who uses there tractor for $

[FlashPoint]

Thinking of building or buying a Backhoe for my tractor or possibly buying a trackhoe. Any of yall use yours for business purposes . If so how and what do you charge. Guy from our water supply came and asked me about getting one for my tractor for digging up lines that are broke or putting in new service. From our conversation he owns several .Reason being the state has taken custody of them and put them in his possession because of misuse or non regulation from previous owners. He now rents all his equipment so i think maybe this would work for both of us.

 

[beenthere]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( From our conversation he owns several .Reason being the state has taken custody of them and put them in his possession because of misuse or non regulation from previous owners )</font>

Something about these two sentences didn't add up. Not that it needs to for me, but curious ir he owns several, why would the state take custody of them because of something a 'previous' owner did? Somehow the turmoil that is not showing on the surface is what you want to know more about.

As far as work, I have rented out for $50 an hour. If it was for backhoe work, it would be $100. That would be to help pay for the insurance needed to be digging where gas lines, telephone, and electric could be buried, and the disasters that can occur as a result. Some, if not all, would be the 'fault' of the one running or operating the backhoe doing the damage. Not sure why you'd want to get into this, but it may be fun - getting an emergency call in the middle of the night that a sewer line or water main needs to be dug up so it can be fixed, and you'd be needed from the beginning of the project to the end when the hole was filled, tamped and closed.

Or am I missing something here? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[FlashPoint]

Yes , What i was talking about was the water companies ,He owns. There small coops that have only a few wells. Former owners didnt keep up the regs so i guess the state pulled there license or something. Most if not all these are in very rural areas. The system i am on has only 20 houses on it. Not worried about emergency calls im self employed and every call is an emergency..lol
Another thing about these lines is Texas water lines are only buried maybe two feet. We only have a 4inch freeze line so it would be shallow digging.

 

[FlashPoint]

beenthere , I guess you could say he is or his company is a (trust) of some sort for none regulatory water systems.
which in turn he probabaly gets property rights and tax breaks.

 

[blackd]

I have used my FX24D with a home made FEL for several jobs backfilling and light grading. I have used $50/Hr when estimating.

 

[beenthere]

Thanks as that makes a bit more sense. Sounded to me like he owned several backhoe/tractor outfits.

Still, liability insurance would likely be expensive. But that would be your risk if you didn't get insured. If I was 'on call' I think $100 an hour would not be unreasonable. You will need TLB, trailer, and truck to be 'ready to go' on a moments notice. This adds up to about $50,000 invested and probably can't get 'continuous' work. Maybe maintain a 'holders' fee of $$?? per month so the fixed expenses get covered regardless if a line breaks. Maybe like $4000 a month fixed, and they get up to 40 hours work out of you if needed, and $100/hour beyond that limit. Or something similar on a weekly basis.
All up to you.

 

[lens12]

I rented a YM1702d with a Kelley B650 hoe for 3 years. I also rented a mini-excavator(6000 lb, 9' dig depth). A small mini is a smaller investment & can dig circles around the compact TLB.

 

[FlashPoint]

I was thinking that myself. len, I rented a Yanmar trackhoe and it sure moves slow. Digs great and has plenty of power.
Beenthere ,I already have the truck and trailers required to haul just about anything. Would like to have some spare cash to help pay for them with some extra work. Havent checked the insurance yet , but i do know the utility providers here are required to come out and mark the lines.Do they do that there? they do here at no charge.

 

[lens12]

Yes . They come out & mark the utilities.

 

[6or7dazeaweek]

Flashpoint: You will need to keep your machine pretty busy just to cover the cost of liability ins.

I was following the same path as you...spoke with a contractor about what I would like to do and he advised me to check with my insurance agent before I went any further.

Here's the email I got from my agent.

Hi John,

Assuming you are just doing landscaping and not excavtion, such as digging trenches for septic, water lines or digging
basements I have a price of $927 through National Grange. They also have a problem with fertilizer or pesticide application.
If you do some I need to investigate further. They also won't cover tree removal.

The equipment would be an additional cost. For example, if you purchased a $30,000 tractor it would probably cost around
$500.00.

Your friend gave you good advice. Some contractor's is expensive and difficult to obtain.

After reading that email I started jotting down little jobs I could do here & there and did the tally. In the long run, it wasn't worth it.....so asking questions and doing the math really helped me make my decision. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Now if you were a gambler and never planned on running into trouble...then I suppose you could make some extra cash that way. What with all the smart lawyers out there & all the tv commercials telling me I could get money if I was wrongfully injured or damaged....I decided not to go that route.

With that being said, I don't want to squash your endeavour...just trying to point out some of the pitfalls that you should be looking into.

Good luck!
Jon