That thing is amazing! I’d love to have one. A guy down the road has a Kubota (not sure what model). He makes a bunch of side cash in the neighborhood doing odd jobs for people with it. It’s a nice little money generator for him.
I'm hoping to be able to use it for other work for people/businesses when not in the woods or homestead. Need to learn about pricing and profitability.
Maybe after he gets it paid for. Pretty tough to be very profitable with one as a side hustle. But if you have a justifiable need for one anyway, then it’s a little different
Don’t get me wrong. You can make some side money with one. Cold Trigger Finger since yours is new with only 6 hours on it, and I assume under warranty, you shouldn’t have much worry about repairs for a while, that helps. But trying to do enough side work to make payments is a pretty big stretch. My neighbor across the street is on his second and third machines. (Yes, he has 2 currently) and keeps them both busy with fencing and clearing pastures of cedar trees. It’s his business. He has bought all of his new. i I also have 2 tracked skid steers, mostly for my own use and enjoyment, but also for side hustle work. 2 years ago I had to replace the tracks and do some undercarriage work =$8000+. And that was just the parts and doing it myself. Fortunately I was in the middle of an $11,000 job. the neighbor and I got together and we each charge $120/hr. Most of his is for making payments and a guy to run it. Mine is making lesser payments and more repairs. They’s damm sure handy, but they’s costly to own
Sure. I’m not saying a side hustle is justification for buying one. I wouldn’t expect to buy one and make your payments doing side gigs. But my neighbor makes several thousand extra dollars a year doing relatively mundane jobs with his. Like spreading gravel on driveways and stuff. It will help pay it off sooner.
Yes, I agree. My wife's firewood business brings in enough for fuel, payment and maintenance. And we've just gotten back to working the wood business after more than 3 months steady working on the house and homestead. Which is what I bought it for . The firewood business will makes it's payments plus. We got a great deal on it. And the payment is reasonable enough to double pay it many months. But I have to get a Rock Grapple bucket for it. That will reduce the amount of time to produce and load a 2 cord load of wood by 50% or more. I spend far too much time chasing around after single logs that slid off the pallet forks in the process of getting them put of the Stroke processor deck. CTLs are multi purpose machines and all multi purpose machines aren't the best at any 1 thing. A log loader is perfect at moving, loading and stacking logs . Useless at plowing snow or tramming dirt and gravel . Same with attachments . The Faver grapple rake looks awesome for moving logs and brush. But most of my splits would fall right through the tines . So I need a rock grapple bucket. Which won't be as Heavy Duty as the Faver. But will , with a bit of care be a Great production upgrade. Same with Big , Bigger , Biggest ctls. I purposefully got the smallest one Cat makes . No DEF !!! Lighter to mobe, smaller footprint to get into tighter spaces . Less fuel consumption ect . And again , NO DEF !!!!!! I got a new machine with full warrantee because, tho I can and will change fluids and filters . And tracks , rollers , idlers and sprockets . And hoses , rams , pins and bushings . Having around and hopefully more than 8,000 hours of MY use before it needs repower or repumped is a good feeling . I did NOT want to buy a mechanic job . So many things are different using a machine than doing this all by hand . Setting up the work flow the right way makes a huge difference in time spent . I've only done around 8 cord with it so far . Winter in the Interior is even busier than summer on the homestead. But every day I go to the woods I figure out another thing that improves production efficiency. I figured my payments based on an old guy with some powersaws and a pickup . This machine is a real game changer compared to that .
I was wondering what a good hourly rate would be that would be fair and profitable enough . Was thinking $110 . But $120. Sounds smarter. Thanks !
Loaded this load entirely with Little Ox. My 239D3 CAT . Had to do a little straightening by hand . But not too much
Loaded both truck and trailer with Little Ox. I need to weld 4 stake pockets per side on the trailer . And put a flatbed on the pickup. I have an 8'x 16' flat deck trailer that I will cut in half and make the flatbed with. Next summer I will make it a dump.
I lay a 2" ratchet strap on the trailer deck . 4 feet from each end . Load the trailer . Then hook each one to itself and tighten it TIGHT. then I put on binder chains front and back and another 2" ratchet strap across. Check and snug regularly.
50 miles or so . The first 13 miles is a closed road , radio controlled mine road. Then 2 miles to the highway.
Wow! But I understand. Gotta get what you can where you can. Do you usually have to travel that far to get wood?
That is pretty far to go for wood but if the price is right and the wood justifies it then I would do the same as you
I actually don't know . Because,, this past spring I was able to fully insulate the far end of our house. 1/3 of the house . That. Was a huge game changer for us. . From what I'm seeing so far , it reduced our wood usage by half. Example , last winter , before the insulation job got accomplished during -55°F ambient. Ww burned 2 wheelbarrow loads of wood pee 24 hours. This winter , during the same temperature. We burned 1 . And , the house was Much more comfortable!! In years past we ran 8 ish cord per winter . An 8 month necessary burning season . I think this winter it will be in the 4 to 5 cord . So in theory 2 cord may last us 4 months or heating only with wood .
For here , that's not bad . Farther is much better than Harder !!!!! A good friend here buys small timber sales and logs them with his pickup . Tremendous amount of work in the winters . Very limited production . However , fairly low cost out lay. Where I get my wood , as it's a gated , security controlled road system . Where the mainline is plowed and hills are sanded for the mine traffic . And so far this winter , the logger I buy from has been blading the road with one of his graders. It's NICE !!!! No riffraff meth heads in there to bother our equipment or steal wood .
