Tractor Rental

[Anonymous Poster]

First off, thank you! You folks have an amazing forum here, I have been reading it for the last month now and am constantly amazed by not only the amount of infomation here but the professional manner in which all conduct themselves.

I have not seen such a level of professionalism (along with a sense of humor, I might add), any where else on the net. As I said first off, thanks. I went through the whole decision on which tractor would be right for me and reveled as other readers posted pictures of their new tractors and read the congratulatory post from the rest of you. I could tell your "wishing you the best of luck with you new purchase" was genuine. The best part was that you meant it, whether they bought the same tractor brand as you or not!

Anyway sorry for all the rambling, I am just very impressed and wanted to say so in my first post.

Now to my situation, reading here has made me realize that I cannot justify the purchase of a tractor, (although if I were to buy one it would be a 7800 with FEL and BB and BH). I have 5.5 acres about half clear, and it will be my future homesite. I have a lawnmower already JD LX277 and it will easliy cut the 1.5 to 2 acrea lawn I am planning. The rest of the tractor work can be done with rental equipment at much less cost than purchase, so being responsible I am planning on rental.

Which brings me to my question, (I bet you thought I would just ramble on forever) I have been quoted a price of $140.00 per day (7 hours on the hour meter) for a 50 hp kubota with FEL and BB. Does this seem reasonable? I would also have to rent a trailer to get it to my property which is another $35.00 per day.

They also have a weekly rate of $500.00 ( five days and 24 hours on the meter) which I will probaly need later on foundation work. They have a similar tractor with BH for the same price which I will need when doing that work.

Anyway sorry to bore ya'll to tears and thanks for any input you can offer.

-Jack

 

[thcri]

Jack,

I think rental prices could vary even worse than tractor prices from area to area. The best thing would be to call around and find out the different prices. If you only have one rental place then you have to take the rental prices and compare it with the purchase of new.

My question though with the amount of land that you do have, you will have to not just mow the finish area but you will have to mow the rest of it also. Now if you hire that out along with all the other things that you will be doing, will renting be the way to go? You put a bucket on that tractor and you would be surprised of all the things you can do.

My wife made the comment just the other days about me buying implements for my tractor versus renting them. She is right, if I am only going to use say a tiller for one summer and then maybe once every couple of years why not just rent. My neighbor bought himself a tiller. He paid I imagine over a grand for it. I have twenty minutes on it and he has less than an hour. He has had it for three years. To me that wasn't a good purchase.

You can also rent for some time and then make a decision a year from now. A new lot though you will find uses for that tractor. Renting has it's downfalls too. Will one be available when you want it, you typically get implements and tractors that have been beat to death and performance may not be there and its your expensive to return and get another one. A lot of headaches go with it. Another thing that I have found with CUT's, they do hold their value. What you buy you will recover a lot of it back.

Now I rambled.


murph

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Up here in S.E. Michigan i've been quoted for a 24hr day(if you can run it for 24hrs have at it just bring it back full) anywhere from $350-$475 per day on a JD 955 with loader and one impliment (box blade, etc.) That why I bought one now I can take my time do it the way I want to and not worry if i'll get rained out.
If your getting it that cheap I might have rented more, but now I can use it as much or little per week and if I want to sell it get most of my money back.
Now my wife doesn't want to use the wheelbarrow anymore she just uses the expensive orange one /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Cheers
Tony

 

[Bird]

You don't say just what part of Texas you're in, but off hand I'd say those rental rates sound about normal except for the 7 hours/day; the only rental places I've talked to included 8 hours/day. That trailer rental might be a little high, but might not. When my brother rented a small dozer a couple of times, they delivered and picked it up for $.50 a mile and charged $160 a day plus fuel. And the last time I asked about any of their rental rates, I asked about 25hp tractor and 5' brush hog and it was $150 a day plus $10 a day for a trailer to haul it (plus fuel, of course).

As far as the 7 vs 8 hours/day, I think all the machines the place rented had hour meters that worked as my B2710 Kubota did; i.e., only registered an hour in an hour if you were running at PTO speed. I know my brothers and I ran the dozers over 10 hours without putting 8 hours on the meter.

