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Been mulling this over for quite a while feed up of being a spanner monkey and going self empolyed for what i trainned to do. long way off yet, your imput would be help me make my mind up.

 

kit would consit of a agt835 with forestry cage, wheel chains and front blade. 3t winch and a timberdragon tc2 trailer which should have its ce mark but the time i setup. got the saws and tickets.

 

done all my costing and want to charge a day rate which will be around the £300 do people think this about right (makes it easy for the bussiness plan)

 

this rate does reflect in terms of m3 to roadside and ranges between £30m3 down to about £13m3.

 

The comany is aimmed at small woodland owners farms with cut/extraction of less than 150m3

 

imput very very welcome

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Sounds an excellent set up for minimum impact work (horse as well?), competative towards too cheap I think on cost depending where abouts you are.

 

£100 a day for a decent cutter (x2) means your machine is worth a hundred too? I wouldn't have thought you could do it at that price, but you have obviously done your homework!

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£300 a day is that for two cutters and all the kit? Are you putting transport cost to get to the woodland on top? Seems cheap to me. But someone will have a better idea soon :thumbup1:
the day rate is mainly as a guide would be me and one other cutting on avarge say 8m3 a day for 4days then 1 cutter for 1 day and then me for 2 days on extraction even works out to be about £22m3, and the price for the other cutter is budgeted in at £75 fuel and saw provided. only down fall it relys on being in the same wood for a week

 

 

I'm considering a similar type of setup so will be very interested to see what people come up with. Whereabouts are you bunnybasher?

Hampshire not that far from you

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Sounds an excellent set up for minimum impact work (horse as well?), competative towards too cheap I think on cost depending where abouts you are.

 

could do the horse as well but i think the missis cob is a bit old at 20.

This is the info im looking for,

The budget is tight would allow for expantion or shiny new kit and need 5 days a week work for 52 weeks a year.

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I would say you are far to cheap at that for all that kit and two cutters, what sort of contingencys are you building into your day rate for kit break downs etc as on those margins if you get a puncture or break a winch cable your going to have a loss making week.

 

The other thing is are you sure there is the work out there, a friend has a bcs with winch on it and it hasnt moved since mid Jan.

 

Also how are you transporting the equipment around and are you charging a milage rate for this as if you have to move the kit 40miles away you will find this is a big chunk of fuel to move that rig on a big ifor.

 

Im not trying to be negative by I just suspect you need to look at your figures before you sell yourself short and end up without any income

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Like the idea but i dont know hardly anyone who works on day rates unless the trees are smaller that 7cm dbh, most is done on piece work. Sounds like tree surgery rates you have there. Would it not be more sensible to get hold of a couple of good cutters and pay them a ton rate to be arranged per job and youl gat paid for what you extract per ton. This is mostly how its done with the benefits of you not employing anyone, ie less red tape.

If you can find the work then do it! :thumbup1: but its all hard work with low rates but looks nice when your done! :biggrin:

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I might have read it wrong, but it looks as though the £300/day is based on one man and the machine?

 

As much as that's what it would probably need to be, I think you might be being a tad optimistic to get that 5 days a week every week of the year.

 

A small alpine like the AGT 835 doesn't want much of a trailer behind it really - to really exploit the benefits of the AGT (as in where it will go compared to a conventional tractor) it's better paired up with a winch.

 

Unless the terrain is fairly bland, you'd be looking typically at an ATV type timber trailer like the Vahva Jussi, jms 900 or Timber dragon TC1, which won't get a lot on a load so is really quite a niche market and needs the right sites to make it pay.

 

I'd be looking at the following:

 

Do you have work there for it ready to go? If so, how much.

 

If it needs to be working all day every day at X amount to make it pay, then is it really worth the stress?

 

What else can it be doign to earn it's keep if it's a bit quiet in the wood or the ground conditions cause work to stop for a few weeks.

 

Can you guarantee work for it all year round - shooting season on most estates means the woods are often off limits.

 

I don't mean to sound negative, but it's all too east to convince yourself that something will work because you like the idea of it.

 

If it was me, I'd start out just getting back out there with a saw and build up a bit more slowly.

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I play a similar game to the one you're proposing. I've an Oxtrac (low impact purpose built tracked skidder) a small compact and crane trailer. The latter stacks what the ox brings out. It's cheaper to get a local contractor with an old valtra 4 pot and 4 ton trailer to take it to rd side (circa £200 per day man and machine) than fit up to do the extraction myself. The Oxtrac goes most places and the a team of two can extract cut and stack over a wagon load a day, depending on the usual factors.

When I go out on contract to others with the Oxtrac, it's around the £250 man and machine mark. Extra hours and transport may be extra depending on the specifics of the case.

 

Having said that I am considering a bigger alpine and smaller trailer (looking for retro fit drive at the moment Chris) to add to the fleet as it will help on the better sites or more selectively cut sites. It will also free up the old compact to run a processor on the skid and then it can leave the wood cut and bagged.

 

I'll give you all a demo day when I've won the lottery and all the new machines turn up;)

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