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Thinking About Renting Out My Overland Trailer.

Caddis

Caddis

Rank V
Launch Member

Member III

Let me know if this needs to be in a different section. I'd like input, ideas, or any other advise on renting out my trailer. I understand the negatives of doing this. Have any of you guys rented out your trailers? I'm just looking at making a little money on the side, instead of my baby setting in the garage when I'm not using it. Here are some pictures of my set up. I appreciate your guys opinions. 20190323_120516.jpg20181221_144144.jpg20180907_223632.jpg20190323_120705.jpg20190706_144812.jpg20181027_182430.jpg
 

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ThundahBeagle

ThundahBeagle

Rank V

Advocate I

I see...an INSURANCE claim in your future. Some inexperienced jackweed will rent it, fall down the ladder and smack his melon in the middle of the night and sue. Maybe not the first time, but...

It's like adding a plow to your pickup. If you are making money with a registered vehicle or registered trailer, you really ought to put that "work/making money with it" rider on your insurance policy or you may live to regret it. And in most states, having people sign a waiver is just a small hurdle they can overcome to sue you anyway.

Just my 2 cents. Honestly, if you were gonna go around that insurance advice anyway, you'd be better off selling your time making loam or gravel deliveries with your truck, with you driving. No partners.
 
ThundahBeagle

ThundahBeagle

Rank V

Advocate I

Also stated you knew the negatives. I hope we are not all rehashing those to you. Hopefully weve brought up items you hadn't thought of these
 
Caddis

Caddis

Rank V
Launch Member

Member III

And this is why I asked for input. Everyone's concerns are part of the negatives I had thought of as well. The one I didnt consider was the liability aspect (falling out of the tent). I appreciate all of the advice. Maybe I'll just start selling snow cones on our street instead.
 
K12

K12

Rank VII
Member

Trail Blazer III

ThundahBeagle said:
I see...an INSURANCE claim in your future. Some inexperienced jackweed will rent it, fall down the ladder and smack his melon in the middle of the night and sue. Maybe not the first time, but...

It's like adding a plow to your pickup. If you are making money with a registered vehicle or registered trailer, you really ought to put that "work/making money with it" rider on your insurance policy or you may live to regret it. And in most states, having people sign a waiver is just a small hurdle they can overcome to sue you anyway.

Just my 2 cents. Honestly, if you were gonna go around that insurance advice anyway, you'd be better off selling your time making loam or gravel deliveries with your truck, with you driving. No partners.
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There is an easy fix for this. Non-liability agreement, agreement not to sue due to negligence on the part of the renting party and any fees that you as the owner of the rig incure from the person using it will be charges to the renter.

I had to do many release of liability agreements when working as a firearms instructor. Luckily nothing bad every happened, but it does give peace of mind that if something goes wrong you are not going to get stuck with someone else's medical bills because they wearnt paying attention or negligent.
 
Caddis

Caddis

Rank V
Launch Member

Member III

K12 said:
There is an easy fix for this. Non-liability agreement, agreement not to sue due to negligence on the part of the renting party and any fees that you as the owner of the rig incure from the person using it will be charges to the renter.

I had to do many release of liability agreements when working as a firearms instructor. Luckily nothing bad every happened, but it does give peace of mind that if something goes wrong you are not going to get stuck with someone else's medical bills because they wearnt paying attention or negligent.
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If it was good enough to blanket you with firearms training, it should be a good option for renting a trailer. I like it.
 
K12

K12

Rank VII
Member

Trail Blazer III

If you go to a Uhaul or other vehicle rental place im sure you could take one of their contracts and see the wording on it. Make and inspection sheet and have them sign off on it after a joint walk around. Any damage that isnt documented on the sign off sheet they are liable for upon return. Making sure they have insurance that will cover it etc. will take leg work from you up front to get started. but a little more income on your end may be worth it. Map out the pros and cons and see if one outweighs the other.
 
W

Walkers

Rank III

Advocate I

Just remember, a liability release is virtually worthless, because, as a citizen of the US of A you cannot sign away your rights, and litigation is one of those rights.
 
ThundahBeagle

ThundahBeagle

Rank V

Advocate I

K12 said:
There is an easy fix for this. Non-liability agreement, agreement not to sue due to negligence on the part of the renting party and any fees that you as the owner of the rig incure from the person using it will be charges to the renter.

I had to do many release of liability agreements when working as a firearms instructor. Luckily nothing bad every happened, but it does give peace of mind that if something goes wrong you are not going to get stuck with someone else's medical bills because they wearnt paying attention or negligent.
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That is, as I have called it, a waiver. A speed bump en route to a trial. As you have said, and thank God, nothing bad ever happened.


I guarantee if something bad HAD happened, that non liability agreement would be as worthless as a tinker's dam. But you likely couldn't do business without it, according to your insurance company (and I presume you had insurance) or state regulations. But merely a false sense of security, at least in this commonwealth. OP is in Cali, so it's no less liberal there.

As @K12 just said, "making sure they have insurance to cover it"

Make sure you have insurance to cover it, is all.
 
ThundahBeagle

ThundahBeagle

Rank V

Advocate I

Caddis said:
If it was good enough to blanket you with firearms training, it should be a good option for renting a trailer. I like it.
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It didn't "blanket" him or even cover him. It's an attempt to "hold harmless". Sometimes they are required but they are very easily beaten.
 
Viking1204

Viking1204

Rank V
Mod Team
Member
Investor

Member III

If I had a nice trailer setup for Overlanding there is no way I'd rent it out. Maybe let a friend I trust use it but once you start renting it out it will never be the same. People abuse rentals and you might not catch all the damage they cause until you're out using it in the future and have a failure due to the abuse done by a renter.
 
static

static

Rank III
Member

Enthusiast III

Counterpoint: certainly there are people out there who would abuse a rental, but I think the notion that all, or even most, people abuse rentals is unnecessarily pessimistic.

This isn’t quite the same thing, but my wife and I have been AirBnB hosts for several years. The overwhelming majority of our guests have been friendly, respectful, and took good care of our place while they visited. We’ve hosted hundreds of guests from all over the world and we’ve never had a single serious incident. The worst we’ve had to deal with is people being louder than we’d like (we have a strict quiet period out of respect for our neighbors), but even then they were polite and kind when we asked them to quiet down. Overall, we have found the experience of hosting to be surprisingly rewarding.

There are risks of course - you definitely want to have insurance against accidents and liability, and you’ll want to make sure you factor in increased wear and tear and maintenance when you set your price.

Offering up your overland trailer for rent may give people the opportunity to experience a form of camping that may otherwise be inaccessible to them. This could be a good thing for the Overlanding community as a whole.

I’m not saying you definitely should do it. There are real risks, and you should absolutely be clear-eyed about those risks. But people aren’t universally terrible, and there may be more upside to this than you might realize..

Either way, best of luck and safe travels :)

Kris
 
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