Older Tractor costs

[Greengrass55]

Evening all
Set up my fencing business about a year ago, currently hiring tractor and post banger off a local contractor but looking to invest in my own tractor.
would be looking at something around the age 1995-2005 at about £10k-£20k+vat range. Minimum 90hp but ideally more.
Any advice on daily tractor run costs for these sort of machines? Fuel, insurance, etc. Would only be for running post banger.
Trying to work out whether better to continue hiring new kit off another contractor or whether to have our own second hand stuff.
Thanks in advance

 

[spin cycle]

golden age of tractors before they got to techy

basic,tidy example will cost feck all to run ....loader might be handy

mind you a mini digger piped for breaking with post driver thingy is hard to beat

 

[sheep boy 3000]

Do you have an Easi petrol post driver yet? Dont buy the cheap ones thinking they are a great saving, they dont work. The Easi on the other hand does work, very well, though expensive.
A Bryce post hitter, easi petrol post driver and a KMR staple gun will see you put up a lot of fencing in a day.
The posts take around 30 seconds to hit in on hardish ground, a couple of minutes on shale. Each stob will take 10 seconds to hit in and steepling 5 seconds. Obviously this doesnt include positioning the tractor or moving to the next stob but fencing is now easy.
If you can borrow your friends tractor I would for now but you cant beat having your own equipment.

 

[box]

I can't really comment on the viability of owning your own kit, what I can tell you though is that almost every fencing contractor around here uses SAME tractors (or the Deutz Agrofarm equivalents). Wheels set out wide, some have duals, they're good solid stable tractors with 4 wheel braking for steep land.

The range is massive around that 80-110hp range. A 40k air cooled Explorer 90 would do everything you need and well within the price range, otherwise you can move into the water cooled machines if you want more power (Explorer 95, 105, Agrofarm 115).

There's probably a Lamborghini equivalent to all of the above models.

The less you spend the less the depreciation. The old SAME kit is pretty bulletproof.

 

[HarryB97]

Put 20k down on a tracked nocker and finance the rest. Much more efficient than a tractor and better in the wet.

 

[Horn&corn]

Buy or hire a tracked protec self propelled knocker. Not cheap but bulletproof and you’ll pull it around behind a pick up.
Local chaps got fed up climbing in and out of tractor so much quicker and easier to walk behind

 

[J 1177]

Lad round here has a maxxum 5130 on his knocker. Get a decent one for 12k.

 

[ARW]

We fenced for 8 years with tractors until we got a tracked knocker and I will never fence with a tractor again
Your tractor will burn 6-8 litres of diesel per hour, cost £1000 a year to insure and depreciate every hour it runs. Tyres to replace, 10k for a gear box the list goes on
A tracked knocker burns 2 litres an hour and is much much cheaper to run, it will fence in all conditions and get in many more places and your not climbing in and out of the cab all day, it will have stake racks to carry stakes sometimes saving a pass setting out stakes.
You can pull it with a pickup so it’s cheaper and faster to move
Unless you need the tractor for other jobs

 

[Greengrass55]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Whilst the tracked banger obviously beats the tractor banger in many way, How do you all find it on site not having a tractor if you’re just on tracked machine? Handling materials etc

 

[spin cycle]

We fenced for 8 years with tractors until we got a tracked knocker and I will never fence with a tractor again
Your tractor will burn 6-8 litres of diesel per hour, cost £1000 a year to insure and depreciate every hour it runs. Tyres to replace, 10k for a gear box the list goes on
A tracked knocker burns 2 litres an hour and is much much cheaper to run, it will fence in all conditions and get in many more places and your not climbing in and out of the cab all day, it will have stake racks to carry stakes sometimes saving a pass setting out stakes.
You can pull it with a pickup so it’s cheaper and faster to move
Unless you need the tractor for other jobs

what fekkin tractor burns 8-10l of cherry an hour post knocking

my 90 hp only burns 4l/hr ploughing

 

[mf7480]

what fekkin tractor burns 8-10l of cherry an hour post knocking

my 90 hp only burns 4l/hr ploughing

That's very nearly a physical impossibility. Some rough maths shows that for 4l/hr ploughing to be true you can only be using between 16 and 21hp, so you're either not getting much ploughing done or you're using more diesel than you thought.

If your diesel engine was the holy grail of internal combustion and was 100% thermally efficient it could still have only been producing around 55hp for that hour, there's only so much energy in a litre of diesel, about 10kwh

 

[deleted user 837354]

In the times I've been fencing with a tractor and banger -thankfully not that many days- I never came away at the end thinking it was an optimal way to put posts in. They are fudging clumsy at times. Must waste a lot of time compared to a proper dedicated machine, let alone the bit the tracks etc add in. Cripes, there are some farms where you just won't get out there in winter with a tractor must without making a herculean mess so a tracked machine is surely essential.

 

[spin cycle]

That's very nearly a physical impossibility. Some rough maths shows that for 4l/hr ploughing to be true you can only be using between 16 and 21hp, so you're either not getting much ploughing done or you're using more diesel than you thought.

If your diesel engine was the holy grail of internal combustion and was 100% thermally efficient it could still have only been producing around 55hp for that hour, there's only so much energy in a litre of diesel, about 10kwh

ok...let's run with this...I have a 12ft combine ....120hp engine....2acs/hr incl turns...not unloading on move....throttling down...run to trailer and empty on tick over plus..
.what is my av fuel consumption in 2t/ac barley crop with straw out back

combine filled with can....so over 15 year experience I know

if your maths gets it right I will defer

 

[e3120]

ok...let's run with this...I have a 12ft combine ....120hp engine....2acs/hr incl turns...not unloading on move....throttling down...run to trailer and empty on tick over plus..
.what is my av fuel consumption in 2t/ac barley crop with straw out back

combine filled with can....so over 15 year experience I know

if your maths gets it right I will defer

I like this game.

Let's say 50hp average, could be less.

40kW, so 40kWh every hour. About 4l of cherry at 100% efficiency - 12l/hr in reality.

You're going to say half that?

 

[Timbo]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Whilst the tracked banger obviously beats the tractor banger in many way, How do you all find it on site not having a tractor if you’re just on tracked machine? Handling materials etc

The tracked knocker will carry a good amount of materials on its load platform

 

[spin cycle]

I like this game.

Let's say 50hp average, could be less.

40kW, so 40kWh every hour. About 4l of cherry at 100% efficiency - 12l/hr in reality.

You're going to say half that?

I allowed 5l ac so 10l hour

 

[suffolksmallholder]

I have a Parmiter contractor post basher, a punch bar & an Opico auger, with three different drill sizes, for fencing. These fit on my elderly 80 HP Deutz loader tractor. Ok I'm an amateur but this set-up does my fencing jobs along with a pile of hand made or adapted hand tools. I do have a mid sized 360 but that is icing on the cake.
Perhaps a tracked all-in-one machine is the key. Pull it on a trailer with a loader tractor or a Unimog if you have large pockets.
SS