color it is. mean, sure, you're gonna have some guys like that, but ⁓ you know, it's all about service. Yep, you can change oil and do that kind of stuff, but on some of these machines now, if it throws an error code, you know, that's coming back to the dealership. The first call is to call, you know, Midwest Service Department or myself and...
⁓ I've always just kind of put myself out there, maybe too much at times, but ⁓ I really focus heavily on customer service and the guys know that and I feel like that's why they come back to buy from not only myself, but Midwest Machinery. ⁓ So, you know, some of these large packages that we send out take a lot of time to put together and a lot of communication and a lot of support and a lot of service, but that's why they come here because they can get
the John Deere equipment, which we utilize to help sell metal plus plows. And, you know, that's really just growing our machine population. So yeah, you know, I think, I think 250 to 300 pieces of equipment are rolling each time it snows.
Nick Arndt (05:47)
Awesome. Bob, of all three of us, you've been the one who's actually pushed snow professionally and blown snow professionally. What would you say when you were working with dealers? What was the most important thing? ⁓ Tell us how important the dealer is in this whole equation of snow fighting.
Bob Green (06:07)
Well, my eyes have been really open since I've been at metal plus because our relationship with the dealer was they drop off the machine and be like, see you next time. And if there was a problem, so I call up Mike and say, Hey Mike, you know, my chapter threw a code and Mike would go, well, don't you have the service guy's phone number? Cause after sales service from the sales team was zero in Quebec zero. It's, probably a little bit better now, but
There is no people like Mike Savage running around with buckets of oil or extra hoses. And there's a very short list I find of guys out there that do what Mike does. And Job Miles is another one on the East Coast for Chapel Tractor. They're out there when it's snowing sideways. Most sales reps are at home watching TV with their phones off because they don't, the phone will explode and they don't want to hear about it. They're like, you know, I'll wash my hands. It's service department guys problem now.
So I it was a much different we were more We had to problem-solve in the middle of a storm if the tractor really, you know Through a code and it was stuck it stayed in the snow bank and and you know We went to pick the guy up and put him in an older machine a backup machine There was very little ⁓ Training and or support from a rep after the keys were handed over
Nick Arndt (07:34)
Yeah, so it makes a huge difference to have a salesperson that is knowledgeable on parts and service and the whole nine yards, not just writing orders and then walking away, like I mentioned earlier, owning the machine, feeling like you own the machine after you sell it. And that's something that Midwest and Mike does really good. When I was selling deer equipment, I often looked at the Midwest program where you guys had on the road.
snow support during a snow event, and I sent that around said, if we're gonna be in the game, we gotta do that too. Talk about that a little bit, Mike. What is it like during a snow event? Like you said, you might make yourself a little bit too available, and that's just the type of person you are, but what does Midwest offer? It starts dumping snow, whether it's 1 a.m., 1 p.m., whatever. Explain, in particular, you're out of the Hastings location.
Explain what Midwest does to support snow contractors.
Mike Savage (08:33)
Yeah, so, ⁓ you know, we're still trying to pin down what the right program really looks like. It's difficult because if you go off of a winter weather advisory or a winter storm warning or a winter storm watch, we feel like that's the right terminology to be able to turn on our service for after hours support. ⁓ But we have so many customers now that plow, you know, snowflake to snowflake per se. ⁓
or zero tolerance accounts. And then we've got the one two inch triggers. So it's, we're really, ⁓ really taking a hard look at it right now to try and really fine tune what that after hours and snow support really looks like. But I would tell you that, you know, for the first few events, we're, know, whether it's an inch or two of snow, we're turning on our after hours support. And that starts at 5 a.m. now and, and runs until 8 a.m. when, our Hastings store opens.
and then it'll run from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. Okay, there's always exceptions, right? You know, if a tech is out at 10 o'clock and the calls are rolling in, he's not going home. We take very good care of our technicians. We understand that they're putting themselves out there. They're working out in the middle of a parking lot, underneath a loader, in the snowbank sometimes. ⁓ So we always take safety.
