EQUIPMENT COST FORMULA

[Craig Turf Management]

I'm trying to come up with a dollar per hour figure to charge for my mowers etc. I think I need to determine the life expectancy of my equipment in hours. Then I would devide my purchase cost by the number of hours? Does anyone use this to determine your cost of doing business?
I have a 99 SCAG wb hydro 17hp KAW. A 2000 TURF TIGER with a 25 KOH. My dealer has been absolutely no help. I know that someone in our group can steer me in the right direction.
Thanks for your help, Bill.

[Greenkeepers]

Bill-

Take your average number of hours per year.. Let's say 600 lets figure the equipment to last 3 years. That's 1800 total working hours that you're going to get out of it. And the equipment cost you $8000.

So, $8000/1800 is $4.44 that's what the equipment alone is costing you per hour. Add fuel, belts, hydro fluid, Operator an all the other variables and there you go. The longer life you estimate your equipment at the cheaper it will be per hour.

Hope this helps.

[Chopper Lover]

Bill (Craig Turf Management),

When you come to an amount using Bill's (Greenkeepers) formula, compare it to the fee a rental company would charge for a similar piece of equipment.

Depending on what you need to hourly fee for you may wish to choose one over the other or pick something in the middle.

I hope this is helpful also...
Mark

[kutnkru]

Mark
Just for the record, LOL that was MIKE(grnskprs) responding to Bill from CTM. :-) That is however kind of a scary thought - so many bills when its still pre-season for many.(pun intended)

As to the post at hand, I like the idea of comparing the two so that which ever is higher within reason is the variable. Mike had a great point though about figuring the cost of the machine into your estimate this way you will have a replacement value already in the figure.

Good Luck this season!
Kris

[Edited by kutnkru on 03-10-2001 at 02:06 PM]

[mowerconsultant]

did you buy your scag at Spain Equipment ? aka powerscapes...?????
just wondering ....I used to work there....

[Chopper Lover]

Kris...

You were so RIGHT! Sorry Mike!

I guess it is the blonde in my hair showing itself again. Well, maybe not, but that's my story and I'ms stickin' to it!

Mark

[TylerAssociatesLLC]

I figure it costs me just shy of $10 an hour for my 61" 25hp Turf tiger and about $5 an hour for my 48" 17hp belt drive. The tiger cuts about twice as much so they cost about the same per acre to run.

[CCLC]

These figures are close to what I have for my mowers. My gear drive walkbehinds are in the $3.50 per hour range and my z-turn riders are in the $8.00 range. I don't recall the exact amounts but I figured them out a while ago from a formula that Jimmy Houston gave at one of his seminars. We have figured what each piece of equipment cost us per hour. For landscape jobs each tool is bid into the job. It is a good way to recoup our equipment cost.

[Eric ELM]

If my old 60 inch Chopper died today, it has cost me $2.53 an hour to run it, plus gas and oil, so aproximately $4.00 an hour to run it.

If the new diesel Chopper runs as long as they claim it will, it will be under $1.00 an hour plus 3 quarts of fuel an hour and oil, so that would be around $2.25 an hour. This is just another reason to buy diesel. ;)

[Craig Turf Management]

Thanks for the help guys. I asked this question a while back, and didn't get much of a response. I'm trying to get down and dirty and find out exactly how much it's costing me to operate. Can't wing it and succeed.
mowerconsultant, I did buy both my mowers from John Spain. Not sure yet how this Powerscape deal is going to work out. I'll keep you posted.
Bill