Loaned my trailer out, bad idea

I used to make people write what they were taking and when AND made them leave collateral. I made sure they knew they would have to replace it if they broke it, and they would not be able to borrow anything again until what they borrowed was returned. When I started that my tools stopped disappearing, and stopped coming back broken and dirty.

 

Nice trailer, it's a shame other people don't respect your stuff.

Man, they broke some things that shouldn't be broken! The lights I get, but the rest is just abuse!

 

Damn, looks like a lot of damage. They obviously can't back up a trailer to save their lives or they used the rear as a brush plow to break all the lights and it almost seems like it came unhooked on them while driving to break the W/D components, break an S-hook on the chain and snap the breakaway cable. Was there a lot of dirt or gravel on the front edge of the trailer, like it took a nose dive?

 

I loan stuff out and borrow stuff when needed...but a loan or a borrow is a SHORT term deal, not months on end. Last tool I borrowed was a pressure washer, and when I started using it, I found a leaking float needle, it got returned repaired. And then I talked with the neighbor I borrowed it from and determined that the previous user (to clean my neigbors deck) supplied gas in his own can, probably with dirt in it...

But, in my world, if someone gets known for abusing other people's equipment, things can get very lonely and expensive for them.

BTW, I "lent" my truck out to my wife for the weekend to go see her parents 400 miles away and it came back full of gas.

I loaned my 94 Toy pickup out 10 years ago to a GF to haul mulch, her ADHD son, while unattended, scratched the blank out of the tailgate by shoving the wheelbarrow under it, soon after that, she became an ex-GF

 

^^^This is what I was taught

Just think, when the in-laws ask to borrow something in the future just say "I can't, I don't want it ending up in the mountains like MY TRAILOR!"

 

Beat idea I think haha