Need Advice on Thinning New Acreage Purchase (6 acres)

[t320pilot]

This is the price per day?

$1422 for the 299D XHP
$648 for the HM315
$20.70 Environmental (don't you love the nanny state)
Sales Tax $219.34 (yes we have VERY high sales tax)

 

[lumberjack1986]

Per day would be high. My thinking was that was the weekly rate, which is amazingly cheap.

 

[t320pilot]

I would guess that is the price per day cause you can not rent a Cat 299d for $1422 per week anywhere that I know of. Unless your next door neighbor wants to rent his to you for that price.

 

[MitchellB]

I can tell you what I'd do, but I don't know how fast you want to get the job done. If time is not a limit, personally, I'd go in there with what I had to work with and clear as much as I could before renting equipment (spending money). I don't like to spend money if I can do it myself for nothing but my time. It is a lot of work clearing land with a chainsaw, but with your front end loader and rotary cutter, that will help you a lot. Then you got logs an/or brush piles to burn or move. If you can cut the wood up for firewood that's great. I don't burn wood in our home, so I usually cut trees in 8-10' sections to make landscape timbers, line roadways or natural areas in the woods with. After all that I'd assess whether or not I need to rent or hire a professional to dig stumps out of the ground to clear the land for the house and garage area.

 

[Silvic]

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I'd like to do as much of the work as I can myself to keep costs down. I was quoted $2,100.00 to rent a Cat 279 and MH 315 for a week, with 40 hours of run time allotted for that $$. Is it reasonable to think I can get 6 acres of underbrush and saplings thinned out in 40 hours of run time on the CAT? ---------------------------------

Well I finally got back to providing the answer that I said I would in my earlier post. I rented a CAT 299XHP with HM315 for 7 days/40 hours. Had a couple of issues that slowed work down. Found part of a 1 inch diameter logging cable about 15 feet long, well the 315 found it, and wrapped it around the rotor. Had to cut it out in pieces; after I drove 30 miles round trip to get the equipment to cut it out. Started to shed a track, not fully but started to, thus that slowed things down while the track was put back on. The electrical connection from the 299 to the mulcher was "grabbed" by limbs and "removed" from the canon plug connector. Had to figure out the pin out to replace the wire pins.
Oh did I say it rained for all 7 days and the light level was low.

End result was, in uneven terrain with lots of CWD up to 6-8 inches diameter, I finish a little over 5 acres in 34 hours on the machine. Could have done more if I had not had the mechanical issues but stuff happens, especially in the environment I was working in. Very glad the glass was shatterproof on the cab.
I don't know about the 279. Think it is underpowered for the 315 based on my 299 experience for the week.

How much was the rent?

$1422 for the 299D XHP
$648 for the HM315
$20.70 Environmental (don't you love the nanny state)
Sales Tax $219.34 (yes we have VERY high sales tax)

I thought that the OP's quoted price per week in post #1; then my response about work done in a week/40 hours (my 34 hours), then my response to Lumberjack's question on rent made it obvious that it was for the week. I guess not so obvious as the posts seem to indicate.:confused2:

Yes the quoted price was for a week/40 hours.
Additional Breakdown: The price per day was 1/3 the weekly price so anything after 3 days there was no additional charge. i.e. If I rented for 3 days the price was the same as if I rented for 4, 5, 6 or 7 days

 

[Silvic]

I would guess that is the price per day cause you can not rent a Cat 299d for $1422 per week anywhere that I know of. Unless your next door neighbor wants to rent his to you for that price.

My price was not that much off the OP's price but 299D vs 279D

My 1422+648 = $2070
The OP's quote was $2100 but for a 279D and HM315 not a 299D

Added
I went back and found my notes from before the rental. I was quoted $1323 for a 279D but told them it was not adequately powered and wanted the 299
Thus the 1323 +648=$1971 only $129 difference from the OP's quote for a 279D with HM315. Pretty consistent since he hails from Arkansas.

It seems to me that Florida may be the outlier on pricing since Washington and Arkansas are so close.
He has not come back to the post it seems.

 

[lumberjack1986]

Have you priced those machines new? There is a huge difference in price, thus a large difference in rent should be expected.

 

[t320pilot]

There is a huge price difference. In late 08' I bought a new 2009 model T320 forestry package with fecon/bobcat mulcherhead for $78k in Dothan AL. Panama City FL was $12k higher for the exact same machine and they would not budge on price.
Now a Bobcat T870 with mulcherhead rents for about $1500 per day plus fuel and delivery at those places.

 

[lumberjack1986]

I'm considering putting a Terex TSL220 and mulcher head in as a rental/rent to own. My rental rate would be around $1300/day. 3 days make a week, 3 weeks make a month.

 

[Silvic]

The CAT store (manufacturer dealer/service/rental) would undercut you and you would never rent out here.
You can hire a forestry professional to run his company's Terex with a Fecon head (don't know which models) with an forestry professional operator for $1500/day but that is straight $1500/day, no three day equal week.