into account, right? So we're not gonna put our tax out there if it's a blizzard by any means, but if service is needed, we're there. And that's kinda where I step in. I take a lot of phone calls. I've just trained myself to do it. I've got a wife and two kids at home, but we have those discussions and what's it gonna look like tonight with the storm rolling in? Because a lot of times, is, again, I go back to
you're just picking up the phone, okay? ⁓ I can solve a lot of problems over the phone. ⁓ It's not always easy. No one likes to diagnose an issue over the phone, but again, you take the call, the machine is doing this or it's not doing that. A lot of times we can point them in the right direction and even sometimes they can fix it themselves and get up and roll them. Now, there are certain events where a technician or not, we just, aren't gonna be able to fix that, whether it's two in the morning,
or it's six in the morning, right? That piece of equipment needs to come into our shop. But you'll hear the customer tell you that, you know what, I understand that. It's a piece of equipment, it's gonna break. But the fact that you answered the phone and tried to talk me through that, we don't get that anywhere else. so communication is paramount. As you guys know that during a snow event, ⁓ just really trying to help out as best you can.
But ⁓ for those that need us, we're there and we fire up the phones as we like to call it ⁓ as we see that winter weather start rolling in. Now the last two winners, ⁓ just to kind of give you a sense of how many times we lit up our after hour support. think last winter we only had five times that we had turned on our phones for after hour support. And kind of how that works is we have a specific phone number.
that our snow contractors call into and they can press one for service and one for parts. And that'll be that phone call most times will be taken by a parts or a service manager. Like me, they will try and diagnose the issue over the phone or if it's parts related, they'll identify which part is needed and he'll look it up. And if they have it at the store or if it's on one of the service technician's trucks, they will then take the next step and either meet the customer at the store.
⁓ or call the technician to hopefully drive the part there or meet the customer in need. So, and then, you know, since I brought up meeting at the store, you know, I've been kind of spoiled here over the years because I live about five minutes from the store and I've just kind of have everything memorized around here. So, you know, if someone calls me and they need a hydraulic line or a piece of cutting edge or
you know, a sensor or whatever, whatever the part may be. A lot of times, you know, I live closest to the store. I will drive up and unlock and grab the part and most times go and meet them. Okay. Um, you know, we've had doors fall off. It's just the most random stuff. It's, it's, it's, it's most of the time it's accidental, right? And, um, and I think being able to just come to the store, pull a door off of a new tractor or, or grab a
chunk of cutting edge and go and meet them. Like those are some of my biggest customers today because they were running Bobcat or they're running cage plows and they're just not going to get that service anywhere else. So, it's just when the storm's rolling in, we, kind of go into snow mode and we fire up the after hour support. We make sure that the technicians are stocked with the, the, we hope the right parts and, ⁓ everyone kind of heads home and waits for that call.
Bob Green (13:51)
The famous 4066 flying off door and capers.
Nick Arndt (13:51)
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, yeah Mike the
Mike Savage (13:56)
Yeah.
Nick Arndt (13:58)
it's not actually that rare I've replaced their doors on 30 40 6s and 40 66s old maybe a little too often you got to check the you got to check the little keeper on the on the latch oh It's terrible. So so it's it's sort of like harvest so a deer dealer or a tractor dealer like you guys are in Midwest machinery is a green dealer for John Deere, but that means
Even though they're ag and turf and egg they can sell up to the 344 loader It's sort of like harvest time. So most ag dealers have you know on call during You know harvest of whatever product at whatever time of year But with snow, it's a little more unpredictable and it's a little more frantic and it's a little more like fighting a fire So, ⁓ you know hats off to Midwest who has that program? Trust me. It's looked at by other
by other people in the industry as something to try to emulate, but it's not for the faint of heart. Let's go back, yeah, not for the faint of heart. Trust me, people get blown out of this industry because they just feel it's too stressful. ⁓
Bob Green (15:04)
It's
so much so it's it's it's the guys that look at snow removal go that's easy and they bite they start with a 4066 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's the rock star image of being a snow removal guy and until they have to wake up at 3 in the morning It's snowing sideways and they don't understand their equipment Why does my snow blower keep blocking? You know, it's Mike's fault
Nick Arndt (15:11)
Or it's cool. Yeah, it looks cool.
Yeah.
Mike Savage (15:26)
Yeah. Yeah. No, I,
it reminds me of last winter when we had, ⁓ we had one really, really good snowfall and I've done a lot of snowmobiling in my day and I've driven in some sketchy situations, whether it's up through the mountains or it's in the UP of Michigan pulling a big 29 foot in close trailer. But I'll tell you what, last winter, four in the morning guy called in and, I don't think he had his door latched and it, was driving down the road and this four hour door blew off and it shattered on the road. And, and, ⁓
You know, I just came in, grabbed the door and brought the dog with me and the dog and I are just rolling down the country road. ⁓ My truck was bottoming out. ⁓ was the scariest drive I've had and I was in my own county. ⁓ you know, just trying to take care of guys and, ⁓ you know, he's back to buy multiple tractors from me right now. And that's just what drives this industry forward.
