This construction equipment payment calculator works out the monthly payment and total cost, including the down payment, of financing a machine from its price, down payment, interest rate and term. Oakwick Lending Group, a small-business funding broker in Concord, NC, provides it for Cabarrus County contractors as illustrative arithmetic only, not an offer or estimate of terms.
What to enter
- Equipment price: the quoted price of the machine, trailer or attachment.
- Down payment: the cash or trade-in value you will put toward it.
- Interest rate: the annual rate from an offer, or a figure you want to test.
- Term: how many monthly payments the offer has.
The calculator finances the price minus the down payment and shows three results: the monthly payment, the total interest, and the total cost, which adds every payment to the down payment.
An arithmetic check
Purely to test the method, take a hypothetical $60,000 machine, $6,000 down, a 0 percent rate and 54 months. The amount financed is $54,000, so each payment is $1,000 and the total cost is $60,000. Any positive rate makes both figures higher. These numbers are arithmetic, not an offer.
Work to finish by hand
Some comparisons need a little work by hand:
- Sales tax and delivery. If they will be financed, add them to the price before you enter it.
- Fees. Documentation or origination fees taken at closing are not included. Add them to the total cost yourself.
- A final balloon or purchase amount. If an offer ends with a lump sum, add it to the total cost shown.
- A lease. Multiply the lease payment by the number of payments, add any end-of-term purchase price, and compare that with the total cost of a loan.
Because the calculator assumes equal monthly payments, offers that charge weekly or have skipped payments will differ.
Why construction equipment is financed this way
Cabarrus County had 693 construction employer establishments in 2023, and 63.2 percent had fewer than five employees (U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023). For a small crew, buying a compact track loader with cash can leave too little for payroll. Equipment financing spreads the cost over the machine's working life, and contractor and construction financing covers how partners look at trades.
Illustrative arithmetic only. Real rates and terms come only from lending partners.
By Oakwick Lending Group · Updated