cost and profit per hour running your Z

[GarPA]

Would appreciate your sharing your formula for billing out your Z on an hourly basis....cost to run plus any hourly profit you may add.

I have a job coming up where I'm going to put about 20 hours on the machine and I think I'm under forecasting my run time cost/profit. (the blades will be off....hauling debris to a farmers field).

Thanks once again for you help

[RMDoyon]

Machine cost per hour=((Machine purchase price) - (residual value at end-of-life) + (replacement cost) + (maintenance and fuel costs for life of mower)) / total hours of useful life.

Machine profit per =(your hourly rate)-((the above figure)+(your basic hourly overhead))

This is off the cuff so I make no guarrantees regarding thoroughness.
I encourage you to do a search on the subject, I beleive it was Guido that once wrote a very lengthy post on the subject.

BTW, Jim Huston (a Green Industry consultant) bases expected life of a mower at 100 hours per horsepower. I don't know how that translates in the real world because I haven't been at this that long but I'm sure other members could shed some light.

At the very least, it is a good conservative figure from which to work.

Roger

[Southern Lawns]

Hmmmmm! 100 hours per HP, Lets hope not. I know he is speaking of averages but with a good maintenance program you can get a machine to last a very long time.

[OBRYANMAINT]

seems possibly a small bit low but no too far off the mark

I figure my cost at 10-15 per hour depending on which machine
(walker,sentar,turf tiger)

[Doc Pete]

Maybe someone could enlighten me. Are you guy's saying that you get more an hour to mow with a rider than with a WB? Also, what you do you get for a WB with a velky. Do you charge by the size of the mower cut? My WB is 54", and many riders are only 52". Does that mean I should get more per hour??
Pete

[RMDoyon]

Switchless,
No one made a connection between deck size and pricing.
The question simply has to do with operation costs per machine hour.

OBRIANMAINT gave you his cost range because the machines he listed each have a different cost.

Roger

[GarPA]

at the risk of saying what may or may not be obvious, one of the assumptions here is that the more expensive your mower is to purchase and operate, the higher your productivity should be. In addition, there is less operator fatigue(when riding) when its 90 degrees and therfore again your productivity should be higher, but so are your costs