Wrong fuel put in rental machine?

[Hobby_Man22]

A few years back I bought a Kubota zero turn that had a blown engine at 850 hours. I asked the seller how often he change the oil. I got a very interesting answer. "It's a lawnmower. You don't change oil in a lawnmower."

That's a new one. Surprised it made it 850hrs. Probably ran it until it didn't have any left

 

[Hobby_Man22]

That's a new one. Surprised it made it 850hrs. Probably ran it until it didn't have any left

A good quality commercial engine doesn't burn much oil. Couple ounces of loss over a 100hr interval is about all and that's only if you're **** about keeping it at the full mark.

 

[AJHD]

A few of the guys I follow on YT, present your post as fact.

Spend some time working on heavy equipment and you'll find out first hand.

Unfortunately neglected vehicles aren't much better. The only difference is excavators aren't next to us on the freeway doing 80mph with snapped tie rods, busted ball joints, tires worn down to the cords and brake pads worn into the rotors.

 

[Hannahranga]

Frankly, I worry about doing this to my own stuff. We own a Diesel truck, tractor and Gator. Everything else is gas. Knowing how I get in my "zone" when working with my hands I could see myself screwing that up.

My first two cars and almost a decade of driving was only in diesels (Australia so way more smaller diesels), I was terrified of putting diesel in my Camry for the first couple months after I bought it. So I feel you

 

[bwringer]

...The only things I couldn't get in diesel at the time were the weed eater and backpack blower and I replaced both with cordless...

OK, now I really want to see (and hear) a diesel weedwhacker. I bet it's glorious.

 

[Hobby_Man22]

OK, now I really want to see (and hear) a diesel weedwhacker. I bet it's glorious.

He said couldn't get

 

[bwringer]

He said couldn't get

Right, I'm aware that this does not exist. But I think it should, or at least one.

Some weirdo with a machine shop and too much time on their hands needs to build one and put it on YouTube so that we can all enjoy the glory of a weedwhacker rolling coal.

You can get lawn mower size single-cylinder diesel engines easily enough, and there are tiny model diesel engines that sit on a workbench and make noise and smoke, like this:

But I'd like to see someone trimming their lawn with a teensy screaming Detroit Diesel...

 

[LOW1]

That’s $200 an hour, over a 10 hour shift.
If you figure somewhere between $50-$100 an hour per worker on a jobsite, any machine that can eliminate at least 3 or 4 workers or more, or do the job better or mire consistently, can probably be rented out for $2,000 a day, especially if the machine is obscure, or expensive to purchase, or only needed for certain parts of a job, so contractors don’t want to invest in owning the machine.

Or if you signed a contract which requires you to have the work done by a certain date and there is a $2000 per day late charge.

 

[Fixr]

What machine makes $2,000 dollars a day?

It's not always that the machine itself makes that much a day, but rather that it puts the whole operation at a standstill. Back in the mid-80's, an oilfield medium duty truck came in with a transmission that had lost a gear or something. We gave him the choice between ordering a few hundred dollars worth of parts and having it operational in 2 or 3 days, or we could drive to a dealer several hours away and get a whole new transmission for some thousands of dollars, and work late that day at like double time to get it going. He didn't even blink, and said "This thing is costing us $1700 an HOUR in drilling rig downtime. Do it". IIRC it went out the door around 10pm that night paid in full.

 

[toplessHO]

My experience is the same as above as I worked in a rental place for a few years as a small engine mechanic in the 1990s. Everything was immediately started when it was returned to verify it wasn't F'd up. Then it was cleaned, oil checked, filled with fuel, air filter cleaned.... The guys that serviced the rental equipment, not me, kept a book with oil and filter changes, etc, for each item.

I never recall getting something back with the incorrect fuel in it. I'm sure we had people that put gas that had water in it in things like generators though. For the large items like Bobcats and tow compressors, we did like said above and billed them for the amount of fuel added if we picked them up at completion of the rental- which was the norm for large items. We had one guy that spent almost all of his time just on delivery, pickup, and service at the rental site for stuff that stayed out for weeks and months at a time. We had two delivery trucks and two trailers. We had towed air compressors that stayed gone for months and years at a time on long construction jobs, so he'd go and change the oil, filters, spark plugs.... while they were on lunch break and the machine wasn't running.

For smaller items like generators, when they were returned, we had gas pumps outside so we could just tell them to fill it up outside, pay Gary at the pumps, then bring it to the garage area to check in. If that option wasn't available, then I'd assume a shop would have a $X flat fee for a fillup on smaller items.

I rented a trailer mounted post hole digger for 8 inch holes.
Before I left the guy checks the gas and finds its low,gets a faded gas can and pours fuel in,sends it on its way.

I crank the thing up and start digging,and it seemed lethargic. It got worse to point that it wouldnt run.
I call the rental place( Home Depot) and complain and they said bring it back.
When they discovered water in the fuel,it was then determined by them that I was to blame.
Guy that filled it initially was gone and they were ready to close.
Lucky for me they found that faded can and sure enough it had gas in the water.
How that much water got in there is a mystery.
They then called another store to have one delivered early next morning.
When I went to pay for the 4 hour rental,manager voided the bill,stating I was the most patient customer ever.

 

[Hobby_Man22]

I rented a trailer mounted post hole digger for 8 inch holes.
Before I left the guy checks the gas and finds its low,gets a faded gas can and pours fuel in,sends it on its way.

I crank the thing up and start digging,and it seemed lethargic. It got worse to point that it wouldnt run.
I call the rental place( Home Depot) and complain and they said bring it back.
When they discovered water in the fuel,it was then determined by them that I was to blame.
Guy that filled it initially was gone and they were ready to close.
Lucky for me they found that faded can and sure enough it had gas in the water.
How that much water got in there is a mystery.
They then called another store to have one delivered early next morning.
When I went to pay for the 4 hour rental,manager voided the bill,stating I was the most patient customer ever.

It helps to remain calm when falsely accused lol

 

[stillnostrebor]

What machine makes $2,000 dollars a day?

We have pieces of equipment that if broken or idle can cost us lost revenue of 10x that number per day. Easily.

Construction is expensive.

 

[RTM]

We have pieces of equipment that if broken or idle can cost us lost revenue of 10x that number per day. Easily.

Construction is expensive.

25 years ago, a single down production line at my old facility lost $1000 per minute. Not sure what it is nowadays.