What You Need to Know and Do Before Buying a Spray Rig
A high-quality spray rig is a must for anyone who’s serious about making a good living in the lawn care business. Unreliable equipment, downtime, and repair bills won’t do your bottom line or your reputation any favors. But even the folks at Graham – a company known for the dependability and longevity of its rigs – will tell you there’s more to a great rig than quality alone. It also needs to be designed and equipped to support your particular lawn care operation.
That might seem straightforward enough, but it’s easy to become overwhelmed by all the decisions you’ll need to make when buying a rig. How many gallons of product do you need to carry? Are you better off with multiple tanks or a split tank? Mechanical or jet agitation? Is a dual-pumping station merely a “niceto-have” or a game-changer? The choices you make on these and countless other features can mean the difference between surviving and thriving.
For more than 40 years, our approach has been to help our customers make decisions that support their profitability and growth. Here’s a glimpse into the advice we offer to make the shopping process more manageable and safeguard against buyer’s remorse.
Be Realistic About How Much You Can Spend
Before you begin shopping around, assess your financial situation and figure out a ballpark monthly payment that you can realistically afford. That number is your protection against overspending and taking on more debt than you can handle. It also protects you against underspending, which is just as bad because it means you’re not investing properly in your livelihood. The takeaway here is you should buy the best spray rig you can afford.
Be Clear About Your Business Goals
Of course, a new rig should fit your current operation. But what about a few years down the road? Do you want to increase accounts or expand your services? Finances permitting, we always recommend you purchase a rig that can accommodate your growth goals over the next four or five years. Otherwise, you’ll need to purchase another rig very soon in order to grow or – worse – scale back your goals.
For example, if you currently offer only lawn fertilization and weed control but want to start providing tree and shrub care or pest control, it’s important to understand that these treatments need separate systems. In other words, the products used for these three different services can’t mix. A good spray equipment company should be more than willing to offer cost-effective options for getting the setups you need to expand your services.
Don’t Assume Customization Costs Too Much
There are common spray rig setups that you see over and over again in lawn care operations of all sizes. These arrangements may work well enough for many businesses, but they’re not necessarily the best fit for everyone.
For example, the configuration of a rig can have a significant effect on efficiency and, in turn, profitability. Think about the things you or your crew wish were easier or quicker to do in the course of daily operations: maybe it’s loading and offloading equipment, or servicing a route with different types of turf.
Customizing a rig’s layout or features can be a costeffective way of achieving the efficiencies you’re looking for. The right design could even enable you to do more with a smaller rig and avoid the cost of purchasing a larger one.
Look for a Quality Dealer as Well as Quality Equipment
The level of service you get from Graham is as important as the quality of our equipment. Ultimately, you want to feel like you’re working with a partner and not just a sales team. What does that look like?
- We’re knowledgeable about the lawn care business and not just the spray industry.
- We learn as much as we can about your operation and business goals before recommending a particular rig.
- We are experienced in coming up with custom designs that solve problems and increase efficiency.
- We offer cost-effective options for both trucks and spray units. For example, we have a relationship with an Isuzu dealer that offers special pricing and priority service for our customers.
- We provide robust after-sale services, such as operation and maintenance training, phone support, and convenient replacement parts ordering.
- We’re transparent in our dealings with you and follow through on what we say we will do.
You can be confident that we’re operating in your best interest when you work with Graham.