Advice on heavy equipment

[Zachary Boy]

I have had a dream for a few years of owning some equipment to #1 clean up my own property #2 expand my home improvement business to include doing house pads, land clearing and etc. A friend is selling his dozer/trac hoe as a package. It includes a 98 John Deere 450 dozer (1240 hrs) and a 2002 70 HP Kobelco track hoe (2460 hrs) for $60,000. Both have been well maintained and are in great shape. My question is do y'all think this is a fair price and if I can't keep it busy commercially could I expect to re-coup my money say a year down the road?

[fishinpox]

I would say test the waters, try n get some dirt work jobs n either rent the equipment from your buddy or a dealer if the expansion of your business takes off then go buy , yeah the "deal" might be gone or already sold so u may have to spend more on equipment but it beats dropping 60k on some stuf u "might " use ... Just my $0.02

[weedeater]

another thing with renting is you don't have upkeep, storage and have to worry with moving plus you can write off rental fees on tax.... just my thoghts

[KDM]

if it floats, flys or moves dirt it's cheaper to rent in the long run!!!!!!! Like Pox said figure out if you really have a market. There are tons of units available. be sure you check the undercarraige of the dozer and make sure JD still has parts/can get parts for it.

[Zachary Boy]

I have 50 acres in Miss. that needs buffing up (Ie: metal bldg. pad, pond and underbrush removal) so I was hoping to piddle around up there on weekends so renting would get expensive. You all have raised valid concerns.Thanks and that is exactly what I need, good,unbiased recommendations.

[adamsfence]

Originally Posted by fishinpox

I would say test the waters, try n get some dirt work jobs n either rent the equipment from your buddy or a dealer if the expansion of your business takes off then go buy , yeah the "deal" might be gone or already sold so u may have to spend more on equipment but it beats dropping 60k on some stuf u "might " use ... Just my $0.02

x2 them spur of the moment ideas don't sound so good when your paying a note and they just sitting there trust me learn from my mistakes

[Zachary Boy]

Originally Posted by adamsfence

x2 them spur of the moment ideas don't sound so good when your paying a note and they just sitting there trust me learn from my mistakes

I agree. I have made my share of 'blunders' but I get back up, dust myself off and get ready for the next blunder.

[Ray]

You can get some older equipment for cheaper than that.
My dad bought a good sized track hoe to dig a levee around a 53 acre tract of land in Creole for about $8K.
He paid $1200 to get it trucked to his land. After he finished with it, he sold it for $8K.
To hire a contractor to do the work would have cost around $24K.

The thing about renting or getting someone to do it for you, is they have a lot of overhead to pay for, like insurance, office rent, trucks... ect. You can't expect them to do it for nothing.

My dad's old track hoe had no radio or a/c like the newer ones. But it did the job.

[Zachary Boy]

Thanks Ray. I have seen a lot of "less expensive" equipment, but some of them have 5500 to 8000 hrs. I just hope I can find something I don't have to wrench on all the time. I guess anytime you buy something 'second hand', it is a crap-shoot (gamble)

[jdm4x43732]

Wrenching is all part of the fun. All I can say is if you do buy the equipment put some kind of insurance on it. I had bought a Versatile and it went up in smoke. Lesson learned the hard way. Fire dept showed up but couldn't get through the pipe gate due to one of those enclosures around the lock to keep it from being cut. By the time we showed up to unlock it , it had burned itself out. 7 or 8 years ago hiring equipment with an operator was running me 65 bucks an hr per machine. I wouldn't want to have to get anything done now with fuel prices no telling what it would cost.

[Zachary Boy]

Originally Posted by jdm4x43732

Wrenching is all part of the fun. All I can say is if you do buy the equipment put some kind of insurance on it. I had bought a Versatile and it went up in smoke. Lesson learned the hard way. Fire dept showed up but couldn't get through the pipe gate due to one of those enclosures around the lock to keep it from being cut. By the time we showed up to unlock it , it had burned itself out. 7 or 8 years ago hiring equipment with an operator was running me 65 bucks an hr per machine. I wouldn't want to have to get anything done now with fuel prices no telling what it would cost.

Very sound advice! I am 'insurance poor' due to all the insurance I now carry in my current business. The sad reality is that 95% of my competetion has none of the above.I try to warn my prospective customers of 'the perils of low bid', but some choose to save a few nickels and they usually get burnt...

[flounder_smacker]

That is a great deal on those machines. If they are in good shape. Go price them new and you'll see why. John Deere and kobelco make a good machine. Renting is not cheaper than owning if u plan on doing that type of work. Especially of your just starting off little jobs will pop up that u can't afford to not take and you probably won't have time to track down the machine you need or worse you can't get one.

[Shawn Braquet]

lets hypotheically say you buy them and realize that there isn't enough business to keep them moving, couldn't you resell for what you paid or a little less? If that deal is a good price I wouldn't think that they would be hard to resell after you finish with them at your property.

[Zachary Boy]

Originally Posted by Shawn Braquet

lets hypotheically say you buy them and realize that there isn't enough business to keep them moving, couldn't you resell for what you paid or a little less? If that deal is a good price I wouldn't think that they would be hard to resell after you finish with them at your property.

That is what I would hope as a worse case scenario. The seller just sweetened the pot by offering a 27' tandem dooley, dovetail trailer with the deal. He is a good friend of mine and I think he just wants to help me out AND 'have a friend' with proper equipment

[flounder_smacker]

If you decide not to pull the trigger Please pm me your friends number.

[Zachary Boy]

Will do FS