A straddle stacker carries its stability in two legs that run either side of the load rather than in a counterweight behind the mast, and that single design choice decides whether it suits your building. Hire sits around $400 to $700 a week. Before the rate matters, measure what is under your pallets and how wide your legs can spread.
The legs have to pass under or beside the load
Straddle legs sit low and wide, so they need either an open bottom pallet they can slide beneath or clear floor either side of the load. Closed deck pallets, crates sitting flat on the floor and machinery on skids stop the machine dead. Check a real pallet from your own stock, not a drawing of one.
Straddle, reach leg or counterbalanced
A straddle model handles the widest range of load widths and puts nothing behind the mast. A reach leg version narrows the stance and reaches the forks out instead. A counterbalanced pedestrian stacker needs no legs at all and no clearance, and pays for it in length, weight and rate. Your pallets pick between them.
Measure the aisle and the bottom beam
Two numbers stop more hires than lift height does: the aisle a machine needs to turn and place a pallet square, and the clearance under your lowest racking beam for the legs to run in. Give both to the counter with your pallet dimensions and let them size the machine, rather than picking a lift height off a page.
What arrives with the machine
Electric stackers come with a battery and a charger, and the charger needs a socket that will carry it overnight in a place it can sit safely. Confirm the plug and the voltage before delivery. On a short hire, the yard usually sends the machine charged, which buys you the first shift and no more.
Questions people ask about straddle stacker rental
Do I need forklift training to use a stacker?
For work use, yes. OSHA treats powered industrial trucks as a class and a pedestrian stacker is in it, so the employer owes training and evaluation on that type of truck. The rental counter can hand over the machine, but it cannot hand over the training obligation.
How high will a rental straddle stacker lift?
The common hire machines reach somewhere between about ten and fourteen feet, which covers two or three levels of light racking. Taller masts exist but are ordered in rather than kept on the lot. Ask for lift height to the top of the forks, and check your ceiling and your sprinkler heads.
Can it go outside on a yard?
Only if the surface is smooth and level. Small polyurethane wheels and low ground clearance mean gravel, kerbs and slopes are out. For a mixed indoor and outdoor job you want a counterbalanced truck with pneumatic tyres instead, and that is a different rate.