Would You Loan It Out?

[YanmarFever]

This is a bit of a segue but many years ago - before I had a tractor - I looked into hiring a guy to do some dozing work - it would be his unit and he would operate it. We met and I outlined the work. He gave me a contract to look over. I did. It provided that if anything at all went wrong with the dozer in the course of the work, I was responsible for all of the repairs. I declined to sign telling him I was not about to be responsible for repairs on his equipment. He said 'everybody' signs it. I said the cost of possible repairs could be several times the cost of the work I wanted done. I don't know if that is the standard way those contracts read, but I did not want that obligation.

Get that guy off your property immediately !

 

[mapper]

Really happy for you that you got it back okay! You might want to find a way to secure it in case he's the type who thinks he can drive to your property and get it again without asking!

Take the drive shaft off and lock it in the shop.

 

[Danica]

Not in a million years. Tell him he can rent one somewhere and your insurance agent said it is a bad idea due to liability. This has worked for me many times.

 

[grsthegreat]

Boy, your nicer than me. No way id have loaned it out. Fact that he never paid you for the last time you worked his land was enough reason to say no.

i might keep it another week….holy hell.

 

[Jims1025R]

My "no" along with everyone else's. And I'll add one thought, for those who are compelled to loan out such equipment (like you just cannot say no to a family member type situation). Replace the correct shear bolt with a brass bolt of the same size (you can buy at Home Depot). Any kind of abuse at all, and the brass shear bolt will shear long before anything else is damaged. Just try to figure a way that cheap neighbour can't replace it himself with the grade 8 bolt he has in his tool box! Hopefully the shear bolt is hidden inside a cover they can't figure out!

 

[deezler]

Replace the correct shear bolt with a brass bolt of the same size (you can buy at Home Depot). Any kind of abuse at all, and the brass shear bolt will shear long before anything else is damaged. Just try to figure a way that cheap neighbour can't replace it himself with the grade 8 bolt he has in his tool box! Hopefully the shear bolt is hidden inside a cover they can't figure out!

I like this idea except, that if it breaks right away, then the borrower's job is far from completed, and then you might just be on the hook to help them repair and complete it. IE, it almost sounds like more work.

Still seems like just lending your own TIME to operate your own equipment when helping people out is the safest bet.

 

[Thomas]

I say NOPE...andI think you have pretty good idea why.

 

[big bubba]

there comes a point where "nice guy" becomes a naive guy & sometimes pays the price. hope your equip is ok, just pick it up

 

[PILOON]

Reminds me of when I plowed with a 4x4.
I towed many (neighbors, usually) and when asked how much $ I'd simply suggest a bottle of wine would be just fine.

One guy pre-empted saying he was but a poor student. (Sure driving a new car and living in a rented chalet with g-friend who also was on student loans.)*
A month later late one Sunday he was in a ditch and called for help. Also he was in a private drive where he had no reason to be. (snooping, I guess)

I did comply but stopped short B4 hooking up and reminded him of the last event. Naturally he denied the event so I demanded a cash payment for my late evening (11:30) outing.
He did comply. LOL, no choice.

This same couple when invited to an open house would grab the finest cognac and sit outside and consume the bottle between themselves.

There some that are simply takers and opportunists.

* They even hinted they had no intention of repaying their student loans.

 

[Will S]

O.P... Just say NO. Nothing to do with morals, or "being a nice guy". Protect yourself and your assets, and adopt a new policy of not loaning equipment. There are rental agency's for this sort of thing. Tell him no. Tell him he'll need to go to a rental place, of hire a commercial service provider, both of who will be insured to protect them from what guys like your "taker", who doesn't pay, changes his story again and again, and keeps moving the goal posts, after he gets your machinery on his property.

Please, just say NO. You don't want this guy in your life.

 

[KubotainNH]

There are a few people that I would loan stuff to but not many. Your tilling price is to high. What’s he want, you to pay him next time.

This is what gets me on this, how is $0 to high? He actually thinks he paid maybe. I would have replied with: "how is no payment too high"?

 

[Avenger]

This is what gets me on this, how is $0 to high? He actually thinks he paid maybe. I would have replied with: "how is no payment too high"?

