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Rented a Lift to replace some lights. Sad the condition of the equipment

5K views 37 replies 17 participants last post by  Titleist1 
#1 ·
I stopped at the area rental store a couple of days ago to arrange the rental of a lift with the basket platform. I have a light fixture on my house that's about 30 feet in the air and my wife has specifically prohibited me from using my 34' extension ladder. In fact, she has asked me to sell it so I won't use it and she essentially told me that if she finds me using it up at those heights, she is going to give it away to someone so I can't use it again. She means business, so I don't push the issue. Plus, I have endured a lifetime of orthopedic and spinal operations and I don't want any part of that.

They had a 34 foot trailer mounted lift, but it has manual down riggers and a gas engine which is somewhat a pain as you have to yell over the gas engine to talk to anyone helping you on the ground. That one rents for $185 per day or $135 per half day.

They also have a 45 foot lift on a 4 wheel drive chassis platform. Since I am working on the driveways in both projects, the 4 wd chassis isn't needed and it rents for $310 per day or $235 for 4 hours.

They also have a scissor lift platform but it only lifts to 19.6" of platform height. That unit rents for 1/2 day $100, full day $150. This unit also uses the small interior lift truck hard tires and my neighbors driveway, while concrete, is very rough, so I didn't want to risk the area where I need the lift to be one with broken concrete.

The unit I rented is one I have used before and it's a trailer unit 45' articulating lift with hydraulic down riggers. It rents for $185 for the 1/2 day or $235 for the whole day. It worked out great renting it today as I got it for the 1 day rate and I return it next Wednesday, January 2. So this worked out very well. I have a few other things I can do with the lift having it this long.

The ownership of the rental company has changed over the past couple of years. I was really surprised with what I found when I rented this unit. The manager was the one who rented me the equipment and did the re-orientation of its operation. But the overall condition of the equipment is disappointing. Check out some of the issues I noticed just pulling it home and parking it......



Fenders are beat to snot and rattling......



The tail light wire is draped over the boom and down rigger and needs to be unplugged to operate the unit. This is supposed to run through the frame rail and not require these additional steps and I can tell from the appearance of the wire, its likely been this way for some time as I can see where it's been repaired when this fix has been broken because someone didn't disconnect when raising the unit.



Look at the tongue jack tires. One bald, one completely deflated and off the rim.

The actual tires on the trailer are mismatched, Same wheels, different tires. One worn, one very worn.

The unit shimmied noticeably on the ride home. I almost wonder if it has a wheel loose as one is leaning out at the top. Could also be the axle is bent because the condition of the fenders show its use history.

The charging on the trailer doesn't work like it should, and apparently requires a 12 volt battery charger to be hooked to the batteries directly instead of simply plugging in the unit, which should charge the batteries. I have a charger so its no big deal to get it recharged, but it would be nice to just plug it in.

It's sad the condition of the equipment. It's sad how damaged it gets with use. Someone had cut through the aluminum basket handrail with a chainsaw. Seriously? Apparently the sparks weren't an indication the saw had left wood and was in metal?

My wife saw this in the driveway and asked me "Is this safe to use?" I think it is, as long as the controls function as they should and I wasn't informed any differently.

The one thing the guy said to me and I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't, was when I was paying for the unit. I wrote a check out for the rental and he said "Just make the check out to us and sign it and leave the check blank that way we can adjust it when you return the unit".

I laughed and told him "I don't give ANYONE a signed, blank check" and I asked him "Do people actually do that?" and he said "All the time". Well, not only are the people renting the equipment poor operators as things are all torn up, they are IDIOTS for giving someone a signed blank check for them to "fill in later". It's very tough to defend the amount the check is cashed for when its made out in your hand writing and signed with your signature.

Ain't no way.........never would I do that. I told him if there is an adjustment, we will deal with it on Wednesday with either a new check or in cash.

I hate to see equipment abused and not maintained. In the past, this place was always very good to deal with. What I am seeing is really troubling. Short cuts, patch jobs, excuses instead of action......

The manager told me that he plans to go to Harbor Fright and get some "Solid Rubber tires" for the dolly jack so this doesn't happen again". How about simply inflating them?

The shaft on the tongue jack has been bent significantly, it couldn't sit straight if it desired to.

If they aren't charging the users for the damage they are causing, they are making a huge mistake. If they are charging and collecting for the damage and not using the money to initiate the needed repairs, they aren't going to remain in business very long. This is not how rental equipment at nearly $250 per day should be presented when it's rented to customers.

