concern about tires on pavement

[BTDT2]

Given the age of your tires,their replacement costs, and your budget, I would seek help from the volunteer organizers to ask a local business, or the city you do volunteer work, for help with tractor transport.

 

[Ed755]

Thanks for all the advice. One item of info, I asked my dealer about servicing/replacing my tires, and they want nothing to do with it, they will not handle tires filled with calcium chloride solution. (And they are the ones who originally filled the tires.) I can only assume there is some kind of environmental issue/possible liability associated with it. Anyway, I can't afford new tires, and given some of the steep slopes I deal with, I don't want to give up the weight anyway. I have already replaced the front tires with tubed models, the originals were tubeless and did not last.
Another note, the traffic on one of the connecting roads is fast paced, and I have to cross a long bridge with no breakdown lane. In other words, the comfort level is not high.
So I think I will decline. If they get a few more years of trail mowing out of me, they will be doing well. I have never even asked for fuel reimbursement, but I am going to try taking it off on my income tax return this year, if my preparer will let me.

 

[4570Man]

Volunteering is great. But the other volunteers show up with wheelbarrow, gloves and shovels, while you show up with a machine with a replacement cost of thousands of dollars. These are good machines, but parts are becoming a little scarce and repair costs are not cheap. Have you approached the organization(s) about recouping some fair costs? Fifteen to thirty bucks an operated hour would be a start, you wouldn't be making money, but you also would not be putting the machines future in danger of being financially unrepairable. Other will scream and cry, and claim that you are making money, but this is simply untrue. I itemized our costs of operating and maintaining the '83 950 we have owned since 1986, and we are very conservatively at $14/hr, and any trip to the shop can jump this another annuitized dollar or two. Helping out is fun, and running the machine is fun, but you got to make sure that it's not more than you can afford. Make sure that you speak with an attorney, one may even do this for free, that any funds are costs only and not real income. This is for tax and liability reasons.

What about the wear on yourself shoveling gravel? I would rather show up with a tractor and pay whatever it cost to operate VS show up and shovel the gravel. Moving a few buckets of gravel won't put significant wear on a tractor. I don't like driving a tractor on the road, so I might try to get it a ride.

 

[square1]

...Another note, the traffic on one of the connecting roads is fast paced, and I have to cross a long bridge with no breakdown lane. In other words, the comfort level is not high.
So I think I will decline. If they get a few more years of trail mowing out of me, they will be doing well. I have never even asked for fuel reimbursement, but I am going to try taking it off on my income tax return this year, if my preparer will let me.

Sounds like the right call for you in this situation.

 

[BTDT2]

Thanks for all the advice. One item of info, I asked my dealer about servicing/replacing my tires, and they want nothing to do with it, they will not handle tires filled with calcium chloride solution. (And they are the ones who originally filled the tires.) I can only assume there is some kind of environmental issue/possible liability associated with it. Anyway, I can't afford new tires, and given some of the steep slopes I deal with, I don't want to give up the weight anyway. I have already replaced the front tires with tubed models, the originals were tubeless and did not last.
Another note, the traffic on one of the connecting roads is fast paced, and I have to cross a long bridge with no breakdown lane. In other words, the comfort level is not high.
So I think I will decline. If they get a few more years of trail mowing out of me, they will be doing well. I have never even asked for fuel reimbursement, but I am going to try taking it off on my income tax return this year, if my preparer will let me.

Is the organization you volunteer for tax exempt? Perhaps the tractor dealer can transport your tractor to the site and write it off as a business expense, not to mention good community relations?