Pay Wages For Small Engine Mechanics

[whizkidkyus]

Hi All,

As some of you may all ready know by some of my previous posts on here I work on small engines and I have become quite good at it ( not trying to bragg ) and I enjoy it . I'm considering a career change and become a small engine mechanic .I'm wanting to know what an average mechanic makes starting out and what I can look forward to making as I get factory ( let employer send me to school , always wanted to go and get certified anyway ) certified . I know that it is mostly a seasonal deal and pay can vary from employer , areas of country and what I'm certified on as well as years of experience . Any pros / cons to becomming a small engine mechanic and getting certified ? My experiences is mostly on Briggs engines, older models from early 1990s 10 - 14 hp OHV as well as regular valves , as well as older Murrays , some MTDs as well as Briggs push mowers . I have experience on Kohlers as well as Hondas . I have worked on transmissions took them apart and fixed them as well as changing them as well as changing motors . I have experience with electricial systems on mowers , cleaning carbs , etc. But , still I admit that I don't know everything . I have even ordered and bought a couple of hundred dollars worth of small engine speciality tools . I have even done work for people and made money fixing their engines . So while a job in a small engine shop maybe more faster paced and more headaches , it can't be too much different from what I do at home . Any help and advice is appreciated . As proof of my experiences with small engines , please watch these videos of me repairing a small engine , 4 or 2 cycle . I'm the one doing the engine repairs . A friend of mine does the electronics and computer repair . Some of you may have already heard of our Youtube repair channel called ESRepair , if not then please watch and enjoy and read all the comments . Yes , there are a few smart alecks out there but most post were complimenting us.

Thanks,
Whizkid
ESRepair On Youtube

 

[ss55]

The emplyoment placement office at a community colledge or other school that teaches small engine repair should be able to tell you what salary range their recent graduates were hired at.

If you are looking to stay in the area, contact some of the local shops you might like to work for and ask what experience they are looking for and what wages they pay.

 

[JD Seller]

It is a low wage and benefit job. My youngest son has all of the training you want to get. He worked for three different dealers and they all paid in the $10-11 per hour with Zero benefits.

He got a welding job last fall and makes double the money.

You maybe able to get a little better wages in a larger metro area but it still would not be a high wage job.

Most of the small engine stuff these days is mostly throw away type. Major small engine repair is not going to happen when you can by another new cheap unit for less than it will cost to fix the old one.

 

[Royse]

WhizKid, I admire your drive.
I can't offer any help on wages for a small engine mechanic, as you said, it varies.
I will offer you the same advice I gave my kids.
Do what you love for a living, and you'll never "have" to go to work.
Best of luck!

 

[Anonymous-0]

I would patronize your business but what state are you in? I'm in southern eastern Michigan...

 

[whizkidkyus]

bigAl1994 ,

I'm in south central Kentucky . It's a little to far to bring to bring your mower to be fixed , but you can alwasy send me a post on here and I'll be glad to help you in any way I can , along with everone else or I can send you my email address if you need one on one help.

Thank you,
Whizkid

P.S. I would love to have you as a customer .

 

[Adirondack case guy]

I agree with JD Seller. When a customer can buy a new 5plus HP motor for around $120 Bucks or a new brand name chainsaw for $200 Bucks, why would someone pay for 4-6 hrs of labor for a rebuild of an old unit. On the plus side I know JD and Cub Cadet has some sort of an arangement with the Big Box stores to have local dealers handle service issues while the units are under warranty, but as a dealer we never made any money doing warranty work.
Loren, the Acg.

 

[Billy Shafer]

Depends on the local market and what people are willing to pay. I do work around my town. I charge thirty dollars labor. Plus parts. Just a flat thirty because most of the time. I can have a chain saw or weedeater fixed in that time. Riding mowers a little more.Some jobs I just throw out a number and the customer will say yes or no. Most of the time it turns out they are willing to pay more than my price. I can do this because I am retired and just work to help people out.Small town and I get all kinds of work.

Some advice. Stay away from the Mantis Tillers. They will drive you nuts. Also if you get the Weedeater brand.With the primer bulb as part of the choke assembly. Don't touch it. You can't buy just the bulb. You have to buy a new carb.I contacted Zama about it.

