farm tractors and pans

fiat41b · Jan 15, 2013

Hey i was wondering if any of you guys back here in the midwestern part of the country can tell me how much per hr for a farm tractor with 4 wheel drive and a couple 17yd scrapers im talking like a john deer 9630 or a case stx 450, cat mt900

if you owned these could or would you operate them for 125.00 to 130.00 per hr
i dont own any of these just comparing things i guess my twin engines are to expensive

Aussie Leroy · Jan 16, 2013

fiat41b, You could work any of those farm tractors and pans for $130.00 per hour, if you wanted to go BROKE in a few weeks. cheers Leroy

Swamp rat · Jan 16, 2013

fiat - im running 9520's w 1 - 18 yrd. $ 190 hr and w/ 2 - 18 yds $ 225 hr. depending on work type and customer. once you add fuel wear parts and operators cost these prices dont leave much profit margin , not including a breakdown or repair. These prices seem good but you have to expect the machines to sit not running as well , but the notes are still costing you. If you have a few ran days and then a little time for drying out before starting agian you have a lot of money to catch back up before and profits come into play agian.

Greg · Jan 19, 2013

Aussie Leroy is totally correct. You will be BROKE in a few weeks. Around here a D8K with a N0. 80 Cat pan went out for $200.00 an hour last year. A D7G got $175.00. A D3 dozer brought $130.00 an hour. If I had not been selling off equipment here and getting out I know rates would have been raised for 2013 but don't know how much.

You need to sit down and put together a detailed estimated operating cost for all of the fixed and variable costs to start. Then track your costs every day for an extended period of time to get a good accurate cost basis. I have told this to many guys who use the old excuse of I don't like to do book work so they never knew where they were right up to the day they went broke.

Oh ya, then there are the ones that claim if they try to charge as much as I do they will get no work.

fiat41b · Jan 23, 2013

I dont use farm tractors and wont, just asking cause thats what the others are using and charging i have twin engine scrapers and haul trucks and big dozers i dont mess around with that farm crap unless its a quad for soft ground i will rent one. i just sold off last 2 d8 and pans last year they were just tractors no blades they did ok but my twin engines went threw more mud than the d8's and were faster all around the d8's and pans did not like to turn very good in the mud pulling large loads. I just cant think how someone is running tractors and pans for 125-130 per hr. We dont have a chance with our prices.

Kman9090 · Jan 23, 2013

I don't know if your union or not but if you are you are eating up half that with just the operator. If that is not including operator then yes it can be done at a very small margin. Just wondering what company you are talking about that is runing at those cost?

JDOFMEMI · Jan 26, 2013

Sounds like someone knocking the bottom out of the market, and probably not even realizing how fast they are going broke.

Maybe they got started by reading the "facts" as presented by the sales folks selling tractors and pans.

crazycajun · Jan 26, 2013

I was once on the tractor and pan band wagon. When they are running it's ok, but usually they are broke. By the time you put enough horsepower in front a Pan to pull it right, it usually pulls apart. We ran them on quad trac's, and they did well, until your tractor is sittin on blocks waiting for new rollers or new tracks to come in. Last job we stripped 150 acres 6" with dozers, and off road trucks. Around Louisiana 200/hr is an average number I believe, unless you come across a farmer trying to get into the dirt business, then it's cheaper.

kevin37b · Jan 27, 2013

Those AG tractors are fine for topsoil . Why do you see 657' s getting PUSHED .It takes tractive effort and torque to move dirt .That dirt has been there a long time . Virgin dirt win's the battle everytime . Even tag teams need a push with 4 engines and 4 driving axles . The dirt wins everytime Hand's down .

vapor300 · Jan 28, 2013

ag tractors can move alot of dirt in the right setting! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX0atjrV5dw

very hard shale but they did it! And for alot less then hoe and trucks or twin engines

Swamp rat · Jan 28, 2013

As Vapor stated - ag tractors will outperform conventional equipment on many conditions. But , some jobs they are not to be used on , but the right conditions and they cannt be beat.

JDOFMEMI · Feb 1, 2013

vapor300 said:
ag tractors can move alot of dirt in the right setting! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX0atjrV5dw

very hard shale but they did it! And for alot less then hoe and trucks or twin engines

If that's the best they can do, I would leave them parked. It was taking over 2 minutes to load in the video you posted. Seems there was no support in the cut. A rip cat in the cut and some pushcats loading some real scrapers would have killed the pans in production.

I agree there are places for the pull pans, but the posted video does not impress me as being one of them. On the other hand, if that is what they own, I can see them being used on jobs they are less than ideal for, but it will come at a high price.

robin yates uk · Feb 1, 2013

JDOFMEMI said:
If that's the best they can do, I would leave them parked. It was taking over 2 minutes to load in the video you posted. Seems there was no support in the cut. A rip cat in the cut and some pushcats loading some real scrapers would have killed the pans in production.

I agree there are places for the pull pans, but the posted video does not impress me as being one of them. On the other hand, if that is what they own, I can see them being used on jobs they are less than ideal for, but it will come at a high price.

very busy field but oh so slow loading.The tractor manufacturer is making money, same as the fuel,tyres suppliers but I doubt a lot was made by the contractor

vapor300 · Feb 1, 2013

You would actually be very surprised at how much money they actually made, not needing a cut assist tractor and only one D6 to knock down the fill. And rubber tired machines would have a harder time loading that if it was ripped, they have no traction at all, plus that was the last 2 feet of hard shale before you hit the shelf rock that had to be shoot 11 631's were off to the right loading the more rocky material. You can kinda tell by this photo

That was the very end of the job, all the top soil and heavy clay had been moved. It was either let the deere help the 31's and get the last few feet of dirt off or let 15 pieces of iron sit and lay them all off.

vapor300 · Feb 1, 2013

And the deere with 3 pans, if the back pan on the deere is hauling 5 yards and getting 20 loads a day it is covering the cost of fuel

CM1995 · Feb 1, 2013

I have hired them as subs but wouldn't own them. They have their place in certain projects.

Oxbow · Feb 1, 2013

It's a good thing that they have a long cut. A couple 27's would have made 2 rounds in the time those tractors made 1. I'm sure that cost per yard is competitive is some scenarios, perhaps much of the midwest, but certainly not when they are out of their element.

Kman9090 · Feb 2, 2013

Seems around the mid west thats all people run is tractor and pans. As for the video posted yeah the 631's would smoke them but the only problem is we had every 631 running we had so we added the John Deere to the cut. 631's hauled a pretty good chunk more a day over the deere. That why you will never replace the big iron with farm tractors. There's always a place for everything.

Oxbow · Feb 2, 2013

Maybe they should add push blocks and bails to the front of the Deeres?

td25c · Feb 2, 2013

Hancock manufacturing built pto driven elevating pull type scrapers years ago designed for farm tractors www.machinerytrader.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=8969145

It would be interesting to compare loading , cycle times & fuel burn rate between a farm tractor pulling an open bowl scraper vs. the same tractor pulling an elevating scraper in a days work . I see Miskin makes a elevating scaper in 12 and 18 yards www.miskin.com/Elevator.htm

farm tractors and pans

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