Any ATV certified mechanics out there?

[dxcody]

I am almost 17, and i have decided that i want to be a atv/dirtbike mechanic.

How would you guys that have been through this, reccomend going about pursuing this career?

I dont want to go to MMI, i put some serious thought into MMI and its just too far away and a little too expensive. I would have to move to Orlando or Arizona and i just cant really do that. My community college in my town doesnt offer a motorcycle mechaincs program for quads and off road bikes. Im from Southern Indiana and was wondering if going to school for this is even worth it.

What is the average salary? I dont even know, i just know i love messing around with motors and bringing and engine to life gives me a great feeling.

I know getting on a race team is 1 in 1,000,000 but thats still my goal and what i am shooting for. A guy can hope right?

But i just wanted to know your opinion on this, thanks guys!

[Ruby Soho]

if you like wrenching, go be an auto mechanic. a quad is 100 times simpler than a car. any powersports shop will hire you with automotive schooling, but since the economy is still in the gutter powersport shops are still hurting, so you can still go wrench at an auto shop somewhere.

just my .02 cents.

plus, if you have worked at a powersports shop you'll realize its cool for awhile and than just like everyone else get bored with it. maybe not but ive been there done that

[01boneless]

^ go search for schools and find one that has that program :D

[chucked]

It wont pay to just work on quads, i know how to work on quads, dirt bikes, street bikes, scooters, snowmobiles, cars, trucks and most heavy equipment. I can also weld. Needless to say, whenever I hear about someone talking about their whatever that needs fixed, I give them my number.

[CJM]

Main problem these days with being a mechanic of any kind is its a very labor intensive and dirty job. I was (and still am part time) a mechanic since Im about 15. Ive repaired any number of things, not saying Im the greatest either but I can usually figure out and fix the problem. My forte is small engines and 4wd suspension/offroad stuff as well as brakes, and frontend work among some other things.

That being said Ive worked at shops, on my own and even done towing too (can go hand in hand with being a mechanic if your shop offers it).

While its a good field, people want ASE certs-ASE is a JOKE imho. Sure it says you can do whatever on whatever system or problem, etc. It doesnt teach you the realities of working on vehicles really. Fundamentals-but not really hands on stuff. Even in a classroom learning you wont understand truly the realities of say changing a set of headers on a car, what can and will go wrong, etc. EX: The classroom nor the ase cert tests are gonna tell you you will snap the studs off most blocks due to rust and corrosion and spend the next few hours or days trying to remove them or drill them out and hoping it works..

Heres the reality-
-You go and get ASE cert, perhaps focus on learning toyotas, bmw, benz or whatever. Your best bet is to get hired at a dealer. There is NO way your going to be working on anything expensive or important when you start. Your the guy doing oil changes and simple stupid things. Usually you are the master mechanics helper for 6months to a year or more, working under them. As time goes on you learn more and more of what the school and ASE training didnt teach you how to do. You learn more and more your busting your hump to do this work (and trust me it doesnt become anymore fun as time goes on). Reality is at the end of the day your living on advil cause your knees, back and joints ache-maybe not the first few weeks or months but it will get to you. Also if you expect to believe what the schools tell you-your gonna make 65k a year to start HA! When your the biatch your gonna make 12/hr if your lucky (friend of mine went thru a toyota tech and a backround in diesels, fully certified too-he made 9/hr to start, its been 2 years, that 65k a year hahaha hes making 45k and trust me hes not alone).


So not to discourage you, but go and talk to some mechanics, ones at dealers and private shops-10 bux says they arent all that thrilled about being a mechanic anymore.

Bottom line is I got out of that line of work and went back to school to get my bachelors degree. At least with that even if I continue being a mechanic I can have something else to fall back on.

Maybe doing it on the side would be good, go to regular school-see if you can take over the summer or at a community college some general mechanics and small engine repair as well.

[89trx250r]

Friend of mine from high-school went to mmi graduated got certified whatever tried to go get a job wound up working at the local Yamaha dealer for a bit for 10/hr(pa's min wage is 7.75) needless to say hes leaving for NAVY training at the end of the month...

[dxcody]

SO basically what you guys are saying is that you cant make a GOOD living off of being just an atv mechanic.

