Many years ago, there was a Sports Illustrated magazine cover picture of Loof Lirpa. He had an abnormal baseball pitching arm due to a birth defect that allowed him to throw 115 mph curve balls. He was a phenom. Un-hittable and almost uncatchable. It was only after people stopped to think and reason did they put together that the magazine came out on April 1st and Loof's last name spelled backwards was....April. Back in that time, we had a web page helping folks 'hot rod' our combines and actually had a web site 'gleanerhypermods.com' which was still up last I checked. There was also a site that M. Gorden had supported and included all brands of combines.
The cross-talk was one brand trying to one-up the other. So, one year when April Fool’s Day rolled around, I plagiarized the Sports Illustrated article and posted that we were coming out with a new process for harvesting parts that resulted in super hard, frictionless, longer wearing than chrome, cheaper cylinder bars and grates that would blow the competition away. I also wrote that the process was a lost art of the Germans during WWII that they’d used on the barrel liners of the feared 88mm anti-tank gun. For background’s sake, the 88 was a super high-velocity weapon that all Sherman tank and half-track crews dreaded to even think about. My dad was a machine gunner on said half-track and saw many an armored vehicle punched clean through with a deadly round from the German 88. This gun could fire thousands of rounds with the same barrel, due to a special manufacturing process the Allies did not have, and still be super accurate. I stated that we had found Loof Lirpa and that he directed and revived this process, and we were using it on combine threshing parts.
It generated a lot of talk and discussion. Of course it was an April Fool's joke.
The next day at 7:00 a.m. the phone rang. I answered and the caller asked if this was the person who wrote on the combine forum about the new secret process of making combine parts. I laughed and replied, “Yes.” There was a long silence. He said, "You laughed, I am assuming this was a joke?" I said “Yes” again, and heard a long sigh of relief. The caller was Warren Lowen from Lowen Mfg. and they had just done exactly what I had unknowingly just described.
He went on to tell me the story and the process called Boronization. Boronized bars can be purchased and are featured today by Sunnybrook. We proceeded to swap stories and he sent some parts for us to try. Mr. Lowen thought someone had either spied on their efforts, stolen their two years of research, or someone had beaten them to the punch just a few days before their introduction. I made his day after almost giving him cardiac arrest. So, what is the lesson here? Nothing really, but it never hurts to dream, eh? Oh, the power of the internet. ‘Til next time, wishing you miles of smiles and profits.
|
Told from the perspective of an in-the-trenches owner/operator — Tim Brannon of B&G Equipment, Paris, Tenn. — Equipment Dealer Tips, Tales & Takeaways shares knowledge, experiences and tips/lessons with fellow rural equipment dealerships throughout North America. Covering all aspects required of an equipment dealership general manager, Brannon will inform, entertain and provide a teachable moment for current — and future — leaders within equipment dealerships. |
 |
