Buy or Hire?

invicta

At what stage could you justify the cost of a say an 8,or a 10 ton digger?

Have about 12 acres to clean,drain and reseed,)plus numerous small jobs around the farm,such as levelling mounds cleaning dykes etc-or would one be better off to bring in a big machine(costing about €60/hour)to do job. I'd guess about 3 or 4 weeks work for a good operator.Where as if you had your own machine,you could tip away at your own pace,and when finished,sell machine again.Apart from running costs and own labour, would the deprecation on the machine justify buying and selling it?
i.e giving someone €12000 to do the jobs or buy for slightly more money,and selling,say 12 or 18 months time?
Surely the machine would be worth 80-85%of buying price,when selling?
-or am I raving!
Do many of you have your own diggers and what are your thoughts.

Prop Joe

Thinking of the same myself lately,Don't have massive work but cleaning drains and building ditches etc..Was thinking a 3CX might better suit but i would worry bout it travelling wet ground

mythos110

Have a '95 js130 at home. Bought it about 12 years ago for 12k and still going strong. Spent 1k on injector pump and 2k on a final drive in that time. I would roughly approximate the value of work completed with it to be around 50-60k. She doesn't do much around the place now bar a bit of tidying now and again. If she died tomorrow I'd replace it. Once you have a machine around the place, its very hard to go back!

foxy farmer

Prop Joe wrote: »

Thinking of the same myself lately,Don't have massive work but cleaning drains and building ditches etc..Was thinking a 3CX might better suit but i would worry bout it travelling wet ground

Backhoe is a pain for cleaning drains. Have a Massey 50hx here. Did it once. Never again. Hired a 4.5 ton JCB mini digger 2 years ago for a week. No comparison.
Would like something in the 6-8 tonne bracket if i ever go mad spending.

White Clover

mythos110 wrote: »

Have a '95 js130 at home. Bought it about 12 years ago for 12k and still going strong. Spent 1k on injector pump and 2k on a final drive in that time. I would roughly approximate the value of work completed with it to be around 50-60k. She doesn't do much around the place now bar a bit of tidying now and again. If she died tomorrow I'd replace it. Once you have a machine around the place, its very hard to go back!

Almost identical situation here. Have a lot of work done with our machine. Trouble is getting the time to operate it now what with full time job and the farming.

I would say to OP, get a contractor in to do it, a good operator is crucial. One that will do tasty work and that has reasonable output.

djmc

It depends on how much spare time you have your experience how good you are to mind machines service etc. Do you have a shed to keep it in
I had a 13ton Hitachi some years back hadn't time to drive it and it rotted in the field.
If your not starting driving it every few weeks and don't have a shed to keep it in over winter then hire in .
That is what I'm doing now a bit every year.
I'd like to get something handy like a 3 ton or 3cx for small jobs but leave opening dykes to a man who does it for a living.

dunlopwellies

invicta wrote: »

At what stage could you justify the cost of a say an 8,or a 10 ton digger?

Have about 12 acres to clean,drain and reseed,)plus numerous small jobs around the farm,such as levelling mounds cleaning dykes etc-or would one be better off to bring in a big machine(costing about €60/hour)to do job. I'd guess about 3 or 4 weeks work for a good operator.Where as if you had your own machine,you could tip away at your own pace,and when finished,sell machine again.Apart from running costs and own labour, would the deprecation on the machine justify buying and selling it?
i.e giving someone €12000 to do the jobs or buy for slightly more money,and selling,say 12 or 18 months time?
Surely the machine would be worth 80-85%of buying price,when selling?
-or am I raving!
Do many of you have your own diggers and what are your thoughts.

We have a small machine it's handy enough for small jobs and bits and pieces.
I would definatly say hire someone in though for draining and levelling with a big machine.
I think no matter hog good one might think they will be operating for an hour or two a week you will never be as good at the worst full time guy.
Also €60 an hour sounds expensive to me?

Count Mondego

Often wonder about this myself. A week's work with a digger could easily be 3k. I'd spend 15k on one if I thought it was clean and would give me no hassle. Mighty for building walls. I have a 3CX but it's limited in this regard.

ganmo

How much is it to hire an 8t machine?

Username John

How handy are you with the spanner?
If you bought one and it broke down - could you fix it yourself?
If not - then I would imagine it's not worth it. (I wouldn't even be sure it's worth it if you were handy)

tomwaterford

For 12 acre not worth it IMO


I once got 4 acres of scrub,furze/briars and schocks cleared and opened drains around it cleaned and land levelled in around half a day with a lad on a 16 ton track machine...