These lifts are $32,000 brand new and several used units in much better shape can easily be found for around $20k to $22k. In fact, I looked at about a dozen listings and NONE of the used units were in the shape of this unit. Between depreciation and rental revenues, the $235 per day requires 136 full day rentals to recoup the purchase cost. Assuming it rents out 3 days a week on average, that's about 10 months of renting the lift on average of 3 days a week (in round numbers) to recoup the initial investment. This unit was paid for a long time ago......

The next place to rent these lifts is about 25 miles away and I will be contacting them next time for prices, etc. They also have about 40 various lifts in stock so they have many more options to choose from. I like to do business locally, but when I see equipment maintained in this fashion, it makes me wonder about it's actual overall safety during use. If these shortcuts have been taken, are they servicing the unit and making sure bolts are tight, etc? I think we can assume they aren't taking care of those details..........

Disappointing and sad to see a business operated in this fashion.
To protect myself, I took photos of the entire unit when I got it home, just so there are no issues with claims of damage while I have the unit.
 

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#2 · (Edited)
You are right about them not staying in business very long when they maintain their equipment like this. And asking for a signed blank check is really outrageous in my opinion. I don't think I would do business with them again even to rent something without moving parts! Be careful with that thing!
 
#3 · (Edited)
Heck I would have added a few more feet to my tractor boom and stuck the boom inside the door and sat in a seat and did that job. They have Hand Held Tubular Extensions with bulb holders on the ends to do that also. Might look into one or be sure to use LED Bulbs they last a long time.https://www.amazon.com/Mr-LongArm-6624-Professional-Extension/dp/B000V5802E

Musical instrument


Are you talking on the outside of your house cause my wife would not let me bring that inside to change a bulb let alone fit thru the door! This is why I built my boom for stuff like this. My Body weight won't cause any problems using it all the way to 20 ft or higher. the 20 ft will cover me for any high except my light pole and I installed a ladder knowing I was not going to spkike up it much longer. My last adventure was climbing the big tree outside my home 70-80 ft up and putting a Lightning Rod on it. Going up was hard had to use a ladder to get to the first branch then spikes and ropes to go further. Once at the top I pulled up what I needed to do the job. I had a big rope thru it over the top branch to the bottom. Then I grabbed both and went hand over hand all the way down holding 2 ropes and pulled the rope off the tree at the bottom. I was in real good shape 15 years ago@! Now it would be hard to get to the first branch I tried! Wanted to put a ladder to the top and build a place to enjoy coffee and see the view! Snow Blue Winter Sky Tree
I was going to set up a hoist to raise me up and build a Crows nest at the top. My Wife thinks I am crazy at times and goes inside when I do things like this so she can't see me in the process of doing it.
 
#5 ·
Heck I would have added a few more feet to my tractor boom and stuck the boom inside the door and sat in a seat and did that job. They have Hand Held Tubular Extensions with bulb holders on the ends to do that also. Might look into one or be sure to use LED Bulbs they last a long time.https://www.amazon.com/Mr-LongArm-6624-Professional-Extension/dp/B000V5802E

View attachment 664152

Are you talking on the outside of your house cause my wife would not let me bring that inside to change a bulb let alone fit thru the door! This is why I built my boom for stuff like this. My Body weight won't cause any problems using it all the way to 20 ft or higher. the 20 ft will cover me for any high except my light pole and I installed a ladder knowing I was not going to spkike up it much longer. My last adventure was climbing the big tree outside my home 70-80 ft up and putting a Lightning Rod on it. Going up was hard had to use a ladder to get to the first branch then spikes and ropes to go further. Once at the top I pulled up what I needed to do the job. I had a big rope thru it over the top branch to the bottom. Then I grabbed both and went hand over hand all the way down holding 2 ropes and pulled the rope off the tree at the bottom. I was in real good shape 15 years ago@! Now it would be hard to get to the first branch I tried! Wanted to put a ladder to the top and build a place to enjoy coffee and see the view! View attachment 664176 I was going to set up a hoist to raise me up and build a Crows nest at the top. My Wife thinks I am crazy at times and goes inside when I do things like this so she can't see me in the process of doing it.
I use to climb 40' power poles when I was much younger and worked for a utilities company. Even then I don't think I would have had the stones to climb that tree of yours. Too many obstacles.
 
