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Starting an equipment rental business

Ronsii

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2011
Messages
3,464
Location
Western Washington
Occupation
s/e Heavy equipment operator
I looked at RB auctions 5-6 years ago and they had a dozen of them went from 200 to 550 each... they didn't even look beat up... I wish I would've bought some back then...


Oooops, I just noticed I stuck my previous post in the wrong thread...:oops:
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2020
Messages
8
Location
80487
I know some of my landscaping OEM's have rental programs I want to tap into, most interested in Honda. Gonna call my Rep today and see if they have rental programs. Ariens and gravely would be another easy one since I am already set up with them.

Insurance? How can I figure out what my rates would be? I figure get a list of equipment, then get quotes. Is there a formula I can put a quick and dirty cost analysis together and be close? What other hidden costs am I to figure in?
 
Joined
Sep 4, 2019
Messages
12
Location
Toronto
Yeah i would also just pay attention to how your equipment is handled by the rentors. Maybe it is worth it to set out some contracts where you talk about the terms of use - they should return the equipment in so and so state. Otherwise, you will end up with a pile of a no-good-to-use equipment in no time.
 

Willie B

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
4,039
Location
Mount Tabor VT
Occupation
Electrician
I have one rental company 14 miles south of me, another 20 miles north. Their prices are not out of reason. I always rent from a company 80 miles away. I have a track record with the closer companies of dead machines being delivered.
I saw 3 occasions of the same broken mini excavator delivered to three different renters. It had a broken dipperstick. Twice they feebly attempted to weld a patch over the break. Not once did they grind in weld prep. The same rusty break, still painted, no weld prep. Each time, the machine was non functional in the first few minutes of use.
 

Willie B

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
4,039
Location
Mount Tabor VT
Occupation
Electrician
To be honest, a website tells a potential customer what you offer, but a phone call is needed to confirm a machine is available at that time.

I choose to travel farther because the down time of a broken machine makes the whole situation a failure. I consider repairing a machine the most important consideration.
I have a friend used to have a vacation home near me. The loved to run equipment. I learned the hard way everything he touched got broken, I suggested our continued friendship required him to rent, not borrow. He had a 9 ton Japanese excavator. He called me the first night he had it, "the shiny thing in the front" broke. I went to look. It was raining, and dark, but the bucket cylinder rod was indeed bent 30 degrees & broken. He had been smashing ledge. I noticed a black triangle on the dipperstick. That seemed curious? Then I realized it was not paint! I was looking through the dipper at the dark sky. He had broken the dipper also.
Next morning he called to say he had chained it up so it wouldn't get any more damage.
I asked: "Why, it just sits there until the come get it."
"They can't come until tomorrow. I'm going to use it as a bulldozer to dig out boulders in the lawn."

An hour later: "Where do I get hydraulic hoses made?" He had pushed several boulders at once, a big one had fallen behind the blade ruining a hose.

I saw the same machine later at a different rental customer's property. The cylinder had been replaced, the dipper was scabbed together with a bunch of random rusty hunks of rusty steel obviously picked off a scrap pile & used in the shape they were. Welds looked like bird turd. The blade frame, both sides were repaired in the same manner. The pedal that controlled the right track wouldn't move. The linkage was frozen! Several minutes with penetrating oil was required to free it up. This poor machine hadn't ever seen a grease gun or oil can!

These are the things a reputation is made of. Rentals get abused. Nobody wants to pay top dollar renting a non functional machine. They have to be fixed before next rental.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,257
Location
Canada
What's really bad is when the rental outfit tries to deny there are/were problems with the equipment you rented. I've had this happen twice. First time was when I rented a sod cutter. It would only run with half choke and half throttle and was a pain to get started. I got the job done but it was very frustrating because the blade wasn't oscillating fast enough. They tried to say it was checked out and ran perfect when I picked it up. BS! I asked them to start it and show me, they didn't. They just tried to argue with me it ran perfect.

The other time was renting a small Mustang skid steer (36" wide) to fit through a gate to get into a back yard. It had absolutely no power and almost stalled every time you tried to fill the bucket. I was getting fed up and opened the tailgate to see if there was something obvious wrong. First thing I noticed was the air filter indicator showing red. It was right there. A plugged air filter could be the problem. I took the air filter out and tapped it on the tire. It was completely packed with a white powdery substance. I kept tapping it on the tire to clean it as best I could. I got the job done albeit slow and took the machine back. The idiot there claimed it had been fully serviced before I took it. I said lets go look at the air filter and I'll show you, machine is right there. Nope not having it. Machine was under powered to begin with and almost useless with a plugged air filter. By chance I heard from someone who worked on the renovations at the hockey arena where more seating was added. A bunch of concrete was removed and the contractor had rented 2 of the small Mustang skid steers to load the broken concrete. They had the machines for a couple weeks and it certainly explained why there was so much of the white (concrete) powder in the air filter. When the machines were returned, nobody bothered to even look at them. They just put them back in the yard for the next rental. I think it was Blackwood Hodge and they went under not long after that. If that's the way they did business, no wonder they went under.

If you're going to do rentals, you NEED a good full time mechanic that keeps the equipment it prime working condition! Nothing irritates a customer more than equipment that doesn't run or work right.
 

JD955SC

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2011
Messages
1,349
Location
The South
I’d stay the hell away from Telehandlers let other people handle that headache and they are headaches. Constantly tear up and a complete bitch to work on often.
 
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