Thread: We Have Skills Too !!

There is a good chance it would have broke at the shop also. They would have ordered the part not walked over to get a new one. Doubled the price of the part and added a minimum of another hour labor.

Add that to the origional problem and I can see saving $200 easily doing it yourself. Add another 25% or whatever your tax bracket is and that is what you would have to earn to pay for this doing another job.

How long did it take you Roy? I bet this was a pretty good hourly wage equivalent doing it yourself.

Originally Posted by 32t

There is a good chance it would have broke at the shop also. They would have ordered the part not walked over to get a new one. Doubled the price of the part and added a minimum of another hour labor.

Add that to the origional problem and I can see saving $200 easily doing it yourself. Add another 25% or whatever your tax bracket is and that is what you would have to earn to pay for this doing another job.

How long did it take you Roy? I bet this was a pretty good hourly wage equivalent doing it yourself.

Yes Tim, I also believe that the valve would have broken in anyone's shop. As I said it was ancient (probably original equipment/which would make it 30 years old with about 200,000 miles on the rig).

How long did it take me? hmmm not counting the walking time, the time BS'ing with the parts guy and a friend I ran into I would estimate that I had maybe a half an hour to three quarters of an hour to R&R the tank, R&R the valve, install new hose (I wasn't going to dick around trying to get the broken piece out of the old hose). And that includes using the head and quenching my thirst with a barley pop.

Now back to the shop breaking the part. I for one would be fully understanding as I've had similar things happen, however so many who have never even changed their own oil would be pitching a fit and demanding that the shop pay for the part and the labor.

For easy figuring I will round up your estimate to 1 hour of time and will lower my estimated cost savings to $100.

To earn that $100 you would have to pay income taxes and sales tax on the parts and labor that you purchased. That would easily add another 25% or $25 to your cost.

Using these numbers I think that you earned at least $125 an hour for your project!

As I said it was satisfying to get the job done and and done right also to have the rig back up and running and I did it myself--well with the help of the people who manufactured the part, the parts store guy and everyone in between!

I spend a fortune on my fleet of vans I have, my employees do not take care of the vans at all.

Originally Posted by Dlb1963

I spend a fortune on my fleet of vans I have, my employees do not take care of the vans at all.

Come out of Retirement and have more hands on with the management of the 'fleet'. Nothing like the 'Head Guy' being present when you check out a rig!

Originally Posted by Dlb1963

I spend a fortune on my fleet of vans I have, my employees do not take care of the vans at all.

I do not know your whole story but from my experience if treat your employees good and you will get employees that treat your vans good.

If cheap employees are cheaper than the fortune you spend on your vans then I can understand the economics.