To rent or to buy? It’s a question that plagues everyone in their lifetime, but for those in the wind turbine servicing industry options have always been limited. That is, until Sage Oil Vac began its Gear Oil Exchange (GOEX) Rental Program in 2009.
“Sage Oil Vac started the GOEX Rental Program based on the demand within the industry and from customer requests,” said Midwest Territory Manager, Chance Castillo. “Some companies needed to provide oil changes but didn’t necessarily want to make the full investment of purchasing.”
Sage currently rents out 1E6M-4 and 1E6K-3 models (with plans to add a 1D6G-2 to the fleet in spring 2017). Each model utilizes two tanks for Sage’s unique pump-free oil exchange system which allows the end-user to dispense and drain oil faster with vacuum technology. The 1E6M-4 has an additional two tanks for full flush and rinse capabilities, while the 1E6K-3 has one additional tank for limited rinsing capabilities or to carry a hydraulic fluid.
“How do our customers decide on renting versus buying? Well that all depends on the wind farm,” Castillo explained. “With our GEOX, the time between maintenance periods can be extended to anywhere from two to five years. It often makes more sense to rent a unit for a couple of months, perform the oil changes, and not have to think about it for a few years.”
Sage Oil Vac completes a thorough cleaning and checklist program between renters – new filters are installed and tanks are purged.
“Renters enjoy this program because it saves them from the initial capital investment and the hassle of maintaining the unit during the unused periods,” Castillo said. “The only thing they need to worry about is having a truck big enough to run the system. A ¾-ton truck is the minimum weight needed, but a 1-ton pickup is preferred as they can weigh up to 12,000 lbs during operation.”
GOEX systems in the program can be shipped anywhere within the continental U.S. on behalf of the customer or they can be picked up and dropped off at Sage Oil Vac headquarters in Amarillo, Texas. Training can be completed a few different ways — via a YouTube tutorial, if the unit is picked up in person in Amarillo, or a technician can travel to a wind location for an additional expense.
“I would conservatively say our rental units have performed as many as 3,000 gearbox rinse and flush operations on wind turbines across North America in the last six to seven years,” Castillo said.
Contact Sage Oil Vac for more GOEX Rental Program information and pricing!
Sage Oil Vac’s success comes from more than its quality equipment — it comes from a quality team of oil vac dealers, and our team just can’t stop growing. This year Sage added six new dealership partners to our roster of now 38 U.S. dealer locations and five international dealer locations.
Meet our newest oil vac dealers:
Hoekstra Truck Equipment (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Hoekstra sells work-ready vehicles and accessories; they have several ties in the bus market in Michigan. We’re excited about working with them to create a few additional Sage products to change the oil in boats in a much cleaner and more efficient way. These guys are extremely motivated and we are happy to have such good representation in that area.
Truck Equipment Inc. (Des Moines, Iowa)
Truck Equipment sells and services products from a variety of manufacturers. We were introduced to the team in 2015 when they did some installation work with one of our LubeBuilders for a customer in Iowa. They have since agreed this year to represent our product line in Iowa. Every time we have visited they’re always excited to get on the road and show off our equipment.
Woodfield Canada (London, Ontario)
Woodfield Canada specializes in vehicle up-fit packages for commercial service and trade vehicles. We met the Woodfield team at the NTEA show in March 2016. They’re doing a great job of representing Sage in Ontario. They’re really picking up the product and running with it. With their knowledge and willingness to represent our brand, we hope to continue our momentum in the Canadian markets.
Intercon Truck Equipment, Inc. (Aston, Pennsylvania)
Intercon distributes and installs a full line of truck bodies, snow removal equipment, and related accessories. The Intercon team has been a bright spot for us — they have really been active with our product lines. There is a huge need for our equipment in the railroad and transit market and we know Intercon is going to be very successful in helping us communicate our solutions to that industry.
Southern Truck Equipment (Almont, Michigan)
Southern Truck specializes in rust-free truck parts and restorations. We also met their team at the NTEA show this year. They have worked extremely hard in promoting Sage Oil Vac equipment in the surrounding Detroit area — and they’re having some good success! These guys know their stuff when it comes to truck equipment and we’re happy to have them representing us.
