What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL?

   / What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL? #1  

Cobble

Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2012
Messages
29
Location
Live Oak, FL
Tractor
Massey Ferguson 231
What is good hourly rate to charge for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL/ grapple/ rake ( with operator)? 20180304_092347.jpg

It's a recent purchase, and wanted to see what an average rate to charge would be for this tractor?
Work will be light landclearing, fire line prep, brush removal, etc... in FL.
I have several attachments as well.

I'm thinking $65 to 85/ hr, with $75 being a good rate, including local delivery.

Am I out of the ballpark?
 
   / What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL? #2  
When you figure in the time bidding jobs and travel time, equipment to haul tractor, fuel, medical risk, insurance costs, etc., will you be making much? The charge rate depends on how much work gets done per hour too. I just had 1800 trees removed/chipped and their rate was much more than that, but their equipment allowed them to finish in a few days vs a few years.
 
   / What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL? #3  
Good luck with that. It's very hard to find paying jobs for tractor work. Either somebody needs a tractor and buys one, they need one occasionally and rent from the local equipment yard, or they don't need one. Very few people are willing to pay the extra to have an operator vs just renting a unit. Make sure you do a business plan and have it reviewed. Hitting ROI will be difficult if you do everything by the book and you open yourself up to huge risks if you don't.
 
   / What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL?
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Finding the work's not the issue. Competitive pricing, at a fair yet profitable rate is where I am having trouble with the calculations. I'm bad about under estimating time for a job, and want to break the habit. But that also probably the reason I don't have trouble finding work.
 
   / What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL? #5  
West of you there are a couple of people charging $50. I used one of them a while back to do some grapple work for me and I was very pleased. Got an honest 7 hours of on the ground work for $350. He didn't charge me for travel or loading/unloading time.
 
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   / What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL? #6  
I prep mow, spray, and plant food plot in NC. Usually within 20 miles or less from me. I use 75 HP farmtrac tractors for most of the work. I charge $45 hour plus fuel for the tractors and truck. Most of the time the fuel is around $25.00 I think it's fair for both parties.
 
   / What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL? #7  
This is delicate terrain. Hopefully we are all thick skinned enough to not take offense.

No way in God's Green Earth I would do custom work for $50 an hour. I'd have to research the project completely before I'd commit to $75 an hour. One stupid human trick and all profit would be gone for the day/week. :(

Hopefully we all realize that at $60 an hour you are making $1 a minute. How much damage can you do to your tractor in a minute??
 
   / What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL?
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Very good point! The jobs I'm scoping will be prepping lines, followed by prescribed burning. If I'm too high, I lose the job. Too low, I get it with no profit, or a loss even worse
 
   / What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL? #9  
Very good point! The jobs I'm scoping will be prepping lines, followed by prescribed burning. If I'm too high, I lose the job. Too low, I get it with no profit, or a loss even worse

I'd be extremely leery of burning for someone. How good is your liability insurance?

Very good friend of mine, who is a LARGE farmer, told me 20 years ago, "it took me awhile to realize if I'm losing money planting an acre of crops it does no good to plant more acres". That philosophy applies here. It should be clearly lucrative or you shouldn't do it. Almost sinfully profitable. :)
 
   / What's a good hourly rate for a 55 hp, 4wd tractor, with FEL? #10  
While not my priority, I always charged $75/hr and never a complaint. Mostly the clients were very impressed with results.
Grading drives, spreading topsoil was the main chores.
Small and agility is your main advantage.

OK, perhaps I was well experienced but generally did chores that other equipment could not do, like tight areas, etc.
Typically a 12 ton load of material be it top soil or crushed stone was a 1 hour spreading chore.
If not an existing client I'd also add travel time.(like 1 hour)

Remember that it costs as much to maintain or repair a CUT as a 6 ton excavator or dozer.
Don't under sell yourself or your equipment.
 
 
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