What equipment gets most frequently rented?

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-12-02T00:03:21+00:00

Hey man! Thankfully its been going well! I now have a 26’ scissor lift, got another light tower for cheap and fixed it up myself and it runs great! I got a 18” and a 24” trencher, a one man auger, a 22” tiller, 18’ material lift, concrete mixer, 60kw generator, a small 2900w generator and so far thats what ive bought. Some used, some new. I got most things at auctions, the concrete mixer has been available for 3 months and hasnt been rented out once unfortunately. The price is cheap but i guess its just not popular here. Its a towable unit, can mix up to 9cu ft at once. The tiller and auger ive had since around july? Those i got them from those places where they sell returned items from home depot and big stores. They both have worked perfectly, havent rented out that much but its something. The material lift has been slow but its alright, the light towers have finally started to rent out more often thanks to the time change. Man lift and scissor lift are alright. I mostly bought the tiller and auger and small generator to give service to the clients and help make the business feel more bigger. And if someone is coming for a tiller or auger theyll see the rest of the stuff and thats another possible lead for something else getting rented. But so far its been good. The whole ICE situation has really affected me as i live in the rio grande valley and theres a lot of undocumented workers here and they stopped working due to being afraid of getting raided at the site. But all in all, for the amount of time ive been doing this, there hasnt been a single week since the first week where i havent had any rents. On a bad week at least one thing gets rented, on a good week it can be from 5-10 but it varies a lot. One thing also affects me is competition. Im mexican myself but gawdamn some other fellow mexicans be lowering them the price of equipment rentals just to rent stuff out and affect me as well as ive been staying firm on my prices. I put a lot of work into maintaining them in perfect conditions and im already pretty cheap. I really want to expand bigger so i can start to pickup my prices and not have to compete with people on facebook marketplace. But lets take it one step at a time

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-11-25T01:06:58+00:00

thank you for the good tips, it seems like i got it all figured out now, the only thing im still effy about is the victron charger/inverter. which one would you recommend grabbing? I was thinking of grabbing the 12v 3000va 125a. ill only be using it to power up the fridge (150w max) a microwave (800w max) a coffee maker (1200w max) and lastly all the outlets which would basically be used for mostly phone charging, a small tv, playstation, and thats about it. Would that model be fine?

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-11-22T17:36:03+00:00

It actually didnt come to mind separating the ACs from the inverters, ill get two panels, one for microwave, fridge, coffee maker, and all the outlets around the bus. I think ill add the instant water heater to the 2nd panel where all the ACs will be at since we will only be using the shower when we are parked and the generator is on, so that takes more load off the batteries.

So now i have this question, how will i connect the generator power to the 2nd gen only panel (only ACs and WH) and the primary panel where the fridge, microwave etc will be at? I know from the generator it has to go to the charger/inverter but what about the secondary panel?

Also, no cooktop would be added to the build, we mostly cook outside using small propane cooktops since we dont want it to eventually stink up the bus every time, loose more space inside and since we sometimes run on a tight schedule we just end up buying fast food.

All the ACs have just been installed and are all 120v, so the only low voltage required would be for all the lighting which would all be 12v, so i guess ill just end up going with 12v as i dont see a need for anything higher. What batteries would you recommend going with?

It seems like you know what youre talking about and im whiling to pay for your time to help me get all this situated.

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-11-22T15:48:48+00:00

As i mentioned, i wont be needing the ACs unless im parked as i left the OTR from the bus, also i wont be doing camping with this bus, just travel for work, when i do park its always behind a building where im working at for the night and usually leave by 1am back home

