Rented a walk-behind trencher today

Tom in TN · Nov 25, 2011

I paid $145.00 today to rent a walk-behind trencher for one day. It goes back to the tool rental place tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM.

What a nightmare! This is first time I've ever used one so I didn't know what to look for when I picked it up.

1. The tires were so worn out it just stayed in one place and slipped when I was on some damp grass.

2. The frost-line here is typically no more than 12 inches, but I wanted to add some security so I verified with the tool rental guy that I could dig 24 inches deep. However, because the tires were so bare, I could never get deeper than 18 inches with out the machine sitting in one place with the tires spinning.

3. Maybe trenchers are supposed to be like this, but one of the tires was installed backwards - the traction bars on the tire were pointing the wrong direction.

4. The forward/reverse control was so sensitive, there was literally about a 2 mm range for neutral, otherwise it was either in forward or reverse.

5. I never could get the differential lock to work so that both wheels were driving at the same time.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to use my best Dave2 people skills to explain that I'm not at all satisfied with the performance of this machine.

Tom in TN

504 · Nov 25, 2011

We rented one to trench about 700ft of wire at church one time. I went home and got the 430 JD with bar tires and wheel weights,tied it on the trencher and pulled it or I think we would still be there digging today!

MarkB_MI · Nov 25, 2011

If you couldn't get the differential to lock, you probably should have called the rental place right up. Trenchers simply won't do anything with an unlocked differential.

I just got done using a similar trencher to put in a electrical cable. Even though the differential would lock and the tires were good, I still had a hard time. The ground was a little wet and the tire lugs would immediately fill up with clay and start slipping. If I tried to do two passes it worked a little better; when you put the trencher all the way down it tends to unload the tires.

A few years ago I rented a 48 inch trencher to put in a water line. As soon as I started trenching it began to rain and the thing started slipping. Then it sprang a hydraulic leak and puked out the fluid. I ended up fixing it myself and the rental place gave me a break on the rental and reimbursed me for the fluid.

Tip: Post hole diggers work great for cleaning out shallow parts of your trench.

Anonymous-0 · Nov 25, 2011

never seen one worth a chit.

dr sportster · Nov 25, 2011

It digs best when you stop. I rented one several times and it took me a least twice to get the hang of it. It beats digging by hand but what a bear to work with.There was plenty of bad language just getting back on the trailer. They kinda wear you out by lunch time.It was not a cheap rental either. Home Depot had a cheaper small one but every store I called said it was broken .That told me something about small ones.

huntingreen2day2 · Nov 25, 2011

Owned 3 of them in my life time. Two walk behinds and one rider. In my part of Tn we have a lot of rocks and those things aren't worth a darn in rocky ground. You can be digging along going to town and hit a rocky spot and you all but stop. The walk behinds will beat you to death with all that bouncing and jumping. Also never had one I did not spend a lot of time working on. All 3 of them were hard on belts and you have to learn the tricks to putting the digging chain back on after it jumps off.

Lee in Iowa · Nov 25, 2011

I rented a rider once. When I picked it up the backfill blade had been broken off by the previous renter. This should have been a clue. I got it home and started trying to trench and only the front two wheels would drive instead of all four like it was supposed to. I called the rental place and told them about it, they acted like they thought I had done something to break it. I reminded them about the blade and how I figured thats probably when all the damage was done. They said to go ahead and use it the way it was. I said I could probably get my job done, but it would take longer and I wouldn"t pay any more rent. They said okay. It wouldn"t work going uphill so we were able to run downhill all but one place, there we had to pull it with a come along anchored to the M.

Inno · Nov 25, 2011

I rented one about a month ago to trench for a natural gas line to my garage, about 150'. It took maybe 20 minutes to get the hang of it and it worked pretty well. Most of our soil here is clay and it has been a dry summer so it just came out in nice "flakes". I ran upon a few rocks, anything over 3-4" in diameter and you probably have to go around it.
As stated, it won't do anything without the diff. lock but you can't steer it with the diff lock locked in when you need to move it. Guy at the rental place gave me a 2 minute crash course and made sure I knew to go backwards with it. I guess they had a customer one time bring it back and tell him what a piece of junk it was, he couldn't do anything with it. It kept bucking and throwing him all over the place. Turns out he was trying to use it forwards!
I did about 150' in just under 2 hours with one interruption from a neighbor that wanted to borrow my rake.

Deere Scotty · Nov 26, 2011

I worked for a Rental company that rented a walk behind for a couple of years. I know...
1) Wont work in frozen ground at all!
2) Tree roots will will brake the teeth.
3) Even new tires will slip if muddy.
4) The tires should both face the same way.
5) Dont work well in hard dry ground.
6) The one we had would shake itself apart.
We. had a ride on model that weighed about 4500 lbs that would run fairly smooth, go about twice as fast, & was far safer if the boom teeth hit something in the ground. Rarely did anyone rent the walk behind a second time. People were satisfied to pay the $160 for the self propelled over the $109 for the walk behind. I learned my lessons just demonstrating to customers!

MarkB_MI · Nov 26, 2011

Speaking of rental trenchers, the other day at Home Depot I glanced over at their trenchers and noticed that one had the chain mounted backwards. That is, the cutters were pointing the wrong way! I'll bet the next renter wasn't happy. I thought about mentioning it to the rental department, but then realized that they probably wouldn't bother fixing it anyway.

