Hello HEF community! I've lurked here off and on, finally found a good reason to register so here I am. For a little background, I work on the railroad and I've ran heavy machinery my whole life (I grew up a good-sized family farm operation). I've ran backhoes, skid steers, dozers, excavators, a 350-ton railroad ditcher, and every size of tractor you can imagine. So here's my industry question: I'm looking for what you would call a niche or specialty piece of equipment I could buy with which to make money on the side. I (and my family) have a good name here, and I'm confident that if I had the right machine with the right know-how, I could make a successful little side business. I enjoy operating equipment (and making money obviously), so I figure rather than buy another Corvette, I could better invest my money in the right machine that earns money. So can you guys name a good small niche that I could look at getting into?
That's cool RailroadMan! Sounds like you have a lot of experience with equipment already . That's a tough question as it depends on your interests & what you enjoy doing the most . When I started out had to sell the muscle cars to help buy the dirt moving yellow iron . It was a good decision . LOL . If it was myself in your position I would buy a rubber tire loader backhoe & D-7 size dozer . Damn few jobs those two pieces of equipment cant handle . The bad news is you need to sell the Corvette to buy the tractor & lowboy to haul the equipment around with .
That's actually along the lines of what I was thinking of--a rubber tire excavator or a bigger dozer, like an older D8. I've already got the Kenworth & lowboy covered, my family is in the farm equipment business.
When considering the size of equipment to buy don't lose sight of what's the maximum weight or width you can haul without needing all sorts of permits. Even if you are doing the moving yourself permits could considerably increase your costs, and at the end of the day someone (either you or the customer) has to pick up the tab.
Your one step ahead with the truck & lowboy . I really like those Kenworth 's . Nice trucks . You were talking about finding a niche or specialty piece of equipment in the first post then when you mentioned rubber tire excavator ? I might even go looking at used Gradall's . Pretty handy , hop in the truck seat & drive to the job . Our county highway department has 3 of them , seem to work well . http://www.machinerytrader.com/list/list.aspx?ETID=1&catid=1034&Manu=GRADALL&Mdltxt=G3WD&mdlx=exact
Two bits of more or less useless observation: 1) If you have somehthing nobody else has, there's a fair chance nobody will want you to do work with it. However there are times when it's something new and innovative you may have discovered gold. 2) If you are successful in your niche, you will soon find it getting crowded! Good luck! :drinkup
Masticators are starting to get used more around here but they're still pretty "niche". Lots of $$$$ though