Other Publications

Construction Industry Poll

In the Magazine

O&O Costs: Chain type trenchers

November 13, 2008 |

A trencher only has to do one thing, do it well and do it often. So contractors who want to find out how much to charge for their trenching services should have no trouble zeroing in on an accurate number.

To help us explore the owning and operating cost parameters of chain type trenchers we contacted Greg Adkins, trencher product manager at Ditch Witch. Adkins recommended we base our trencher O&O cost exercise on the Ditch Witch RT40 model, the company’s best seller. This rubber-tire, ride-on unit has a 42.2-horsepower engine and cuts to a depth of 5 feet, 3 inches, making it a good size for plumbers and electricians or trenching subcontractors who put pipe or conduit in the ground.

In this example we went with a no-frills model – a tractor with a centerline trencher (no side shift), standard axles without rear steer option and a 6-inch-wide dig capability and four-wheel drive. Adkins quotes a price of $37,700 to $38,500. If you wanted more features, say a traversing boom, a tilting backfill blade and four-wheel steer, those would bump the price up to $43,000 to $45,000. It’s worth noting that if you plug in the price for the fully-featured model into our calculations on page 40 it only bumps up your O&O costs about $3 per hour.

Please remember that in all these discussions the dollar figures provided are not actual amounts, but theoretical, and used for discussion purposes only. Your final tally will be different and depend on numerous variables, which you need to discus with a dealer.

Five-year lifecycle
For the lifecycle on this machine, it’s typical to run one about 600 hours a year for at least five years or 3,000 hours, Adkins says. That’s not to say many contractors flip these machines at five years. The 3,000-hour mark is just where many of the first rebuilds (engine, ground drive, hydraulics) come due. A lot of contractors will do the rebuilds and continue trenching with the refurbished machine. To get an idea of what these rebuilds will cost see “Rebuilding your machine” on page 41.

In our O&O costs series we deduct the resale value of the machine from your total owning costs. Not every method of calculating O&O costs does this. The more conservative models give the machine $0 in value at the end of the lifecycle. And some contractors prefer to treat the cash they get on resale as a down payment for the next new machine. But in this O&O model we credit you with $13,000 in resale value at the end of the lifecycle and assume the machine is in good condition.

In our TopBid auction price guide we found prices for four similar 2004 Ditch Witch RT40 trenchers. The high price was $18,000, the low $7,000; and there was one listed at $13,000 and another for $14,000. For more information on TopBid auction prices go to www.topbid.com.

The working end
The digging part of a trencher, the chain, teeth and sprocket, will require regular replacement. About twice a year, or every 300 hours, you’ll have to replace all three as a set. These are considered wear parts and will run about $3,100 every time you replace them. Individual cup teeth run $7 to $12 and all of them are replaced at one time. Rocky soil, cobble and other tough applications may add 10 to 15 percent to these costs, Adkins says. That’s not a lot, but something you should save back a little money for just in case.