Toro Disappointment

January of 2016 I visited the Toro booth at the Minneapolis Convention Center for the annual Northern Green Expo. I was interested in the 2016 60″ Grandstand Multi Force and the representative introduced me to the Multi Force. Immediately I had this glaze come over my eyes. alex-on-grnadstand-multi-force

The representative pulled out his IPhone and started showing me attachments for this machine that would be coming out this year. My mind was blown! A compact machine for mowing & snow?

That Spring I went to my equipment dealer (Gruber’s Power Equipment – Maplewood, Minnesota) to purchase this machine. Speaking with one of their employees about the attachments, I voiced how the sweeper attachment would be a game changer for my company.

He told me that attachment was not ready for purchase yet, but was reassured by Toro that it would be ready around Fall time. So I dropped the $8k on the 60″ deck machine.

In September my family & I visited the Minnesota State Fair. And you know I had to stop by the Toro booth. Speaking with two friendly representatives about the Multi Force, they were amazed by this machine. Since I felt like it was going to be a game changer for us, I wanted to pick their brains about the attachments.

I spoke of how I purchased this machine and the two facets it was going to serve my family lawn care operation of 15 years and they thought that was brilliant. They too reassured me that the sweeper was going to be for sale this Fall as well.

The next month (October) I visited the GIE+Expo in Louisville, Kentucky with some friends and made many more friends at this get together. Of course I had to stop by the Toro booth and there it was, the game changer!

The sweeper attachment that was going to limit how many people I needed to hire for snow removal this year. Man handle all of my commercial accounts that have a one inch tolerance.

The attachment did not hit the market for sale. This gathering in Louisville, Kentucky is where I find out from one of the Toro representative’s, that the sweeper will not be available until Spring of 2017. I thought, well this is just perfect.

We have been running all Toro 60″ sit down zero-turns for years & then I jump out and purchase a stander in hopes of having a Multi Purpose machine. Not 100% actually needing this machine for lawn mowing, this was more than a disappointment.

I completely stand behind the Toro product, as a matter of fact I have pointed several other landscape company owners to Toro. More than a few have actually purchased Toro machines from my equipment dealer, because of my more than satisfied experience.

Let’s face it, Toro & Ring Lawn Care are apart of this industry for more than the equipment we sell and use. We are in the people business. People do not like false promises.

#Lawncare It really works great. Has helped us become even more serviceable when clearing sidewalks. ✅ This is the attachment we have been waiting for. 💥 @thetorocompany #torograndstand #keepgrindinringahding #snowremoval

A post shared by Bryan Ring a.k.a. RingahDing (@ringlawncare) on Dec 23, 2017 at 8:11pm PST

UPDATE

Yes I was very disappointed with Toro not releasing the broom attachment ($6875) when they announced the market release time frame. Well, as you can see I got it, finally! It really is everything that I thought it would be.

Plenty of power, speed, and efficiency. We have experienced some slipping, but we did not purchase the wheel weights, merely because they want $380 for a set. Instead, we have our own weights from an old machine that has been sufficient. Also, purchased a set of rubber tire chains ($120) and the snow tires ($250).

Overall very pleased. The price tag is hefty, but in our case the broom attachment was already paid for prior to our order, merely due to all of the lawns mowed in 2016 with the Grandstand itself. Highly recommend if you can afford it. It will make your life a little less stressful if commercial sidewalks need to be tackled on a regular basis.

~Ringahding~