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March Publisher’s Message— Rental Ready

March Publisher’s Message— Rental Ready

By Meghan March 25, 2016 View Profile

We Pick Our Favorite Units Displayed at the Recent Rental Show

The Rental Show is always an interesting mix of exhibitors. The trade show (organized by the American Rental Association) is dedicated to two seemingly unrelated industries: A) event and party rentals and B) construction equipment. Attendees can go from surveying the latest skid steer and mini excavator options to picking a chocolate fountain and chair covers for weddings. It makes for a fun combination.

Rental houses from all over the United States converged on The Rental Show in Atlanta in late February to inspect and buy both party and machine rental equipment, and we were there to investigate (mostly) the latter. We saw a lot of cool equipment from manufacturers like JCB, Takeuchi, Generac, Perkins and Ditch Witch. The machine makers focused on displaying and selling small, towable construction equipment — trenchers, engines, light towers, excavators and backhoes. These units are often economized versions, as rental companies wisely like to invest in durable, entry-level equipment to ensure long life and good return on investment.

Ditch Witch launched its exclusive OptiCut digging system, aimed at enhancing walk-behind trencher productivity and saving rental houses money. The exclusive, all-in-one chain design for pedestrian trenchers features maintenance-free teeth and 19,000 lbs of tensile strength. It uses a low-profile tooth design, for a smoother cut with less wear on the chain, and oversized rollers, which greatly reduce friction and boost horsepower. That all means chains that last longer and are cheaper and easier to replace.

Along with showcasing the largest compact track loader in the industry, the TL12V2 (read about it on page 29), Takeuchi-US also released its all-new, super small TB210R at the show. The unit is designed to work in the most confined applications. This rental-perfect model features a minimal tail swing design, retractable undercarriage and backfill blade that can go from 40.2 to 29.5 in. wide and a new foldable ROPS/TOPS canopy that can reduce the machine’s overall height.

The Generac booth was equally busy. Along with new generators, pumps and portable heaters, the Waukesha, Mil.-based power player was promoting its MLT4060MVD LED mobile light tower. The MLT4060MVD is a 6-kW light tower designed for fully autonomous applications, using an ultra-fuel efficient ECOSpeed engine with a run time of up to 580 hours on a full tank. Durable, easy-on-fuel LED lights are utilized for long-lasting performance with minimum power consumption.

There were tons of other, innovative machine stories we could recount from the show. We’ll be covering those in upcoming issues — like the recently re-organized North American distribution network of Perkins Engines, which is now better able to coordinate with hundreds of local dealers to deliver parts, maintenance and support to the rental industry. In fact, some of those stories are already up online at compactquip.com.