How to figure upkeep on your equipment

Your truck payment is on a statement. Your insurance is on a bill. Upkeep is the cost nobody mails you. It shows up a little at a time: an oil change here, a set of tires there, a hose that bursts on a Tuesday. Because it comes in pieces, most owners guess low, and a low guess means every job is priced a little short.

This guide shows a simple way to turn all those pieces into one number for the year. You do not need an accountant. You need a pen, the machine, and ten minutes.

What counts as upkeep

Upkeep is everything you spend to keep a machine working after you buy it, other than fuel and insurance:

• Things you change on a schedule: oil, filters, grease, spark plugs.
• Things that wear out: tires, brakes, belts, batteries, hoses, blades.
• Things that break: the repair you did not see coming.

The price of the machine itself is not upkeep. Neither is its loan payment. Those are counted separately.

The method: one line per part

For each part, ask two questions: what does it cost, and how often do I pay it? Then turn the answer into dollars for one year.

• If you pay it more than once a year, multiply. Three oil changes at $110 is $330 a year.
• If you pay it once every few years, divide. A $1,400 set of tires that lasts two and a half years is $1,400 ÷ 2.5, or $560 a year.

That second one is where people slip. The year you buy tires feels expensive and the other years feel free. Neither is true. The tires cost you $560 every year; you just pay for them all at once.

Add up the lines. That total is your upkeep for the year.

Example: a work truck

A three-quarter-ton pickup that drives 18,000 miles a year.

• Oil changes: every 6,000 miles is three a year, at $110 each. $330
• Tires: a $1,400 set lasts 45,000 miles, which is two and a half years of driving. $560
• Brakes: $700 every two years. $350
• The repair nobody planned: a water pump, a sensor, a windshield. $600

Total: $1,840 a year, or about $153 a month.

Example: a dump trailer

A 14-foot tandem-axle dump trailer that is on the road most days.

• Tires: four at $180 last four years, so one tire's worth a year. $180
• Wheel bearings: repacked once a year at the shop. $160
• Brakes: $390 for both axles every three years. $130
• Hydraulic fluid and the pump's battery: $70
• Lights, wiring and the tarp: something always gets torn or backed into. $110

Total: $650 a year.

Example: a roofing buggy

An Equipter RB4000 bought for $34,000.

• Oil and filters: two changes a season at $60. $120
• Hydraulic hoses and fluid: a hose and a top-off most years. $180
• Tires: $800 for four, every four years. $200
• Battery: $160 every four years. $40
• The repair nobody planned: one percent of the price. $340

Total: $880 a year.

Example: an air compressor

• Pump oil: twice a year at $15. $30
• Air filter and drain valve: $25
• Hoses and fittings: two 100-foot hoses a year at $45. Roofs eat hoses. $90
• Pressure switch or rebuild kit: $120 about every three years. $40

Total: $185 a year.

How much to set aside for surprises

The hardest line is the repair you cannot predict. Two rules of thumb that hold up well:

• For a machine with an engine: set aside one to two percent of what it cost new, every year. More as it gets older.
• For a truck: $500 to $800 a year while it is under 100,000 miles, and more after that.

If a year goes by with no surprise, do not lower the number. The surprise is coming; it is just late.

Better than any example: last year's receipts

The examples above are typical. Your machine is not typical; it is yours. If you have a year of receipts, or your bookkeeper can pull every charge from the parts store and the repair shop, add them up by machine. That total beats any rule of thumb. If one big repair made last year unusual, average two or three years.

Blank is not zero

One last thing. In Roofometry, an upkeep field left blank means "nobody has told me yet", and the page leaves that cost out of your overhead and flags it. A field answered No cost means "I checked, and this really costs nothing". The two are very different. A blank quietly makes your overhead look smaller than it is, and overhead that is too small means jobs priced too low.

If you do not know the number yet, start with one of the examples and correct it when the receipts come in. A rough number you fix later is far better than a blank.

Where this goes in Roofometry

Trucks and trailers are on the Vehicles page, and everything else you own is on the Equipment page. Each one has an upkeep field. Under it, Show me how to figure it plays these same examples step by step and can fill in the total for you to adjust.