I have developed a division of a small fleet of rentals in my organization and i will say it has been a great venture and look to expand more units. Currently have 25 units all rented out mostly long term, 6 months or more, at an average of $850 per a month. So you can imagine how I feel when rentals are due, yes you guessed it, like a kid the night before Xmas. My goal before years end to be at 40 units available for rent. Covid issues have slowed things down so that will be the challenge. Start off with a few units and expand from their. Good luck.

You could also consider GCS as a viable alternative, if you're still interested.

Thanks Normandy more good things for me to consider.

I take it you know about forklifts but not rental ?

There are in my belief 3 very inportant things you need for successful rental

Fair customer
Predictable Application
Distance.

If any of these are wrong then you have hassle all the way.

Of course you will need all the normal busines controls as well. but a dodgy customer, bad application or long distances all spell big and expensive trouble.

OK all good things to think about, the used equipment business has been rough up here the last while I had bought a couple of old trucks at an auction thinking I could fix them up and flip them and make a profit but when I started to get looking closer at what they would need and what I could sell them for it didnt look too profitable, so in the spring scrap prices were higher up here I just scrapped them all. Thats whats got me thinking about rentals as a side line.

While there can be those issues with forklift trucks but not to the extent as you'll find with construction related equipment. Industrial accounts tend to be more stable than custruction customers - meaning they don't move the job site over night. Certainly a credit check needs to be done on any new customer accounts. Abuse billing is something in that rental business that is necessary, but one must have documentation & procedures in place to validate the invoice to the customer - kinda like when you rent a car. Meaning you as a customer validate the condition of the car before you leave the lot & revalidate it whne you return it - if there is a differnce you are on the hook for it.

Thanks for the info John those are the sorts of things Iam working out right now I have a friend who was in the heavy equipment rental bussiness backhoes bulldozers ect. he is trying his best to steer me away from rentals he had alot of bad experinces with abuse, theft and such.

Rentals can be a nice profit contributor to your business - two keys are unit utlization (based on $ potetnional ) and cost controls (internal cost & customer cost primarily documenting & charging for abuse, over time usage, etc. Don't jump into it unless you are prepared finanically, orgaizationally ready to support rental activity.
Rental are great "paid for demos".
Do some research, talk to dealers in the busness in your area about rentals, rates & rental management, agreements etc. first and see if this is "up your alley"