Anyone Doing Equipment Share Agreements?

[GotAU?]

Hello wasn’t sure which forum to put this in, I was curious if anyone is involved with any type of a equipment share agreement with a club or individually with other partners? Where are you interested in maybe starting one?

Knowing how expensive some of the better detectors are, I was curious about the feasibility of sharing one with other partners. It would be especially beneficial for someone like myself that probably only detects for a total of just a few weeks if that out of the year.

I realize there’s a lot of risk if it’s not done correctly. It may be necessary to have that based on credit deposits or other means of ensuring the safety of the equipment.  And to reduce wear and tear on the equipment, one option is if partners owned their own coils and covers, and borrowed or rented the main unit when they go out. Sure would be a affordable way to be able to use a detector like a GPZ or 6000 for a lot less, especially for those of us that can only go for a short periods. I guess there will be other details like who owns it and what happens if people want to quit. That can be ironed out in the agreement as well, There are some great resources of other types of equipment share projects online along with their agreement forms to cover this.

Also, are there any commercial companies in the western US that rent them, particularly in Az? I know some people buy new ones and then flip them after their trip but that’s a big loss that I don’t want to do anymore. Anyway, let me know if you’re interested or if you can answer any of my questions above.

Thanks,

Anthony 

[Steve Herschbach]

It’s hard to do these sorts of things without somebody getting bent out of shape. I treat my gear extremely well. If my sharing buddy beat it up, I’d be unhappy. It’s not something I’d do personally.

Renting high dollar detectors is common in Australia, and almost unheard of here.

[GotAU?]

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It’s hard to do these sorts of things without somebody getting g bent out of shape. I treat my gear extremely well. If my sharing buddy beat it up, I’d be unhappy. It’s not something I’d do personally.

Renting high dollar detectors is common in Australia, and almost unheard of here.

I did hear of one place renting out GPZ’s in the US, story was that they apparently had the GPS settings set to tracking on and the concern was that they could later see were successful renters had used them.  There are some pretty high-end equipment rental “clubs” in some cities where people who live in apartments need tools and such. They seem to do pretty well and the legal agreements they use are binding. My friends in Portland belong to one and have borrowed 3D printers and other tech.

Anyways, maybe it’s not such a good idea. It’s definitely not for professional or full-time prospecting, and it would require a group of the right people to be successful.

 

[midalake]

Nice concept!! 

[GB_Amateur]

22 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I treat my gear extremely well. If my sharing buddy beat it up, I’d be unhappy.

22 hours ago, GotAU? said:

...It would require a group of the right people to be successful.  (emphasis mine)

A potential employee we interviewed at my last job told us about a machine shop cooperative in Louisville which seemed to function ok.  I was surprised.

In my experience with shared machine shops (at private companies, not cooperatives), things only went as smoothly as the messiest, most careless person involved.  It was common for certain individuals to fail to clean up after themselves and others to treated the equipment like they were in battle.  Usually the shop supervisor was stuck with cleaning up and repairing damage after the pigs (who almost always did their deeds after hours with no one watching).  In one case an excellently outfitted shop without a dedicated super ended up virtually worthless.  You couldn't find a sharp drill bit let alone a more specialized tool, and half the machines no longer functioned due to abuse.

Bottom line:  your weakest link better be pretty darn strong....