Fair Price For Labor

DoubleR · Oct 2, 2021

A friend from my church does some mechanic work on the side, his real job is a mechanic for the
county. I took my Farmall C over to his house and he split it for me and pulled the clutch and
flywheel out. I took the flywheel in to a machine shop and paid them to rework it and had a new ring
gear installed their and a new throw out bearing pressed in. I also brought a new clutch and
pressure plate. He installed everything and put the tractor back together.

My question is what would be a fair price to pay him for splitting my tractor and installing the new
parts that I paid for. He has done other work for me and I want to be fair with him. He doesn't
usually give me a bill and will accept what I pay him.

rustred · Oct 2, 2021

even if you payed him a couple hundred dollars he probably be happy if he is not quoting you a price. mechanical work is one weird thing they are happy or unhappy. a farmall C is a simple project, but things still take time to clean up stuff and do a good job. its still a day of work to get it done.

dlbuck · Oct 2, 2021

Do you want him to do more work for you? PAY HIM, don't BE CHEAP.

Royse · Oct 2, 2021

How many hours did it take him? Multiply by hourly rate.
Add extra for him taking his time and not charging you shop rates.
If he doesn't want to take that much money, donate it to your
church as a tribute to him. Good people are getting less common.

MikeinKy · Oct 2, 2021

About 400 to 500 dollars should be fair i would think

PJH · Oct 2, 2021

Pay him the going price for good mechanical work in your neighborhood. By doing that, you have demonstrated what kind of person/friend/church brother you are. After you hand him the cash, he can hand some back to you if he is moved to do so. You can accept it or refuse to accept it. When you are done with that transaction, both of you will know what kind of person/friend/church brother you each are.

A few years ago I saw a craigslist ad for a sucker rod cattle feeder. I called the number and dickered with the unknown owner for a few dollars price reduction. We agreed on the reduced price and when he gave me directions to his place, I then realized that I attended the same church with him. When I arrived at his house, I had a check made out for his original asking price. He said this is too much - I dropped the price because I knew you. I told him that I was paying his original asking price for the same reason - because I knew him. It cost me an extra $25 to be good to a church friend. I've never missed that $25.

DoubleR · Oct 2, 2021

I was kind of thinking along the lines of Mike. In the 4 to 5 hundred dollar area. I just wanted to make sure I was being fair.

SDE · Oct 2, 2021

A C is an easy split. A good mechanic can get the job done quickly. What is a days wage for him at the county? It shouldn't have taken more than 8 hours, even if he had some trouble.

redforlife · Oct 2, 2021

At the absolute minimum, pay him the same amount as what the ring gear, clutch and pressure plate, and throw out bearing cost. You can just about count on labor costing just as much or more than the parts do.

Moonlite37 · Oct 3, 2021

If I had proper hoist and jack about 4 hours. Have done it without.

john in la · Oct 3, 2021

Doesn't anyone negotiate price and conditions; IE: a estimate; before hand anymore ?????
It would seem not based on the post on this site recently.

showcrop · Oct 3, 2021

(quoted from post at 18:30:46 10/02/21) Do you want him to do more work for you? PAY HIM, don't BE CHEAP.

dlbuck, if you read the complete OP you will see that his desire is to not BE CHEAP.

timcasbolt · Oct 3, 2021

(quoted from post at 20:54:06 10/02/21) A friend from my church does some mechanic work on the side, his real job is a mechanic for the
county. I took my Farmall C over to his house and he split it for me and pulled the clutch and
flywheel out. I took the flywheel in to a machine shop and paid them to rework it and had a new ring
gear installed their and a new throw out bearing pressed in. I also brought a new clutch and
pressure plate. He installed everything and put the tractor back together.

My question is what would be a fair price to pay him for splitting my tractor and installing the new
parts that I paid for. He has done other work for me and I want to be fair with him. He doesn't
usually give me a bill and will accept what I pay him.

don't know how long a project like that would take, but I wouldn't pay him less than $50/hour.

Texasmark · Oct 3, 2021

I was moving cattle one day and had a stubborn bull I needed to get in a loading chute. A local cowboy friend answered my need, stopped what he was doing, drove about 5 miles to my place, and it only took him 30 seconds to get the bull in the chute ready for loading....he knew how to do it.

