HI All,
In keeping all my options open (not ruling out the self haul option still though...heck, I even bought a trailer just to do it and have even done a fair amount of legal research into it the legality of self transport)....I decided to also at least test the waters on how much it would cost to get the machine transported by others (i.e. shipping / trucking type people).....So far the lowest price I have is about $1500 from a transport company (I don't know them just a transport company).
In theory,assuming my truck would get maybe 9 MPGs pulling the trencher over 1800 miles (driving at about 50 MPH max to maximize fuel economy and safety), my costs would be about 200 gallons of fuel at maybe $3.00 per gallon (I think AAA had diesel at 2.95 per gallon national avg)....Anyways about $600 for fuel (plus maybe another $100 in case I don' t get good mileage), plus I would need about 3 or 4 nights in a hotel (maybe even 5 to make a more fun vacation sightseeing trip)...plus on the road food and misc souvenirs along the way)...the net real cost may not be that much to have it transported but then I would be missing out a potentially nice mini family vacation that at some point I would have taken anyways so I could possibly kill 2 birds with one stone here.
As far as commercial use of this particular machine (as quoted above - the trencher) , while the possibility always exists for most anything to be used commercially (and there was an opportunity for it at one time which has unfortunately has apparently gone away (unfortunately because my contractor friend told me about it and could have moved a machine for me since he works at the same site) , I still need it and needed it before the opportunity came up because I need to fix stuff around my property for a pretty long while now (driveway etc...)....So , I am buying the machine to fix on my stuff first (again personal use) and then look into the possibility of pimping it out later as "icing" on the cake (The money I save by doing stuff for myself generally always pays for the machine first and then I have it left over for more around the house type things or the possibility of actually making money with it....However, unfortunately due to my regular work keeping me busy most of the time, my "icing on the cake" scenarios never seems materialize or at least not materialize very often (I suppose this may be to the disappointment of some neighbors as my yard generally gets filled with neat "stuff" I use on my property which later become lawn ornaments).
I generally research stuff first but ultimately I think I am more of an "armchair warrior" (I think that is the term) than an actual doer in a commercial sense..
(If you look further, in other posts I have done on this site I asked for opinions on a Case backhoe and track loader (both of which I ultimately got for personal use) and even a roll off truck .... I got valuable info here on this forums and that's great!...If you want to know where most of the neat toys are talked about...this would be the place...FWIW I never did get a roll off truck even though I looked seriously at it....I did get the smaller F800 tho.
As an example of "stuff" I have done, I looked into "Net Metering" power after my purchase of a generator for my home (because I got tired of losing power...regrettably I learned of net metering after buying a large gas generator or I may have gotten a diesel one and burn W85 to make power), I looked into becoming a professional welder after I bought my huge welder (a 6 cylinder powered 300A trailer mounted welder because because I needed some welding and I hated waking up early to catch the local mobile welder to do things and I kinda had a problem paying him his minimum $45 charge for just less than 1 minute of weld time (literally) ....and he just lived down the street from me!, I bought a backhoe (case 680) to fix my own septic system.... my 2 septic repairs - (needed) ...paid for the backhoe BUT I also researched into the possibility of doing it commercially (heck I needed some of that huge profit of installing septics !!)...Actually in thinking about it, I got into the lawn care business (mowing) because after buying a house I had to get a mower (similarly I got a power washer and added it to my business name after a painter said I had to power wash the house before painting (after I learned and saw how the power wash was done and the fact that it only took him 1 hour to charge $200 I was all on top of that! ;-) ....
So in summary I typically get stuff to use it personally (except maybe the power washer because my house got washed first before I got my machine....BUT then again I held the power washer man off and did my own deck, sidewalk, outbuildings, and deck!...gotta save the money) and think how great it would be to make the big bucks commercially tho unfortunately that really has yet to happen....hence my looking at cheaper machines to use around the house.
If I started using stuff commercially (at least the big heavy stuff over 26K) I would look into getting a CDL tho because it wouldn't be reasonable to tow a huge machine to a construction site for personal reasons!....and if it were commercial use I would get a cdl...
On the other hand, if I knew what I know now I would have gotten a heavier dump truck to move stuff to the dump...not that I actually haul that much stuff to the dump (I intentionally got a less than 26K rated truck because I thought you need a CDL for a big truck....since the dump truck is mainly just to haul stuff to the dump for me personally (and since I have over 7 acres I could be classified as a farm) I could have gotten the bigger BUT on the flip side, I guess I could deliver mulch commercially with out worries since even with commercial use the truck is under CDL limits.
Oh well, hopefully tomorrow I get to talk to some of the other states powers that be in regards to my potential trip to FL....I'll keep you posted as to my findings
Thanks
Andrew
PS - Side thought : anybody here haul stuff for money or trade?...PM me if interested....