At least the CFO is happy

[BigDave]

Green-Rite

My fantasy of owning my dream implement has come to an end. I just couldn't justify spending $7000 on an implement even to myself let alone the CFO. I tried. I thought of how I would have thick beautiful lawn, but I live in the woods so not many people would every see it. I even thought I could offset the cost by donating my time to groom the high school football field & the playing fields in the local park, but the county would probably require me to carry special insurance or something like that. One TBNer even offered to build a statue in my likeness if I could convince the CFO to let me buy such a machine, but if anyone has seen the news - statues of madmen just don't last. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

So what actually happened? I rented a Bluebird push-type slit-seeder for $87 including insurance. For those who are unfamiliar, its a mini Green-Rite that looks like a push mower. The lawn has been overseeded & I saved $6912. What's the $1 error? That's for the two Aleve I took when the job was done. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

P.S. Tomorrow, I'm renting a stump grinder so that's at least another $4850 that I'm saving. At least I bought my chipper before this sudden rush of sensibility hit me. Hopefully, I'll get over this real soon. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[RoyJackson]

"At least I bought my chipper before this sudden rush of sensibility hit me. Hopefully, I'll get over this real soon."

There's only two implements I really want: a rotary cutter (borrow one now) and a chipper/shedder.

I'll probably get a cutter this year. I can justify the 5 or 6 hundred bucks.

Now, the chipper...a new Valby for my 670 (probably the 140 series) would cost around 2500 bucks. Considering a rental of 135 bucks per day for a chipper at our local True Value, I could rent twice a year for 9 years with no worry about maintenance, wear and tear, etc. Tough to justify buying when you do the numbers crunching.

Of course, most of us with less then 4 or 5 acres probably couldn't justify a tractor (maybe a BX2200...size of a lawn tractor) if we thought logically instead of with our testicles.

By the way...don't flame me about the BX2200. It was my first choice for a tractor. Just got a great deal on the 670. Of course, now that I can swing the price of the BX, I'm looking more toward a 790 or TC-30.

[DIYGuy]

If I could rent a 6" for $135/day, I'd do it. Around these parts (NE), it costs me $550 for a weekend with a 9" and HD and the like only rent underpowered 3" units. The 9" is a little overkill, but all I can get.

I can get an imported 6" for my 22hp for $1600 as long as I pick it up and assemble it. Should be here in 6weeks, I'll post after the 1st use.

So, while your payback is 9 years, mine will be three weekends. I chip at least twice a year, and then there's the being neighborly factor which will translate into another 4 times a year. :-)

[JDGREEN4ME]

Do you have enough room to put in a "turf farm"? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Anonymous Poster]

Some of the cost of ownership of a chipper might be justified by a matter of convenience. We have eight acres of tree tops to clean up and even if we rent a medium size chipper at 2 to 300 hundred dollars for a weekend, I doubt we could finish th job in that time. We would likely have to rent for a couple of weekends - each requiring a 35 mile round trip and dedicate all our weekend to chipping. Also, cleanup of brush and trees is a constant when you live in a wooded area. If we own our chipper, we can take our time and do the work when it is most convenient. It is almost impossible to find a weekend where there isn't someplace we need to be to help others or for a birthday, wedding, or other special event. It just comes down to what is more important for you.