Josie

It’s a Sign!

Posted on May 2, 2023May 3, 2023 by Josie — 2 Comments

At WINCO, we enjoy looking for ways to not only promote ourselves, but our community. When you come to visit us, take Highway 99 so you can see our newest addition, an LED sign.

Project: Watchfire LED Sign
Purpose: Brand awareness, as well as, promoting company highlights and community events.
Challenges: Winter, system interruption

Ground Breaking

Even though we started the project in the heart of a Minnesota winter, we were able to get the support beam in place and secured with concrete. A local electric company was able to get wiring ready as well.

Installation

It was an exciting day when the sign was delivered! Installation was very quick and the sign was ready for content right away. The next day, though, we found out we had the same IP address as another company and were displaying information about Maine. It was a one in a million chance, but the software company worked hard to get everything working correctly. A few hours later, we were up and running.

Content

It has been fun creating content to display. The sign is a way for us to post products, company information, and promote local events and fundraisers. Adding a bit of whimsy, we display what National day it is. Pictured was our National Pet Day display. We were able to display pictures of all of our furry family members.

We have another project in the works. Stay tuned!
– BIG DOG

2023 Events

Posted on March 27, 2023March 31, 2023 by Josie — Leave a comment

This year has already been busy!

Expos

February

We traveled to Florida to attend the Spray Foam Convention & Expo and Spray Foam World Wide (SFWW). Both events were in Daytona Beach and we enjoyed the warm weather.

SFWW gave away a spray foam rig equipped with our DE30!

Congrats to the rig winner, Gino!

A week later, we stayed in Florida and attended PowerGen. While our co-workers were experiencing a Minnesota blizzard, we stayed warm and showed of our RP units, RP15, RP130 and our largest available, RP400.

March

We attended ConExpo in Las Vegas where we showed off our RP units and portable generators that are built for the industrial industry.

Parades

St. Patrick’s Day

We started our parade appearance at the Le Center’s 41st Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We handed out can coolers and a lot of candy! The Big Dog was happy to get outside and see everyone! It wouldn’t be fun without snow!

Future Parades:

We have a few more this year!

June 17th	Cherry Creek Days – Cleveland, MN
September 16th	Dozinky Days – New Prague, MN
November 30th	Torchlight Parade – Montgomery, MN

Follow our social media pages to stay current on all events happening at WINCO!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wincogen
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/winco-generators/

See you soon!

Big Dog’s Big Adventures

Posted on September 7, 2022September 21, 2022 by Josie — Leave a comment

2022 has been a big year for me! Starting out with local parades and going for car rides around Minnesota attending trade shows. Although the year isn’t done yet, I thought I’d share some highlights!

PARADES

Starting in June, I made my debut appearance at two parades. Cherry Creek Days and the Le Center Fire Department 125th Anniversary celebration. I recently was at the Dozinky Days Parade and have one more left to attend in December. My WINCO friends and I have enjoyed handing out candy and can coozies!

SHOWS

I also hit the road to attend a few fairs and expos around Minnesota, including Nicollet County Fair, Le Sueur County Fair, FarmFest, and a Spray Foam World Wide event. Mother Nature also made a guest appearance; two of the shows were hit by tornadoes. Don’t worry, I was safe!

I had a great summer and I hope you did too! See you soon!

How We Prepare for Service School

Posted on September 6, 2022September 21, 2022 by Josie — 1 Comment

When we developed service school many decades ago, our concept was simple; to assist our Service Dealers on becoming more familiar with our product line.

Today, we continue to evolve Service School courses that teach best practices to our Service Dealers. These in-depth courses should give peace of mind to WINCO generator owners that with proper servicing, they can expect years of dependable power.

Creating Courses

Classroom
Courses include in-depth discussions based on course content, depending on the generator grouping. It is our goal to teach an understanding of how our generators work and are maintained. Instructing departments include service, engineering, and sales.

Hands-On Planning
Coming up with the best and most beneficial hands-on labs is a crucial part of planning. Our technical support team uses feedback from the field to get and accurate picture of what our Service Dealers are facing.

We team up with our Engineers to create training aids that get our course participants working on actual equipment that is found in the field.

In this picture, we installed two ASCO transfer switches that are fully operational. This set-up is designed to simulate failures, test operation sequences, test operations, and help find faults.

There are similar set ups for other generator components that require troubleshooting.

Our generator end and controller labs will assist with testing and how to service them.

Scheduling

Theses are a few factors when scheduling Service Schools throughout the year.

Weather

First off, we are located in Minnesota, weather is a constant factor; especially the snow. While it can be a better time for some, not everyone wants to enjoy a Minnesota winter.

Factory

Heavy coordination from all other departments is needed when setting dates. Our factory stays live during service school, allowing us to provide tours throughout the entire facility. We take pride in what we do and enjoy showcasing our growing capabilities.

The best way to get our Service School announcements is to be subscribed to our emails. If you would like to be added, contact your Account Manager at WINCO.

We will also make announcements on our LinkedIn and Facebook pages. Be sure to follow us so you don’t miss out!

Be on the lookout for me at Service School. See you soon!

Liquid-Cooled Test Bay

Posted on August 3, 2022August 11, 2022 by Josie — Leave a comment

WINCO prides itself for our quality generators. We want to ensure every generator that goes out our door, is ready when you need it. This is why we 100% load test every generator. Our test bays are constantly in use and our technicians ensure that generators pass inspection. Our technicians check for shutdowns, read gauges, test high voltages, and engine temps, to name a few.

Within the past few years, we have been working on providing larger power capabilities. Right now, we offer our largest generator at 600kW. Having such a large generator being built, our old test bay wasn’t large enough and we needed to find a way to test them. Therefore, we relocated our liquid-cooled test bay to a new area and installed upgrades to our new test bay to suit our growing capabilities.

THE OLD

The old liquid-cooled test bay was created inside an old paint bay. For many years, this was sufficient and we were able to conduct full load tests on units up to 90kW. But, the old test bay was not able to accommodate the larger, housed units. It was also lacking an adequate fuel system.

THE NEW

The new liquid-cooled test bay is larger, more organized, and able to test our 600kW. Our testers also have a separate area where the can apply loads and monitor readings without having to be close to the generator itself.

Check out the video for a little tour!

Stay tuned to see our other test bays, air-cooled and PTO!