"Can borrow your tractor?"

[TerryR]

120 AUD is about 90 USD currently.

 

[4570Man]

120 AUD is about 90 USD currently.

That is still ridiculous for that size machine.

 

[Alien]

You can have your opinion. As I said I wouldn't do it for less. I used to get $60 an hour when I worked in an office without using machinery.
If you take depreciation and running costs into true consideration then $120 is right and still making a small profit. Why else would you do it? If you want to work for nothing, go right ahead, but if you want to sit down and work out true running costs then you will see it is not ridiculous. Working for any less is.
I have a friend who charges $600 an hour for a D6. He is swamped with work.
A gardener with a push mower charges from $50 - $60 to do a city lawn. I can do a couple of acres in an hour easily and more if it is straight mowing.
But, as I said, you can charge your ridiculously low rates and then find that you can't afford to replace your machine when the time comes. I don't really care.

 

[Industrial Toys]

My God. You can get a D6 around here for less then a hundred and fifty (Canadian Peunut Valued Peso) an hour with operator.

It's true though. I show up with a tool kit with a few hundred bucks of tools and charge $60.00/hour. Show up with a hundred and fifty grand of equipment and charge $75.00/hour. Don't make no sense.

 

[joefromga]

Re: "Can borrow your tractor?"

A D6 uses 3.5 to 6.5 gallons of fuel per hour. There's not much left after the tow to site, setup time and work time plus figuring in depreciation and repair costs. Also if you're doing work you should at least be bonded if not have liability insurance etc. Don't forget the costs of tow rig and it's fuel and insurance.

The good thing is people that undercharge go belly up when it's time to replace equipment.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Usually, you have to pay float charges anyway.

I know one guy that just parks his broken equipment and heads off to the next auction to buy the next piece. He has quite the collection of broken equipment.

For me, being able to make any money with my equipment regardless of how little, allows me to write it off (on taxes) and that to me is worth a lot more than the income!

In general though. It seems that when equipment services are concerned, it's almost as if the operator isn't part of the cost consideration. I spoke with a lady that left a government job and bought a pretty busy health food store. Her accountant told her, she was actually making twenty cents and hour! Seems like pretty much the same thing with running equipment.

 

[4570Man]

You can have your opinion. As I said I wouldn't do it for less. I used to get $60 an hour when I worked in an office without using machinery. If you take depreciation and running costs into true consideration then $120 is right and still making a small profit. Why else would you do it? If you want to work for nothing, go right ahead, but if you want to sit down and work out true running costs then you will see it is not ridiculous. Working for any less is. I have a friend who charges $600 an hour for a D6. He is swamped with work. A gardener with a push mower charges from $50 - $60 to do a city lawn. I can do a couple of acres in an hour easily and more if it is straight mowing. But, as I said, you can charge your ridiculously low rates and then find that you can't afford to replace your machine when the time comes. I don't really care.

The market is obviously different over there. A guy charging those rates over here adjusted for currency value wouldn't get a single job. I can rent a D6 dozer for about $5000 a month and use it for 160 hours. The rental company obviously isn't loosing money, and they think it cost them less than $31 per hour to use their dozer.

 

[4570Man]

I can buy a ck30 without a loader for about $15000 maybe less for a 2wd. Add in $2000 for a cutter. Assuming the tractor last for 3000 hours ( I'd expect more ). That is about $6 dollars an hour operating cost. Add in diesel price current price is $1.70 per gallon, but we will figure 2.50 per gallon. Add in x for maintenance and repairs. You are now at about $15 per hour operating cost. It seems at 75 per hour you'd still be making 60 per hour. I'd be happy to ride around on a tractor for 60 per hour.

 

[Alien]

My son in law bought a new DK45 and a slasher. He charged $70 per hour. He lasted about 12 months and gave it up due to excessive costs, It was not worth his effort.
His transport trailer was handy while he had it though....

 

[joefromga]

I can buy a ck30 without a loader for about $15000 maybe less for a 2wd. Add in $2000 for a cutter. Assuming the tractor last for 3000 hours ( I'd expect more ). That is about $6 dollars an hour operating cost. Add in diesel price current price is $1.70 per gallon, but we will figure 2.50 per gallon. Add in x for maintenance and repairs. You are now at about $15 per hour operating cost. It seems at 75 per hour you'd still be making 60 per hour. I'd be happy to ride around on a tractor for 60 per hour.

Until you snag a stump or barbed wire buried or worse a survey pin or concrete stob.

Every repair and maintenance adds to that 6/hr cost.

Remember, your time is worth money too. Mine is.