My father in law is a local farmer.. His city street department approached him about renting/leasing them one of his 4wd tractors for their snow blower. This would likely be for 3 months out of the year. They provide the fuel and operator. The question is how much would a 4wd 150hp tractor rent for or lease for?
Your tractor, someone else running it, walk away don't just run is my advice. Most insurance companies would never allow it to be done, especially for a farmer's tractor. Instead, put the blower on your tractor and run it yourself for X dollars per hour provided the insurance company says its ok to do so, some won't allow a private to blow snow in city limits or any property but your own. We used to do it years ago, like 30 years ago and back then the going rate was 1 buck per horsepower per hour or a 120 hp tractor and blower with operator was 120 per hour. I did some a few years back with a 150 hp tractor and the same blower I had 30 year ago and got 175 per hour but really didn't want to do it very badly either, as they say, been there done that and the fun has all gone out of it over the years.
Do not shy away from renting this equipment out. People rent out equipment all of the time and can be a great source of income. From the research i have done it looks like a 4x4 late model tractor with cab and 150 horse power rents for $3,500 per month. Search around on the internet and create a good contract of who is responsible for what and what is expected. The customer must always have an insurance policy on rented equipment.......TIO
I think around $50.00 an hour is what the local dealerships rent late model front wheel assist tractors for.
Bigger question is why aren't they renting/leasing one from a dealer themselves? Obvious reason they want it cheaper. I would not rent it cheaper than a dealer would unless you can run it yourself.
The reason they are not renting it from a local dealer is because its a monthly fee with an hour amount per month, if they don't use it at all, they still pay the flat fee, if they use it a lot, they pay the flat fee plus a hefty penalty for hours going over the rental agreement, they then have to pay the place they rent it from to come and fix it, pay for the repairs and there is usually a clean up fee and a dozen other fee's when they are done with it. If they rent one from a farmer, they only pay the hourly rate on the hours they put on it, and hope for the best that nothing major goes wrong with the tractor, by far the cheapest way to go, by thousands or tens of thousands of dollars cheaper especially if there is not much snow to blow, if a lot of hours are put on it, its even cheaper per hour yet compared to renting a tractor from a dealer, because the dealership can charge their hourly rate for repairing it, and if its a town or city, overtime for when it needs fixing usually after store hours, and on top of that don't have to deal with the paperwork involved in a rental and additional insurance involved they'll have to have for the rental tractor, if from a farmer is so simple, just multiply the hours used by the hourly rate, let the farmer fix it himself and forget the insurance altogether, the farmer is liable for damages and/or repairs. That kind of arrangement was really popular back 30-40 years ago around here, many farmers had large tractors sitting in sheds all winter long doing nothing and could pickup a few bucks off the use of it, which is fine, till someone runs into it, or the blower shoots some rocks or debris onto houses, buildings and damage is done and found out the next spring, or the operator slides off the road and tips the tractor over, like was done a few times and the farmers insurance company found out what he was doing and there was no insurance coverage, same thing when the operator was using a log chain to pull out stranded and stuck vehicles, and jerked the bumper off or did frame damage to the vehicle during a snow storm, again involving the insurance company or lawsuits started flying in all directions, then the city's and towns went back to snow plows and end loaders and hired the farmer to do their snow blowing for them or bought their own setup, as they say, been there done that and I'll pass completely, too many horror stories are in the back of my mind when this same scenario is mentioned, but do as you wish and hope for the best.
GTM Get the money
Found this link http://extension.umd.edu/newfarmer/program-topics/equipment . Hope it will help you.
When it comes back in a box, you'll just have to go get a new one, hope the rent pays for it? If I were him I'd rent myself out with the machine, then at least you know how it is being cared for. I have a question, in away wouldn't you actually be paying for the rental.......taxes?
I wouldn't allow them to rent but I would hire out to do the work. No one runs your equipment like you do.
If you're looking to finance heavy equipment tractors/dozers check out leasedumptruck.com, they have a lot of good info!