How do you make money with your CUT

[blb078]

For those of your who have a CUT and make income on the side. What/how do you earn income with it? I'm not referring to those who have a landscape business or farming. More someone who's full time job really has nothing to do with their tractor but they still earn income with either either by craigslist postings or putting up signs, etc. Just curious what all side jobs people use their CUT for and what size/brand CUT you are using.

 

[screamin400]

I was just ready to post this exact question. I was just looking at rototillers and wondering if anyone made any money with one? I have a winter time business and summer is very slow. Wondering if any money can be made with any attachments.

 

[daugen]

For those of your who have a CUT and make income on the side. What/how do you earn income with it? I'm not referring to those who have a landscape business or farming. More someone who's full time job really has nothing to do with their tractor but they still earn income with either either by craigslist postings or putting up signs, etc. Just curious what all side jobs people use their CUT for and what size/brand CUT you are using.

BLB, welcome aboard. I don't want to be a wet blanket here but this topic has come up a lot, and there are all kinds of legal liabilities you come across as soon as you take your first dollar of payment. If you accept payment or barter, your homeowner insurance will not cover you at all, and usually doesn't if you take your tractor off premises except to go to a second owned location. Like mowing a rental property of yours. But if you take your tractor off premises, for hire, you need to get insurance. As long as you have general liability insurance, and make sure that includes digging, you should be fine. I think in certain areas one could do bushhogging and jobs like that pretty safely, and just about any tractor can do that well if sized properly with the mower. If you aren't in the landscape business or a farmer by trade, there are also concerns that doing jobs other than mowing fields can get you into risky areas you don't have the skill to get out of. Like using a backhoe with limited experience and hitting underground pipes. Even a rear rototiller can hit expensive things underground if the person hiring you doesn't tell you of the hidden hazards.
Mowing and rototilling would likely be where you could start.

 

[blb078]

BLB, welcome aboard. I don't want to be a wet blanket here but this topic has come up a lot, and there are all kinds of legal liabilities you come across as soon as you take your first dollar of payment. If you accept payment or barter, your homeowner insurance will not cover you at all, and usually doesn't if you take your tractor off premises except to go to a second owned location. Like mowing a rental property of yours. But if you take your tractor off premises, for hire, you need to get insurance. As long as you have general liability insurance, and make sure that includes digging, you should be fine. I think in certain areas one could do bushhogging and jobs like that pretty safely, and just about any tractor can do that well if sized properly with the mower. If you aren't in the landscape business or a farmer by trade, there are also concerns that doing jobs other than mowing fields can get you into risky areas you don't have the skill to get out of. Like using a backhoe with limited experience and hitting underground pipes. Even a rear rototiller can hit expensive things underground if the person hiring you doesn't tell you of the hidden hazards.
Mowing and rototilling would likely be where you could start.

I get where you are coming from but I don't want this derailed right off the start going into legal and insurance stuff, that's not the purpose of why I created it. I own my own business, I know about legal and insurance stuff. And I know what you "can" do. What I am curious about is what people actually "do" with their CUT on the side to earn extra income.

 

[/pine]

IMO...there are a lot of small tractor owners that (especially when there's no snow) jump at any chance for some legitimate "seat time"...and don't think about charging their neighbors etc. for most small tractor chores...

Tractors tend to be bridge builders between neighbors with and neighbors without tractors...!

 

[namesray]

For those of your who have a CUT and make income on the side. How do you earn income with it? I'm not referring to those who have a landscape business or farming. More someone who's full time job really has nothing to do with their tractor but they still earn income with either either by craigslist postings or putting up signs, etc. Just curious what all side jobs people use their CUT for and what size/brand CUT you are using.

I do firewood and bushhogging mainly. 52hp kubota mx5200. I have all the insurances.

 

[4570Man]

I pretty well only use the tractor for personal use. I mow about 10 yards on the side. There's pretty good money in mowing yards with a lot less money invested in equipment. My truck, trailer, mower, blower, and string trimmer are worth less than my bare tractor. Then when you add implements the tractor value doubles.

 

[motownbrowne]

I get where you are coming from but I don't want this derailed right off the start going into legal and insurance stuff, that's not the purpose of why I created it. I own my own business, I know about legal and insurance stuff. And I know what you "can" do. What I am curious about is what people actually "do" with their CUT on the side to earn extra income.

I do farm for a living. Veggies mostly, and that is my main source of income. But, that's not what you asked for, so I'll tell you what other people have asked me to do for hire. Some jobs I've taken, some i haven't. I have insurance on my equipment and liability insurance because of the farm, so as long as I can reasonably say that I'm doing "custom" tractor work for someone, and that it's arguably ag related, I am covered.

So far it's mostly mowing. Almost always it's for someone wants their horse pasture mowed. These can be alright jobs and customers will usually want to pay for 2-3 mowings per year.

Rototilling is the other big one. Putting in a garden or in a couple of cases doing custom tillage for another vegetable farm in the area.

I like both of these jobs. The work is easy and usually enjoyable (until it starts raining). For this work I prefer to use my cheaper tractor, just so I don't have as much money tied up in equipment that is subject to damage because i find someone else's junk in a pasture. I also use a cheap beat up old bush hog and a well paid-off rototiller.

I do own a Patz bale chopper that chops small square bales of straw and blows then through a flexile 20' tube. We use it to apply mulch in our veggie operation. It's a very simple, reliable machine that is relatively uncommon and does a good job mulching gardens. I have considered offering that service, but haven't pursued it. I think if I lined up with a consistent straw producer I could buy truckloads of straw and be able to mulch a lot of area a small amount of time. I think I could bill by the job and do better than bush hogging or tilling, but really that's just a guess at this point.

 

[Piston]

I use my Kubota L4610 with 39pto hp for making money, as a side job like you stated. From biggest income producer to least, I use a PTO stumpgrinder, Harley Rake, 6' heavy duty brush hog, 6" chipper, and box blade. Along with these I always use the FEL grapple. I am ten times more efficient because of the grapple.
Most of my bigger jobs have been increasing the size of people's yards, so taking down the trees, grinding the stumps, chipping the wood, grading the area, and then power raking.
I get a lot of stumpgrinding jobs for just stumpgrinding, but the majority of them turn into some sort of additional work. (Like more clearing, or chipping a pile etc).
I turn down a lot more stumpgrinding jobs than I take. I pick and choose the jobs I want to do. I've paid for every implement I own by my side jobs and have made a fair amount of fun money as well.

My favorite jobs are pasture renovation, especially if there is 10 years of growth or so. This is hard on the tractor but it's so satisfying to see the end results.

Hope that answers your question and feel free to ask more, it's how we all keep learning. I'll be interested to see other peoples replies.k

 

[roadhunter]

Sitting here thinking about your question and had a couple of thoughts. Very similar to those ^^

Anything that you might typically see at the rental yard that most contractors don't own.
Silt Fence Installer- This is required on all sorts of projects and when I used to to estimating work for a GC I would get quotes for silt fence which sometimes would include all the erosion control on a project. A CUT might be the perfect size for doing this.

For homeowner type of work I'd guess that a chipper might be something people would pay for when they do cleanup work on thier own instead of using a tree service. Brush hog and stump grinder also come to mind for complementary equipment. There was a recent thread on a PTO powered stump grinder that seemed like a reasonable investment.

Good way to write those things off as a business expense.