What if....?

[KenEtch]

James made an excellent point....age. For example I am 70 so I look at things differently than if I was 50. Two things happen...both obvious....will you live long enough to justify the expenditure in equipment/attachments....and will be be healthy enough to do the work?

Each of us age differently....look at ***** and look at Bernie Sanders...who is aging better?

Like another poster mentioned, this a lot like the BH discussions. Do you have enough work to justify ownership over either the life of the equipment or your life?.

I hire jobs out that make sense for my circumstances.

Spending over $6000/yr for a few jobs does not make a lot of sense if you can hire them out for $3000. I dealt with two downed trees across my driveway in the last 9 years, before I had a tractor. I cannot think of anything else that would have been so "urgent" that having a tractor on site would be worthwhile. But I need a tractor for routine needs...keeping it to handle downed trees would be stupid.

A suggestion....Hire one of your jobs out and see how it goes. I did that with some BH work I needed done and it convinced me not to purchase a BH. I have a good guy I can depend on not far from me. If the guy you hire does a good job for $100/hr you may not need your own tractor.

I am soon 75, in good health, but obviously on the downhill side of life's timeline. But, I love tractors & time spent on the tractor. Call me crazy, but I love to grease it, change fluids, adjust things, reading about tractors & implements, the whole experience. I just bought a new TYM 474 tractor & sold my L2800 Kubota cuz I wanted the double FEL lifting capacity. I've put 30 hrs on it in the 2 months since delivered. Based on my age is there a positive return on investment vs hiring? No. But I can afford the new tractor & it's my hobby & pastime I enjoy so much. Plus I get work done in the woods on my schedule, exactly the way I want it done. No price can be put on the feeling of job satisfaction, especially when your doing what you like in your golden years. We all spend $$$ on hobbies or things we like. I don't spend money on expensive guns, boats, fishing gear, etc. Tractoring and tree cutting, making firewood, clearing brush with my grapple, felling trees, etc. is my hobby that I enjoy.

Getting close to the ditch...

It may be best to save the politics for another thread and another day?

Amen on no politics. We're tractor enthusiasts discussing our common interest.

 

[KenEtch]

I think there are many of us with a tractor that are not involved in any substantial farming activities. This would make it easy to asses the value of owning a tractor. I have 50 acres of land and a driveway that is about 250 ft long. I have honeybees I keep so not a livestock that needs a tractor lol. I measure the value by the satisfaction I get just puttering around with it. Like you, I have low hours but I find there is something reassuring that not matter what comes up I have a tractor and I can deal with it myself. My boss, (AKA wife lol) and I decided we wanted to change the landscape at the front of the house. So after many trips on the tractor back into the fields retrieving very large limestone rocks and arranging them around the front of the house/driveway we have a very different and I think, a nice change. This was not planned out and just came up. I didn't have to worry about hiring or renting any equipment. It was done the way I wanted, when I wanted.
If you value what you have by $$ then owning a tractor sounds like not a good deal for you. but if you value it by the mental and physical satisfaction working on a tractor gives you then it is priceless, IMOA.

Very well put. Owning vs. hiring isn't always measurable with ROI. Being your own boss, doing what you feel needs to be done when you want to, with your own machine, with the quality of work that pleases you, is priceless. You bought a tractor for a reason. Unless life changes your circumstances that necessitates selling it, keep it & enjoy tractor time.

 

[Doughknob]

All this talk of "hours" put on per year and if having machines is worth it --

I use my tractor very few hours per year. And, often, i use it for very short periods of time each time i do. So it is not all just about the hours. It is equally about how many times you start it for a task.

Personally, i would not want to hire someone to do 50 small tasks each year. And i love the fact that the tractor saves me time by not having to do a task with hand tools. That is the one thing we can never get back - time.

 

[shooterdon]

I am soon 75, in good health, but obviously on the downhill side of life's timeline. But, I love tractors & time spent on the tractor. Call me crazy, but I love to grease it, change fluids, adjust things, reading about tractors & implements, the whole experience. I just bought a new TYM 474 tractor & sold my L2800 Kubota cuz I wanted the double FEL lifting capacity. I've put 30 hrs on it in the 2 months since delivered. Based on my age is there a positive return on investment vs hiring? No. But I can afford the new tractor & it's my hobby & pastime I enjoy so much. Plus I get work done in the woods on my schedule, exactly the way I want it done. No price can be put on the feeling of job satisfaction, especially when your doing what you like in your golden years. We all spend $$$ on hobbies or things we like. I don't spend money on expensive guns, boats, fishing gear, etc. Tractoring and tree cutting, making firewood, clearing brush with my grapple, felling trees, etc. is my hobby that I enjoy.

Amen on no politics. We're tractor enthusiasts discussing our common interest.

Loved your post!!!

If tractoring is a hobby, you are 100% correct...ROI is moot. I have a shotgun that costs over $15k. I shot competitively, it was my hobby and I could afford it. But it is a stupid way to spend money to shoot clay birds our of the sky for 99.99% of folks.

My buddy has a $350k boat...it is is hobby and he can afford it. I think he is nuts.

For me, a tractor is a tool. I do not sit at night and wonder, "What fun thing can I do with the tractor tomorrow?" I need it to process wood and clear snow. If either task drops off my needs, I may keep it because it is payed for and I do not need the money...yet. But if money was tight, I would sell it and hire the work out. Sure, I use the tractor for other jobs because I have it, but I lived without a tractor for decades and managed OK.

Many folks get a lot of jobs done in the the first three or four years of ownership and then usage goes way down. I am nearing that point in my "cycle" of ownership as I only have 20 acres

BTW, if you read the original post, that fellow is at the same point. But he is carrying a hefty payment and wonders if it is justified. If having a tractor is "fun" for him, it may not be worth what it is costing him.

 

[blehmann]

If you use it ten hours a month you are breaking even. Find some more work and make that tractor pay for itself. I used to do a little brush hogging at $60 an hour.