Smyrna Truck & Cargo (Smyrna, Georgia)
Smyrna is a large and diverse truck equipment company that distributes several premier equipment brands. This team has been instrumental in getting our equipment out into the Atlanta area. We are getting tons of interest from Georgia and the surrounding states! It’s been great to have a Sage Oil Vac dealer in that area that can represent and educate customers about our product benefits.
Are you interested in representing Sage Oil Vac products? We’ll let you in on our top secret new dealer onboarding steps:
- We recruit, contact and introduce our company, products, and program over the phone and digitally.
- We then execute a face-to-face meeting.
- Next, we ship a demonstration model to your facility and change oil for you to demonstrate the Sage method. (This usually seals the deal.)
- Afterward, we’ll present our marketing program, dealer contract, and stocking requirements.
- Then you sign agreements and purchase a stock unit for demo purposes.
- Once everything arrives, we’ll travel back to your location to train your sales staff and conduct a few joint sales calls with your customers.
Want to hear more? Contact Sage Oil Vac!
We think Sage Oil Vac is a great company with efficient service trailers, but it’s always nice when someone else says it — especially when that “someone” represents a top of the line company like Nixon Power Services.
“Nixon Power currently uses six (Sage Oil Vac) oil change trailers to change the oil in customer-generator sets,” said Chuck Cameron, Nixon Power Services Vice President of Aftermarket Operations. “Sage Oil Vac is a great company with great equipment.”
All six Sage Oil Vac service trailers used by Nixon Power are the Preventative Maintenance 1C5H-3 model — one of Sage Oil Vac’s most popular models. Its tandem-axle design works well for off-road maintenance jobs.
About Nixon Power Services
Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Nixon Power has boasted several solution-based offerings like design, installation and maintenance for power systems since 1914. Today, they reach customers in 13 states from five branch locations in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Nixon Power discovered Sage Oil Vac products while they were visiting a fellow Kohler industrial generator distributor. After receiving their first Sage Oil Vac service trailer, they worked with the mobile lube equipment company to customize it to better meet their needs.
“We might use Sage trailers for a single job in a day or we schedule a week-long route where a tech travels to perform work at remote sites,” Cameron explained. “Before we ramped up to purchase a service trailer for each servicing branch, several locations would share one trailer.”
Service trailer features
The 1C5H-3 trailer features two fresh product tanks and one used oil tank, this service trailer works great for oil changes and antifreeze top offs. The open trailer design also optimizes load conditions, tongue weight, and axle weight for a safer transport to your job site.
Commitment to proper training
“We always want to make sure that our customers are comfortable running their new Sage Oil Vac equipment before we leave,” said Chance Castillo, Sage Oil Vac Midwest Territory Manager. “With Nixon Power’s staff of 70 technicians, this could have presented a bit of a training challenge. Luckily, they have a new-process trainer on staff, so we just needed to train him and he ensured everyone else received proper Sage equipment education.”
“Sage has been nothing but accommodating with the requests we have made,” Cameron said. “Training time has been minimal and (we like) the large tank capacities and the ease of use. We plan to purchase additional trailers as we continue to grow our services and also expand locations.”
To learn more about Nixon Power Services visit, www.nixonpower.com
Check out the lineup of Sage Oil Vac lube and service trailers.
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When company founder Gary Sage decided to develop Sage Oil Vac into a full-time business venture, he knew he couldn’t do it alone. With the corporate office located in the heart of the Texas, it was simply impossible to reach every customer. Thus began the Sage Oil Vac dealer network, which now comprises of more than 30 dealers in seven countries.
Dwayne Green, President of Oil Patch Power in Greenville, Texas, has been a proud member of the SOV dealer network for two years.
“We are the No. 1 dealer for Sage Oil Vac in West Texas,” Green said. “I enjoy meeting new customers and educating them about the always-expanding Sage Oil Vac product line.”
Thanks to successful dealers like Green, Sage Oil Vac products are now being run in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, China, Russia, Wales, Kuwait, Iraq, South Africa, Turkey, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, France, Spain and several other European countries.
