OP
tradosaurus
Elite Member
- Joined
- May 8, 2017
- Messages
- 3,251
- Location
- Texarkana, TX
- Tractor
- Kubota MX5400 HST, heavy duty bucket, 3rd function, R1 tires (rears filled), 2 remotes
What if....?
- Thread starter tradosaurus
- Start date
- Views: 21780
bearthebruce
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2018
- Messages
- 541
- Location
- Property is in Floyd County VA
- Tractor
- '05 Massey Ferguson 1533; '22 LS MT125, '23 Kubota SVL65-2
$6000 plus fuel and maintenance per year.. 50 hours of use per year..
so that's 50 gallons of diesel - maybe a little more - call it $150.. Maintenance - if you do it yourself, probably less than $200.. all in $6350 (est.) per year cost.
Or in cost per hour: $127
If you hire someone, will it cost you less than $127 per hour for them to do the work for you?
You wrote you thought someone would do the work for $75/hour.. That represents a saving of about $2600 a year to hire someone.
Will they do the job as you would? If money is the issue and if you can hire at $75/hour, then it seems you should unload the tractor. But keep in mind that at some point the costs drop drastically when you are no longer making the payments on the machine. Once paid off, hiring out will cost more than you doing the work.
Do you enjoy the work you do on your tractor? Or do you find the chores you are doing to be a nuisance and wasting time you could be spending doing more lucrative and more pleasing things?
so that's 50 gallons of diesel - maybe a little more - call it $150.. Maintenance - if you do it yourself, probably less than $200.. all in $6350 (est.) per year cost.
Or in cost per hour: $127
If you hire someone, will it cost you less than $127 per hour for them to do the work for you?
You wrote you thought someone would do the work for $75/hour.. That represents a saving of about $2600 a year to hire someone.
Will they do the job as you would? If money is the issue and if you can hire at $75/hour, then it seems you should unload the tractor. But keep in mind that at some point the costs drop drastically when you are no longer making the payments on the machine. Once paid off, hiring out will cost more than you doing the work.
Do you enjoy the work you do on your tractor? Or do you find the chores you are doing to be a nuisance and wasting time you could be spending doing more lucrative and more pleasing things?
Henro
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2003
- Messages
- 4,982
- Location
- Few miles north of Pgh, PA
- Tractor
- Kubota B2910, BX2200, KX41-2V mini EX
I never hire anybody to do anything. Did hire a friend to do the block work on my house when I built it, since I did not want to lose the summer learning to lay block at a snails pace...needed the foundation closed in by winter.
Every time I talk to someone who hires work out, they always seem to have complaints. Guy does not show up, guy does not come back when he said, guy does not return phone calls, guy does shoddy work, guy seems to be a professional excuse maker...and so on.
How old are you? Sounds like that tractor will last you 40 years easy.
Come back in 20 years and tell us how glad you are you did not sell it!
Every time I talk to someone who hires work out, they always seem to have complaints. Guy does not show up, guy does not come back when he said, guy does not return phone calls, guy does shoddy work, guy seems to be a professional excuse maker...and so on.
How old are you? Sounds like that tractor will last you 40 years easy.
Come back in 20 years and tell us how glad you are you did not sell it!
k0ua
Epic Contributor
I never hire anybody to do anything. Did hire a friend to do the block work on my house when I built it, since I did not want to lose the summer learning to lay block at a snails pace...needed the foundation closed in by winter.
Every time I talk to someone who hires work out, they always seem to have complaints. Guy does not show up, guy does not come back when he said, guy does not return phone calls, guy does shoddy work, guy seems to be a professional excuse maker...and so on.
How old are you? Sounds like that tractor will last you 40 years easy.
Come back in 20 years and tell us how glad you are you did not sell it!
I tend to agree with this line of thinking. Once it is paid off, it is all gravy. If you are near the end of your life, this probably is not going to pencil out for you, but if you have some time left, you are going to be sorry you sold it. I don't use my tractor all that much each year either, but it is mighty nice to go down to the barn and fire it up when ever you need it. I have most of the big landscaping jobs done so the tractor sits a lot. I do have to grade the road a lot more than you do though due to the steepness of the road. Besides the tractor is paid off.
workinonit
Elite Member
In general hiring work out for me is a really bad idea. No one else does anything like I do it. Not to say I'm better(good example is welding), lots of people do things better, just not the same. Having someone doing tractor work for me would drive me nuts. No way they could satisfy me.
CausticUrbanCoast
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2018
- Messages
- 554
- Tractor
- Mitsubishi
Nobody else seems to want to go down this route...
Why do you not simply buy an older tractor of about the same size/older for a few thousand rather than the 500x12x6=$36,000 you locked yourself into?
It is not a question of IF you need a tractor; it is more a question of return on investment.
If I used a tractor only 20 hours a year, there is little question for me if I would have it or not (some people solely have a tractor to plow their driveway in winter, and need a large FEL if it is deep enough).