#4 ·
I wouldn't have rented it. And that's coming from a guy going 40 feet up in a 1961 Mini-Mo with a West Brick Buggy.:laugh: When you look at the shape it's in, the guy doing the repairs is probably the same one doing maintenance at the same time. My thought is no one is doing either. I don't anyone to be 30 feet up and find out a critical piece is broken and gravity is about to win or have to have the FD come to rescue me. To be honest I think I'd rather fall than have the fire guys rescue me, I'd never ever hear the end of that.:laugh:

Just be careful with that thing Sulley.
 
#7 · (Edited)
We had a real good rental company near us that went down hill when they changed ownership. Sad to see equipment in that shape. Be careful.

Blank check :lolol:are you for real buddy:crazy:
 
#9 ·
had a Funny reminder about Utility poles!

I was watching this big lineman hook up a 600 amp 3 phase service on a pole to hot lines. Man a big flash and puff of smoke went off in the process. He came down in that bucket real fast problem was the phase was taped wrong on one of the 6 - 4/0 cables!! I did not do this. He got out of the bucket turned around and it was a Big Lady not a Big Guy! I said wow your a woman never saw one that was a lineman before! She looked at me and said shut up or I will stand on your boots and pull your head off and she could do it. They opened up the CT Can and found the problem. Glad I did not make it up she was pissed but should have checked them before closing the fuses on it! I will never forget that day glad she did not get hurt!
 
#10 ·
I was watching this big lineman hook up a 600 amp 3 phase service on a pole to hot lines. Man a big flash and puff of smoke went off in the process. He came down in that bucket real fast problem was the phase was taped wrong on one of the 6 - 4/0 cables!! I did not do this. He got out of the bucket turned around and it was a Big Lady not a Big Guy! I said wow your a woman never saw one that was a lineman before! She looked at me and said shut up or I will stand on your boots and pull your head off and she could do it. They opened up the CT Can and found the problem. Glad I did not make it up she was pissed but should have checked them before closing the fuses on it! I will never forget that day glad she did not get hurt!
It's like a shotgun going off. It's a good thing she was in a bucket.
 
#11 ·
Make sure you only put 8 hours or less on the unit over the next few days or else they will charge you extra. If you suspect you will put more on it, you could disconnect the hour meter for a bit then reconnect it. I had a buddy do that with a stump grinder. He ran the thing ALL NIGHT at his cabin up North (nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile) grinding stumps. I bet he put 15 hours on the machine, rented it in the evening and returned it with an extra 2 hours on the meter the next morning. He's a midnight shifter so his normal hours are all night.

During shutdown here we rented equipment from Cloverdale Equipment. They were good to deal with and they told me they only keep units around for about 5 years, then they rotate them out for all the reasons you mentioned above.

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#12 ·
Good grief Sulley...that rental company sounds like Sears...going down in flames. Be careful on that thing as I'll bet there are plenty of sketchy things hidden out of sight on it.

A signed blank check? That schmuck must have thought you were born last night.
 
#13 ·
Wow,allot or Home Depot’s now rent 35ft and 50ft tow behind units with hydraulic down riggers and auto leveling etc. with OSHA really hitting ladders in the workplace there are also a whole host of new lifts to use inside off buildings of varying heights with several options that break down into a few pieces to carry inside and easily re-assemble. Much fast and safer than scaffolding. [SUB][/SUB]
 
#14 ·
Glad to see I am not the only one banned from really tall ladders:hide:
 
#16 ·
It's a good thing to have other's watching out for us as perhaps their judgement of our abilities at this point is more realistic than our own.:laugh::lol:

If it were just to change the light bulb, I likely would have "snuck" the ladder off the back of the barn and made the change while she was busy with something else. But since I have to remove the old fixture and then mount the new one and wire it into the electrical box and also wire in the day / night sensor, the ladder is too dicey for that much work at that height for me anymore. Plus balancing the light assembly, cordless drills, etc. is safer with the work platform, or at least I feel better about it.......:good2:

The new light is about 15" wide, 10" tall and 10" deep and it's angled to shine down while mounting flat on the wall. It's a commercial fixture and its in a real nice die cast housing. The housing is designed to have the rear of the housing mounted to either the wall or to the electrical box. Then the front half of the fixture is on hinges to pivot when you unscrew the screw in the upper and lower corners of the front of the light. The front is the textured light panel and behind it are the LED's and there is some type of capacitor or ballast or something in there, probably to store power for lighting up all the LED's at once.



The two halves of the fixture are made so there is a gasket or seal to keep the moisture out. Once the light is mounted, you can swing open the front half of the fixture to get to all the components should they need any future attention. It looks like you could replace the actual LED panel in this light if necessary, verses throwing it away and buying a new one. I like that ability as throwing out entire assemblies when one component wears out seems so wasteful and unnecessary.

