|
I would strongly reconsider renting your own tractor. For example: Have you ever rented anything? Chances are you have, and because it was a rental, may may heve been a little harder on it than if it were your own equipment. We rent tractors from time to time and we always make sure to fill it up or else we have to pay for fuel out of their tank. We try to keep 'em clean, but in a muddy feild that's someitmes hard to avoid. With a muddy tractor, they'll ussually charge about $50 on up for cleaning, and if it gets really muddy it'll run up $100 or more really quick. If something does happen to break or make noise while they're running it, chances are they'll bring it back and play dumb when you ask what happened to it. I always made sure to listen for anythign unussual and if I noticed anything I'd atleast tell my dad who was footing the bill, or I'll tell the guy at the dealership that something seemed odd so they can get it fixed before the next guy rents it. Rental isn't something that the sunday farmer should do with his equipment. If you need something they have, a barter system can be arranged and we've done it many times and still do. No need for us to buy 2 more forage wagons when the neighbors have 2 that ussually aren't in use when we need them. If they need one more, we can borrow ours to them after we make sure to grease it. This past spring we borrowed their disk because it was heavier and the axel snapped off on one side. I was able to fix it myself because I'm a machinist, but it still toook time and they were inconveinienced when they needed it and I didn't have it fixed yet. I made sure to build it heavier than the original one on the other side. If you do rent it out, call a few dealerships and ask what they charge for say 150 Hp tractor, but you don't have to say why. We pay about $17/hr for a 100 HP tractor. for 160, I'd expect to pay in the neighborhood of $25-30. PLus they would have to keep it full of fuel. best way to do that is that it leaves full, and comes back full. What ever it takes to top it off if it's not reasonably close to full, they have to reimburse you. You'd also have to make sure it's covered by insurance. I know most farm policies "should" cover rental equipment(that the farmer rents), but a valid contract is a MUST. If anything major goes wrong, there has to be a way to charge those responsible for burning up the clutch trying to get it unstuck from a major mud pit, or from rolling it over because the operator turned to fast around a corner at high speeds, or any other problem. Donovan from Wisconsin Hope this helps, we rent atleast one peice of equipment each year and borrow a few more...
|