Would I spend $20k+ on it for a few hours a year? No.
Would I spend $2-5k, Yes. That price range means something older (and you can find medium/medium-small tractors in that range all the time).
Now the salesmen will chime in and say old are worn out and you will be repairing it all the time. Think about your situation and how many others did the same thing .... these tractors come up at estate sales/auctions all the time and lived their lives in a garage - many go for a fraction of their cost. They have the same amount of maintenance as an older tractor that was maintained... the paint is usually not as shiny and the only ones you impress are others that use their tractors.
However, if the Jones's are important to you, new is your only option!
Why do you not simply buy an older tractor of about the same size/older for a few thousand rather than the 500x12x6=$36,000 you locked yourself into?
It is not a question of IF you need a tractor; it is more a question of return on investment.
If I used a tractor only 20 hours a year, there is little question for me if I would have it or not (some people solely have a tractor to plow their driveway in winter, and need a large FEL if it is deep enough).
Would I spend $20k+ on it for a few hours a year? No.
Would I spend $2-5k, Yes. That price range means something older (and you can find medium/medium-small tractors in that range all the time).
Now the salesmen will chime in and say old are worn out and you will be repairing it all the time. Think about your situation and how many others did the same thing .... these tractors come up at estate sales/auctions all the time and lived their lives in a garage - many go for a fraction of their cost. They have the same amount of maintenance as an older tractor that was maintained... the paint is usually not as shiny and the only ones you impress are others that use their tractors.
However, if the Jones's are important to you, new is your only option!
shooterdon
Elite Member
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
- Messages
- 3,541
- Tractor
- 2019 LS XR4140 HST Cab; 2020 Kawasaki Mule SX; 2021 Bad Boy 54" ZT Elite
James made an excellent point....age. For example I am 70 so I look at things differently than if I was 50. Two things happen...both obvious....will you live long enough to justify the expenditure in equipment/attachments....and will be be healthy enough to do the work?
Each of us age differently....look at Biden and look at Bernie Sanders...who is aging better?
Like another poster mentioned, this a lot like the BH discussions. Do you have enough work to justify ownership over either the life of the equipment or your life?.
I hire jobs out that make sense for my circumstances.
Spending over $6000/yr for a few jobs does not make a lot of sense if you can hire them out for $3000. I dealt with two downed trees across my driveway in the last 9 years, before I had a tractor. I cannot think of anything else that would have been so "urgent" that having a tractor on site would be worthwhile. But I need a tractor for routine needs...keeping it to handle downed trees would be stupid.
A suggestion....Hire one of your jobs out and see how it goes. I did that with some BH work I needed done and it convinced me not to purchase a BH. I have a good guy I can depend on not far from me. If the guy you hire does a good job for $100/hr you may not need your own tractor.
Each of us age differently....look at Biden and look at Bernie Sanders...who is aging better?
Like another poster mentioned, this a lot like the BH discussions. Do you have enough work to justify ownership over either the life of the equipment or your life?.
I hire jobs out that make sense for my circumstances.
Spending over $6000/yr for a few jobs does not make a lot of sense if you can hire them out for $3000. I dealt with two downed trees across my driveway in the last 9 years, before I had a tractor. I cannot think of anything else that would have been so "urgent" that having a tractor on site would be worthwhile. But I need a tractor for routine needs...keeping it to handle downed trees would be stupid.
A suggestion....Hire one of your jobs out and see how it goes. I did that with some BH work I needed done and it convinced me not to purchase a BH. I have a good guy I can depend on not far from me. If the guy you hire does a good job for $100/hr you may not need your own tractor.
sea2summit
Elite Member
Shoot, isn't that part of the draw to old equipment? I've got three pieces behind the pole barn right now waiting for their turn under the healing shade tree.
TractorGuy
Elite Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2013
- Messages
- 4,591
- Location
- N. FL
- Tractor
- John Deere 4310 CUT, Ford New Holland 575E Industrial Backhoe, John Deere F725 Front Mount Mower
Only you can do the math and justify the expense and work involved with ownership.
111 hours times $75 = $8325. You would have to wait for the work to be done on their schedule and that money would be gone forever.
111 hours times $75 = $8325. You would have to wait for the work to be done on their schedule and that money would be gone forever.
hube2
Veteran Member
This is why I do almost everything myself. There are some things I will not do because I do not have the skill or time. For example, I did not put the new roof on my house because I never get them to come out straight, the roof on my new shed went on crooked
I am having all the windows and the sliding glass door in the house replaced this year, I could do it, but not in the 2 days that it's going to take the people I hired to do the work. When I do it myself I know it's done the way I want it done and there was nothing skimped on to increase a profit. When I do hire someone I do a lot of research and vetting before making the decision. My experience is that it's hard to find someone else that will take the time and put in the extra effort to make sure it's done right, or in my case, over done so that nothing has to be redone when you figure out what it's really lacking.