Here is a picture of the light fixture I am using.....recognize that green thing the light and box are sitting in?:laugh:



Since the height of the light fixture and it's general hassle to get to, I wanted some commercial grade lights which hopefully will operate for years without any trouble. I also wanted something I could be confident wouldn't burn the house(s) down. I never realized how much of a "gray area" LED light production and certification is.

Many of the light fixtures I looked at either at the Big Box stores or on line, lacked any U.S. certification, even such safety standards as UL. I finally found these which were at least UL certified. With so many of these LED lights being made overseas, I didn't want to just put whatever up on the peak of the houses.

I will take some pictures of the light construction and it's components before I install them. I am adding day / night sensors to each light so they can run dusk to dawn automatically. That was the other challenge when shopping for these lights, many had the dusk to dawn sensors built in and others didn't. It seemed like on the commercial lights, they lacked the day / night sensors, but they were all made with provisions to add the sensors.

Our former local Fire Chief is a also a handyman since his retirement and for many of these types of things, she would "STRONGLY ENCOURAGE" me to just call him for the issue. But he won't do any electrical stuff as he isn't an electrician and is worried about the liability, which I understand.
 

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#15 ·
I just looked out the window beneath the light fixture where I am going to be replacing the light fixture and see that beast sitting out there in the driveway. I had planned on doing a few other projects with it and even letting some of the guys in the neighborhood know that I have it till next Wednesday morning so if they have anything needing to be done, but instead I am going to replace the two light fixtures with new fixtures I already have and then I think that's going to be the extent of its use.

It's sad when I look at that piece of equipment because I keep thinking of how I would repair it. If it were a friends piece of equipment, I would make repairs to it that it obviously needs. I am not touching anything on it (repair wise) because of the liability. The guy that rented it told me about the person that cut into the basket railing with the chain saw when he was trying to convince me to take out optional "damage coverage" insurance and when I declined, of course I had to initial my refusal of the coverage offer, at which point he told me "then you are responsible for any damage to the unit" and I replied "You mean NEW damage, I hope" and he didn't seem to think that was humorous.........That's why I took the pictures.

When I stopped in there on Thursday and reserved it, they said "You can pick it up after 4pm on Friday". Yesterday, at 11:30am, they called to make sure I was coming in to get it and then he added "If you want to show up earlier and get it, you can and I won't charge any extra." I asked how much earlier and he replied "Right now".

When I got there, and picked it up just after noon, I told them "Now you can leave for the weekend earlier" and the one guy smiled and said "I guess you did get what he meant on the phone when he called you." and the boss pipes up "We have to stay open till 5:30pm because those are our hours". It was quiet around there.......

This same rental place bought a new 3 series machine probably 2 years ago. I think it might be the 3025e. I wonder what kind of shape that machine is in now, it was either out for rental or in their shop as it wasn't outside where it normally sits........Most of their equipment is stored outside without any benefit of cover and that doesn't help with it's appearance and condition.
 
#17 ·
I would not have taken that machine in that condition. It should have been sent to auction a long time ago.

Where I worked the lifts were leased and lease company maintained. It would have been taken out of service until repaired.

We were not allowed to work off ladders. Ladders were only to get to some place be it another level or into a pit. Rule was three points of contact at all times. Two feet and one hand or two hands and one foot as you ascended or descended. If you could do a job with one hand it was allowed, but frowned on. They rather you used a lift. Or scaffold.

I see a 34' ladder coming up for sale. I have a 28' that only gets used to clean 2nd story gutters. I have an attachment that has two legs that rest on the roof and hold the ladder off the gutters.

A friend that had a painting business gave me a broken 40' ladder. It was lighter built than my 28' ladder. I used one 1/2 of it for one of my home made deer tower blinds (after cutting off the bad section on one end). If Mrs. Bear gives the 34' ladder away, I'll be glad to come and get it. Two more deer towers to build :good2:

I bought a brand new 10' step ladder from an older gentleman that told me he bought it paint his house and his wife vetoed that idea and it had hung in his garage unused for several years.
 