Welcome to the forum and good luck with whichever way you go. Owning a tractor is not practical for everyone, but it sure is nice to have it handy whenever you need it.

 

[Rick Jay]

Bellville,

Welcome to TBN. Those rental rates sound cheap compared rates in the Northeast. I would estimate $200-$250 being the going rate for tractor rental. Not sure about the trailer.

I think you're going to find most of the people on this board favoring buying versus renting. I think you should try to take a very accurate estimate of how much rental work you think you have. Then, remember that most jobs take longer than we plan.

Next, if you don't have much experience, there is a learning curve necessary for each piece of equipment. It takes a fair amount of use to learn the "tricks" of operation for each piece of equipment and each implement. Plan this into your rental time as well.

Since the rental equipment is not your own, you probably won't be as knowledgeable about it's safety features. Plus, when renting equipment, it's common to be "racing against the clock" to get a job done. And that can be dangerous as well.

Plus, having the unit available all the time is "priceless". I can't even begin to make a list of all the times the tractor (front end loader, mostly) has saved a lot of wear and tear on my back.

If your only option is to rent, then I guess that's what you'll have to do. Personally, the monthly payments on my tractor equal about 2 days rental per month, and after a few years, it's mine. Even on the occasional month that the tractor isn't even started, I smile when I make my payment 'cause I know it's already earned it's keep and will continue to do so.

Of course, after you've rented one a couple of times, you'll want to buy one. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Wow, there's a lot of ramblin' goin' on in this thread, eh?


Good Luck,

~Rick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Thanks all for the welcome and the good words. I appreciate the benefits of owning brought out in several comments and cannot agree more. Unfortunately at this time I have a child starting college soon and, well there goes a tractor payment and then some.

Glad to hear the rate sounded reasonable, and hopefully as I will be renting from a tractor dealership, (carries Massey, Kubota, and New Holland) I can develop a realtionship, and become accustomed to the equipment to get it's maxmum use.

Thanks again for your input.

-Jack

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I talked the local tractor dealer into delivering a tractor to my place and letting me have it for the weekend, Friday through Monday morning for the one day rental rate as long as I kept the hours under 8. That let me and my wife get used to running it and not knock ourselves out trying to get everything done in a single day with it. The dealer also would have taken the rental off the purchase price if we decided to buy it. We own two tractors and want to purchase a compact tractor to fit the space between the little one and the big one. This one did the job for us but didn't fit the bill. We are looking at a BX now... I think that renting is a smart way to demo a tractor under real conditions, and some dealers will even let you have one at no charge if they think you are a genuine customer.

 

[Rick Jay]

Just a suggestion: Community College for the first two years. Tuition savings over private school equals approximately 1 30 hp. CUT with loader, backhoe and mower. If it saves on room and board, too, than tack on just about all other options and implements you want....or possibly a BX for the smaller jobs.

I'm in the higher-ed business and the CC route is a real bargain. Especially if your child isn't quite sure of what they want to study.

Of course, I realize that might be construed as being a bit selfish, but we are talking tractors here! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I guess there's a method in my madness to buy all my "toys" before my kids reach college age. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

~Rick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Thanks Rick, I appreciate the tip on the community college route, and believe me that would be ok by me! However she has worked hard all through high school to be able to get into Texas A&M, (yep she wants to be an Aggie), so it looks like I am in for the big bucks.

Maybe after she graduates...........

-Jack

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Just a follow up, I rented a tractor last weekend, a Kubota MX 5000 with LA852-1 FEL and box blade. The tractor had only 98 hours on it and was in perfect condition. The rear tires were filled with water and the front with foam.

I picked up the tractor on a saturday morning and had to return it by sunday night. I was able to learn to operate the tractor reasonably well in the first two hours and completed the following:

Move execesive dirt from one area of the property to an area needed fill.

Made a drainage ditch combining the use of the FEL and BB.

Graded remaining property to drain to ditch and be prepared for grass seeding.

