What to Charge for Rototilling

[JackMentink]

I have a nice 6' KK tiller for my Montana 3644 tractor. They really work well together and I am planning on offering Rototilling services this spring. Any Idea How I should Charge. Everyone want to know a charge and hourly just won't cut it.

Anybody have a good feel for what charges should be? ranges?

Any help from anybody with experioeince doing this kind of work for hire would be appreciated.

 

[Dead Horse]

You just shooting to do garden plots?

You could say "small, medium and large" prices. I am guessing you culd start at $50 for a small plot. That is reasonable considering you have to get the machine there........

I am just guessing.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

I have a nice 6' KK tiller for my Montana 3644 tractor. They really work well together and I am planning on offering Rototilling services this spring. Any Idea How I should Charge. Everyone want to know a charge and hourly just won't cut it.

Anybody have a good feel for what charges should be? ranges?

Any help from anybody with experioeince doing this kind of work for hire would be appreciated.

I guess it depends on your area, are there any other people doing this type of work in your area.

This is the way they charge in my area, and there is some competition.

One may charge by the hour___(say $30 an hour.) then another advertises for ($25 an hour)

They usually will go with the one that has been doing it for a while even if it is $30 an hour.
And if they have to travel with a trailer, they will charge a show up fee.

Then if the land is small, they will work by contract.
some people like to pay a fixed price, rather than paying by the hour.

If you could find out how much other people are charging in your area, that could help you.

A good way to advertise is to print out flyers with your name and number, what your business is, and at the bottom of the paper have where they can pull a tag off with your name and number.

A good place would be a hardware store, grocery store, or any place that would allow you to, they will take them down if you don't ask first. (and competition will take them down also)

If you are going to advertise, it would be best to start as soon as possible.

But you will have to decide how much you will charge, that is how they do it around here.

 

[kthompson]

If you take the cost of your tractor and tiller and use the price that breaks down to their life to get an hour cost real cost to you that will help you begin. Then don't miss fuel and repair and if hauling cost of truck and trailer. Oh, do you want to make a profit, then add it on top. Your cost will be higher than you think is my guess.

 

[rdln]

I would say $75 a pop and then set up a pyramid scheme, get the first guy to ask his/her neighbors if they need work, offer the guy 25% off every neighbor he gets (within tractor ride distance)

If its too much for a person, have the number handy for a guy that does them by walk behind tiller.

I have done this and other work from '94 up to a couple of years ago, and in the end saying that I did it or tried it, is the best thing that resulted from it, the worst result is probably the beat up equipment.

I fear if CAD work is slow this summer, I will not have the tractor work to fall back due to nobody having (extra) money

 

[LBrown59]

If you take the cost of your tractor and tiller and use the price that breaks down to their life to get an hour cost real cost to you that will help you begin. Then don't miss fuel and repair and if hauling cost of truck and trailer. Oh, do you want to make a profit, then add it on top. Your cost will be higher than you think is my guess.

This can be as much or more than the tractor and implement

 

[JackMentink]

I guess my thought is that I should make $50 -$60 an hour. I don't see how I can do a whole lot less for a new $17,000 tractor (40 Hp) and a $1700 6 foot wide tiller. Just fuel, depreciation and wear and tear on the tractor and tiller, I'm estimating at about $20 -$25 an hour. My time is worth at least $30 an hour.

There really isn't anyone I know of that does this kind of work that I know of around here. People bush hogging with nice equipment charge $60 an hour. Some guys with junky ford 8n's that are 45 years old charge probably about $35-40.

I really don't want to do 20 X 20 garden spots, as its not really worth the effort of carting my tractor to do a 15 minute job.

That's why I kind of kind of like the idea of a $75 minimum and bid each job based on $60 an hour. Just loading the tractor on the trailer chaining it down, transporting the tractor unload and reload is about a 1 hour deal even if it just 5-8 miles a way.

The creative entrepreneurial juices are starting to flow. I'm not sure how many people are going to need this service, but I can give it a try.

 

[CCWKen]

I think you'll starve if you look at jobs less than "acreage". If you're able to really move fast, like 1mph, you can do just under .75ac/hour. That's straight-line and doesn't include turning or maneuvering. Depending on the soil conditions, you may be lucky to do .5mph or just over .3ac/hour. It's not worth your time unless you can bill 4-6 hours of machine time and that has to correspond to some value for the customer. Would you pay someone $300 to till an acre? I think not. I know I wouldn't.

No offence but how do you figure that a tractor driver is worth $30/hour? What skills, education and experience are required to do the job? Most farmers don't make $62,400 a year.

 

[PA hayseed]

Heck, I don't know if I would ever get into that gig unless it was big acreage. I did a guy down the road a favor, I tilled his unbroken ground for a new garden. He was kinda mad at the end of it, because I left wheel marks in his yard where I turned the tractor. Keep in mind here that I was extra careful, and the wheel marks were not deep ruts. I probably had about a foot or two of marking from the edge of the garden in about 4-5 spots.

If you do it, you better get them to sign something saying that your tractor may leave ruts in their soft ground. Either that, or carry some 3/4 plywood while travelling over the yard. In south Jersey they do it this way for the peoples expensive yards.

My other problem is that I did one, as a favor to a guy who did a favor for me. Then I had people coming to my house asking if I would do theirs too. For free! Heck I don't even own a tiller, I borrowed one from the dealer at no cost to use for the weekend. This year I have to pay to rent it.

good luck in your endeavor. Put something up at the end of summer so we know how it went. We all learn from each other.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Do you want to be legal, or do you want to do it for cash and be an illegal contractor?
that's really the question here and that defines your cost.

You tell me what you want to do and if it's A (be legal) I'll give you some costs.