Nick Arndt (16:25)
There's a lot of legendary Mike Savage stories and you know, I talked to everyone around the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. ⁓ Mike's reputation extends far beyond the Hastings, Minnesota, you know, Metro, MSP area. And when you're a person that knows how to get things done and has done the hard work to figure out snowblowers and attachments, et cetera, people look to you from all over. So Mike, you get calls from...
You get calls from all over the country asking about your tractor packages and attachments, correct?
Mike Savage (16:58)
Yeah, I sure do. Yeah, I've got customers now all over the US. I've got some really good North Dakota customers and they're not coming here to buy new equipment from me. I do some pretty large leases and when those come in, I need to have a home for them and I actually prefer that used lease returned equipment to actually leave my AOR. Furthermore, I'm not gonna sell a...
a brand new piece into someone else's back door. I wouldn't want them to do that to me. So, you know, I've really just been conscious of where I'm selling this equipment. I don't step on anyone's toes. Everyone knows that about me. ⁓ But, you know, I'm not afraid to send a new or excuse me, a used piece out to the East Coast or, you know, right up to Bismarck. So, ⁓ yeah, but, you know, attending the trade shows and, you know,
selling now for 14 years, it's word of mouth. mean, not very often am I out pounding on the doors of new potential customers. It's all word of mouth and this industry is so big, but yet it's really so small, right? Like everyone knows each other, good or bad. I feel like for the most part, it's friendly fire. And, ⁓ you know, in the equipment sales world, it's really the same way.
and any referrals I can get, I follow up on and just try to help them out and provide a solution.
Nick Arndt (18:27)
So let's go back to the start of you at Midwest. You said you've been there, was it 2012, 2013?
Bob Green (18:27)
Sorry.
Mike Savage (18:35)
Yeah, I started here actually right out of college. I went to school at UW River Falls, River Falls, Wisconsin. And yeah, started here in 2012 and was just an in-store sales guy. yeah, and then I've been out on the road now for, you know, I would say ⁓ kind of full time for the last about eight years. But it wasn't until about five or six years ago, we really started stocking, ⁓ or allied,
snow products, ⁓ like Metal Plus and Pronovost and a few others. And so you guys have the product that I use to sell John Deere. So we're a 29 store John Deere dealer spread across all of Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. And we sell John Deere. That's what we do here.
What brought me to John Deere is because we can offer full circle of equipment. What I mean by that is we have skid steers, we have wheel loaders, we have compact excavators, we have four-wheel drive garden tractors, we have compact utility tractors, we have utility tractors, we have gators, we have commercial mowing. Okay, so if you look at a PLC customer that's gonna commercial mow, he's gonna put a pool in, right? And he's gonna plow snow.
and maybe do some sidewalks, we can take care of him full circle. So he can come here, he's the one stop shop, he can get his lawnmower from me, he can get his backhoe from me, he can get a sidewalk machine, he can get a snow removal piece. And we can use attachments like Metal Plus to help sell that equipment. And with that, I'm fortunate to work with the powerhouse of John Deere Financial. And without John Deere Financial, I wouldn't do what I do today.
and being able to offer a blended rate for our customer to come to me and buy a John Deere 244, 344 compact wheel loader and put a 830 13, a 930 15, a 1042 18 on that and finance that or lease that as a package. You know, that's kind of the back to the one stop shop approach. You don't get that really anywhere else. Yep, you can go to...
to a cat dealer or a Kubota dealer and you're gonna get a skid, but they're just not stocking the inventory that Midwest stocks. And with that comes some applicable discounts. And so I feel like I'm just very, I'm able to be very competitive in the marketplace and then offer that good financing to go with it. So the customers can cashflow that piece of equipment on or off season, offer seasonal payments, six on, six off.
Bob Green (21:04)
Mm.
Mike Savage (21:24)
⁓ I've just really gotten good about trying to understand the customer and what works best for him based off of his snow contract. ⁓ yeah, we're just using everything John Deere has to offer to help sell your guys' equipment.