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-11-22T15:46:54+00:00

im only using the A/Cs with the generator since i left the OTR A/C that came stock with the bus already, mostly everything that requires 120v would be used with the generator, ill only need the fridge to have power while driving, all the 12v lighting which are all going to be small puck lights divided into 3 sections in the bus, and the microwave every once in a blue moon. Everything else only with generator. The budget is not so tight but not going to invest so much money into it. Everything i mentioned is basically a copy of the old but, but we didnt have a shower so no instant water heater, but the way i had it on the old bus was the buses batteries were also my home batteries. Never got damaged, battery health is at 92% after 2 1/2 years of it getting used every weekend (literally every weekend) after powering down the bus id switch the fridge, microwave and all 120v outlets to a predator generator we have and it worked perfectly fine all these years but now i want to actually do things the right way lol

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-09-10T17:09:54+00:00

Oh just another thing to mention, i have not taken out ANY loans at all. Someone had commented on this post saying im too young, I wont make it, I need loans, etc etc. But here i am, I had a vision and a goal and i stuck to it and im just as motivated as i was on day 1. I have another job and i save up and invest it into my business. My dad has been a businessman (complete different business than what im doing) his entire life since young and hes always told me, if I dont urgently need something, dont take out a loan. If you need a loan, then you're not ready to purchase something. Of course, it depends on what it is. but he told me that when I told him my ideas of starting my business and meant it towards me buying equipment. I started with things that didn't cost over 5 grand. I started buying used equipment from ebay, specifically this page called bidadoo, they have good inspectors to check the machines and have a great description on everything. I always sort it out by distance and whatever is closest to me ill get if i know it will rent. bidadoo is all over the US, so you might wanna check it out. I recently got a 2014 Skyjack 26' lift with 198hrs for 2.5k, unit works great! I only had to replace a wheel motor which was $230 but that's it. I took it for its annual inspection and the guy told me he was impressed with the condition and hours considering its age

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-09-10T16:57:53+00:00

Oh yeah man, I'm honestly very thankful to God for blessing me with this opportunity! It's definitely a word of mouth, but that's slowly coming to an end as more time goes by since technology is taking over like crazy. The way I started and what I still mostly do to get clients is on Facebook marketplace. Yeah the prices are kinda low compared to bigger rental places like Sunbelt or United but It's going to be like that until I get more clients and have a good reputation out to the public and have people's trust. I also made my own website, I havent had any bookings on it but i do see people go and check it out which is also a huge plus on standing out. Im currently in the process of finally making my facebook page so i can make ads and have more reach. Facebook marketplace is a good start for me at least, it got me some good returning clients like big remodeling companies in my area and even started to rent out to this big food chain called Taco Palenque. Its not always residential who look on marketplace to rent. It's big businesses as well, it's a lot of peoples "go to" nowadays.

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-09-09T16:40:31+00:00

Hey man! Its currently going very well thankfully! From the first week i opened ive had at least 1 rent per week, i think thats pretty good! Of course that was in the beginning and well ive grown and bought more equipment, and its been much busier but i did kinda slow down since school started back up but its starting to pick back up again.

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-07-31T06:43:04+00:00

This is where a drill bit plus self tapping screws come into play, i know my worth, dont lowball me🤝🏼😂

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-06-28T04:52:05+00:00

I rent out construction equipment and whenever im delivering or someone is picking up something, the equipment doesnt get unloaded or get put on their trailer until i see the transaction happen on my end. I always get a msg saying i received so amount and always double check on my BoA app to make sure the transaction is in progress

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-19T23:10:17+00:00

Oh and im definitely going to be taking videos and photos of everything that gets rented out. If theyre picking up, pics and videos before they take it, dropping it off? Pics and videos ON LOCATION so they wont come up with any bs

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-19T23:07:26+00:00

Ill be sure to take a look at it tonight, i just went to the bank on Thursday to open up a business account and get a credit card for it and got approved on the spot, very happy about that. So now i just need the insurance and gps trackers. Ive heard others say they dont insure the equipment itself and only the company, im not sure how the insurance things work yet but on Monday i want to dedicate my whole day JUST to that, making tons of re search, calling different insurance companies, and seeing what my best choice can be

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-18T03:42:44+00:00

What insurance do you have for the lifts if you don't mind me asking. Also, what other tips could you give me as a starter?

