The Little scooter shop

**Army** · 09-07-2005, 09:13 PM

Boy, ya let a guy play with one little bitty Vespa, and ZOOM! He's goes down into hobby hell

**billybob_81067** · 09-08-2005, 12:36 AM

We've got a 20x30 shop/garage next to my parents house that we store stuff in and do some work out of.

Then there's the 50x100 building for our main shop with a 30x50 area for working on stuff and the rest is basically storage. It also has a 25 foot wide lean to running the entire 100ft length on the back side for parking stuff under. so it's basically 75x100 total area.

Also on our farm we've got a 70x100 hayshed, as well as a 54x150 hayshed that we had put up this winter. We're currently in the process of putting up another hayshed right now a few hundred feet behind our shop that will be 54x150 with a 30ft lean to running the length on the back side for parking more stuff under and effectively making it an 84x150!!!

So yeah I couldn't even fathom working out of such a small building!!!

But since you are working on scooters and they don't take up much room it should work just fine!

**Tunaman** · 09-08-2005, 04:06 AM

Well you go girl!

Looks great! Let me know if you need any tools or machines to get that shop going. I have tons of stuff here. Best of luck too!

**BD_Paintball** · 09-08-2005, 01:53 PM

looks like you will be having alot of fun in there.

**Ole Unka Phil** · 09-09-2005, 07:40 AM

Originally posted by billybob_81067

We've got a 20x30 shop/garage next to my parents house that we store stuff in and do some work out of.

Then there's the 50x100 building for our main shop with a 30x50 area for working on stuff and the rest is basically storage. It also has a 25 foot wide lean to running the entire 100ft length on the back side for parking stuff under. so it's basically 75x100 total area.

Also on our farm we've got a 70x100 hayshed, as well as a 54x150 hayshed that we had put up this winter. We're currently in the process of putting up another hayshed right now a few hundred feet behind our shop that will be 54x150 with a 30ft lean to running the length on the back side for parking more stuff under and effectively making it an 84x150!!!

So yeah I couldn't even fathom working out of such a small building!!!

But since you are working on scooters and they don't take up much room it should work just fine!

Yea I hate I lost my other shops use. I had twice this room there. It was 24 X 36. And the two Sheds. But with the other two support buildings in place over here I should be able to muck through. Just need to keep organized and all that. Thats the main problem is keeping things hung up and junk cleared out. No storage here in this building. All of it in the others. Shame but ... ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Mainly I am going to have to use portable buildings here to keep the Tax man off balance. But I got three of them so far and perhaps might have to add a Fouth one. I can use some of the father in Laws barn space if need be for raw storage.

**Ole Unka Phil** · 09-09-2005, 07:43 AM

Originally posted by Army

Boy, ya let a guy play with one little bitty Vespa, and ZOOM! He's goes down into hobby hell

It must be a hobby... cause its costing me a fortune!

I have been contacted by two major East coast scooter shops to do some work for them. One main one out of Richmond and one out of Atlanta. Mainly Paint and body work. But in both cases it mostly will be trade offs for Parts and Project bikes. So eventualy money will flow from it. But never enough it seems.

**Steelrat** · 09-09-2005, 08:20 AM

Hey, how is your new mower working out? I happened to catch your post on a tractor forum about your new ZTR, and I've actually been looking for one myself. I noticed you bought the Hustler, and I had actually been looking at those, though I was a bit put off by their use of IZTs(?) in lieu of commercial-quality pumps. From what I've read, their durability just isnt in the same league.

**Ole Unka Phil** · 09-09-2005, 08:58 AM

So far so good. The darn thing is a tank. Cuts fast and fun.

EZT/IZT seems to be a decent application for our purposes. I mean its a matter of hours use I guess. I am doing about a half acre here and maybe same once a month over at the other place. I know its going to go round and round for a while on the use of integrated pumps and motors trying to establish the life of them. Some people are estimating 800 to 1000 hours on the EZT's is expected 50% life span (ie 50% will still be good and 50% worn out). But thats all speculation for now. As far as I know, no one realy knows yet. Assuming the former it would be 16 years of use for us average homeowner at 50 hours a year (reasonable estimate from what I am chaulking up on my hour meter so far). And assuming the later it would be 20 years. Thats for the EZT/IZT set ups. I know the latest IZT's are servicable now. So might even be longer on those. But I could almost buy two of these Mowers for the cost of a full commercial with Seperate hydro pumps and coolers. However I do know (or have heard of) a few Commercial people using the smaller units in commercial applications that are stating well over 1000 hours on them already and still going. And thats a miss application but a reasonable test I think. They need a few realy small units for some tight urban spaces and are using them even though they lose warranty for that. But seem to do fine so far.

I guess one has to weigh the cost verses the use. If you got a couple acres or more... and your doing weekly you might want to invest in something of the larger Hustler line for that. An acre or so.... well probably not. The Mini FasTrak is using the EZT's and the FasTrak the IZT's. But the full Mini Z's and up are regular seperate pumps and drives. The thing that helped me decide was the warranty. And the thought that it would probably last 15+ years.

I am told by HydroGear that these are all rebuildable. Maybe not cost effective over replacement though. I need to find out what a unit actual costs. Would be interesting to know. You would need two of them.

Of all the "non commercial" (homeowners) units I looked at they all used EZT/IZT's. All of them. Including Snapper and Cub Cadet etc. But the only one I looked at that did not have a stamped steel deck and some frame components stamped steel was the Hustler. So yea Hustler uses them but they are not alone. They only use them in thier two Consumer models. The Mini and regular Fast Trak's. Just like everyone else. They do not use them in thier other commercial lines. Just like everyone else. But as far as I was able to determine... they are the only ones building a commercial scaled down frame and deck to attach them too. All welded steel plate and tubes. No stamped stuff all the way across the line. No one else is doing that with them. One could argue that the frame will still be intact as well as the motor in 15+ years to even consider replacing the motors with whatever you wanted. The other competition frames and decks will be worn out.

And because EZT and IZT's are fairly new there is no field testing to know for certain how long they realy last. So anyone saying their durablility is less is speculating. And probably rightfully so without proof to the contrary. But fact is they do not know. No one does. One could assume they are less reliable because its like a TV/VCR/DVD combo... when one thing goes the rest is not usable. But then again these are on smaller wieght units and not used and abused like commercial units are. So who is to say that thier engineering specifications are not adequate for what they are asked to push around and for the amount of time they are expected to do it? I dunno... could balance out? Thats what HydroGear is expecting.

For me I needed a tight small mower. And the only one suited me was the Mini Fast Trak in the 36". Fits in my storage and gets the tight spots I needed to go between.

So far I love this thing. Fast as heck. I do the lawn in half the time.

The Little scooter shop

The Little scooter shop

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