Nick Arndt (21:39)
And you do a good job. One thing I'll point out too though, is that not only is John Deere Financial and the whole package, and the whole gamut of possible sidewalk to big machine thing in advantage, it's you guys go a step above and beyond and on your pre-season order, order plows and attachments in to have packages ready to go. So you might set up a 4066 with a 72712 Agamax Lite.
or a 344 with a 1042 18 or a 244 with a 930 15, you have them ready to go and when someone says, yeah, I've been thinking about one of these packages and you can, or a bigger tractor with the 1036 16, you can walk up to a Midwest store and go, oh, here it is. And it makes it that much easier for them to get into the product. So you guys do a good job of setting things up and showing the customer this is what it could be outside of maybe a video they've seen online.
Mike Savage (22:40)
Yeah, yeah, we really try to, like right now our shop is busy setting up snow equipment for stock, right? Because we all know what fall brings and our service department is busy. And we also sell residential here too. So ⁓ we're out doing switchovers, right? We're mower decks off, we're putting snow blowers on, everyone's bringing their equipment in to have it serviced for fall. ⁓ The large commercial snow packages are getting ready to go out. So we're really...
in July, August, September, really trying to set the equipment up for stock that can be staged and ready to go. ⁓ Because, you know, although I'd love to have everyone call me in July and place their orders, I quickly realized that, you know, that just can't happen. Now, granted, I have my customers that buy from me every year and they've already placed their orders, but these guys know what they're going to have this winter, right? So you're always going to have the customer that calls in and
Bob Green (23:18)
Right.
Nick Arndt (23:22)
Yeah.
Mike Savage (23:35)
and says, you know, I picked up this account. I didn't anticipate I was going to get it, but I did. And so I need a couple of pieces of equipment for me to be able to say, yeah, you know what? I can get that out here in a couple of days is huge. And then, you know, we're really trying to grow this at some of our other locations and Midwest is jumping in with both feet. We've placed a very large order with not only Metal Plus, but with a few others.
And we actually brought in every 244 that Baltimore had on the ground here as of late. And I'm going to help get those set up. We're going to put snow tires on everything. All of them are getting either an E3013 or a 93015. We're going to wire them to the joystick. Everything's getting a beacon light, a radio, LED work lights. And then we're going to spread them out to about five or six other Midwest locations. We're going to park them up front.
they're gonna be priced on a purchase, a lease, they're gonna be just turnkey ready to go. So not only for myself, but for some of these other sales guys that I've started to help out here a little bit, they're gonna be able to just walk out, do a walk around on this piece of equipment and it can go on a truck the next day and head out. So I truly believe that ⁓ the prep work that goes into this is paramount and that's really where you succeed. If you're gonna sit on all these plows and
and try to put your packages together as they roll in in October and early November. You just can't keep up with it. ⁓ we just really try to be ready. We're not always ready. ⁓ I'm firm believer that I don't care if it snows in October or December, you're never ready. ⁓ But we really just try to challenge ourselves ⁓ to be ready. Although we're not always there, we're looking at it in June, July, and August versus October.
November.
Bob Green (25:28)
You're never ready for snow. mean when
I used to be the operations manager at that snow removal company you start in September. Sometimes it doesn't snow until December and you're still in the shop every day fine-tuning and then when the snow falls that's when the shit hits the fan and...
Everything breaks in the first no fall. It's horrible. No matter how ready you think you are, you're never ready. Now to go back, you said it twice. Nick said it once, the zero nine 30 15. A lot of people are probably listening to this. What's that? Because I think we made 40 of them in Midwest, probably about 30 plus last year. So nobody knows about the Mike Savage Plow Max.
Mike Savage (25:48)
Yeah.
Nick Arndt (26:09)
Yes, Mike, tell the story of, so Mike and I were talking about this size for a long time. You we make it 8'30", 13", and a 9'36", 15", and Mike starts telling me in spring of, I think 2024, like, we need a 9'30", 15". We need it to be wider but lighter for zero tolerance. I'm like, yeah, that's great, but man, we already got 500 sizes. I don't know if we need another one. He's like, no, no, no, no, no, we need this. I'm like, okay, Mike.
Syma's coming up, Syma 2024 in Pittsburgh. Come to Syma, talk to Jimmy, the owner of Metal Plus, the designer of all these great things. Come make your case. Mike, tell us how that went. Tell us the story of, tell us.