 

[Nebraska Cowman]

I'd say keep doing what you're doing. If you are half as good as you think you are you'd be a fool to go to work for somebody else. Open your own shop. Sure, you get all the headaches and no security but at the end of the day it's yours.

 

[LAA]

I think you would be way better off opening your own shop, that is the type of business that does not require a whole lot of overhead or an expensive address to do business from. These days you can get most any part direct ordered from the internet virtually overnight. My wifes Cousin runs the only shop left in our small town and he stays swamped with work, there is very little slack time even in winter but we live in a poor area so people still tend to fix what they have instead of buying new, he also buys mowers, tillers, wood splitters etc. and fixes them for resale.

 

[whizkidkyus]

Billy Shafer ,


Thank you for the information as well as the advice . Never worked on a Manthis , but a Ryobi brand version of those tillers. I've worked on Weedeater brands before , but I've never seen that kind . I've worked on the kind where the bulb was seperated and the kind where the bulb was mounted on the carb . both were hand operated , though . Cleaned / rebuilt carb and replaced the bulb . Wait a minute .... maybe I've seen them but never worked on them . The chock lever presses the bulb , right ?

Whizkid

 

[Dan T in MO]

I worked one summer for a rental agency-wrench turning and delivering equipment and such. The majority of our outside work was sharpening chainsaws. The shop may have charged $30-50 per hour, but I got paid about minumum wage whether I was up to my elbows in a vermeer chipper or if I was sitting around eating donuts. Most of the time, there were no donuts.

 

[Anonymous-0]

What you can earn on a repair is relative to the replacement cost of the product and how complicated it is. The more that can do your job the less you can earn. When few can do your job you can get more a lot more.
Later Bob

 

[oldtanker]

Not much money in small engine repair anymore for the reasons stated by other posters. Where the money is better is recreation engine repair, boats, 4 wheelers, jetskis and snowmobiles. Why spend 80 bucks fixing a 90 buck mower? But they spend a lot fixing a 8K 4 wheeler.

Rick

 

[Earl-IL]

Market study, Best paying is cycles,4 wheeler & marine.

 

[AzPeapicker]

Bryan

Unless your going to open your own shop & become an Engine Dealer , Certification ,I personally don t think its worth it. If you own your own shop then when you become a Briggs Dealer they let you buy yor parts & engines at a lower discount & if I am not msitaken you have to have at least none mechanic in the shop certified I have been retired for 7 years & things might have changed .
I really enjoyed working on Small Engines but in this throw away society , most people wants you to repair for a little of nothing . I still do some work for friends , but more or less as favor . JOhn in AZ.

 

[Mike M]

Mom has a Mantis tiller. It has been the best 2cycle we have ever had. If most are like it you won't have to worry about fixing any of them.

 

[Chris(WA)]

Pretty much an entry level , minimum wage job.

 

[Don-Wi]

I'm with Billy on the Mantis tillers- my parents have had one for 15 years or better now (probably more) and that thing drives me nuts. I'll replace the fuel line, filter, tweek it, get it running good. That's in March or April. Come time to use it in the garden in May, it runs like a 1 legged dog again. Runs great when it runs, but I'm ready to tell them to get something else...

Donovan from Wisconsin

 

[Flannelman]

I've looked at it before and the money isn't there. Its a good side hobby if you have the space. I have found that there isn't really any money in mowers, chainsaws, and weedeaters unless they are Pro machines. Snowblowers, chippers, splitters, and tillers are worth more so the turn over is much better in return for your work. I don't know what you are doing now but I'd look at other options.

