Software for the yard running inverter generators.

An inverter generator is the unit a rental yard hands out when a customer needs power that is both quiet and clean — power a sound engineer, a camera cart, or a rack of test gear can trust. Instead of a fixed engine speed, the engine throttles to the load and the output is rebuilt into a smooth waveform, which is why these units run softly and feed electronics that a conventional generator would upset. That same design is what makes them tricky to run as a fleet: they are small enough to walk off, they go out in pairs to be paralleled, and the gasoline that fuels them turns to varnish the moment a unit sits idle. EquipFlow runs inverter generators the way the yard that built it does — dispatch, billing, maintenance, and return inspection on one record per unit.

Built inside Rental King, right now.

Rental King is a heavy-equipment rental yard in Odessa and Midland, TX. They run inverter generators, manlifts, forklifts, light towers, generators, compressors, and water trucks on MSA contracts through the Permian Basin — 24/7, oilfield pace. EquipFlow was designed and first deployed inside that yard. Every feature was tested against their live operation before it shipped. The product runs there today.

Inverter generators are low-ticket, high-churn units, and the money on them leaks in small ways that add up across a fleet. A unit comes back with stale fuel and sits dead on the shelf, missing its next rental because no one logged that it needed a carburetor clean. A pair goes out to be paralleled and only one of the matched units actually goes, so the customer cannot make the load and the yard eats a return trip. Standby hours from a unit staged for the run of an event never reach the invoice. The hour meter is the spine of both maintenance and billing, so it has to be captured the same way every time — at return, on the inspection, against the rental record. When dispatch, billing, maintenance, and inspection all read one unit record, a small unit stops being a small loss.

Inverter Generator specs the rental record tracks.

Every number below is a sourced specification range. The render layer is the only path these values reach the page — they live on the unit record, not in a dispatcher's head.

Rated (continuous) output

1600-5500W

Surge (starting) output

2000-7000W

Dry weight

39-263lb

Noise at 1/4-to-full load

48-61dBA

Total harmonic distortion (max)

3%

Engine displacement

79-389cc

Gasoline tank capacity

0.95-5.1gal

How EquipFlow handles inverter generators on the dispatch board.

Inverter generators are small, light, and easy to carry, so they move on van runs and customer pickups far more than on flatbeds, and the dispatch board treats each unit as a line item that can ride out with a larger order or go alone. The trap is accessories: the parallel cable, the fuel can, the extension cordset, and the wheel kit are what make the unit usable, and a generator dispatched without the parallel kit a customer ordered for a paired load is a return trip. The dispatcher confirms the accessory bundle on the rental record before the unit leaves. Because the same small class is requested in pairs for paralleling, the board surfaces whether matched units are both available rather than discovering a mismatch at the counter.

Billing inverter generators — MSA, standby, and site-level tax.

Inverter-generator demand from contract accounts runs on the same MSA logic as the rest of the yard, so the negotiated rate override lives on the customer record per equipment class and a rental created for that account applies it automatically — no rate sheet for the counter to remember. These units sit idle and billable often: a unit staged at an event for the run of show or held overnight at a job trailer earns standby separate from active hours, and the dispatcher marks standby so the invoice carries both lines without a month-end rebuild. Because portable units cross county and city lines easily, tax is set on the delivery-site record so the right jurisdiction applies per site. Fuel, accessory, and delivery charges ride the same invoice, which posts to the books on close.

Maintenance on inverter generators.

Inverter-generator PM is hour-meter driven, not calendar driven, because a unit that powered a multi-day shoot can run continuously through an interval while a yard spare sits untouched for a season. The hour reading posts when the return inspection records it, and the maintenance module advances the PM clock from that reading so service lands on real run time. The engines are small and air-cooled, so the service rhythm centers on engine oil, the spark arrestor and muffler, the air filter, and the spark plug — and oil matters more than buyers expect, because a unit run for long stretches at light load can dilute and foul its oil faster than its hours suggest. Stale fuel is the other recurring job: carburetor varnish from gasoline left in an idle unit is a top reason a returned generator will not start. Work orders, parts, and meter history live on the unit record, where a damage charge from a return inspection becomes a repair ticket.

Inverter Generator return inspections.

Two inspection rhythms apply. The operator-facing pre-use check — fuel and oil level, a look for leaks, a clear exhaust path, and a working ground — is the customer's responsibility while the unit is on rent. The yard's own control is the return inspection: before an inverter generator comes off rent, the person receiving it runs a mobile-web checklist on a phone — no app install — captures the hour-meter reading, and attaches required photos that cannot be skipped. The checks that matter on this class are specific: a start-and-load test under a known load to confirm the unit actually makes power, the condition of the recoil or electric start, the inlet receptacles and the parallel port for burnt or spread contacts, the housing and carry handle for crash damage, and a smell and dip of the oil for dilution. Tying the return inspection to the rental record before the unit is shelved means a no-start or burnt outlet is caught at intake, not on the next rental.

Common inverter generator classes in the field.

The product, the same way it runs for inverter generators.

The sections below are the EquipFlow modules that matter most when running inverter generators — each links to the full feature detail.

Operator guides for running inverter generators.

Field-tested playbooks that go deeper on pricing, dispatch, billing, and maintenance for fleets like this.

• Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Rental Rate Structure →
• Fuel and Environmental Charges on Rentals →
• How to Forecast Equipment Demand →
• How to Manage Parts Inventory for Repairs →

What you give up running inverter generators in EquipFlow.

EquipFlow is a web app, so the return inspection needs a signal to load. A driver picking up a generator from a dead-zone site cannot finish the mobile inspection there; most yards run it at the yard on intake instead, so the photos and hour reading land a little later. There is no built-in telematics on a class this small — these units rarely carry connected meters — so run hours are captured by hand at the return inspection rather than pulled from a portal. And the start-and-load test that confirms a returned unit makes power is a checklist step a person performs, not something the software does on its own; the value is that the step is required and photographed, not skipped at a busy counter.