Hi! I have an insurance dilemma

[J-Long]

I was hoping you could provide some advise on. I have a business and have been looking at buying a skid steer. I don't do construction for a living, and, even used, that's a pretty expensive tool to just have sitting and depreciating, requiring maintenance, etc.. I was wondering if it might make more sense to buy one and then rent it. The machine I've been using is for sale.. It belongs to a friend. It's an 863 with about 1K hours on it. I pay him a market rate to use it, which, around here is about, $25.00 an hour. I'd be happy to buy it from him and rent it myself.. but I'd need some kind of basic liability insurance, and coverage for the machine itself. I called my insurance agent and he went nuts. "You plan to rent it to the general public?" he said.. I told him, yeah.. The tool rental place down the road does it all the time. You don't have to be a contractor to rent a skid loader. He looked around, and the only place he found that would even touch it wanted a minimum of 5K a year. This is a lot considering that most of the time it would be sitting behind my shop anyway. Questions: Do you rent your machines? Do any of you guys have insurance? If so, what type, how much does it run and where should I look for affordable coverage? thanks much. Jake.

 

[RJSStamps]

5k doesn't sound bad actually. Consider that those who rent stuff like this normally have no clue what they are doing and no clue how to do a job right or safely. They also abuse equipment, don't do propper daily maintenance and don't know when somethings wrong with a machine. But most of all they don't care, it isn't their machine! Renting the machine would be a huge liability for you not too mention more repairs and headaches. It would be cheaper to hire yourself out to run it than rent it when you consider insurance and repairs.