Bob Green (26:51)
Well, let's step back once, because I think
the conversation was between you two, and then it came to me with, you know, Mike wants this plow, and I'm like, okay, I'll run it up the flagpole, but you know the answer. Yeah, yeah.
Nick Arndt (27:03)
Every, okay, let's interrupt. Everybody wants ⁓ an interesting plow all day long. At Metal Plus,
somebody calls us and says we need XYZ size literally every day.
Bob Green (27:12)
Yeah, we've got a yard full of plows ready to go. Like 2,000 plows painted dirt, but every day, every day, literally Mike, someone comes in, can we do this size? And it's like, we can't, like in my head I say we can, but my mouth says no. And I say to the sales team, please sell what we have. You don't need a three wheel tractor, we have four wheel tractors. No, we don't need a five wheel tractor, we have four wheel tractors. So.
Nick Arndt (27:27)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Savage (27:27)
Yeah, got 2,000 plows sitting out there. Won't one of those work
for you?
Bob Green (27:40)
Nick came to me with the idea, said, okay, I'll run up the flagpole, but I'm pretty sure the answer's gonna be no. And that's what it came back to. And I think you and I spoke, Mike, about it on the phone. And you said, this client. And I was like, ⁓ it's not gonna happen. But then you came to Simon and met Jimmy. It was at the storm, it was at the storm, it was at the storm chasing event, I think, that you guys, no, no, was on the floor. It was on the floor, yeah.
Nick Arndt (27:56)
And I walked Mike over and I said...
It was on the floor. And
Mike Savage (28:03)
Yeah, I was on the floor,
Nick Arndt (28:04)
I said, Jimmy, this is the guy that wants the 930 15. And I walked away.
Bob Green (28:09)
And you and you threw a minimum amount or he asked you how many you needed and I think it was conservative at first Maybe you said five and then you ended up ordering with 30 plus right last year You had a client that ordered a couple of clients and he took some for stock now this plow
Mike Savage (28:13)
Yeah.
Yeah, I think we've moved 30 of them.
Nick Arndt (28:26)
What? Tell us the reasoning. Mike, give
me the reasoning that you gave me originally. Why the 93015?
Mike Savage (28:35)
Yeah. So, you know, the 244, 830 13 is, is, is a fantastic package, right. And, and, and has been, and, and, and will continue to be for, for a long time. I think where, where the need for a little bit bigger plow came in to play was, um, the fact that I can get no Key and snow tires, a 20 inch no Key and snow tire, right from John Deere, right from the factory on the 244, 344 loaders. And we all.
We all know that, you know, without a snow tire, you just can't move as much snow as you can with. And, you know, I was spending a lot of time swapping, or a lot of time, excuse me, swapping tires. And we went to deer and said, Hey, you know what? We need an Okian tire. We're too busy swapping tires in the fall. It's cause, it just costs everyone a lot of money. The machine's got to go on jack stands. It's you got to pay a technician. And now we run the risk of.
putting all these lug nuts back on and everyone's in a hurry and so on and so forth. The fact that we got this Nokia Snow Attire from factory really changed everything for me because not only does the loader come from the factory ready to go, it can push a hell of a lot more snow. And I was really just looking at the Metal Plus models and like Nick mentioned, to hop up to that 936-15 was just a little much and by much just
Bob Green (29:36)
Mm-hmm.
Mike Savage (30:00)
weight-wise carrying it around town. I feel like for a larger event, once you fill that plow up, it would probably run out of power to push it across the parking lot. I said, you know what, we need to just go a little bit wider with this, this Snowkeen snow tires pushing this 813 around like it's nothing. And we've got a lot of customers, specifically one that plows a lot of targets and Walmarts around me said, you know what, listen, I'm gonna be out there.
⁓ snowflake to snowflake at zero tolerance when it starts snowing my guys can just drive this 244 around the lot but he really wanted one piece that could take care of the whole lot and what do I mean by that he wanted to take care of the loading dock he wanted to do cleanups around the cart corrals he wanted to be able to scrape around the islands nicely he wanted to back drag the entrance ways ⁓ without having to have a skid steer there doing during detail work but 13 feet wide
He felt like it was just going to take them a little bit too long to do some of these super targets and, you know, Sam's club. And so, you know, I went to Nick and I said, you know, I got a no Keynes no tire. I got a two 44. We know what they do. I need a little shorter, but wider plow. And, um, you know, like Nick mentioned, went out to Sima dressed in street clothes, just kind of walked around and really was looking at some different products that were thinking about taking on. I met with Jimmy and Jimmy was very receptive.
