On Tuesday, June 26, 2018 at 1:15:41 AM UTC-4, Deodiaus wrote:
I hooked my rental portable electric generator to the back of my truck. In doing so, I destroyed the wheels. I thought that a 5 mi ride would not be that much. It ended up over heating the plastic wheels [with no ball bearings] and they melted. It was intentionally designed to fail as I had done this with a 1950 [all metal wheels] wheelbarrow.
It was stupid. I must have gotten the idea seeing other trucks towing theirs. I think that they were rated for that, probably had a hitch.
Now, the rental place wants to charge me a lot. I am willing to pay, but they seem to attribute every damage on that unit to my doing on a heavily used unit, EC86COOL which they claim is worth $5K.
How can I "lawyer out" of this?
Claim that there was no written notice regarding that this unit cannot be towed behind a truck? I think if someone sues a ladder company due to not putting a notice for some stupid lack of notice, i.e. don't stand on top rung, can I pull this off on the rental.


I'm betting you didn't tow it when you picked it up? If they saw you hooking it up and leaving that way, that would be your first defense. But if not and it doesn't have a hitch then I think you're hosed. Did you damage it other than the wheels? How much are new wheels if you bought them? I'd say that amount plus $75 to $100 is fair, assuming it's easy to swap the wheels.. They are also entitled to loss of use, for the time its out of service. If they want that, ask them to prove that all similar units were rented during the time that it was out of service for repair, by showing you their rental records. You can try to lawyer out of it by offering to pay a fair amount and no more. If they want more, refuse to pay, they will have to sue you and it's not likely they will. And read the contract, what does it say about damages?