At a rental counter a jib is an attachment rather than a machine: a fork mounted boom or a telehandler jib that turns a lifting machine into a crane of modest capacity. Expect roughly $40 to $90 a day on top of the carrier, and expect rated capacity to fall steeply as the jib extends.
A jib is hired with the machine that carries it
Nobody hires a jib alone unless the matching telehandler or forklift is already on rent. The attachment slides onto the forks or pins to the boom head, and it is rated against that specific carrier. Put both on one contract so the yard supplies a pairing it has a chart for.
The load chart that governs is the jib's own
The moment a jib goes on, the machine's original chart stops applying. The combination has its own chart giving capacity by boom angle, extension and jib length, and the figures are far below the bare machine's. Read it at the position you will actually lift from, not at the best case on the page.
A suspended load changes how the machine behaves
A load hanging on a hook swings, and a swinging load moves the machine's centre of gravity in ways a pallet on forks never does. That is why this work is slow, why tag lines matter, and why the machine stands level and still. Wind counts here as it does not on a normal lift.
Where a jib is the answer, and where a crane is
A jib suits setting a piece of a few hundred pounds at moderate height, once or twice: a rooftop unit, a beam, a tank. Where the picks are repeated, heavy, or over anybody's head, the honest answer is an operated crane, and most yards will say so before you do.
Questions people ask about jib rental
Do I need a crane operator to use one?
Not in the sense of a crane licence, usually, but the person on the machine has to be trained on that machine and to understand the combined chart and the rigging. The equipment manual and the site rules set the bar, and both are stricter with a hook than with forks.
Can a jib go on any telehandler?
No. Attachments are approved against particular models, and the coupler, the hydraulics and the chart all have to match. That approval is exactly why yards prefer to send the pair together rather than fit an attachment to a machine you brought in.
How much will it lift?
Far less than the machine it hangs from, and less again the further it reaches. The numbers are on the chart supplied with the attachment. If your load sits close to the figure you read, treat that as a reason to hire something larger rather than a green light.