Warren Evans -- eldest son of Dixie Chopper founder Art Evans -- has returned to the fold with renewed excitement after a three-year hiatus from the company.

The 43-year-old former national sales manager, who went off on his own to build custom motorcycles in January 2006, returns to Dixie as one of two regional managers (Tom Durham is the other). Warren couldn't be more enthusiastic about his return.

"My goal is to bring back the excitement and pride to Dixie Chopper and restore that family atmosphere feeling that sets us apart," he said.

"We need to get back to building an aggressive, quality machine that doesn't break when you use it," he said, echoing the theory his father has espoused since he founded Dixie Chopper in 1980.

"I was 16 years old when Dad started the business," Warren said, recalling how it probably couldn't have been a worse time to start a new company. "Jimmy Carter was president and we had 21 percent interest rates or more. Then gas rationing hit and you couldn't buy a V8 engine. And you sure didn't want to talk about horsepower back then."

But the energy crisis helped because of Dixie's ability to mow fast and burn less fuel. In such a downturn in the economy there will be people trying to save money, and that is what Dixie Chopper does best. "Less fuel burn, less maintenance, less down time and more acres cut per hour all equal more money in your pocket per hour."

Dixie Chopper soon took off to become the first commercial-grade zero-turn mower.

"This was my family," Warren said of Dixie Chopper. "Mom and Dad were always at work, so if I wanted to see them, I had to go to work, too. I missed that."

What he didn't miss, however, was welding work.

After graduating from South Putnam High School in 1983, he went to work welding for his dad. "That welding smoke is what made me say I didn't want to be in the lawn mower manufacturing business," Warren said.

So he joined the Army as an MP, serving 1985-89. But when he left the service, it was the lawn mower business that again beckoned.

"Basically I had been selling lawn mowers since I was 13," Warren said, explaining that he used his lawn mower sales knowledge to win the state and national FFA sales demonstration contests in 1981.

So he opened Belleville Lawn and Garden, selling 75 Dixie Choppers a year from 1990 until 1992 when he turned the business over to Delbert Williams and became Dixie's national sales manager.

He held that position for 14 years before tackling the custom motorcycle world (by the way, he is still building his V8 motorcycles by order). Evans spent the past year as national sales manager for Zipper and Envirogard mowers.

"Then last October Gary Morgan assumed the role of Dixie Chopper president and knowing accountability and Dad's 7 business principals would again be adhered to," Warren said, "without question this was the opportunity the company and I needed.

"With the onset of the new president, I found out there was an opening and was able to come back. And now I get to work with my Dad and my brother (40-year-old Wesley, the company's production manager) again."

He also gets to work with many of the dealers he helped sign up initially. "I think it is important that those dealers feel like part of the family or business partners, not just like another dealer number."

"I want to get us back to where our dealers are our best testimony for getting new dealers and our customers are our best testimony to selling our mowers because of the service they have received from the company."

Evans believes the Xcaliber 3366 is the mower that will help rejuvenate the Dixie Chopper excitement and that confident "hint of cockiness" that goes along with it.

"I think we can take the Xcaliber 3366 out against anybody and say, 'If you can outmow me, we'll give you a free mower.' And if you can't, be ready to write the check."

Likewise, he believes product training is essential for dealers to grow Dixie Chopper sales by informing customers why we build a better machine than our competitors.

In serving as regional manager, Warren supervises territory managers Rebecca Butler, Bill Cary, Pat Gillespie, Lee Hall, John Huston, Steve Reynolds, Steve Timm and Bruce VerMeulen. He resides in Spencer, Ind., about 30 miles southwest of Dixie Chopper's facilities at Greencastle and Fillmore/Coatesville.