Renting industrial equipment without losing an arm and a leg
So, you need a mini-excavator, but you don’t want to buy a mini-excevator. Here’s a short run-down on how to rent industrial equipment.
First things first, what do you want to rent. Renting a bobcat or a scissor lift is a different experience than renting a ladder or a resource hauler but they’re all possible.
If what you need is a ladder, you’re probably well served by the hardware store rental department. If you need a hauler, you’re out of my depth.
There are quite a lot of options for equipment rental from the very pedestrian Home Depot based Compact Power or Stephenson’s Rental (at most Lowe’s) to the industry standards of United Rentals, Strongco or Battlefield (CAT). Compact Power and Stephenson’s are both quite approachable — I mean you can literally just approach the store and rent something — while “higher end” rental companies don’t really cater to occasional rentals and are anywhere from just very opaque to openly deterring non-commercial rentals.
Since you’re reading along, let’s assume you’re not a professional commercial renter, fair?
Stephenson’s and Compact Power both have a decent collection of small power equipment including mini-excavators and bobcats or even a towable boom lift. They don’t have the largest catalogue of equipment and the daily rate is not the best available, but they’re easy to find, easy to rent with, and their hourly rate is great if you need a short term. Compact Power has everything either on a trailer or as a trailer, so the delivery is moot if you have a vehicle with a Class II or higher hitch, otherwise some locations will deliver and it’s possible to rent a truck along with your equipment (or bring a U-Haul).
If you want to step outside of these retail avenues, it’s a little harder to rent — you can’t just walk in, see the equipment available, pay, and walk-out. There are several hurdles you need to be prepared for and, depending on the rentee, being unprepared may result in multiple calls to setup your rental or being blacklisted!
Which specific piece of equipment do you want? Mini-excavator won’t cut it when they have dozens of variations. Sadly none of the big vendors have exact specifications of their rental fleet, so you’ll need to call and have a conversation. A good way to prime yourself with the options is either to browse UR’s rental list (which is the most detailed) or, my favourite method, browse the used equipment list which gives a great insight into their fleet.
Beyond the specific piece of equipment, be prepared to address the attachments and maintenance parts you may need.
When and for how long are key questions, be forewarned that delivery or pickup on a weekend is uncommon and many companies charge lead and tail time for the pickup or delivery days. Most companies change per day (including partial days), per hour rentals are usually only available at retail-style rental agencies.
Delivery options are varied, but in general, you’ll need to make sure the option you select allows ground-level delivery (e.g. a tilt-tray truck, a lowboy, or towed equipment) or you can pickup. Compared to Compact Power, if you’re picking up, you’ll need to either bring your own trailer or rent a float-trailer as a separate line-item.
On trailers for pickup, if you’re renting a trailer, make sure you specify you want a ball-hitch trailer and not a pintle hitch. Unless your tow vehicle is so equipped, you’ll also want to make sure the trailer has a 4-way plug and doesn’t need electric brakes. Many rental companies won’t allow you to use “generic” rental vehicles like a U-Haul or HomeDepot truck/trailer — their explanation is they don’t trust the insurance; that said, I’ve had decent success with a U-Haul truck that I threw assorted stuff in the bed and put a flashing light on top. Ryder or Bristol trucks have never been an issue.
The first time you rent, they’ll ask you for an account. My suggestion is to be upfront the first-time and explain it’s for personal use and see how that works. Generally they’ll want a deposit and may force liability insurance on you; if that doesn’t work, just hang up and call back later. Later, when you call back, explain that you don’t have an account because you’re “subbing on your own” and go through the account setup process. If they ask for a company name, unless you actually have one, just go ahead and use your own name again — they’re going to run a credit check. Once you have an account, no one will question it ever again. If you really run in to resistance, dedicate the time to go up to the walk-in desk in-person to open an account.
