Own or buy a man Lift?

Supplies & Equipment
1

So I am on the fence about renting or buying a towable manlift. I can rent one for $800 a week or buy a good used one for 20k.

I have a prospect for a large roof wash on 18 separate two story buildings. They are very large buildings and would require a ton of ladder work. Since I’m not fond of ladders or walking on roofs I have found myself looking at a full time lift. This job would also open up the door for yearly building washing and gutter cleaning. The money is right… but do I buy or rent?

If I buy I could always rent it out when I’m not planning on using it. If I rented it out for $300a day or $750 a week I would have my investment money back pretty quickly.

Do any of you own a full time lift? Or do you rent them as needed?

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I would rent and add it into the bids.

That is just another piece of equipment to have to maintain and buy insurance on…would not be interested in that, at all…for this business.

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You need to figure out if that lift will pay for itself in the first year based on the jobs you have lined up to use one. If so, yes buy one.

Remember, you’ll have to insure it. I doubt it’ll be expensive, but it’ll be yours.
I wouldn’t lease or rent anything like that out. Unfortunately, people don’t take care of shit they don’t own. Last thing you need is some amateur breaking your lift and your paying for repairs or pushing back jobs you had lined up.

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The job would pay for the lift and then some from just the first roof washing. I’m also soft washing all of the buildings this year. They asked me about yearly gutter cleaning and I figured this would be a great tool for that. I agree renting it out would be very risky. I do know that lifts are the least abused pieces of rental equipment though. People usually don’t horse around on a lift. I wouldn’t have to rent it out. I just figured I could justify it more if it were being used even 20% of the time I wasn’t using it. Definitely something to think about! I guess if I bought one and didn’t use it enough to justify keeping it I could sell it for not much of a loss.

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You would also need to consider the cost of the required monthly inspections that need to be done on the lift. If that paperwork is not up to date, the OSHA fines alone could cost more than the lift.

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It’s a yearly inspection that is required. Qualified operators are required to do monthly inspections. I inspect our jlg at work monthly and I have our lift repair company document and check it for the yearly certification.

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Rent. there’s always little stuff that breaks on those things. Plus you never know what type or size you may need. Lot of places may need larger or be where you can’t get a towable into.

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I chose to buy one, but the circumstances were a little different, I was/am doing commercial work on our local government installation. Every job I was doing I was renting a lift, at the end of the first three months I had spent 20ish thousand on lift rental, and what was eating my wallet was the $350 they were charging to move the lift from job to job. Found a good used bucket truck for $16,000 and I’ve had it a couple years now and it’s paid for itself several times over. Wish I would have bought it on day one.

Side note- all government work is bid out to a minimum of 3 contractors and now I have a huge advantage over them. I still charge for “renting a lift” but If I’m low on work and really needing the job I just charge half of what it would cost to go rent a lift.

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Someday I will roll with this! These Giant Drones Carefully Groom Wind Turbine Blades to Keep Them From Freezing - YouTube

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10

We rent them, as we never need the same size. Over here the older ones (10 years, I think) have to be fully stripped and x rayed. That’s a big extra cost to owning.
The rentals always patched up when they get older and the plastic stuff frequently breaks.
If it’s the rental companies fault they will swap it and you don’t get that if you own.
If you have consistent work needing a specific machine and it makes sense to buy that’s different.

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Bet that ain’t cheap lol

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No I would hate to k ow how much a system would be! But man would I stay busy washing windmills around here!

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13

I’m a believer in renting things to pay for them. A few years ago, my wife wanted a 30 foot travel trailer so we could “experience camping.” I helped her setup a corporation (she’s a school teacher with zero business experience or interest), we bought one, then rented it out. Of course, we insured it.

In the end, it did work out, kinda, sorta, albeit only because we had flexibility and as a school teacher, she had the entire summer off to enable her to meet and show at the pickup, and then inspect at the drop off. Since I often work from home, I made a point to stay home on those days when I could.

A small sample size, however, about 80% of the time there was “something” about “something” that either needed to be fixed, or worn out. Only once did it rise to the level of taking the security deposit from damage, but we did charge extra when it wasn’t returned on time with one rental, which cost me a day of work because they returned it late when I already had other plans. This is something that could effect you too. What if someone is renting it and due to delays like weather they keep it for a few extra days. You can charge extra premium rent, albeit you may not be able to recover what you have to pay another to rent a similar unit.

Then there’s the whole insurance aspect. Your current coverage most likely has an application that includes language of “do you rent equipment” that you likely signed no to.There’s also likely exclusion language for renting as well. The key is if you can have one policy for both activities to create efficiency. That may come from a waiver because you’re not renting it often, albeit that may be considered a greater liability because of lack of industry (rental business) expertise. Bottom line, absent an ability to avoid a second policy, the numbers may not be so attractive in renting.

After three summers of renting a travel trailer, my wife and I learned that the numbers worked only because we owned it anyway for our own use (kinda what you have here), I became very good at maintenance and repair of travel trailers, and we never plan on doing it again. On a positive note, we were able to use the travel trailer for about 10 times (about three trips a summer) and our final cost was about break even.

Best of luck with whatever you decide