Is it economically viable to own your own commercial vehicles and heavy equipment (e.g. loader, backhoe) for diy? Or will I just forever be a rentoid
Is it economically viable to own your own commercial vehicles and heavy equipment (e.g. loader, backhoe) for diy?
>Is it economically viable?
Depends how much you use it. Depends how cheap rentals are around you. Depends how much the commercial vehicle costs you to buy in the beginning and costs to maintain and what insurance and registration will cost if you’re running it on the road.
Just remember when you take the step up to commercial stuff, everything is going to cost like 3x what a larger personal vehicle costs.
get farm plates for your dump truck. no cdl, no weight milage tax, no safety inspections. if you know how to fix shit, old junk equipment can be a bargain. have cash and be ready to go grab deals. it takes lots of patience and busted knuckles so you have to weigh the opportunity cost. and once you have equipment, tell your neighbors to frick off, you're not operating a free rental shop
>No CDL
Already have a Class A + Tanker
>No weight mileage tax
So long as I'm not using a dump truck OTR that should be fine right? Or is it one of those taxes that you have to remit monthly like alcohol gallonage taxes?
>No safety inspections
This actually sounds annoying as frick cause I hate mechanics
>So long as I'm not using a dump truck OTR that should be fine right? Or is it one of those taxes that you have to remit monthly like alcohol gallonage taxes?
it depends on how your state does it. the left coast state I'm in only does fixed cost commercial registration up to 33k, after that is all milage based and you need a fuel tax ID. typically you file either quarterly or yearly. farm plates are fixed cost, but not fuel tax exempt, and you aren't supposed to haul for monetary compensation. for limited use, just buying a 10 day trip permit is probably the most reasonable thing to do
>no safety inspections
it's really just to keep them from red tagging you for something minor and moronic if you weren't smart enough to dodge the scales
if you hate mechanics, don't buy used earthmoving equipment
If you are one then go for it. If you need to pay one prepare your anus.
Just admit to yourself you want one as a toy which is fine. The loan payment on something not used commercially is a financial bleed of cash which could do far more for you. Let the task frequency, value and need dictate choices then treat everything in a businesslike manner. That much money could build a very nice shop which is far more valuable and permits you to do your own used equipment repairs.
Before buying a backhoe own a vehicle and trailer capable of hauling one as that is far more useful (tools are to get shit done) for example hauling materials like used steel etc to build your shop. Every dollar you spend on one DIY item is denied to other items, so determine the wisest buy for your use case. No one else's matters. For example if you want a pond it's common to buy a dragline and a dump truck then dig at leisure like the gent down the road from me did over ~ten years. Then sell the backhoe and use the money for something else. Measure everything with money and you cannot go wrong.
>That much money could build a very nice shop which is far more valuable and permits you to do your own used equipment repairs.
>Implying I own land
If you don't own land you sure as shit don't need depreciating high maintenance heavy equipment.
That's why you should buy heavy equipment then rent storage for it.
This is PrepHole not /smartfinance/ so buy big Tonka toys and have at it.
RIM
register
in
montana
So I bought a used backhoe from auction. It was an out of state and it was a reputable auction house, and a very good deal on an older unit that had had all the hoses replaced. Well I got fricking shafted. The hoses were rotten and hadn't been touched, the left joystick (*$1700) "broke" as it came off the truck. I'd blow a random hose every other time I used it. I had it for three years and was at the dealer getting repairs more times than I fricked my wife. When I sold it I got more or less what I'd paid which meant I'd eaten several thousand in repairs. I was feeling very shitty about the whole business and pulled out all the receipts and added them up and compared them to renting the same unit. I was just estimating the project time* and I assumed I was going to wind up in the hole because of all the repairs but it actually came out nearly net zero. Meaning rental for 2 days here and one day there over the course of the years would have cost me the same as owning the unit throughout that time. The difference was I wasn't under some 8 or 10 hour noose, I was free to work at my own pace and learn as I went. The unit was there whenever I had a few hours and I didn't have to schedule my work with it. The lesson I took away is next time I'm going to buy a new unit and sell it for what I paid for it a few years later. Sure I'll have triple or quadruple what I had tied up, but I won't put many hours on it and it won't cost me anything to own it over those years. So the three major points:
1. buy new(er) and trust the resale market
2. don't do unseen auction
3. the major benefit of own over rent is your time
Thanks for the advice, and sorry you had to go through that ordeal!
Maybe once I actually own some land of my own that I need to manage, I can think of buying new heavy equipment on credit. I imagine then the $600+ loan payment per month would more than pay for itself in costs from building/maintaining roadways to improving shit
>next time I'm going to buy a new unit and sell it for what I paid for it a few years later
Good luck with that. Buy a used unit and it's more likely, especially if it's one that needs some work and you can do the repairs yourself.
Depends. Will you be able to make your investment profitable? Or will the expense be worth it for you? This is questions that only you can answer. Not sure why you are asking random people in the internet
Also to add to my post i have a mini excavator. I thought if i bought one i would forever be free of rental payments. Well i had it for a while and it worked good. Did some jobs with it and one job one of the track drive motors shit the bed. I had to disassemble it at the customers house, diagnose the problem, spend a fortune to order replacement parts. Had to leave it there because it wouldnt move without that motor. Came back a couple weeks later and replaced the broken parts with new ones and finish the job. Shit happens and stuff breaks. Be prepared to learn to fix things yourself, buy parts or pay a fortune to people to do it for you
Not really comparable but I own all that stuff because I have a landscaping company. I guess if you make money off of it every so often it makes sense to own them.
Think about the capital you have tied up in equipment you don't use very often. It's an economic decision that even the pros get wrong. I've seen big excavators parked on a job site idle for months. Used for a couple of days and then parked again.
They're still money ahead over getting one delivered for 2 days, sending it back and then getting it re-delivered again for 2 days a month from now... All that transportation and time waiting for it to arrive is not free.
What were the actual numbers from your experience of owning vs. renting?
I rent nothing and own everything.
>All that transportation and time waiting for it to arrive is not free.
Poor planning. Drop it off. Get the job done. Move it to the next site. Or back to the rental outfit. People respond to the checks they have to write. But never see the time cost of investments sitting idle.
No.
Blow me