New Mobile Mechanic Services Offered in Stevens County

Local mobile mechanic Nathan Arms recently launched a new business: Ranger Mobile Garage, LLC. Arms shared that he got the idea for the business when he needed to repair his own vehicle after weekend off-roading adventures with friends. “The result of that was always, ‘Now, I gotta fix my truck,’ because I was being a little rough on it. It’s the only truck I have, and I needed it to work on Monday to go to school. So, that helped me with motivation and I started working on it myself. I was very fortunate to end up with a truck like that, where it’s simple enough that it doesn’t require an engineering degree to figure out how to do certain things on it,” Arms detailed.

Arms was referring to the truck he got when he turned 16: a 2000 Ford Ranger, which also is the inspiration behind the name of the business. He said, “I wasn’t flush with money to be able to take it to the shop to do repairs. While learning how to do my own repairs, I realized that some of this stuff isn’t that difficult. It’s something I could practice, get better at, and then offer as a service to others.”  

Born and raised in Colville, Arms related that he is also a fifth-generation graduate of Colville High School. “My family has been here forever,” he said. He has a garage at 260 W. Columbia, home of DC Electric, but on the west side of the building, facing the fairgrounds. Arms explained, “My grandpa, Steve Greenough, used to do Rainbow Insulation here for almost 40 years. He started with the front half of this building and this back half wasn't built. This is an extension and is their storage and shared project space now. In the last two or three years, I've kind of taken over.” Arms said that, although he doesn’t yet have a lift in the garage, he has access to one. He asserted his main ambition is to be a mobile mechanic, stating, “That's what I'm advertising – that I come to you – wherever it's convenient for you.” His business tagline is “Let the garage come to you for a fraction of the cost.”

Arms said that he can  work a flexible schedule, including on holidays but clarified, “The only thing with that is parts stores may be closed on those days, so it would need to be a repair scheduled ahead of time, so that I can get the parts needed.”

Arms said that he has been in business about six months and business has been a little slow since the holiday season. He expressed having good stretches and slow stretches, divulging, “There will be weeks where I get five calls, [and] weeks where I get one call. I might get one job, I might get three, I might get zero. Just because I'm getting a call doesn't mean I'm getting a job.”

When discussing the hurdles of becoming an entrepreneur, he stated, “The hardest thing is definitely trust. People are very picky about their mechanics, which is fully understandable because there's a lot of people that do good work. Then there’s people that are always looking for the best deal, and expect me to either be the cheapest option or they try and set my price when I already work on making it fair to begin with.” Arms also conceded, “And people don't expect somebody like me to be coming to help them, just because I'm still pretty young. So, that's tricky, but I'm trying to focus on services that don't require as much trust. For example, I’m not gonna rebuild your engine. I'm gonna do your brakes, fluid changes, or a tune-up; maintenance where it's something that I can help you with, and I can be confident in it, and you can be confident in me doing the work for you. I'm always trying to do the best I can, so people can recognize me.”

A unique feature of Ranger Mobile Garage is the lack of up-charge for parts. “A lot of established physical shops, they'll do an up-charge on parts because they have to cover their shop fees, stuff like that. So, that's my factor of trying to save people money more than anything, as well as, I can come to you wherever you need me, whenever…I can go to your home, I can go to your work, I can go to you roadside. As long as I have a parts store open that I can get parts from, I can come to you wherever it's convenient.” He said he charges a “service call fee” of $75 for anybody inside Colville city limits with an additional 70 cents per mile there and back, which serves as a shop fee covering his travel expenses. 

Arms also said he charges a flat rate for services, rather than hourly rate. He elaborated, “I think it's beneficial because you can tell them up front how much it's going to cost. I think that's excellent for the customer because there's a lot of times where the customer would appreciate that because they're not like, ‘Oh, I wonder how much this is going to set me back?’ I have the number up front and I commit to get it done.”

Arms related that he has been developing patience in this endeavor stating, “There's instances where jobs will take a little longer, but that's not a huge issue for me because the hands-on time, I find really important. People tell me, ‘You got to make sure you're accounting for your time and make sure you're getting paid for your time.’ And it's like, ‘Well, I'm at this point where I'm getting a lot of exposure, and that's priceless to me. If a job takes hours longer than it should, that doesn't bother me, because if I'm getting stuck on something, I'm figuring it out.”

Ranger Mobile Garage also has a YouTube channel that Arms has initiated. He said, “I got a GoPro camera over winter and my goal was to be able to record the jobs that I get. I haven't quite gotten a job that I'd feel comfortable recording yet, just because they're all a little different. If it's something straightforward, like a brake job on a car, sure I'll record that as long as it's not too tricky. The only videos I've actually uploaded are on this truck so far.” He referred to the 1993 Dodge Ram W250 sitting in his garage, which is his uncle’s old logging truck that he does repairs on. “The main reason I did that is because this style of truck and this style of engine are super common, but people don't post a lot online about it. It took a lot of effort to find the information to do the repair. So, while doing the repair, I figured, I might as well make a recording of it, so other people can benefit from it too.”

Another thing Arms said he enjoys is explaining very clearly to customers what the issue is and how to fix it. He cited his practice in this art came from discussions with his mother. “If I'm working on this truck, I'll tell her what I did. And then she'll say, ‘Wait a second, that doesn't make any sense.’ And then I have the opportunity to, not dumb it down, but make it so most people can understand what I'm saying. That's important because being able to explain how it works and what function it's providing or how it wasn't providing its function and what that would result in, is very important. That’s something that I've been building as a skill: being able to explain what I'm doing.” 

When asked why people in Stevens County should utilize his service, Arms responded, “I understand the importance of doing good work for the very reason that I'm from the area; I don't have anywhere to escape to. I'm stuck here at the moment, so it drives me to do a good job.” He shared that he also feels it’s important to do his part in the community, to strengthen the community, declaring, “And my part is offering good, reliable service to people.”

To contact Ranger Mobile Garage, call or text Arms at 509-690-3721 or email rangermobilegarage@gmail.com