He was willing to listen. And, ⁓ you know, I think once I pled my case, the guys obviously went back to the drawing board and, and we're willing to, put a few plows together for me. And, and, you know, I had one customer pick up, ⁓ he bought 25 of them last year and, they're sitting at Walmart's and, targets and, he just absolutely loves them. He's getting ready to place another order. And I think we, went pretty heavy on, on nine 30 15s this year here at Midwest versus the eight 30 13 again.
that's always, that 830-13 is always gonna have its place. Could make the argument that, well, why don't you go down the road at eight or go down the road at eight versus nine. So I get that. If you're gonna do an HOA or a townhome complex in 830-13 may be better, but for these guys out plowing some of these large, lots, I truly believe bigger is better. And to be able to fold back down to nine feet, you can do some of that detail work and.
and just have one piece of equipment on that lot. So it's been a game changer for me. ⁓ I wouldn't have sold again back to the partnership between Deere and Metal Plus and some of these other companies. I wouldn't sold 25 wheel loaders without your plow. That just doesn't happen. No one else offers it. ⁓ So I just wouldn't be to where I am today without someone listening to me, someone taking me serious, someone taking that back.
and really putting a pencil to paper and bringing it light for me. So I can't thank you guys enough for taking me serious on that. And I'm just really excited to see where that plow ends up.
Nick Arndt (33:02)
It's awesome and so we make this order at the end of summer. know, plows just don't pop up and exist. you know, Jimmy designs the plow, makes it a bit lighter as people can see and if they see a picture of one, it has a lighter, you know, the plow is still as beefy as ever, but it has a bolt on top mold board to take some of the weight out. And ⁓ we design the plow and we get them to you guys right at the last minute. I remember sitting at a dinner at GIE Expo.
And they're like, these things are on the verge of being, you know, the the steals ordered, the pieces are cut, they're going to put them together. And they're like, all right, what what project is priority? And I'm like, don't even ask me. It's the 93015. Well, I don't care. Skip all the other plows. Make the 93015s. ⁓ And so we got them out the door and the rest is the rest is history. But I think it speaks a lot to Mike, the extra layer. You're not just selling what you see in a book.
If there's a solution that doesn't exist, know, a good salesperson's about solving problems, you insisted that the problem be solved. ⁓ moving forward, everybody has the opportunity to buy a 930-15 and be a little more productive on a 244, you know, thanks to you. So we appreciate your commitment to that new project, Mike. And let me go to step two in this project, because this is what people are really talking about now. You mentioned this earlier.
Bob Green (34:18)
And
Nick Arndt (34:29)
you're wiring it into the John Deere 244, 324, 344 joystick. Talk a little bit about how you figured that out because now this is a question that we as Metal Plus get almost every day is what advantage does this joystick have in controlling a Metal Plus?
Mike Savage (34:29)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah, you bet. And just real quick before I hop into that, you know, ⁓ I want to shed some light on the fact that not only myself, but the customer trusted that plow just with the Metal Plus name on it. Like we got to remember here, you guys built this plow from scratch, right? I had never even seen one. And I just knew that you guys were gonna produce a product that was gonna work.
And then for the customer to say, you know, I've never seen this plow, but you know, let's get 25 of them coming. I think that just speaks to the name and the product that you guys provide. ⁓ we really have a.
Nick Arndt (35:25)
Yep, all we had was
a sketch for a while and I'm like, you don't need a picture of one. Here's the sketch, Jimmy makes good stuff, you'll be all
Bob Green (35:30)
and ⁓
Mike Savage (35:32)
Yeah.
Bob Green (35:33)
Let me just
interject before you jump into the wiring so that what jimmy and the design team found from the 930 the 915 is now Trickle down to the 830 13 the new 80 30 13s look a lot like the 915s with the bolt-on moldboard So he's found a way a way to keep the strength but shed weight Basically through the whole plomax line now So your little conversation that was on probably drawn on a napkin You know, that's what I love about sima right? think these great conversations that happen
Mike Savage (35:35)
Right.
Yeah.
