ACtion Magazine - July/August 2014 - (Page 42)

Are you ready to 'go big'? Y ou'll need plenty of space. That's one of the major requirements - although certainly not the only one - if you're considering expansion of your A/C repair services beyond passenger cars and light trucks. If you're feeding meters on a public street to have a place to park your customer's vehicles while awaiting repair or pickup, you might want to think again. Recent pictures I've seen from two different MACS member shops show numerous large trucks, buses, agricultural equipment and more on their property awaiting repair or delivery to the customer. One of these shops even played "host" to a Humvee configured with a pop-up, climatecontrolled shelter against biological or chemical attack and a mobile rocket launcher. A long-time MACS member and a veteran of the HD/Off-Road service sector has 1.5 acres for parking trailers. Some other requirements are 12' x 14' bay doors, preferably with drivethrough bays and a drive-around building. Equipment for welding, brazing and silver soldering, a lathe, and talent for using them are also a plus in this sector of the service industry. The additional opportunities for service business seem boundless: medium and heavy duty trucks, off-road and agricultural equipment, One member notes this is buses, RV's, along with countless subcategories the only segment in which within these vehicle types configured for civilian and military, fire and police, construction and he has observed growth mining, fleet applications, etc. over the last two years. One MACS member notes that this is the only segment in which he has observed growth in his business over the last two years. A recent analysis from IHS Automotive lends credence to that, reporting that combined new and used commercial vehicle (Class 3-8) registrations in the first quarter of the 2014 calendar year were 319,045 units, an increase of 5 percent over the same period in the 2013 calendar year. But you should expect service on these vehicles to be as challenging as (or in some ways more challenging than) the passenger cars and light trucks now populating your service bays. Another leading MACS expert from the manufacturing side had the following observations. "Off-road, HD truck and specialty equipment vehicles are following the lead of the automotive world. Electronics are now commonplace in HVAC designs and every manufacturer has a different system. ATC (automatic temperature control) is standard on most large horsepower equipment. These systems require specific servicing procedures and software for/from every manufacturer." "You also have to approach these jobs with a different mind-set," MACS member Gordon Marks of Marks Air in Tampa counsels. "You have to get over trying to 'flat rate' jobs. Except for a very few jobs, it isn't happening." "You have to work the job until it's fixed. No matter how long it takes, you have to stay with it. Remember, many of these jobs on older trucks have been worked on previously by someone that didn't have a clue, and just rigged something up that maybe worked for a while. You never just replace the blower motor. You replace the switch, the terminals, the resistor module and the wire, if it's full of splices. Otherwise, the job will come back on you." " So if you're thinking of "going big," think it through and expect some new challenges. ❆ Elvis Hoffpauir, Editor-in-Chief You can reach Elvis at elvis@macsw.org 42 ACTION * July/August 2014 Advertiser Index 1-800-Radiator & A/C............................2 A/C Designs ....................................... 17 AGS Company..................................... 35 Arizona Mobile Air ................................8 Austin Baker Industries, Inc. ................ 39 Bergstrom.......................................... 37 BVA Inc .............................................. 38 Behr-Hella............................................9 Dealer Automotive Service .................. 10 DENSO ............................................. 43 DuPont .............................................. 31 Everco ............................................... 44 Ford Motor Company .......................... 13 Global Parts ....................................... 27 Johnson Manufacturing....................... 33 MACS Worldwide .......................... 24, 30 Mahle RTI .......................................... 11 MEI Corporation ............................... 6, 7 Omega .............................................. 25 Ranshu .........................................center Santech ............................................. 41 Schrader ............................................ 39 Sunair ............................................... 32 T/CCI Mfg. ......................................... 26 Trans/Air Mfg. .................................... 18 TSI Inc./SuperCool ................................3 TT A/C Parts ....................................... 29 Tubes 'n Hoses International ............... 34 TYC / Genera ...................................... 19 Universal Air Conditioner ......................5 Valeo ................................................. 21 To request information from our advertisers visit www.macsw.org and click on the ACtion Reader Reply button. 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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ACtion Magazine - July/August 2014

Fire truck A/C
The air we breathe
Outlook
Freeze Frame
Leonard's Law
Virtual View
Service Port
Last Watch
Member Profile
By the Numbers
Cooling Corner
Industry News
Association News
New Products

ACtion Magazine - July/August 2014