Tractor replacement policy.

[Clive]

For your depreciation cost instead of using the origional purchase price of the tractor try using the cost of the replacement, how does that change things, just out of interest?

This was done to death in a thread a while ago .....

I know how to work out depreciation, so does my accounts, bank-manger and HMRC - that tractor depreciated £35k in 5 years / 5k hrs = £7/hr

cost to change is of course also an interesting number but it is NOT depreciation ........... it’s a capital (requirement) cost and not a running cost

this is basic accountancy/ benchmarking, shocking that people running businesses don’t understand this kind of stuff very well

 

[melted welly]

Seems a lot of RC TMs for sale around the 6/7000 hour mark. After talking to an ex NH fitter he said they will likely need synchros doing around that time.
Powershift ones less bother he reckoned.

we have a 2008 plate tm155 with power shift and it’s developed a whine in the higher gears, mechanic thinks a bearing lost its hard facing. £5-6000 to split and put right plus replace some other bits whilst it’s split. On a machine with 8500hrs. . First major problem we’ve had with TMs.

Personally I think it’s still worth fixing, as it’s still tidy, everything else works and is, in relative terms, cheap and simple to operate and repair. Depreciation on it is bugger all, no adblue etc, would do 600-800hrs/yr. To go and replace it, £15-20k to trade up to something with 4-5000hrs? Better the devil we know.

 

[ollie989898]

we have a 2008 plate tm155 with power shift and it’s developed a whine in the higher gears, mechanic thinks a bearing lost its hard facing. £5-6000 to split and put right plus replace some other bits whilst it’s split. On a machine with 8500hrs. . First major problem we’ve had with TMs.

Personally I think it’s still worth fixing, as it’s still tidy, everything else works and is, in relative terms, cheap and simple to operate and repair. Depreciation on it is bugger all, no adblue etc, would do 600-800hrs/yr. To go and replace it, £15-20k to trade up to something with 4-5000hrs? Better the devil we know.

If the tractor is only being used 600 hours etc then running a second hand/older piece of gear is likely to be a better bet as you can probably afford few days of downtime if it did go bang.

 

[livestock 1]

we have a 2008 plate tm155 with power shift and it’s developed a whine in the higher gears, mechanic thinks a bearing lost its hard facing. £5-6000 to split and put right plus replace some other bits whilst it’s split. On a machine with 8500hrs. . First major problem we’ve had with TMs.

Personally I think it’s still worth fixing, as it’s still tidy, everything else works and is, in relative terms, cheap and simple to operate and repair. Depreciation on it is bugger all, no adblue etc, would do 600-800hrs/yr. To go and replace it, £15-20k to trade up to something with 4-5000hrs? Better the devil we know.

How bad is the whine? Noisy? Vibrating?

 

[fieldfarmer]

Seems a lot of RC TMs for sale around the 6/7000 hour mark. After talking to an ex NH fitter he said they will likely need synchros doing around that time.
Powershift ones less bother he reckoned.

I've an 2001 tm 150 that has 13500 hrs (set at 190at the shaft on the 50 hr service) on her and yes, had one set of synchros on her as 10k, but wouldn't be to bad as can't remember the price, kept knocking out potentiometers if I remember right.

 

[livestock 1]

I've an 2001 tm 150 that has 13500 hrs (set at 190at the shaft on the 50 hr service) on her and yes, had one set of synchros on her as 10k, but wouldn't be to bad as can't remember the price, kept knocking out potentiometers if I remember right.

Love the Range command gearbox to use

 

[fieldfarmer]

Love the Range command gearbox to use

For a while it was our main loader tractor, not such a good box then for stacking straw, to slow compared to the ts115 eletrashit that also had a loader on for going backwards.

 

[livestock 1]

For a while it was our main loader tractor, not such a good box then for stacking straw, to slow compared to the ts115 eletrashit that also had a loader on for going backwards.

That’s the trouble with a lot of the older ones

 

[fieldfarmer]

That’s the trouble with a lot of the older ones

We now have a handler and 3 loader tractors, the best for field work is a JD 7530 vario with a t14 loader, 50k forward 30k backwards, perfect.

 

[fieldfarmer]

We now have a handler and 3 loader tractors, the best for field work is a JD 7530 vario with a t14 loader, 50k forward 30k backwards, perfect.

And a nice bonnet gard on the 7530 on it thanks to @kill .

 

[livestock 1]

We now have a handler and 3 loader tractors, the best for field work is a JD 7530 vario with a t14 loader, 50k forward 30k backwards, perfect.

I don’t think you can have too many loaded tractors

 

[melted welly]

How bad is the whine? Noisy? Vibrating?

No, just a high pitched whine in top 4 gears.

 

[kill]

No, just a high pitched whine in top 4 gears.

Swap it to work where it can use the lower gears then .

 

[Hilly]

My policy is not to replace anything unless absolutely necessary. But when I do, I get the best kit I possibly can for the job at hand.

That’s the best way. Imo

 

[Hilly]

So as a rough guess, expect to spend £20,000 on a tractor over 10,000 hours, which will include the maintenance/servicing and any repairs. Sounds reasonable. Tyres on top.

Has anyone managed to significantly come in below that figure and if so what make/model of tractor?

Yes miles .

 

[melted welly]

Swap it to work where it can use the lower gears then .

it’s on drier and rolling duties

 

[teslacoils]

Anything that requires more than a basic level of engineering skill, or that uses adblu, was replaced at the end of its warranty.

Now I have only one tractor, when it needs new tracks or replacing, I'll pack up and get contractors in. Which tbh I should be doing anyway.

 

[Boysground]

I think it depends on the manufacturer and dealer.

I couldn’t fault JD Powergard, no quibbles on anything although it probably hasn’t gained me anything over paying for the repairs myself without powergard.

I know stories from Blue tractors with make it a complete waste of time and money.

My conversation with the JD dealer ended with the words “You bought the wrong warranty “ this was with a fault the tractor had within a few months of buying it. It wasn’t the cost of the repair that annoyed me it was the attitude and the fact it took over a year to diagnose and repair. My policy of having more than 1 colour of tractor on the farm may be changing colour.

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[Bossfarmer]

This was done to death in a thread a while ago .....

I know how to work out depreciation, so does my accounts, bank-manger and HMRC - that tractor depreciated £35k in 5 years / 5k hrs = £7/hr

cost to change is of course also an interesting number but it is NOT depreciation ........... it’s a capital (requirement) cost and not a running cost

this is basic accountancy/ benchmarking, shocking that people running businesses don’t understand this kind of stuff very well

youve put the inflation of the 2nd hand tractor into the equation but not the inflation on a new one which of course will make running any tractor look cheap, you have traded in for another Fendt so you must now include cost to change, you could have retired happily with that £7/hr figure but youve stayed on the hamster wheel so it must be accounted for!

cost to change is more than just an interesting number if you buy one tractor and make it last your whole farming career we could let you away with maths like that but not when your doing high hours and shifting every 5 years!

As "people running a business" we all know cashflow is king, are you honestly just taking each tractor and individually working out its depreciation and then ignoring the cost to change??? this is a key part in the equation when looking at the running cost of a particular brand of tractor!

 

[Cowabunga]

This was done to death in a thread a while ago .....

I know how to work out depreciation, so does my accounts, bank-manger and HMRC - that tractor depreciated £35k in 5 years / 5k hrs = £7/hr

cost to change is of course also an interesting number but it is NOT depreciation ........... it’s a capital (requirement) cost and not a running cost

this is basic accountancy/ benchmarking, shocking that people running businesses don’t understand this kind of stuff very well

Was the old tractor sold privately or at auction, or was it part-exchanged?