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The Job Your Skid Steer Cannot Carry: Renting a Dedicated Mulcher by the Week
You own a skid steer with a mulching head and it pays for itself on homesites and fence lines. Then a forty-acre bid lands on the desk and the honest answer is that your machine needs six weeks for it. A week on a dedicated carrier is the other option, and the weekly terms are built for exactly this.
6 min read · Pierce Equipment Rentals
Weighing a rental against buying your own dedicated machine? Run the utilisation numbers through the rent vs buy calculator first.
This is written for the contractor, not the landowner. If you already run a mulching head and the constraint is production rather than skill, these are the numbers that matter.
The production gap is the whole problem
A compact track loader with a mulching head clears roughly half an acre to an acre and a half a day in typical mixed Texas vegetation. A high-horsepower dedicated machine clears three to five.
Put that against a thirty-acre cedar job. At an acre a day it is a six-week project, and six weeks is long enough that weather, breakdowns and the jobs you turned down in the meantime all become part of the price. On a dedicated machine it is about a week.
The full production comparison sets out where the gap opens and where it closes. The short version: it widens with stem density and hardness, and it is at its worst in exactly the vegetation that makes a job worth bidding.
What a week actually costs
The Weiler M860A is a 375 horsepower dedicated carrier. On a weekly rental it is $14,000 per week, machine only, with 40 meter hours included per week and overage at $200 per meter hour. The Barko 930B and Tigercat M726G sit in the same class at the same rate.
Fuel, transport and the operator are yours. Transport is quoted by distance and machine class rather than built into the rate, which is the honest way to price it when jobs run from Johnson City to the Panhandle. The full rate card has the rest.
The part that matters most on a one-week job
Teeth. On a weekly rental, normal tooth wear is our cost. You do not supply an end-of-rental set and you do not hand back a machine with new teeth on it.
That is not a small line item. On a monthly rental the customer returns the machine with a complete set of new genuine OEM FAE teeth installed, and on a high-horsepower head that is real money. Taking it off a one-week job is most of the reason weekly works for contractors.
Preventive maintenance is ours too. We schedule weekly rentals so that no 250-hour service falls due inside the term, and we will not release a machine on a weekly term where one would. If a service comes due anyway, we perform it at our cost and the rent does not abate.
The honest limit on both: teeth broken or damaged beyond normal wear are chargeable, billed at OEM parts cost plus $200 per hour of shop time, itemised. Rock contact is on the operator, and it usually takes the tool holders with it. That is the same on any rental anywhere; what is different is that ordinary wear is not.
Where the week breaks even
Two weeks at $14,000 is $28,000 and beats the $34,000 month. Three weeks is $42,000 and loses to it badly. The crossover is about two and a half weeks, and weekly terms do not aggregate into a monthly rate, so a job that keeps extending by the week costs more than a monthly rental for less machine time.
If the work is going to run past a fortnight, take the month. We would rather say that up front than collect three weekly invoices.
The comparison that usually matters to a contractor is not rental against rental, though. It is a week of rental against six weeks of your own machine, or against not bidding the job at all. Six weeks on one tract is six weeks your CTL is not on the homesites and fence lines that are your actual business. Run it through the rent vs buy calculator if you are weighing a purchase instead.
What you need before the machine leaves the yard
Insurance. Inland marine covering rented equipment at the machine’s stated value, $2,000,000 general liability, $1,000,000 auto, and workers’ compensation. Most established mulching contractors already carry all of it. What the certificate has to show is set out in full.
Transport. You arrange it and you carry the risk in both directions, including loading and unloading. A dedicated carrier is a lowboy load, not a tilt deck. The transport guide covers permits and site access.
An operator who has run a dedicated machine. A tracked carrier with a boom-mounted head does not handle like a CTL, and the first day is not the time to learn on thirty acres of someone else’s cedar.
When to keep your own machine on it
A company that rents machines should be willing to say when not to rent one.
Under about five acres. Mobilisation and transport eat the production gain before you finish.
Tight access. Gated lots, narrow easements, finished landscaping. A CTL goes places a dedicated carrier simply will not.
Selective work with a keep-tree list. Precision around specimens is skid steer work, and the mistake is not reversible.
Frequently asked questions
Can I really rent for one week?
Yes. Weekly terms are a standard election on the rental schedule, at $14,000 per week with 40 meter hours included.
Do I have to supply teeth at the end?
Not on a weekly rental. Normal tooth wear is our cost and there is no end-of-rental set for you to buy. Teeth broken or damaged beyond normal wear are chargeable at OEM parts plus $200 per hour of shop time.
What happens if a service falls due during my week?
We schedule around it and will not release a machine on a weekly term where a 250-hour service would land inside it. If one comes due anyway, we perform it at our cost and the rent does not abate.
Can I roll one week into another?
You can extend with written confirmation, but weekly terms do not aggregate into a monthly rate. Past about two and a half weeks the month is cheaper, and we will tell you so.
Bidding a job your machine cannot carry.
Call 512-601-6981 with the acreage, the vegetation and your dates. We will tell you whether it is a week, a month, or a job you should keep on your own machine.
Keep reading
Where the gap opens, where it closes, and the acreage at which it decides the job.
Rental looks cheaper until you price operator skill, burned rental days and weather.
Exactly what the certificate has to show before a machine leaves the yard.
Ready to put a mulcher on your project?
Call us to check availability, confirm insurance requirements, and schedule transport.