Bob Green (36:04)
between smart people. ⁓ just improved the industry right there. With that one conversation, you satisfied a client, Jimmy came up with a good idea and it's helping us improve all of our plows.
Mike Savage (36:10)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Arndt (36:17)
Yeah, because we're
always gonna be cautious because our plows, because of the shape of the flatter shape of the moldboard, push more snow on purpose. We roll snow up and over the moldboard and that's the conversations I had with Mike. Originally I'm like, Mike, if we go too wide on this, the guy's gonna spin out. That's the last thing I want is someone regretting this size of plow. But it's opened up a new market in more plows built for zero tolerance that... ⁓
Mike Savage (36:22)
Okay.
Okay.
Nick Arndt (36:42)
You know, we're basically gonna have two versions of a lot of sizes, which is the standard everyday 0.5
inch to 10 inch plow. And then we're gonna have a few lighter versions, just not built lighter, but physically lighter that are a bit wider. So we thank you for that because that's, you know, there's other stuff on the works thanks to that project.
Mike Savage (37:02)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, the, the, and to segue into, you know, operating this plow or, or, or the joystick, you know, the, work is done down on that live edge, right? Scrape, scraping across that pavement. That's what sells, sells the plow. But, you know, the operator needs to, needs to enjoy, ⁓ running the plow or the loader. It needs to be user friendly, right? And user friendly, oftentimes leads to better efficiencies. And so.
The three position rocker switch is something that's been out there for a long, long time and we've all seen it and I'm sure some guys listening or some folks listening have zip tied their three position rocker switch to their loader joystick or they've put it in a knockout ⁓ to the right of the joystick where their hand needs to leave the joystick. ⁓ know, Velcro, whatever it may be, there was never really a good way to mount that switch so.
For about four to five years, ⁓ we were using a of a custom switch holder that we designed in-house that actually replaced the John Deere joystick and mounted the Metal Plus 3-position rocker switch right kind of below the loader joystick or right next to your index finger, if you will. And that worked great for a long, long time. I can remember a few customers calling in from the East Coast and the Dakotas just to buy that kit from us. ⁓
You know, that goes back to we're always just looking at ways to make things better and whether that's a wider plow or a different switch holder. You know, there's always things that we're looking at. But here as the model year 2025, January 244 is rolled out when they switched from an L series loader to now a P series loader. Deere was sending.
power down to the skid steer coupler right from the factory. So for guys or gals listening that own a John Deere skid steer that have the electrical attachment at end of the boom, you get a 14 pin and you get a three pin. Well, that three pin is power. Okay. And so they started including that three pin power at the bottom of the boom. And I found that that is wired right in to the auxiliary hydraulics on the loader joystick.
So we started playing around with some different softwares and some updates and ⁓ on the L-Series loaders, but we just never could get it quite to work the way we wanted to. And then the P-Series rolled out. And now if you wire right into the bottom of that boom ⁓ and move your auxiliary hydraulic switch left or right, that'll actually activate your left or right wing. ⁓ Because for most of you guys ordering the Plows with the DVD E3 diverter,
We just need to send power to left or power to right. And now with the three pin down there, we have two powers and a ground. We can send power to the left and the right and your thumb actually does not need to leave the joystick. So ⁓ not only has that been huge for our customers and just training the operators ⁓ and the efficiency that goes behind it, it has helped me out from the dealership level tremendously because
We're wiring all these loaders, right? We were running a wire harness into the cab, adding a fuse. And it was, you know, a four or five hour project. And then we still need to put hydraulic hoses on the, on the plow. And, and we have a certain way of mounting everything and every zip tie needs to be in the right spot. So it doesn't get hooked on anything. And we just took extra time to make sure they're set up right now. John Deere 244, 344 rolls off the semi.
MitoPlus plow rolls off the semi. I put two hydraulic hoses on, put a little three-pin connector on, and away we go. And it really is that simple. So that's been a game changer for us. I think we're really gonna notice it here this fall because of the amount of loaders that we have on site and the amount of plows that we have. Just getting all these set up. And then it's just easier to try and echo this business model out of Hastings at some of our other stores.
Any any technician can put a plow metal plus plow on a John Deere P Series loader now it just made it a lot easier on on everyone and ⁓ You know, hopefully we can we can just get a harness right for metal plus at at some point But it's about four dollars in parts through John Deere right now to add that to the plow
Bob Green (41:36)
Hmm.