#19 · (Edited)
I put 8 of those or that style of commercial LED fixtures up on my Daughters new shop. They work great and light up the whole place around the shop and inside the bay during the day or night. Depending where you live you might want to test the light first before you put one up. They will put good light out250 yards and much further out then that you can see to walk around. Just if you have homes close by it will light them up too! I have put up a bunch more LEDs because I like to see at night around my place but we have 200 acres of land. They put out a very even light too I like them!! Building Room Recording studio Ceiling Floor
Floor Wall Flooring Room Construction
The lights are super bright had to lower my camera down to not shut down the lens taking a picture. That is why one picture is darker then the other. There are 4 in the Bay and no shadows if I had used ceiling lights it would have taken a lot more then 4 to light up this 24' x 48' x 17 ft tall bay this good.
 
#20 ·
I put one of those on each side of my house recently. I used these: UL DLC - 80W LED Outdoor Wall Pack Light, 5000K Cool White, 10000 Lumens, 500 Watt Equivalency, Waterproof, Easy Mount, Commercial/Industrial/Residential - - Amazon.com $94, 80 watts, 10,000 lumen LED wall packs. One on each side of my house lights up the entire property. I absolutely love them. No little double headed flood light fixture could ever do it, even i I put in more of them. I couldn't possibly be happier with them.
 

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#22 ·
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#21 ·
I would have walked out the door. Equipment in such bad condition, combined with shady blank checks, I'd take my business elsewhere.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Stick Frame construction we took a 24 x 48 1 floor building and they went up 1 floor and over 24 more feet to make a 48 x 48 foot print and a L Shaped top floor and a big Bay for dealing with big animals and able to drive a truck into it during the winter, She used to do it outside for a long time on a wooden hoist. Then her sales hit $500K a year and she upgraded to this building. House Property Siding Building Roof
Transport Property House Vehicle Roof
House Home Property Residential area Land lot
It ended up twice the size of our 1680 sq ft home! But it is now full of inventory. The fixture on the back is the same as 2 more on the side and 4 more inside the bay. I have one more on this end of the house and the 300 watt towards the lake and 2-400 watt HPS/ MH on a pole. A bunch on the big barn they can see me from space when I fire them all off at night!!
 
#26 ·
BTW, I did not put any motion sensors or photocells on them. All 4 are on one switch, and that one switch is a zwave device on my automation system. So the lights are automated by many different events. For example, they come on automatically when any perimeter door is opened after sunset, or if sunset hits and a door is open. I programmed a 15 minute timer that will turn them off if no other triggers are active. If I turn the switch on manually (perish the thought!), the system turns on all the other outside perimeter and pole lights too. And all those other lights dim when the flood lights turn off. It's pretty cool. And pretty damn bright.
 
#28 ·
Awesome ideas and rules you set. Love this ideas! I was going to be putting zwave switches for my porch lights, and garage lights. The floods were only going to be set to motion for security purposes and to keep my dogs visible at night.
 
#33 ·
I've looked into renting a powered lift for my shop build. It's crazy. Some places want you to have a rider on your insurance for them as an additional insured. Others require you to buy insurance from their broker. Others don't seem to care.:unknown: There were a few that require you to pay for and take their OSHA safety class. Not only is the cost of the lift pretty steep, they also charge for delivery and pickup. Overall to get what I needed was going to run a little over $2500 for a week. The rental price was just $1300.

I would be better off to buy a used machine and resell it when I was done.:unknown: As slow as we've been working I could look at a savings of more than 10K, so if I lost 5K selling it I'd still be doing pretty good. We're just going to stick with the West Brick Buggy. It's not the most convenient machine, but it works at our pace.
 
#36 · (Edited)
buckety truck

I was a linemen for 31 years. I blew several seals in the my truck took down to the garage and the truck was in my stall next morning. Got my jobs form my foeman went out pulled the controls up and nothing, push it down and up it went. Had all 16 lines on backwards took it in the head Fred said use it like it is today and the night crew will fix it right. Mine you all High Ranger controls are the same in fact every other brand are set the same so you don't have think what you doing. I left the truck there wasn't going to work in the wire like that I want to go home alive. We was in a substation one day when some one threw a OCR switch in from a office computer control a 250 miles and we a had 3 balls of fire coming down to the ground it was a 46,000 volts phase to phase no one called to say it was OK, I don't think they work there anymore we just happen to be on the far side of the sub all went home alive nothing to play with.
 
#37 · (Edited)
SulleyBear, looking at the link for the light you posted; you have 9100 lumens, not 5000. So almost double the light output. The 5000 is 5000K. It refers to the color of the light; a lower number like 2700 is warm/yellow, 5000 is cool/daylight.

The 50w version would give 6500 lumens, still a lot of light output.
 
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