Behind the Scenes: Life as a Cat® Diesel Tech featuring Adept Ape

What’s the best part of being a Cat diesel tech?

Probably the most rewarding thing is when someone brings you as a mechanic, a problem with their engine. Others may have even looked at it before and not figured it out yet, but if can get it figured out for them and fixed, that is a great feeling. A lot of times this may be a person's entire business, having one operational truck and if you can get a problem fixed both parties really benefit.

What’s been your biggest challenge as a Cat diesel tech and how did you overcome it?

Well, the biggest challenge as an Engine Tech is that Cat doesn't make new year truck engines anymore. Which may seem like deciding to fix them, give you no future, but a lot of people like their older Cat engines and will continue to run them for years into the future. Not only that, but most of the engines in the truck are used in equipment, industrial applications, etc. So the knowledge carries over well.

What advice would you give to those wanting to become a diesel mechanic (for Caterpillar)?

People email me this question a lot through YouTube and this is the answer they usually get back. If you know you want to work for a Cat dealership, they are always hiring. Maybe they aren't hiring apprentice level guys, but they are always hiring someone whether it is a wash bay position, parts warehouse, rental lot attendant, etc. Get your foot in the door and if you have a good work ethic, then you will find yourself in the shop after some time. I didn't start off as a top level Tech, I did exactly as I just described. Start small and work your way up.

What advice would you give yourself when you were starting out?

Don't be afraid to get in over your head, just a little bit. I have always (and continue to be) a risk-averse person, basically I don't like change or new things that much, I like to stay with what I am familiar with and good at doing. This has held me back in the past and probably still does because growth comes from pushing your limits. If instead of trying to do jobs I knew how to do well already, take on those tough jobs you aren't sure you could do. For instance, the older Cat engines like the 3208 and 3406B are mechanical fuel systems, but I'm not great at working on the fuel systems other than removing them, diagnosing some of their components, but if I would have taken the risk of forcing myself to try and learn them better I would know more about them today.

“Probably the most rewarding thing is when someone brings you as a mechanic, a problem with their engine. Others may have even looked at it before and not figured it out yet, but if can get it figured out for them and fixed, that is a great feeling.”

What is your perspective on the skilled trades gap and how that's impacting dealer techs?

As a tech, it is probably less noticeable on my end, since I'm not involved in the hiring process at all. There certainly does seem to be problem out there though getting qualified mechanics to fill the roles. Western States Cat, here in Idaho, has really increased their pay scale last year to try and hire and retain the best in the labor market out there. I see the problem as multifaceted really, first part is that the education system in the US in general seems to dissuade younger people from the trades and push them towards college. There are many careers of course that require college, but as I usually like to say jokingly, nobody in an emergency has ever yelled "IS ANYONE HERE A SALESMAN!" Not to pick on salesmen, accountants or any other "desk-jobs" it just is to highlight the need for people are skilled as plumbers, mechanics, electricians, welders, etc are literally the foundation of the job market in every economy. You can't work in an office unless someone built the office, which probably required trucks and heavy equipment to build, which means there was probably a Cat Tech somewhere in that process.

The second part of the skilled trades gap is Dealerships losing their more experience Techs. It seems like like a lot of the Techs around here are younger, in their 20's and early 30's, which is great, but those older Techs have so much knowledge, tooling and know-how, they are very hard to replace. There are a variety of reasons, they become supervisors, move into less physically demanding positions, or go independent, etc. Perhaps that isn't as big of a problem in other regions of the country, but it definitely seems like a problem I have noticed.

If you could do anything to solve this problem, what would it be?

Such a complicated problem certainly doesn't have a single solution. First would be a better approach at Middle and High School to teach or promote the trades. I won't get on a soapbox and try to explain my opinion on how the school system to be renovated, but I think that would be a good approach to start with.

What do you wish more people knew about the work you do?

In my particular example, I think people have a pretty good idea of what I do in the shop, since I film it pretty much every week. Obviously, those are edited videos to highlight the more "exciting" aspects of the job. A lot of time as a Tech is doing service reports, cleaning gasket material off of old parts, putting parts in the parts washer, looking up parts, etc. I think people like the interesting troubleshooting finds like a mouse in a coolant hose that caused an overheat, or the always popular Destruction of the Week segment I usually have on my channel with damaged or broken components. Most of the time though, you are doing routine disassembly and assembly of parts with the other tasks I mentioned about parts and cleaning taking up most of your day.

Is that why you started your YouTube channel?

My channel didn't start as a Diesel Mechanic channel, in fact I had no idea what I was going to do for content. My earliest videos had me discussing how to go faster on a bicycle, why double edge razors are better for shaving, why you should sleep on a hammock instead of a bed, seriously random stuff. What is funny is that, those videos actually did very well over time, some of them at least. Content is obviously a problem though and I started to realize a channel needs a theme. I had made a video about what being a Diesel Mechanic is like, just discussing it really, and it did well for how small my channel was at the time. I decided to make a couple more Diesel videos by incognito recording at work, Surprisingly, those videos did well also, so I started going down that path and that is what has led to where we are today with 217,000 subscribers and growing.

What is the goal/mission of your YouTube channel?

As far as the content goal of the channel, I use it as a platform for the people that own, work on or just like Cat Diesel Engines. Some of the videos get into more general topics like fuel economy, new engines, engine maintenance topics. I try to do a lot of in the shop videos now, because I think many viewers like to feel like they are working on something with the mechanic. Not every video is a shop video for instance, there are a series of classes on Diesel Engines, Air Conditioning, Fuel Systems, that have been made for kind of a free class to anyone that wants to watch them. Combined they have about 1,000,000 views.

What’s your favorite video and why?

If I had to pick one video to rewatch it would be the "Engine Overheats after Full Rebuild, but Why?" video. As someone who makes videos, by the time the video is actually done after editing, you generally know every part of that video so well you never want to see it again. The content and video editing just came together perfectly on that video to tell the story of an unfortunate customer that brought their truck to have me try and figure out why it was overheating. The customer had an independent shop just rebuild the engine, but it would not even get out of the parking lot without overheating. The video goes over the troubleshooting and turns out that the engine barely had any coolant in it due to a mouse being in the coolant shunt line. If you have to watch one of my videos to start with, that is probably my recommendation.

What’s your dream video that you want to make but haven’t been able to yet?

Currently on the hunt for a customer that would like to have their truck repowered with one of the "New Content" Cat Truck Engines. Would like to make an entire series of pulling out an older Cummins or Detroit and swapping in a Cat Powered C-15 in the truck. That would be a great video series to make and I think it would get a lot of attention for the Cat program running that actually allows you to turn in other brands of engine for a Core Credit. I’ve had a few people reach out about the program, but haven't had the chance to do the work yet.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I'd like to thank you for getting me involved with the Cat blog here. If you can somehow convince the head of Caterpillar to start making new model year On-Highway truck engines, I would greatly appreciate it. Just casually mention it the next time you see him in the hallway.

(Laughs) No problem.

To be serious, I can't really think of anything else to say, which is unusual for me. Thank you.