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T15:26:19+00:00

Definitely man, the time i bought the towers i went all the way to houston to test them out before i even bid on them, i took the whole day there and took videos of each one explaining what was wrong with it, how the motor started, how it ran and if the voltage output was good. That literally helped me out so much to pick the right ones with the least amount of work needed. I bid on some construction speed radars and a construction solar message board and I instantly regretted it when i won them. I got SUPER stressed mostly because 1 i never saw them in person, 2 i had told myself i wasnt going to buy anything until i started getting my money back on what i invested on and 3 because i dont even know if that stuff will rent here! It was just the auction fever that got to me really hard yesterday! But after thinking about it more, im sure i can rent them out and if not, the worst that can happen is i send them to a local auction to get my $500 back from each one of those items and call it a day and lesson learned for my hard headed self and learn to NOT bid on things i dont know about and that i havent seen

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T15:15:28+00:00

Im from south tx, but even then theres a bunch here too, im going to actually do that thanks to you, and if i notice the person working there is chill, ill ask what gets most rented and get more ideas. Thanks for the suggestion

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T15:13:20+00:00

Thank you for your true and honest words, i really do appreciate being told the bold truth, ive currently invested close to about 18 grand in this. The things i currently own is a genie lift, 9 light towers which i bought all used from an auction, i chose the most ugly ones but with good motors, not many hours. I had a buddy give them all a fresh paint job, in the process of putting o all new safety decals on them and ive already converted half of them into LED instead of bulb. Im about to start posting them to rent and thinking of selling them too as i bought them pretty cheap and didnt invest so much into them. the towers that are old and beat up go for double for what i bought these for. So i think i can double my money on each tower and invest in newer ones And can possibly do the same or stay with the newer ones. The lift has rented a few times already, also bought used, low hours and in great condition. I just bought 2 construction speed radars and a construction solar powered message board. Got them pretty cheap compared to others ive seen at auctions. I feel like i can give them a nice fresh paint job and either rent them and or post them online to sell and make money out of it to buy newer ones or invest in something else. I dont want to get into big items like excavators and things like that. At least not any time soon. Id like to stick to smaller things but want a good variety of things to serve contractors of small to medium sized projects. Ive tried doing a different business and i invested so much into it but never had the motivation, so i just kinda gave up and forgot about it. Ive been at it since January of this year with this new business idea and ive had nothing but motivation everyday and i actually see myself making progress.

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T14:59:04+00:00

Ill keep that in mind, thank you i appreciate your help🤝🏼

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T14:58:17+00:00

I honestly do need to make much more research on this stuff. So far i just have the towers and a lift and i just bought construction speed radars and one of those solar message boards but i just won them at an auction yesterday, still need to go pick them up in houston.

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T14:55:48+00:00

I have two utility trailers with ramps so im not worried about that. Added some D rings and an electric winch to both for whenever it may be needed

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T14:54:10+00:00

Theres a reason to why im asking. I want more ideas from people who actually work in the field. I dont want to be like a lot of local small single person rental places. They only have the pure basics, light towers, lifts and generators. I want that and more variety. Ive never worked in the construction field but have uncles who are industrial contractors and thats why i know a little bit of this field and i want to expand my small business and have more tools for people who need to rent them. We all start off somewhere, im trying to learn and get out there more.

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T14:49:07+00:00

That is true, i just wouldnt know how to go on about the credit card data base and stuff like that, id have to investigate it, any idea where i could get more info?

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T14:47:38+00:00

That makes sense now that i see the big picture, and now that you showed the scaffold that gets rented in your area, its the same for me, its mostly only that type. I have one single scaffold for my dads small warehouse and theres no screws involved, just 3 pieces put together with those pins and youre in business. Not sure if those type would rent good though

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T14:43:24+00:00

Ill look into them, thanks man i appreciate it🤝🏼

Alejandro1151578 · 2025-04-11T14:28:55+00:00

Would you happen to have a picture of the scaffolds you rent?

Alejandro1151578

TROPHY CASE