“The Sage Oil Vac products really help our customers save money, work safer and provide the best services out there,” Green explained. “Thanks to the Sage factory team, we’re able to provide a quick customer response as well as cutting-edge and custom built machinery with competitive pricing. We always put the customer’s needs first.”
Oil Patch Power started its company as an independent Sage Oil Vac dealer but has successfully expanded its dealership to include products from John Deere, Kubota, CK Gas, Kohler and more. Green attributes his success to discovering an important niche in the machinery market with his location in the Permian Basin (a large oil and natural gas producing area).
Green said his customers especially enjoy the way Sage Oil Vac products keep them clean on the job.
“I’ve had customers tell me, ‘I am as clean at the end of the day as when I started. I can get in my truck at the end of the day without changing my clothes.’”
Be sure to visit OilPatchPower.com for more information about Green’s additional products.
Service technicians can save time and money by reusing engine coolant recovered and removed from engines during routine maintenance and service. But doing so — and passing that savings on to their customers — can be a dirty job without the right equipment. The 3011-1200 coolant recovery unit keeps it clean, eliminates maintenance headaches and enables equipment owners to maximize the ROI of their antifreeze.
The problem with removing engine coolant
It’s key to ensure that coolant is flushed and replaced according to maintenance schedules. Protecting a truck or excavator engine against heat and the challenging conditions it’s exposed to during operation is essential. In some cases, the fluid is replaced prematurely when technicians perform other routine maintenance. While it preserves the critical protection coolant provides, this also adds cost to engine maintenance over time and causes antifreeze ROI to decline.
The solution
But with the 3011-1200 coolant recovery cart, removing and reusing antifreeze is a clean, efficient task. The cart is often used in truck and machinery dealerships and repair shops. They’re used to vacuum antifreeze from trucks while maintenance and repairs are performed on the engine. With the 3011-1200, the operator has the ability to store vacuumed antifreeze, then put the same fluid back into the engine when maintenance is completed.
“Reusing antifreeze based on maintenance schedules helps owners keep their engines running smoothly while getting the highest return on their investment,” said Sage Oil Vac CEO Aaron Sage. “While some operators go too long before they replace antifreeze, there are a lot who flush out systems too soon because they’re conducting other maintenance tasks. This recycler cart makes the job clean and easy, so service techs can do it at exactly the right time.”
Why coolant recovery is important
The functional lifespan of antifreeze depends on the engine, how hard it’s working and the composition of the coolant itself. On top of its role in managing engine operating temperatures, antifreeze also absorbs rust and other contaminants from engine parts. If the contaminant load is too high, it can be recirculated and deposited on other parts. This sometimes causes long-term engine damage.
Standard silicated antifreeze typically lasts around two years or 30,000 miles. Extended drain coolants perform up to five years or 100,000 miles (up to 15,000 hours). Engine maintenance needs are inevitable between scheduled antifreeze flushes and replacements. This is especially true with extended drain coolants. A 3011-1200 recycler cart gives service technicians the ability to preserve the fluid through its full operating life by cleanly and efficiently reusing it.
3011-1200 specs
The coolant recovery unit’s enclosed system uses vacuum pressure to remove fluid without the danger of contamination. The wheeled unit features a 20-gallon tank for ample storage and a 15-foot, ½-inch (1.27 cm x 4.5 m) hose. This enables technicians to easily reach antifreeze tanks. A CV-20 vacuum generator provides power along with a required additional air source.
The 3011-1200 coolant recovery cart comes equipped with the patented Sage Oil Vac vacuum process and fluid level sight plugs. This enables the operator to precisely remove and refill antifreeze before and after performing engine service. The process helps owners like Jay Craighead pass new savings on to their customers.
“We’ve been using the Sage Oil Vac recycler cart since 2014, and all of our technicians rely on it,” said Craighead, Service Manager at Bruckner Mack Volvo in Amarillo, Texas. “It’s easy, efficient, clean and it saves our customers money by ensuring reliable reuse of their coolant.”
Find out more about our coolant recovery carts and procure this win-win product for your business today!