Well i called the guy i always take my quads to, and he said pretty much the only way to make anything close to $75,000 a year (like the tech schools say you make) is to go in buiseness for yourself and even then it will take about 5-10 years to get big enough that people will put 100% trust in me to do anything to thier quads. He said that he would be able to get me on at his shop when i decide what i want to do, but i would start right at $9.50 and hour. He said once i get good and learn to do everything on my own mistake free (and also being pretty much mistake free during my learning process) he said he could bump me up to about $13 an hour. Which still is no where near the money i would like to be making.

He also said what he would reccomend doing is, going and gettting a good paying job at a factory that has a good work schedual, Like 4 on 4 off, and open my own little shop on the side to get it going on my days off. He said that there is truely no need to go to college just to be a atv mechanic, and that the schooling would cost more than i would make in a year more than likely.

Another thing he mentioned after i asked him if he gets sick of working on them was that i should find somewhere/someone that does a motorsport mechanic buisness on the side and just help him out whenever i can, that way i dont get sick of working on them, and all that good stuff.

I talked to thompsons motorsports also, they said they start their certified guys out at $15 and they will get up to $20 tops.
Note: Thompsons charges like $100 an hour.

Doesnt sound like the career choice for me. I want to find something i like and i am good at, but i wanna be able to make a good living off of it also.

I just dont know what i wanna do, i know everyone says that you can do anything you want to if you want to do it bad enough, but i really dont know and i have to figure this out soon because once i grad high school i dont wanna be SOL.

I guess welder is an option, they make good money dont they?

[CJM]

Exactly what i told ya lol.

Bottom line is go to college and get a degree, you want to work on stuff take those courses on the side or find someone willing to train you on the side (it certainly wont be for alot of money per hour however). Then you can have a big job and also a part time job doing what you like.

Are you good at math? If so you might want to look into becoming a machinist. Its a great paying job with excellent opportunities but you better have a strong background and understanding of things like algebra, trig, calc, etc. My grandfather is a retired tool and die maker and in 1975 he was making 45g/yr. For the times that was ALOT of money-most made 20-30k. But then again he also is very good at it. EX: he made dials that go into submarines (before things like waterjets were prevalent) he also made one of the moon landers legs.

[slainwarrior]

A good friend of mine went to a school in pa for almost a year. He learned alot and already enjoyed working on quads and dirtbikes. I could of told him this before hand and it was something he wanted to do alot of dealers and shops have closed in our area the past few years due to the economy. And the ones that are still open most likely wont be hiring anytime soon. With that said its been a year and he hasn't even managed to land himself an interview. He knows his **** to he just figured getting that piece of paper from a school would make getting a job way easier when in reality thats not the case. Personally I would become a welder or a machinist. I went to a tech school for CAD and make pretty good money. I also went and took night classes for welding because my father was a welder and ive always been interested. So now I get side jobs to weld for people all the time. These days being skilled in more then one trade is whats going to pay the bills.

[wilkin250r]

I don't want to shatter your hopes and dreams, because there is indeed the opportunity for good money in the ATV or motorsports field. But even with a tremendous amount of hard work, it still takes a tremendous amount of good luck to have the right opportunities fall into your lap to get you the name recognition you'll need. Lots of people are willing to work hard, but few people are willing to work THAT hard, and even fewer get that lucky.

However, don't worry TOO much about not having a direction. I know that in high school, everybody is pressuring you to pick a direction in life, find a career path and start working on it. Don't worry about that. 75% of all college students change their major. So really, what's the difference between going into college with one direction then changing it, or going to college with no direction and then finding it? Your teachers and elders are putting so much emphasis on picking a career, but how can you be expected to if you don't know anything about those careers, what they involve to reach those goals, and what is expected of you once you DO reach those goals? If you don't know about them, how can you make a choice?

If you're not sure what you want to do, my advice would be to start with a broader scope. If something mechanical is what you're after, then just start there, rather than focus on the specific field of Factory Team ATV Race Mechanic. Cars, motorcycles, auto-body, it doesn't matter, just start in one of those programs and learn about it, and you'll figure out if that's the direction you want to go.