 

[Mike (WA)]

I have always been amazed at how little the small engine places charge- as others have said, the engines are so cheap to replace now, you really have to keep prices low to compete. Doesn't seem like a very lucrative field- since you make so little per unit, you're gonna have to be at a runnin' crouch all day to make any money.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Don't know how much small engine mechanics make. I do know this past summer a large business that sells mowers and repairs them was shut down to 4 days a week because of the dry summer. Other little guys had no work too. Not a lot of money made in the winter. Small engine repair is a seasonal business. I would say don't give up your day job. So this on the side.
George

 

[Bret4207]

I was doing, still am doing actually, small engine repair on the side. I don't think you'll make any real money working for a dealer. Min wage to maybe $10-12.00 @ hour. If you want to get into it, open your own shop. I pretty much specialize in older chainsaws. Word gets around that someone is fixing old Pioneers and Macs and Stihls and you get business. You don't make much money at it though. You will never get $50.00 an hour for instance. I know a shop that charges that and even the owner admits it's a farce. No one keeps track of time, they take a guess and always eat some time. With lawn and garden stuff you'll spend the first half hour getting the stupid stuff clean enough to work on. Most people aren't willing to pay for that and they certainly aren't willing to clean them themselves. And then you have the problem of ow quality replacement parts. I've put 4 or 5 spindle assys in one Craftsman deck in 3 years. They're junk, poorly designed and don't last. But I can get a whole assy for under $30.00 to repair a $2500.00 law mower. Doesn't matter what I do, they don't last. You have to be able to explain that and get the customer to understand that it's not you messing things up. Same goes for those "name brand chainsaws for under $200.00" someone mentioned. They have a working life of maybe 25-50 hours actual work time vs thousands of hours for the pro grade saws. The guy that only cuts a few limbs or a face cord a year is fine with that. The farmer that uses the saw 3-10 times a week or for days straight cleaning fence rows will have an issue understanding why his "name brand" saw crapped out when it's 3 months old. After all, it's a Husky/Stihl/Dolmar/Jonsereds, not a Walmart Wild Thing. But under the cover it's not too much different from a Wild thing. A cheap Husky or Stihl is still a cheap saw made up of cheap components and cheaply designed. The days of the 266 Husly or 028 Stihl that ran for 20 years with no more than a plug change are long gone. Same for the days of the Simplicity garden tractor that mowed, tilled the garden, plowed the driveway and dragged logs for 30 years, or the Briggs 5hp that ran for 40 years without anything remotely resembling service or PM.

It can be a good business if you can meet customer demands. They want it done right, done fast and done cheap. Pretty hard to do all that. Pros, loggers for instance, what it fast and right and if it's cheap that's great, but mostly they want it done right and fast.

I think you should look into your own place if you want to do this. Otherwise you may as well find an easier, cleaner job at TSC or something where people aren't going to be screaming at you they smack a rock with the mower they just paid to have fixed....and they will, even though you fixed the carb and it has nothing to do with the sheared key. :roll:

 

[ASEguy]

I don't think those tech's earn enough. I also think as a side business you could suppliment your income. If you enjoy repairing mechanical engines, you may want to broaden your horizons and look into powersports (4 wheelers, jet-skis, etc.) or automotive technology at a community college. You have a very good one in Elizabethtown Kentucky. Get properly trained at a NATEF school and with your motivation, you'll go far. Good luck. Gerard

 

[Billy NY]

Some good valid points made about small engine repair.

I've known a few successful owners of small engine repair business's, some when things were not so throw away, the others now in the current era of toss and buy new.

Both were dependent on word of mouth, some advertising, but mostly due to repeat customers and recommendations, once established, both were/are decent profitable ventures.

There are peak highs where you can get swamped, so the volume of work may have ups and downs, cash flow will reflect this.

The guy I know doing this now is usually busy as a rule, and many times throughout the year, the front of his shop is full of snowblowers, riding and push mowers up to small tractors, garden, small farmall cubs and 9n's etc. He works in a garage right next to his home, and often you will see him out in that shop late.

Most of the work is light repairs, gunked up carbs, from things sitting, preventative maintenance, I believe a lot of the volume of work is of this type, he can do rebuilds and all the other more involved work.

People know him, word gets out and I am not so sure when he started but he did leave a decent job in construction to do this, the only equipment he has related to the business is the pick up truck and trailer for pick-up/drop off's.