For over 50 years SOO Foundry, located in Canada, has earned a reputation for quality, dependable service and innovative approaches to unique problems within the fabrication, machinery, and the hydraulic millwrighting industries. However, it was only five short years ago when Robert Cohen, SOO Foundry President, began to notice the wind energy industry had many needs in the marketplace that were not being met especially concerning wind turbine oil changes.
“We discovered a need for wind tower maintenance providers and quality oil changes as towers were getting older across North America,” Cohen said. SOO then began its search to purchase gearbox equipment to perform wind turbine oil changes with flush capabilities.
Enter Sage Oil Vac.
“Ivan Brlecic (SOO Operations Manager) did some research and quickly discovered that the leader in that field was Sage Oil Vac,” Cohen said. Even though the SOO Foundry and Sage Oil Vac businesses were located thousands of miles apart, Brlecic made a call that would ultimately launch a flourishing business relationship.
“It quickly became apparent that Sage Oil Vac was not only the leader in the wind energy gearbox oil change industry but that they had a very proactive approach to it,” Cohen explained. “They really recommended that we not look at an oil change as just an oil change. They wanted to make sure we knew where we wanted to go in the future with our business and that that was offering the best service to the customers.”
The solution: efficient wind turbine oil changes
Once they knew Sage Oil Vac could create an efficient method to manage wind turbine oil changes, SOO purchased the Sage Oil Vac Gear Oil Exchange System (GOEX) which features four tank units to hold used oil, fresh oil, flush fluid and rinse fluid.
“The deal was, Sage Oil Vac would come up here and train our people to use the equipment for the first three wind turbine oil changes in the tower gearbox,” explained Rick Oliver, SOO Field Manager. “I learned a lot from them in our trainings and the business relationship just grew from there. We’ve had really strong support from them.”
Cohen says the gearbox is like the heart of the wind tower and he considered that comparison when it came time to invest company money into new equipment.
“Why not spend a little bit more money to have the best equipment out there, do the best job and get the best results in an oil change for your customer? It’s just common sense,” Cohen said.
“It was not just about selling a piece of equipment and walking away,” Cohen continued. “The Sage Oil Vac consultant was not going to leave until he felt absolutely comfortable that we could operate the equipment.” The SOO team has changed the oil on 126 towers successfully in the last two years. The company personally owns two Sage Oil Vac GOEX machines.
Originally the SOO team was only looking to rent Sage Oil Vac equipment, but with no dealerships operating in Canada at the time, they opted to purchase the systems instead. The transaction also led to SOO becoming the only Sage Oil Vac representative outlet in Canada. Talk about service after the sale.
“There is so much opportunity to grow,” Oliver said. “We’ve got people working in Alberta, people working in Ontario and we’re still looking to expand.”
Are you looking for an efficient way to manage wind turbine oil changes? Learn more about our offerings here.
Sage Oil Vac recently signed a Master Service Agreement with Cummins, Inc, Located in Columbus, IN, to supply its Sage Oil Vac Lube Trailers, Lube Skids and Lube Trucks to Cummins Power Gen locations throughout North America.
Cummins Power Generation is a multinational, Fortune 500 company, serving customers around the world in the industries of engines, power generation, components, and distribution. With a large number of manufacturing and distribution locations around the globe, this MSA with Sage Oil Vac will benefit the company greatly.
Sage Oil Vac has provided Sage Oil Vac Lube Trailers to Cummins Power Gen companies for years and this agreement formalizes models, specs, deliverables, and pricing. Sage Oil Vac has provided its trailers to a number of Cummins regional companies over the years including Cummins Rocky Mountain, Cummins Mid South, Cummins Cumberland, and Cummins Ireland, to name a few.
- Sage Oil Vac products are a very good fit for Diesel Powered Peak and Standby Power Generation.
- Sage Oil Vac lube trailer will cut Generator service times in half.
- Sage Oil Vac products decrease the chance of spills.
The MSA is a win-win, saving both companies time and streaming the order process for the Cummins customers. “Many Cummins Power Gen locations are realizing the benefits of Sage Oil Vac lube trailers. It makes their generator oil changes much quicker, but it also reduces the chance of spills on the customer’s property. It also streamlines the logistics of their oil program,” said Aaron Sage of Sage Oil Vac.