I was very impressed with the MX5000 it started instantly and had ample power for all needed tasks. The transmission worked smothly and after some time I became quite comfortable with the FEL operation, i.e. feathering the controls to get the desired effect and soil placement. Being able to put the FEL in float helped greatly with smoothing while backing away.

After some time I got very comfortable with the operation of the BB and got the results I desired, it did not turn out so good on saturday, but after trying again on sunday I got the results I desired.

Anyway I know most of you are tractor owners and not renters, however I just wanted to post my result, that all worked out ok, and I appreciate your help.

Thanks

-Jack

 

[Rick Jay]

Hi,

Glad to hear it worked out so well for you.

Just out of curiosity, is that the $140/day rental you mentioned in your previous post? How many days did they charge you for? Is the rental place close to where you live? Did you have to pay any extra for a trailer rental? If you had to have them deliver it, do you know how much they would have charged?

I'm just trying to fill in the details in case others might wish to pursue the rental option. This will give them some good comparison data.

It sounds like you got the chance to operate a real nice machine in a very productive manner AND have fun at the same time.

Take care,

~Rick

 

[Richard]

You might consider finding out about leasing one from say Carver? This way, you get the benefits of having machine on hand immedately for the odds & ends that will come up, you have a known payment and can turn it back in when you are done.

Besides...I think Carver has a program where if you decided to BUY the leased machine, I think the lease payments go towards the purchase...(not positive about that, will let someone else, or Mr. Carter confirm)

Just another idea

Richard (who wanted to do same thing, wifey said no, but then she suggested I buy a full sized industrial backhoe/loader.. go figure.. YEAH BABY.......... /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif)

 

[Egon]

As has been mentioned there is a definite learning curve that depends on the individual and his background.

Perhaps another though might be to have a contractor with much larger machine with operator do some of the real heavy work. Watching a good operator in action can give one lots of tips on how to do it yourself for other jobs.

Richard; do you think your wife may have been considering contracting plans for your spare hours. There's somthing in the works there.

Egon

 

[Richard]

lol Egon.. no, I'd be so lucky. Tell you what it was... I literally drove her nuts. I made a mockery of NOT having a tractor.

Raining out today? "If we had a tractor, it wouldn't be so bad"
Flat tire? "If we had a tractor, it wouldn't have happened"
Spill her soup? "If we had a tractor, I could clean that up with loader"
Planting petunias? "If we had a tractor with BH, I coudl plant those in no time..."

I already used Brutus (w/2 foot bucket) to transplant her day lillies, so that only verifies my contentions.

lol

you get the idea.. that went on (seriously) as a joke for 3 years. I took every oppertunity I could to illustrate examples, and to also just make a joke of it. Finally out of exasperation, (to get me to shut up) she told me to get this

NOW that we have Brutus, she has admitted and seen the light that we have accomplished MANY things that we otherwise would not have been able to.

Now about that welder............. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Egon]

Ah Richard, now all is clear. But please don't push your luck and end up with cast iron frying pan syndrome.

Egon

 

[Richard]

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Wifey just read this with me and (whilst I ducked) told me to tell you it was tooooooo late *klunk* /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Rick,

Yes that was the same rate I mentioned earlier, I rented the tractor about 9:00 AM saturday morning and dropped it off at the dealer sunday night right at dark. They charged me for one day rental, $140.00 and $35.00 for the trailer. I was supposed to pay for fuel, but when I went back by the dealer on Monday to square things up he told me not to worry about it, and come back and see him again.

I did not ask about delivery so I cannot say what that would have cost, the distance from the dealer to my property was about 20 miles.

Richard and Egon, you guys are having too much fun, however, I will take your advice to heart, hmmm, there are alot of things I could mention about the convenience of having a tractor around.....

Thanks again for all the good help.

-Jack

 

[Rick Jay]

I have to say that you got a real good deal on the rental, compared to here in the Northeast. Sounds like your rental company is very "customer focused" too, and is willing to show they appreciate your business. That's a real nice touch. Sounds like "ya done good!" /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks,

Rick