It’s important to critically evaluate your situation when thinking about attachment purchases. The fear for most people is that you won’t make the money back. Idle or underused attachments can quietly drain fleet budgets if you’re not careful. On the other hand, an attachment can expand your service offerings, reduce manual labor, and increase revenue.
Return on investment (ROI) measures your profit on an investment. Ideally, you want your utilization rate to be high and your payback period to be short. This attachment guide covers ROI factors that matter.
Why Attachment ROI is Different from Machine ROI
Lower upfront costs make attachments easy to over-buy without thinking over selection. Utilization is hard to track since attachments move between jobsites.
The types of jobs, frequency, and versatility are all important factors to think about when deciding which attachment is right for you. Wear life varies widely when it comes to attachment types and applications, changing the payback math.
ROI Calculation Tips
To calculate your ROI, use this calculation method.
ROI= [(revenue-total costs)/initial investment] x 100
For your total costs, think about fuel, taxes, purchase price, and repairs. Favorable ROI percentages are normally around 15-20%. This percentage will give you an accurate representation of the risk you’re taking on when making an investment. Think about these factors when calculating your total costs.
If you think you would use your attachment more than 65% of the time, ownership is typically more cost-effective.
Buckets: Utilization Thresholds & Break-Even
Contractors use general-purpose buckets for everyday digging or pushing. Buckets are used pretty often and have a highly predictable ROI. Owning a bucket has a high upfront cost, and renting is great for short-term projects when owning wouldn’t be a justified purchase.
Factor wear and tear into your ROI calculations when thinking about ownership. Working with rock and concrete is abrasive and causes wear more frequently. These ongoing expenses can inflate your costs and change your break-even point.
Forks: Utilization Thresholds & Break-Even
Forks are incredibly versatile and are considered a lower cost attachment. They are helpful in landscaping, agriculture, and material handling situations.
The chances of a fork attachment sitting idle are low and are relatively considered an excellent investment. Before making a decision on an attachment, check class and capacity matching to avoid overspending on unused capacity.
Think about what you normally handle and how much it weights. Consider your machine’s lifting capacity before purchasing a heavy-duty fork.
Augers: Utilization Thresholds & Break-Even
Augers are more of a seasonal and project-based attachment. Most commonly, they’re used for fencing, foundations, and landscaping. Augers often make more sense as a rental because its utilization is low.
Wear and tear affect the attachment’s lifespan much more than other attachments because soil conditions can eradicate its quality. Always calculate your attachment ROI before deciding to rent an auger versus owning it.
Tillers: Utilization Thresholds & Break-Even
Tillers are extremely useful for land-clearing and site-prep use. Your project pipeline greatly influences tiller utilization and ROI. Tillers have extensive maintenance demands, causing rent to a be more common solution for most contractors.
If you know that you have more than 6-12 months of guaranteed tiller work, ownership makes more sense. Try to avoid cumulative rental and maintenance fees when possible because they add up quickly.
How Yancey Supports You
An irregular job that you need special equipment for probably doesn’t favor ownership. But, if you need a tool once, the chances are that you will probably need it again and repeatedly renting an attachment can get pricey quickly. The great news is, we offer a wide variety of attachment solutions from rentals, quality used, and new attachments so we can help you get the tools you need in a way that makes the most sense for you.
Reach out Yancey Bros to calculate your ROI for attachments you need on your jobsite. Don’t guess on the numbers — run them before you buy. Call a Yancey location near you and speak to a specialist.