Gun guru · Nov 26, 2011

Mark, Where was this Home depot located?

I have found that HD has gone downhill somewhat and Lowes is a way nicer place, better help, cleaner, less cluttered.

MarkB_MI · Nov 26, 2011

HD at I-75 & Joslin.

Lowes is OK for some stuff. I still associate them with the original stores in North Carolina, where I used to shop 25 years ago. Those stores were so bad they left a foul taste in my mouth that comes back every time I shop in Lowes. I try to spend money in the mom and pop hardware stores as much as possible, because when they're all gone we'll be left with only HD and Lowes.

Tom in TN · Nov 26, 2011

Okay, I just got back from returning the trencher. The manager, and a lady counter person, were very defensive. No complaints from anyone else. It was my fault for not calling them so they could bring another machine to me (3 or 4 hours delay). No way for the mechanic to know anything was wrong if the customer didn't tell them what to fix, etc.

They wouldn't make any concession on the rental price but they did offer a 15% discount on a future rental.

Using my best people skills, I explained to them where they could store their 15%.

Hey Fawteen, I've decided that you're not the only BHNP - I fit right in with you.

Tom in TN

Stephen Newell · Nov 26, 2011

At least the wheels stayed on it. The last time I rented a walk behind, the wheels kept comming off. I ended up going back three times before I got one that didn't break down. They did give me 50% off the rental. Having other bad luck stories with rentals, I now avoid them like the plague.

Fordman6442 · Nov 26, 2011

I bought a Vermeer walk behind this year and works great in the right conditions. They are not an excavator nor a mud sucker. I find if I trench then pull the auger dirt back about 18" with my Kubota I can re dig and gain the 4-6" sluff in.

LarryT · Nov 26, 2011

I won"t rent a walk behind. Had one a few years ago that liked to have killed me. Damn thing would jerk and jump and after about a half an hour I felt like I had done two days work. Tires slipped and chain would get hung up when ever you tried to make just a little curve. Had the same problem as you did with the forward and reverse. It was a Ditch Witch as I recall. It rented for about $120 a day and I was so P O"d that I took it back and told Sunstate to take it and shove it and that I was going to stop payment on the account. They immediately set me up with a rider at no extra fee for the weekend. Now that was Cadillac. So from then on I rent the rider for an extra $30. Four times the production, almost no fatigue, can go to six feet and not near as much slop over from the chain and auger. Before I wrote this I checked with Dan and they only have two walk behinds left that they rent for small jobs. They have fifteen riders and all are out this weekend. Happy Holidays to everyone. LarryT

Gun guru · Nov 26, 2011

That HD at I-75 and Joslyn road is a few miles from where I work. I have had bad luck with their self check-out scanners, horrible compared to the Meijer stores. I havent been in an HD in almost a year now.
I spent a fortune in the HD on M-59 near Lakeside mall 11 years ago when I built my home.
I support the smaller Ace/Aco/mom-pop places too.

kito169 · Nov 26, 2011

several years ago I rented a walk behind to trench 35 or so feet for a sewer drain from the house to septic tank. it dug only 18 inches at six inches deep in 1 hour and there was powdered brass everywhere from bushings being ground up. I was really mad and took it back to the rental place. They gave me a full refund. I went home still really mad and dug the trench by hand. When I finished 4 ours later I was not mad at all.

lloyd in sc · Nov 26, 2011

BTDT. I used a 1 blade subsoiler that I bought for 160 bucks & used a trench clean out shovel. A far better method..

DaveK(IN) · Nov 26, 2011

Regardless of how you dig it, a trench should be a reason to buy a trench clean out shovel. You"ll find a lot of uses for it after the trenching is done.

farmerjohninpa · Nov 28, 2011

only way to get thier attention is to unload it off the trailer and drive it through the front door,,,if ya happen to hit anything with it; tell them" that is why you brought it back so they could fix it, it seemed unsafe"

Morgan Flowers · Nov 28, 2011

Every one I've ever rented was wore completely out. Chain, engine, etc. So maybe one that isn't worn out digs better? I would think it would have to lol

brokenot · Nov 29, 2011

Walk behind trenchers do work well....or they wouldn't be as popular with contractors as they are. If there's a problem with a rental one, notify the dealer immediately.

After several years in the rental biz, I won't deny that there are dealers out there that don't take care of repairs and maintenance as they should, but there are also plenty of renters that misuse the equipment. Once we got a call from a contractor that wanted a rock chain put on one of our riders. We didn't have a rock chain available, and we told them so. They came in and rented the machine anyway, and I got a call a few hours later to go out and re-install the chain. I arrived to find the chain broken, because while the machine worked well in the soil, it somehow didn't work so well while cutting through an asphalt parking lot. They trenched about 200 feet through the ditch, and then got to the paved parking lot. They made it about 50 feet across the asphalt before breaking the chain.

Another time I got a call to pick up a walk behind trencher we had delivered a couple of hours earlier because "it worked fine and we're done with it". I arrived to find it with the digging chain bar still in the ground about 24" down. The contractor was merrily trenching along, hit a gas line, smelled the gas, shut the machine down.....and left the scene.

"We're done with it" indeed.

:shock:

:wink:

Dusty MI · Nov 29, 2011

There is a chain made for trenching through asphalt.

Dusty

Rented a walk-behind trencher today

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