Re: Dockside Service
+1 on wanting to know more about a slurper. I have a mityvac that I use and it works great, but if there's something better out there......
As far as a mobile marine biz/mobile boat oil change biz.....
That's what I do in the summer, mobile marine. Tell you what...I hate it. It's a pita. I'm just saving up my cash until I can find a proper building. You run into to many problems on the road.
Customer telling you they have a mercury 70 and when you get there it's a spraybombed black evinrude 60.
Always forgetting 1 dang tool.
Breaking the one 9/16ths socket you brought with you and having to run out for another.
Dealing with dealers that sell you parts... if you need something you can't exactly run to an autozone to get something. You NEED to make a good relationship with a reputable dealer. Then you NEED to get said dealer to start giving you discounts on parts. You NEED to remember employee birthdays, send cards often, bring in a treat once every 4 or 5 times you go in to keep your discount, etc etc. In their eyes if your buying lots of parts you are taking business AWAY from them. If you screw up something you have to eat parts... you can't be returning things you buy. I"m lucky, I have a great relationship with a local dealer. I get cost plus 20%. I can pick up the phone and special order a grand worth of parts like it was a dime, (and that's not going to happen overnight) I would work for them in a heartbeat and we've talked a few times but we just don't agree on a pay scale.
As others have mentioned... it's 1 thing going to somebody's dock. But if you try to get into a boat club or marina they will call the police on you if they are bstrds. When the po po show up you better make sure you have all the correct biz/tax paperwork in your truck ready to go.
Mobile oil change in my mind isn't a viable business model.
You can count on all your fingers and toes the current automobile manufactors. But there have been hundreds and hundreds of boat manufactorers over the years.
You need to seperate the engine from the boat, but charge for both accordingly.
One boat with a GM 350 (the most common marine engine) you may get in and out in a little over an hour if your quick about it. Another boat with the same motor may take you 4 hours by the time you pull seats, take up floor panels, change the oil, clean the bilge because the filter has NO access and you make a mess, and putting it all back together. It's almost impossable to flat rate an oil change unless your a dealer working on a specific line of boat.
You can use all the tricks you know, plastic grocery bags, rubber glove up over the filter, plastic lisence plates to re-direct the oil... etc... but your almost always going to spill some.
A few years ago at a rink a dink shop that I worked at, I had a boat that hadn't had the oil changed in a dogs year. Couldn't get the filter off to save my life. Filter socket just twisted the can, strap wrench just crushed it, filter slip-joint pliers turned the can into a figure 8. The old screwdriver through the filter trick ended up cutting the can in half. Long story short, I had to pull the motor, put it on a stand, flip it, and use a hammer and screwdriver to tap the remainder of the filter off.
Fixed a few things while I was in there but that was essentially 2 days worth of work and a $1000 oil change.
Don't want to scare you, but if go to "change the oil" as a "mobile oil change biz" and you tear a filter in 2 you need to be prepared to finnish that job, you can't leave a boat like that.
You need to be a marine tech even to change oil. If you knock a wire off while changeing oil you need to know what that wire does, and where it goes. If a customer has a question you need to be able to answer it. It's not as cut and dry and user friendly as automobiles go.
I worked on race stock cars in high school, a car mechanic for a couple of years before I switched to boats. I have a 25K degree/diploma/toilet paper from MMI. Changing oil isn't beneath me by any means, but I don't give my time away for it either. But I still have customers and still run into dreaded boats that I just don't want to do that job.
One last thing is that on boats oil changing is usually part of yearly service that happens at the end of a season, or at a specific hour interval for southern states that have 2 seasons (spring and summer). You need to have the ability wether the customer wants it or not to perform all of the services required at that interval.
