Help Wanted Looking for technicians, fabricators and a shop manager (1 Viewer)

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Trollhole

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Location
Mauldin, SC
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forum.ih8mud.com
I started this business from nothing into a name recognized in most Land Cruiser circles. I've got it to a point where I need to add to my current crew. Considering I'm posting on Mud I would assume most of the people that are looking here are Cruiserheads so that is always a plus in my book. We are a specialized shop as we do anything as long as it's on a Land Cruiser built from 1958-2023. We do full frame off restorations, modifications and general maintenance. Usually there are anywhere for 30-40 cruisers in rotation.

The Jobs are 8-5 Monday-Friday
I pay straight hours and not book hours and pay is based on experience, which for a tech ranges for $21-35 an hour starting. Shop Manager position pay is negotiable.
There is holiday pay
Must provide your own tools but I have no need for a giant box. Most everything is metric. (Most) I have the majority of the SST's needed.
Greenville, SC is a great and growing town where the cost of living isn't as high as other places. Traffic isn't horrible. The Appalachian mountains are an hr away and the beach is 3hrs. Our downtown is insane and you would just have to see it to believe it. Our local Land Cruiser club chapter is based out of my area.

My 5-10 year goal is to get the company in a position where the employees can take over ownership. We have some great people right now. I've also just purchased the land beside our current shop and will be breaking ground on our new 8000 sqft shop next year.

If your interested please email me at m@trollhole.com and we can go from there. Thank you.
 
Instagram..... and keep posting, post to story and others can share.
 
As a rule I don't know a single descent mechanic who would work for straight hours at $21 - $35 and straight hours are viewed as either a great opportunity for lazy inefficient mechanics or business looking to get good $$$ off billing book rate and paying straight.

I appreciate if you are doing custom stuff etc its hard to do full book rate but you may have more success offering a split between both so they have the ability to over clock as every guys I would with does and lives for that.

Just a suggestion as finding good guys is hard at the best of times and many won't speak up and tell you why they aint applying.
 
As a rule I don't know a single descent mechanic who would work for straight hours at $21 - $35 and straight hours are viewed as either a great opportunity for lazy inefficient mechanics or business looking to get good $$$ off billing book rate and paying straight.

I appreciate if you are doing custom stuff etc its hard to do full book rate but you may have more success offering a split between both so they have the ability to over clock as every guys I would with does and lives for that.

Just a suggestion as finding good guys is hard at the best of times and many won't speak up and tell you why they aint applying.


I currently have the best employee I have ever had, been self employed since 1999 and have employed hundreds of people.

He was paid straight hours for two years and now is on salary. I give a good raises too. He seems happy as can be but we do big builds. If he was doing knuckle & brake jobs everyday he would not have even come to work for me in the first place.

Finding general mechanics has been rough for me. They last about six months and then quit. Doesn’t seem to matter how much I pay them or how nice I am to them. I have pretty much given up unless I can find a person who loves Cruisers and wants to work on them. Sucks when you invest time and $$$ training a person for them to just quit.

Cheers
 
is he making $21 - $35 per hour ?


He named his starting wage and yes it was in that range. He is above it now, I give good raises depending on performance.

Cheers
 
I would love to see Landcrusier shop that could keep a top tier tech feed with work to make flat rate work. Just the nature of what we do and what we work on makes that damn near impossible. I'm big into TPS , scrum and lean manufacturing . Your planning has to be so spot on to make that work. We all know how parts are these days. I know I do alot of standing around or shifting tasks trying to stay busy due to the wrong part , bad ,part forgotten part ETC. ETC ETC @Barn to be honest I have yet to work in a landcuiser shop were I wouldn't be pissed off if they paid flat rate . None have the resources of a dealer. As you find hourly techs " lazy" I find most flat rate techs sloppy and sub par for custom work. I can go to a dealer or a different type of shop and make twice of what I make now with half the stress. I enjoy standing back and looking at my work going home tired and dirty but proud of the brake lines that took me all day to make. I can only speak for myself it's not about flagging hours. I love landcruisers. I would call anything over $30 for a mid level tech good in a landcruiser shop.

That's my 2 cents and I had to save to get that , I work in a cruiser shop hahaha
 
Did you ever find a Shop Manager?

...I'm an Operations Manager...And I obviously love Land Cruisers ;)
 
😔, I don’t what is wrong with young people these days.

If an opportunity like this presented itself when I was young I would be all over it! Heck, I would jump on it now if I was allowed to just move across the boarder and start working in the US.
I have been into Cruisers since 1997 and have owned 40, 60 and currently a 80 series.

I guess there are fewer and fewer young people out there who are passionate in just the enjoyment of building and maintaining mechanical things?

The process of putting in a good days work, standing back and admiring it and going home knowing you did a good days work and learned something new on a frequent basis is so satisfying.

Cheers
 
As a rule I don't know a single descent mechanic who would work for straight hours at $21 - $35 and straight hours are viewed as either a great opportunity for lazy inefficient mechanics or business looking to get good $$$ off billing book rate and paying straight.

I appreciate if you are doing custom stuff etc its hard to do full book rate but you may have more success offering a split between both so they have the ability to over clock as every guys I would with does and lives for that.

Just a suggestion as finding good guys is hard at the best of times and many won't speak up and tell you why they aint applying.
I refuse to do split work mainly because it causes techs to make shortcuts and rush a job. I want torque specs followed and a good job that rolls out the shop right the first time. I also eat quite a few hours. Plus with the vehicles we work on bolts break or parts have to be fabricated.
 
I wish there was an opportunity like this near me...
I love wrenching on mine and learning.
As Zig Ziglar used to say, "You can get everything you want out of life, if you help enough other people get what they want."
More important than "flat rate or book" is the character of the man running the show.

IMG_0377.jpeg
 
the only thing i can add to lack of applicants is that it seems to be a problem across the board, small buisiness, large buisiness, doesnt seem to matter.
 
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I've been kicking the idea of opening a vintage vehicle shop out here for awhile now. I only like working on old stuff and none of the shops around here want to do the work. They can't flat rate $175 an hour for fixing 70 year old cars that nobody in there shop under the age of 30 knows how to fix.
 

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