# Shop Labor



## LukeS (Feb 24, 2015)

I am wondering what a fair price per hour is for on the side farm equipment repair and welding? I am 20 and going to school for Ag mechanics, and will be starting at JD next month. I have had many people ask me to work on or fix their equipment. Most of the work will be in our shop with our tools.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Around here good independent ag repair shops are $50-$50/hr. Mostly on the farm shops run by Mennonites. There is a really good mobile guy with FULL service truck with crane. He worked at local dealer for 10 years. He is $65/hr.

I think it really depends on your skill level and if you can do work in about the same time amount as a dealer tech....


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## NebTrac (Aug 12, 2014)

My quick answer would be what ever you feel comfortable in charging. I do know (not in the tractor repair industry, but another similar field) as I was starting out, I didn't feel right in charging someone by the hour or standard shop rate if it was a repair on equipment I was unfamiliar with. If it was a job I'd done before then I could give a pretty good estimate.

A question that comes to me is, are you going to be allowed to work on equipment once you start Deere? Some places frown on that. I don't agree with it, but I do know sometimes there are agreements that might be in your contract stipulating that. Just a thought.

How long is your contract with Deere? I'd work for them as long as your comfortable and then like PaMike stated, work towards that mobile truck. To me that would be best financial option in the long run. In other words don't go build a huge big heated shop until you could pay cash for it.

Another thing is to remember your body. My brother-in-law was night foreman for Omaha Truck Center. He made awesome money. I've no idea what he brought in, but my sister stayed in a very nice house with the kids in the city, not cheap. He went back to school and when I asked him why, he said "have you seen mechanics at 50 years of age? They'll all crippled up."

Nice web site by the way!!!!

Troy


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

You might want to ask around to see what YOUR local area rates are. IMHO. In my area, the JD dealerships charge $10-15 per hour higher than the other colors (don't ask me why). The independent guys are $30-40 lower than the dealerships. You will have to figure out YOUR overhead, experience and market is.

Reminds me of a story about experience: An assembly line was 'broke down' and the plant manager called in a expert to fix it. The manager ask the employees what the guy did to fix the assembly line, they told him, he just took a hammer and hit a spot on the line, the manager was shocked to see a $40,000 bill for the repair. So he sent the bll back to the guy with a note, that he was not worth the $40k, just to swing a hammer, please revise your bill accordingly. The manager got a new bill, broke down like this '$1.00 for swinging hammer, $39,999 for knowing where to hit'

Larry


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## LukeS (Feb 24, 2015)

Thanks guys, I did not think about not being able to work on equipment while at JD, I will look into that.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

In my area the independent guys charge 50%-80% of local shop rate. But some of the local shop rates here are outrageous. Up to $140/hour. Than Its more for out call with service truck plus mileage. I still have not figured out how it costs so much more to run a service truck than it is to build a million ddollar shop and pay interest and utilities on the shop?


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## ozarkian (Dec 11, 2010)

You have to figure all your costs into the equation. Tools, transportation, insurance, license, taxes, education expenses. Profit is whats left. Profit is where you get your wage. As your knowledge improves, so does your business.

I have noticed customers really only respect the work received if they feel the they got value for their dollar. If possible, make the equipment look better than you found. Fix it and clean it. Customers appreciate your labor charge much better if they walk away with a warm fuzzy feeling. Follow up and follow thru.

Above all, always charge for what you are worth.


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

PaMike said:


> Around here good independent ag repair shops are $50-$50/hr. Mostly on the farm shops run by Mennonites. There is a really good mobile guy with FULL service truck with crane. He worked at local dealer for 10 years. He is $65/hr.
> 
> I think it really depends on your skill level and if you can do work in about the same time amount as a dealer tech....


The rates you posted are well less than 1/2 of what we pay up here. Just had an Alberta John Deere dealership send out a mobile mechanic to check a tractor out for me. $144/hr plus mileage. Independent mechanics are $125/hr and that doesn't mean they are the best either. I have been planning upgrading the shop down South and i think i will be putting in a decent hoist too, won't take long for it to pay for itself.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I would charge that kinda rate as well if I had to get out in that cold weather, possibly do a little snow shoveling, etc.....things we just don't have to deal with here. Our rates are about $50-60 for the independent guys, $90 at deere shop, $115 for mobile truck...


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Dealers are 100$ an hour here. More for mobile service. No independent mechanics for ag, they all work forestry or heavy equipment.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

slowzuki said:


> Dealers are 100$ an hour here. More for mobile service. No independent mechanics for ag, they all work forestry or heavy equipment.


Canadian dollars or US dollars? Just giving you a hard time. 

Larry


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I'm sure they wouldn't mind getting US$$$!



r82230 said:


> Canadian dollars or US dollars? Just giving you a hard time.
> 
> Larry


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

Around here a lot of the dealer techs seam to make most of their money on side work. I know one mechanic who buys almost all of the dealers mechanics specials or machines that customers don't want to fix. He hauls them home and fixes them on the side for fractions of the dealer cost.

I swear the only reason he keeps the dealership job is to have a source for cheap project machines...


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