Yeah, When he dropped that bomb, I was a bit dumbfounded. He caught me off guard and I was speechless. I think I said something like "Ok... whatever." and walked away, leaving him to hook it up himself (I was actually going to help, but decided to go back to my other task.)

 

[Farmer495]

Glad you got it back.

No, I would not loan anything out. Too much to go wrong. Things wear out or break fast enough using them yourself, let along by someone who doesn't have a cent in it or even know what to do with it.

I do not loan things, I have offered to do things for others to be neighborly.

Agree with removing tractor end of PTO shaft and locking shaft up to prevent "borrowing" when you aren't around.

 

[dodge man]

I’ve loaned out two things and always wondered about them when I got them back. One was a bicycle when I was in college. It came back with a wobbly rear rim. When I was I college $20 meant a lot to me. The other was a chainsaw. I used it for years with it not running right, I finally ended up rebuilding it it for a badly scored piston. In both cases I don’t thing the person who borrowed them damaged them but it always nagged me that maybe they did.

 

[dodge man]

I agree, I’d also make sure you secure it. Maybe lock it up with one of these.

 

[Deere Dude]

I’ve loaned out two things and always wondered about them when I got them back. One was a bicycle when I was in college. It came back with a wobbly rear rim. When I was I college $20 meant a lot to me. The other was a chainsaw. I used it for years with it not running right, I finally ended up rebuilding it it for a badly scored piston. In both cases I don’t thing the person who borrowed them damaged them but it always nagged me that maybe they did.

I especially would not lend a 2-cycle tool out and I would not put my 2-cycle gas in someone elses saw or whatever else. Be my luck I would get stuck with a rebuild job.

 

[Will S]

I especially would not lend a 2-cycle tool out and I would not put my 2-cycle gas in someone elses saw or whatever else. Be my luck I would get stuck with a rebuild job.

I waited nearly 6 months for a contractor I hired, to install rip-rap on a a few hundred feet of deep creek bank. He needed to clear scrub vegetation, weeds and small saplings, and couldn't get his chain saw to run. He told his teenage helper to start swinging a weed sickle, which he did for a while, but wasn't making much progress.

I asked him what he was going to do, and his answer was to probably come back another time. (???). So I offered to loan him my chainsaw and brush-cutter, both of which I bought new more than 25 years ago, always take proper care of, and they have never failed me.

I filled them with my Amsoil 2 stoke mix (light blue), and fired them right up. They used them for most of the morning, then took a lunch break. I saw the young lad fill the tanks from their 5 gal gas can, and they started using them. Then I saw them using the sickle again, so I went out to see what was going on.

Contractor said your saws aren't working. Asked why, and he shrugged it off, and said their probably too old. I said, they might be old, but they run just fine (both were Homelite 2 stroke saws).

Turns out, he topped them off with straight gas, not 2 stroke, and said their your saws; it's not my problem". He never gave me even a dollar off his more than $18,000 bill.

Both engines were seized. Scored cylinder walls, broken ring and scored pistons. Both saws trashed, and I never even got a thank you, or a sorry about the saws.

Some people are just takers. There is only one person, a good friend and retired jet engine mechanic, who I will load tools or equipment to. Otherwise, no.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
All that I can say is, "OUCH!!!!!"

 

[hkbirdman]

So let's see... Post count is 48 NO and 0 Yes I think i am seeing a pattern here. Your description of last year when he wouldn't even give you the whopping $50 said it all. No. Nothing. Never. Not even your exhaled CO2.

I totally agree with the above. I would venture a guess that he will never be your friend and will only be a "taker" as long as you have a relationship with him. Drive your tractor over to his place and get your tiller for "some work that needs to be done at your place immediately."

 

[hosspuller]

A side post... If acetylene is unstable at more than 15 psi why do regulators allow higher settings. The regulator's gauge have red lines at 15 psi.

Here's the connection, a friend asked to borrow my oxy/acetylene kit. He had several stuck fasteners. When I asked if he was familiar with using a torch to cut... A negative answer prompted me to do it for him.

In a similar vein, allowing a "wanna be" to use a potentially dangerous attachment as a tiller is to be regretted in a court room or hospital.