Partnership bulldozer. Good or bad idea????

[Soundguy]

milling machines too.. loke soil stabilizers or asphalt reclaimers...

 

[arrow]

My only advise is DO NOT PURCHASE IT if you can't work on it yourself. Decide up front that any repair that comes up and will cost x amount of $$$, you just park it and it's done. Other than that, there is a good chance that it will serve both of you well.

Good luck :thumbsup:

Of all the suppositions about what people can do, this is most rock solid advice. Used equipment can be an absolute money pit if you cannot do the work yourself. Also, the consideration must be made as to how hard you are going to use it. Occasional use is one thing but certainly two people are going to use it more and it may have seen its better days and ready to give up a hidden ghost with more frequent use.

 

[sammyd]

Never again will I do a partnership.
Buddy (that I have known for many years) and I bought a tractor together seemed like a good machine.
Turns out the engine was honeyed up and as soon as we changed oil it started smoking bad, could hardly pull itself down the road.
I wanted to sell it. Buddy was an ASE wrench said no problem I'll pay off your half and fix it.
4 years later I still had no money and a torn apart tractor sitting out in the shed becoming more worthless every day.

 

[sixdogs]

How did this end? Did the OP do the partnership purchase or did he let it pass?

 

[k0ua]

Never again will I do a partnership.
Buddy (that I have known for many years) and I bought a tractor together seemed like a good machine.
Turns out the engine was honeyed up and as soon as we changed oil it started smoking bad, could hardly pull itself down the road.
I wanted to sell it. Buddy was an ASE wrench said no problem I'll pay off your half and fix it.
4 years later I still had no money and a torn apart tractor sitting out in the shed becoming more worthless every day.

Look at it this way, it may have been "hard" lesson, and costly too, but it is a lesson you will not soon forget.

 

[pharmvet]

Took you guys advice and decided against it! Thanks

 

[Soundguy]

i think you are way ahead of the game going this route..

 

[Bison]

Took you guys advice and decided against it! Thanks

Wise decision

 

[pmsmechanic]

This whole post is kind of a sad read. My Dad when he was farming had all kinds of partnerships going. In the later years he never had any cattle but his deal with the neighbors was that they kept the fences repaired and Dad paid for the materials. Where there was no fence whoever seeded first seeded several feet into the others land and the person that seeded last straightened it out and that was the border for the year. He owned a D-6 with two other neighbors. All repairs were split by roughly the amount of hours each neighbor used the Cat. Another neighbor and Dad owned a rough cut mower together. Five neighbors owned a post pounder together. Several neighbors also had a combining agreement. If your combine was sitting you were welcome to come and help out and would get combining help in return. At the end of the year hours were totaled up and whoever was short got paid out. Not everything was perfect but we got to use equipment that we otherwise could not have afforded. Now a days people have too much money and they don't need each other.

 

[Bison]

This whole post is kind of a sad read. My Dad when he was farming had all kinds of partnerships going. In the later years he never had any cattle but his deal with the neighbors was that they kept the fences repaired and Dad paid for the materials. Where there was no fence whoever seeded first seeded several feet into the others land and the person that seeded last straightened it out and that was the border for the year. He owned a D-6 with two other neighbors. All repairs were split by roughly the amount of hours each neighbor used the Cat. Another neighbor and Dad owned a rough cut mower together. Five neighbors owned a post pounder together. Several neighbors also had a combining agreement. If your combine was sitting you were welcome to come and help out and would get combining help in return. At the end of the year hours were totaled up and whoever was short got paid out. Not everything was perfect but we got to use equipment that we otherwise could not have afforded. Now a days people have too much money and they don't need each other.

It is not that they don't want to need or help each other,..it is because that people have been screwed one time to many.
I used to borrow machinery back and forth but it seemed i always had to repair what i borrowed before i could use it and had to repair the equipment i owned that came back broke from a user before i could use it myself again.
Chit like that gets old in a hurry.

 

[ultrarunner]

It all depends...

I'm sure all of us can relate loaning something out only to have it broken.

My PJ trailer and my Horse Tiller are the two most recent.

Trailer was going down the road without the pin to secure the tongue jack and it did a number on the jack and frame crossmember.

Troy Tiller came back with the Carb broken clean off the mounting bolts... apparantly, it was not secured and "Tumbled" in the bed of the truck... I own it with my brother and he let his brother-in-law use it and that is how I got it back.

As a rule... I just won't borrow anything...

So far my splitter partners have been doing OK... two are retired and very good when it comes to proper use and maintenance... we have had it for 7 years and it would not make sense for me to own it outright with so little use.

 

[PILOON]

I have had both good and bad experiences with partnerships.
Generally you can predict the outcome if you have known the people for any length of time.
Some folks I would lend any and everything I own while others would get NADA.
Some will return almost before they finish with great apologies for being late while others keep thing so long that I think they hope you will forget.

The worst kind is the one that expects you to come and get your possession when you need it only to find that he broke it.

Generally I give everyone a first chance just to categorize them . Sadly the list of 'never again' is longer that of OK's.