I had passed my point of no return and being desperate, and his solving my problem, I gave him $200. He took the money and headed for the gate, only to return and attempt to hand the money back to me. He said that it was too much money for what he did.

My reply was that he didn't realize just what it meant to me to have that bull loaded and I refused to take back any money. The flip side of being generous is that when you need help again you can expect a prompt response.....works for me.

Geo-TH,In · Oct 3, 2021

I have a country mechanic I take somethings to work on that I don't want to do.
Had him replace plugs, wires and front wheel bearing. To get to the rear plugs he had to remove motor mount and roll the motor. Total cost $500.
Parts were about half the bill..
So I would find out how much the parts were and double the price at a minimum.
If you want him to do more work in future, add a tip for his travel time. I don't think you can over pay a friend.
My country mechanic does this full time. Works out of his pole barn.

GordoSD · Oct 3, 2021

8x $50.00 $400

DoubleR · Oct 3, 2021

He has done work before for me and he doesn't always know what he's going to get into before hand so its not always easy or fair to talk price before hand. Last time was a check engine light on my truck which could have been anything therefore hard to put a fair dollar amount on the work. Turned out it was a simple sensor that needed replacement but could have been something allot more labor intensive. He put his tester on my truck and told me what to replace which I did myself. Also its not like I'm dealing with the dealership or a commercial repair facility so I handle it differently.

Geo-TH,In · Oct 3, 2021

I helped a neighbor split his MF35. He had a broken hand.
We split it and had it back together in 4 hours. Only 3 hands.
Need concrete floor and floor jacks to make things go faster.

dr sportster · Oct 3, 2021

I say 50 per hr or match the cost of the parts . Make him happy no matter what.

Crazy Horse · Oct 3, 2021

Some have suggested as much as $500 for what some say might be a 4-5 hour job. So $100 per hour right? Seems a bit high for a guy working on his own out of his garage (or maybe your garage). He sure doesn't make that at his regular job I wouldn't think. That sounds around what a dealer might charge, I'm only guessing at that though. Dealers have a LOT more expenses and overhead than your friend does obviously. Good luck and let us know how you made out ..... but from now on I would try to get some sort of a system in place beforehand for things like this.

DoubleR · Oct 3, 2021

I just picked the tractor up and brought it home. I told him what some of the responses were on here. Gave him 500 bucks then threw in a couple more 20's so 540. I told him I wanted to keep him happy as I'm sure I'll be calling him again. He was happy. Although I'm thinking we should have disused the money end of it on a bigger job such as this one was before hand.

On a side note I did some weed mowing for another guy from church this week. I told him 200 bucks before hand. He thought that was too cheap for what I said I'd do. I told him he could pay me more if he want but I was charging my normal rate and would be happy with 200 bucks. He gave me a check for 350 when I completed the job. Guess I just figured I would pass it on when I paid the mechanic. Not to mention he's been through some bad times and I'm sure he could use the money.

Uncle murph · Oct 3, 2021

Texasmark has it right.The guys not doing it for the money,obviously friendship figures heavily in these deals. I do a lot of work under very similar circumstances.Give him enough so you wont feel shy about next time,stiff him and probably best not to ask again.

Vito · Oct 3, 2021

I have a free who does home remodeling mostly by himself. When he needs help he pays $400 cash. Never has a problem getting that helper when he needs him. His helper is my wifes cousin husband. Small world.

You paying him $500 is fair. Good honest mechanics are hard to find. Bad ones are everywhere.

Vito

Crazy Horse · Oct 4, 2021

Vito .... '$400 cash' sounds generous but is hard to comprehend ..... he must have some sort of a time frame in mind as to how long in time the help is helping does he not?

BarnyardEngineering · Oct 4, 2021

(quoted from post at 03:14:10 10/03/21) Doesn't anyone negotiate price and conditions; IE: a estimate; before hand anymore ?????
It would seem not based on the post on this site recently.

It's called "one good turn deserves another." This mechanic was doing a good turn for DoubleR, and now DoubleR is trying to reciprocate.

$400 is $50/hr for 8 hours. I should think that an experienced tractor mechanic could do the job in 8 hours.

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