I think he's got a good business established with this, I drove by his shop 2-3x per day for a few years, he does some work for us at the horse farm, probably more now since I did most of that work while I was there, very nice and personable guy, he had an appreciation for my eye with taking care of things, I remember some time back he was there checking on a 4040 simplicity we have, and I was oiling a chain or something and he thought I was spraying ether to get whatever it was I was working on to get started, "Hey..... what the heck are you doing? LOL!!! I showed him the can, he was laughing, found I hate that stuff as much as he.

I think in a nutshell, you have to be in an area where you can develop an acceptable volume of work, where small engine equipment is common, then you have to make a name for yourself, I would not do this work for an employer, just won't pay enough, its a type of business you are way better off doing on your own. The work itself is always there, like was said above, people let things sit, then it does not run, but it may not have a lot of age or hours on it so they don't immediately toss it and buy new, if that was the case, the guy I mentioned above would be out of business, so I can't agree that we live in a total throw away society when it comes to small engine and similar powered equipment, many people still have that old K series powered old school lawn or garden tractor, I see them in front of his shop often. He also does work for contractors, on their small engine equipment, service and repairs. You could probably set up to work in chainsaws, offer chain sharpening, my neighbor owned a small engine shop for 40 years, mostly saws and trimmers, some other power equipment, very stable business and there is a competitor across the road, he retired and just works there for his partner whom he sold it to for a few hours and few days a week. Thing is there are many who use saws, cut firewood or what have you and I see lots of old saws with work tags on them.

I think it depends a lot on the area you live in, this area is a tri-city area with lots of suburbs, all kinds of power equipment out there, anyone could carve a niche out of this market if they desired too, may take some time, but the market is there, its a necessity that most people have in small engine/power equipment.

I have considered it myself, many of my friends have me work on small engine equipment, almost all of it is carb work and oil/lube, preventative maintenance. I started out working on lawn mowers as a kid, even then, was carb work, service work and tune ups for things we owned. People know me to be a maintenance freak, good with carbs, sometimes its annoying, but even this is a steady trickle, picked up a snowblower carb job last night, easy, takes little time, either a kit or put a new one on, seems these are throw away judging by how they are made.

If its something you like, do some research and see if the market you live in is equitable, if you do good work, service your work, treat your customers right, around here word will get out and you will have jobs to do, if the market is just not there and people don't seem to use the service the obvious will be in plain sight, you won't really know unless you try.

 

[Texasmark1]

I have one too. Very versatile, useful, and hearty. I love mine.

Mark

 

[Billy Shafer]

No on this one. The bulb is at the end of the choke shaft. Top left side. Zama says it is a weed eater only part. But Weedeater will not show the part. Just says requires new carb.

 

[Billy Shafer]

Mike she is a lucky one. I have five in my town. One runs pretty good. The other four are a pain in the butt. Can't keep the things running. I even went to one ladies garden while she was tilling. Just to keep it running.So she could finish.Told me if she wasn't a lady. She would shove this thing up the salesman's butt.

 

[Bryan inIowa]

We do small engine repair at my shop . Not our main focus but we do quite a bit . I have a retired mechanic come in part time for something to do . He only wanted $12 hr . He old, he"s slow , set in his ways , happy and does good work . So we are bothj happy . Other end of the spectrum. buddy of mine works for big time small engine dealer , Stihl , toro , Honda , Briggs etc. He works for 50% commission . He make real good money . Their shop rate is $68 hr . And he can flat work circles around anyone I know.

 

[scotc]

I have a couple friends working at the local Yamaha/Polaris/Suzuki dealer making $13-$15 an hour, but the one's been there for nearly ten years. They are working 6 days a week every week, have been for a couple years now. They also have people who will leave Omaha, drive past the dealers in Grand Island and Kearney, to get to them for repairs. They have a Topkick and flatbed trailer, when they sell enough to make a load, they'll deliver them, may end up up in Wyoming, South Dakota, Kearney, and any number of places in between.

 

[Anonymous-0]

You can make a good living at it but you have to have the right employer. See if there's a course you can take at a local community college. They may have contacts in the industry. You don't think a golf course mechanic makes a good wage? Look for a job at a large power equipment, motorcycle, golf cart or golf equipment dealer. There may be an apprenticeship program in your area as well. Knowing more like hydraulics, hydro transmissions and electrical will be a big help. Most will be year round employment.