Nick Arndt (41:37)
Yeah, so I want to be clear right now. It's something that Midwest offers uniquely. So so see Mike, but I want to point out though if anyone listening is interested in seeing it in action, there is a video from Brandon at LADC where he walks through how this works in this video has caught some attention in the last few weeks for sure because reps all metal plus reps throughout the company started getting questions. How do I do this? I want this.
and it really caught people's attention. But I'll put a link in the show notes to the video where Brandon shows it in operation because it's nothing in the cab. You move the buttons on the joystick to the left to control wings and then, or right, then when you move left and right and up, then you're not only angling the plow, you're controlling the wings. So it's all in one. It is magical. It's a dream control that now you have with the John Deere P Series Loader.
And shout out to Midwest because it should be mentioned that when dealers are experimenting with this stuff, there's cost involved. If you're having a technician experiment for an hour and a half, that billing goes somewhere. You're not billing a customer. You're paying for that in a way by lost revenue. really, Mike, thanks for doing that work in discovering that awesome P Series thing. And I'm sure we'll see more videos on it from
various operators as this year rolls along. you know, we're gonna start wrapping up here, Mike. That was a good thing to end on, the three-pin connector from Deere. We'll see more of that in the near future. And we just wanna thank you and thank Midwest Machinery for being great partners with Metal Plus, not only selling and supporting our product, but helping us be better too. So Mike, thank you. If people wanna reach out to you, ⁓
Are you open to phone calls? Are you taking quote requests from all over? What can people do if they want to talk to you about Metal Plus or John Deere Snow Packages?
Mike Savage (43:45)
Yeah, yeah, no, and thank you guys. And I'm certainly willing and try to be able to help ⁓ anyone and everyone. So, ⁓ you know, I'm sure we have a way that we can share some of my contact information. I would say that, you know, the best way to contact me is of course by a phone call. ⁓ I'm a communicator. ⁓ You know, I obviously ⁓ don't mind texting or emailing, but a phone call.
I can usually take care of a lot more versus 15 texts back and forth. So you can reach out to me. We'll put some information here. Hopefully you tag it in the post somehow or put it the comments. I can leave my phone number here at 651-829-0781 or msavage at mmcjd.com. And some of the service related questions.
Like our recent conversation on the joystick, I may push those over to my service department. They have that dialed in. Parts related questions, I may push you to our parts department. When you start with me, I'd be happy to meet you and just kind of explain a little bit about what we do and what we can offer you on the new end and also the used equipment side. And we've got a lot of leased equipment coming in here soon. So for guys outside of the AOR, I'd be happy to help you.
And then ⁓ just to wrap up here, again, just want to thank Metal Plus. I would not be where I am today without you guys. And although it's really became a friendship at this point, ⁓ on a business level, it's a partnership, right? And ⁓ I don't want to go without saying you guys take calls after hours from me too. And I think there's times when you can sense my stress and my level of... ⁓
Bob Green (45:35)
You
Mike Savage (45:38)
you know, commitment that I have to the customers, but ⁓ you guys know me well enough by now where it's coming from the customer. And then sometimes, unfortunately, that comes your way. So thank you for all that you guys do for Midwest and for myself. And I'm really continuing to try and grow this thing and blow it up more than it even is.
Bob Green (45:51)
No worries, Mike.
Mike Savage (46:04)
And even if there's some other sales guys out there listening, feel free to reach out to me, whether you work for a competitive dealer or another John Deere dealer, I'm happy to help. So, no, thanks guys, and I hope you enjoy your weekend.
Bob Green (46:15)
See?
And this is exactly how Nick started. It's not all about being an operator or an owner of a snowmobile company. It's about the support. And the support is part of being a snow fighter without people like Mike. The industry doesn't go forward anymore. It's stuck spinning its wheels to use a Nokia analogy. Thank you very much, Mike. It's always a pleasure speaking with you. We're here for you and I'll talk to you soon. ⁓
Nick Arndt (46:41)
Ooh, a good one.
Yeah, thanks.
Mike Savage (46:48)
Yeah,
like, no, was just going to say it likewise. Always a pleasure, guys.
Nick Arndt (46:49)
yeah, go ahead, Mike.
Awesome. Well, this has been another episode of the Born to be a Snowfighter podcast, the Metal Fist Family podcast, and ⁓ we look forward to talking to you all again. So thank you and see you next time.