When has a tractor paid for itself?

Kubotasrking · Feb 23, 2007

Your question can be best answered by the old joke.....

Why does the farmer live longer than the city slicker?

Because he wants to.

Bob_Young · Feb 23, 2007

When it saves you the first back injury.

AlanB · Feb 23, 2007

I was actually thinking about this last night, I got in a little tractor time loading stones for the wife into the dump trailer.

Hard to really put a price onto so much of it, because we just would not do many of the things (jobs) that we do if we did not have the equipment to do them.

For instance, before we bought our own sod cutter, she avoided jobs where we would have to cut a lot of sod. Renting always sounds good, but most of my experiences involve taking longer, and costing more then I think it should, and god knows, every time we rented a sod cutter we spent more time getting them back into adjustment then we should have had too.

Now that we have our own, it is always ready to go, so we bid lower, and get more jobs that require it. How do you figure that in.

For the tractor it was the mulch. Now that we have the tractor we could have our own bulk mulch delivered. We do not really make that much money off the mulch, but the convienience of loading ourselves, exactly when WE need it done, sure makes jobs go easier and more on time.

It is an interesting question for sure too me, and I wonder about the answer a lot from many viewpoints, business, personal, financial, physical etc. But really that 1/2 year of payments I still owe the bank is probably what counts

Then it will be time to buy a BIGGER toy... oh, did I say that, I meant tool

scott_vt · Feb 23, 2007

Afternoon DocBob,
Well mine was paid for the day I picked it up

And it pays me back everyday that I use it and have this much fun !

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/photos/70558d1171841508-smell-diesel-mornin-100_0627.jpg

shane · Feb 23, 2007

I got a friend who decided to build a house on 5ac track. Bought a little JD and finish mower. Stayed there 8 years and then decided to move to "town" so his son could play ball in a certain school district. After 8 years sold the tractor and mower for exactly what he paid for it. He may have gotten a really good deal when he bought and found just the right person when he sold, but either way I here similar stories often.

thingy · Feb 23, 2007

Well,,either the buyer was an idiot or those new john deeres go up every year to such an extent that after 8 years it was cheaper to buy an 8 year old ,for its new price,,than a new one,,don't buy it,,tell me another story,,thingy

638 · Feb 23, 2007

Tell you what thingy, I bought a 12 HP Massy-Ferguson garden tractor for $1000. Made a home made trailer and a home made snow blade for it. Used it for 10 years, and sold the outfit for $2000. I ran it hard but it did look brand new when I let it go. Had a mower deck for it also, but that came with the tractor. Yes, I believe that he could use his tractor for 8 years, and sell it for what he gave for it.

ron

workinallthetime · Feb 23, 2007

I bought an 84 kubota, little thing dont even remember what number it was, came with a 4' brush hog, 4' finish mower, scraper blade and draw bar. with a broken pto gear. I paid 1900 bucks for it and sold it all for 3400. That thing was pretty useless to me, i may have put 10 hours on it. 4x4 b series with no power stearing and turf tires. I think I had it for a year sold it after all was fixed for 3400 bucks.
i charge 45.00 an hour for my bx23 and have made about 4500.00 with it just doing hear and there jobs. Now im going after the business full time and hope to get more jobs, you cant rent one and a operator around here for 45 so who knows what the future will hold for me.

im a perifial visonary, i see into the future but its off to one side,lol

bx23barry · Feb 24, 2007

Well I don't think anything I've bought has really paid for it self. If they did I would be a rich guy. But I enjoy the jeeps, motorcycles, tractors, tools, computers, TVs, cameras, stereos, food, trips... and to me that is what life is about.