How about an attachment "co-op" between members?

[Kyle_in_Tex]

How many of you have bought an expensive attachment only to use it maybe once or twice a year? If your like me, I would say the chances are high.

It would seem that if enough members in a locale went in together, they could chip in and then they could "rent" the attachments for a lot less than a rental center would charge.

I know, I know, you'd need about a half million rules to "govern" the thing, but basically like a rental center with deposits only cheaper daily rates. That way, you could all share a vast assortment of attachments without having to buy them all.

I know many of you have $5-10 grand laying around in attachments that don't get utilized that often.

 

[bbirder]

We have something similar to what you are suggesting with our local Cattlemens association. Members can rent working pens, chutes,calf tables, scales etc. Very inexpensive compared to the higher priced equipment. It is controlled by the local County Agents office.

 

[klrobert]

Kyle, that's a great idea, but I think the members here are scattered out all over the country. I'm not sure there is a high enough concentration of members in one location to make this feasible.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I think one of the biggest hurdles is that many on here can afford to buy what they want or need and not need to rent. They might also be afraid that others might tear up their equipment.

The way I see it happening is kinda like this:

1)See how many members want to sign up in an area
2)Determine which implements would be utilized by the most and vote to purchase particular stuff.
3)Each member would be required to "Buy In" initially depending on the total cost.
4)Members joining later would have to "Buy In" and that money could be voted to buy more attachments or equally distributed to original members?

Just suppose you could get 30 members. And you wanted to provide attachments that are only needed semi-regularly. Such as aeriator, tiller, Post hole digger, log splitter, renovator, disk, etc. The members could vote and set up the deal before anyone puts a penny down. Let's say the tab for the stuff comes up to $10-20 grand. Divided by 30 members = $333 to $666 each. Also, you could buy a couple of cheap trailers that they could pick up and haul the stuff back to their places. I would guess that a small "rental" fee and deposit to cover repairs would be in order to help keep the equipment updated and working.

I just know that I have a lot of money in equipment laying around in the way. There are times when I could use other stuff but I have all my spare change tied up into what I already have.

 

[PAB_OH]

There's some serious legalities that come to mind with something like this. Unfortunately we live in a world where it doesn't matter how stupid someone is, it's always someone else's fault.

Me and a buddy do this (with used equipment, can't afford new for the most part) and it works out well. I'd be afraid someone in a "co-op" like you're suggesting would do something silly and then sue the other memebers. Especially if it was one of the members that joined after the initial buy and paid monies out to the founding members. Those members would almost certainly have some legal responsibility in the eyes of the crooked legal system. If anything happened to them and the condition of the equipment ever came into question you can be sure some low-life lawyer will find a way to ruin it for everyone. (Notice I did NOT say all lawyers are scum-bags, just the scum-bags are).

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

There's some serious legalities that come to mind with something like this.UInfortunately we live in a world where it doesn't matter how stupid someone is, it's always someone else's fault.

Me and a buddy do this (with used equipment, can't afford new for the most part) and it works out well. I'd be afraid someone in a "co-op" like you're suggesting would do something silly and then sue the other memebers. Especially if it was one of the members that joined after the initial buy and paid monies out to the founding members. Those members would almost certainly have some legal responsibility in the eyes of the crooked legal system. If anything happened to them and the condition of the equipment ever came into question you can be sure some low-life lawyer will find a way to ruin it for everyone. (Notice I did NOT say all lawyers are scum-bags, just the scum-bags are).

I know you are right about the sue happy. What if they signed a legal document that stated if they sued, they would pay all costs associated regardless of the outcome, get Tarred and Feathered, and then get the Tar beat out of them until they were senseless or decided not to sue. Whichever comes first....

 

[CCWKen]

Well, I'm probably the closest to you but it's still about 90-100 miles. Like already mentioned, folks would have to be pretty close to make it work. I'm in Lytle, about 25 miles SW of San Antonio. It would be tough to transport equipment that far. I've rented equipment out of Devine. It's about 12 miles to the rental center. What I couldn't haul on a trailer or in a truck, they delivered for a nominal fee. (I rented a road grader once.)

 

[Gary Fowler]

My brother-in-law and I share the cost of things that we both need but occassionally use. Since both our properties are on a common 42 acre tract, this is easy to do. So far we havent had to repair any of the stuff we share but we would split that cost equally also. So far we have a 4 foot shredder, a 6 foot shredder, a John Deere 650, a Yanmar 4220D, PHD, box blade, straight blade, 8' tandem disk, 2 row cultivator and a seeder/fertilizer distributor. We also have a Miller 350 amp AC/DC CC welding machine and a Victor cutting torch for repair work. Of couse we both have all the small lawn equipment like mowers, weed eaters, leave blowers and kinds of small tools like 4" grinder, drill motors, impact guns, air compressors etc that we both had before we started partnering up for the farm stuff. So far it has worked out well as we have most of what we need and shared the cost. The only thing we did not share in was the tractors. We each bought what we wanted on that, but we share the use of both whenever we need them and help each other with our projects.

 

[ctpres]

Yup we might have a bit of a drive, but what about the social side?
I would loan a lot of my stuff PHD, Sub Soiler, Potatoe plow, Weight box, Land Plane/5' Bush Hog (joke about calling shredder a land plane but it really does do some land leveling,) Quick hitch, Carry-all, AC/DC welder and Sheet rock lift.
Right now I need a box blade and am really struggling with idea of buying cheep $300 dark horse or spending real $ for a real BB.
On the social side I bet I could spend a lot of time at another TBN"ers place looking at his work and just trading ideas. If you come here it'll cost you a couple hours while I proudly show off my handywork and discuss ideas for future projects.

 

[mikim]

Kyle -- I've had the same musings ....but I would have thought that if such a thing could work then the local co-ops that have been in operation for years would have done so. For that matter...is there a co-op in Giddings? If you want to look into trying something -- the biggest worry I'd have would be losing friends over it....and they're worth more than any implement. But I'm willing to listen if you come up with a workable plan. Sure would beat spending a lot of money on stuff that only get's used once or twice a year. I've even looked to rent 3 pt implements and haven't found anything .....must be problems involved there that we aren't seeing. most likely legal / liability type.