At e53 an hour...,couldn't justify it...I'd have been a week in there....a good driver is worth any money

A

foxy farmer

ganmo wrote: »

How much is it to hire an 8t machine?

At a guess 1200 a week probably more. At figures like that youd want to work it around the clock .

Bullocks

It depends what you like but 12k isn't alot of money when you go out to buy a reliable digger . Its alot of money but if you haven't a bit more in reserve to fix it up when you have a breakdown it can turn into a disaster . Plus you have diesel, oil , grease and more importantly your own time to put into it to get the job done after its bought.
Around here diggers are like arseholes - everybody has one - and if i asked a few of them to price 10k of work at their leisure to fit in around their own work I would get great value from the right operator .

In saying all that we have two diggers and two dozers here for our own bit of reclaiming over the years that the father bought and he wouldn't trust anyone else to dig a hole for a fence post in the place

raypallas

foxy farmer wrote:

At a guess 1200 a week probably more. At figures like that youd want to work it around the clock .

A bit dear I'd say, i priced a 13t during the summer €650 plus vat. Got contractor in the end as i didn't have the time.

td5man

raypallas wrote: »

A bit dear I'd say, i priced a 13t during the summer €650 plus vat.

And it would probably burn €4-500 worth of diesel

keep going

Unless you are well able to drive forget it and hire in

td5man

Have a Hitachi 120 and 20+ years operating experience but you really need someone on the ground/driving dumper as well to get a good days work done.
Gets expensive if you are hiring the digger as well.

Miname

raypallas wrote: »

A bit dear I'd say, i priced a 13t during the summer €650 plus vat. Got contractor in the end as i didn't have the time.

650 plus vat for a weeks work? I'd say that's labour only and you've to hire the digger and supply the diesel. Around 34 an hour around here for a 12 or 13 tonne machine there's a few dearer that I get for the more complicated jobs because in the end they save you money.

Grecco

Got work done on hire last year. Drains, field leveling etc over a weeks work, the contractor done a super job. charged 1200 yoyos and was worth every penny.
Unless you are good on a machine yourself I wouldn't bother, just pay someone who is doing it for a living.

Viewtodiefor

invicta wrote: »

At what stage could you justify the cost of a say an 8,or a 10 ton digger?

Have about 12 acres to clean,drain and reseed,)plus numerous small jobs around the farm,such as levelling mounds cleaning dykes etc-or would one be better off to bring in a big machine(costing about €60/hour)to do job. I'd guess about 3 or 4 weeks work for a good operator.Where as if you had your own machine,you could tip away at your own pace,and when finished,sell machine again.Apart from running costs and own labour, would the deprecation on the machine justify buying and selling it?
i.e giving someone €12000 to do the jobs or buy for slightly more money,and selling,say 12 or 18 months time?
Surely the machine would be worth 80-85%of buying price,when selling?
-or am I raving!
Do many of you have your own diggers and what are your thoughts.

Maddness get a good digger man in to do the job right pay him n be done with it.

zetecescort

Good operator is important for things like drains which need the correct fall but smaller jobs could be done yourself. How else will you gain experience? Hire machine and operator for the big stuff and just the machine for smaller jobs.

Farmer Pudsey

OP if you have 12K worth of work that is about 350 hours to a fairy good operator at 35/hour. Usually we underestiamte the amount it will cost. However ot will take you at least 50% longer so 550+ hours. Machine do not run on fresh air.

If you have a full time job this work can be written of against high rate of tax odd your job or off farm income. Will it cost 15/hour to run machine maintenance and diesel cost money. If you buy a 12K machine will it cost another 2-4K over next 3-5 years in bits and pieces.

I go with the contractor

agriman27

There are 13 tonne diggers available to hire for €500 probably cash;). It's great value in my opinion if you're capable of driving one well but if you're only a learner you could end up making a big mess while your gettin to grips with it. In my experience if there is a digger about you'll be busy enough tryin to get things back to normal. I have no help here an often hired out a mini and I'd be flat out hoping up and down of the tractor and digger :pac:. Hard to beat experienced operator on the job

raypallas

td5man wrote:

And it would probably burn €4-500 worth of diesel

Oh definitely if your trying to get a good value out of hiring it. So you're only going to be saving a few hundred but that's not putting any value on your time which i think is madness!!!!

raypallas

Miname wrote:

650 plus vat for a weeks work? I'd say that's labour only and you've to hire the digger and supply the diesel. Around 34 an hour around here for a 12 or 13 tonne machine there's a few dearer that I get for the more complicated jobs because in the end they save you money.

Sorry thats self drive, i should have said.