Software for the yard running towable generators.

A towable generator is the unit a rental yard sends when a job needs power and there is no utility to plug into. On a frac pad or a drilling location it runs for days without stopping; on a hospital or a data center it sits quietly as the backup that has to start when the line goes down; on a construction site it carries the trailers, lights, and tools before the permanent service is live. That range is exactly why generators are hard to run as a fleet: a prime-power unit piles on hours faster than anything else in the yard, a standby unit can sit idle but committed for a whole contract, and either one comes back with the fuel and cables that should have ridden with it. EquipFlow handles generators the way the yard that built it handles them — 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 towable 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.

Generators are where two kinds of money quietly leak on a rental yard. A prime-power unit running around the clock burns through service intervals fast, so PM has to track real run hours or the engine pays for it. A standby unit can sit a whole contract barely loaded, earning nothing extra unless the standby line actually reaches the invoice — and that committed-but-idle time is the single most-missed charge on a generator fleet. 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 from one unit record, the dispatcher quotes the right rate, the mechanic services against real hours, the bookkeeper bills the standby that was earned, and the month closes without anyone rebuilding it from memory.

Towable 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.

Prime power output

20-200kW

Standby power output

25-220kW

Fuel tank capacity

48-385gal

Runtime at 75% prime load

24-39hr

Sound level at 23 ft (7 m)

67-74dBA

Operating weight (trailer-mounted)

2450-5490lb

Engine displacement

2.2-9.0L

How EquipFlow handles towable generators on the dispatch board.

A towable generator gets dropped on a site and left, so the dispatch board treats it less like a machine that comes back nightly and more like an asset parked on rent for a long stretch. The dispatcher sees which units are placed, which are staged in the yard, and which are due back, on the same responsive screen at any hour. The trap with generators is the kit that has to ride along: the right power cable size and length, the camlock tails or distribution panel, the cord caps, and a full fuel tank. A generator delivered without the cables to land the load is a dead drop and a return trip, so the dispatcher confirms the accessories on the rental record before the truck leaves. Because the same prime-power class gets double-booked during overlapping outage windows and turnarounds, the board surfaces the conflict at assignment rather than at the gate.

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

Generator demand in the oilfield is mostly MSA-contracted, so the negotiated rate override lives on the customer record per equipment class rather than in a rate sheet the dispatcher keeps in their head. A generator rental created for that account applies the right rate on its own. Standby is the heart of generator billing: a unit dropped as a backup source can sit a whole job barely loaded, yet it is still committed to that customer and billed, so the dispatcher marks the standby line and the invoice carries it without a month-end rebuild. Delivery and pickup, cable and panel add-ons, and any fuel the yard supplies ride the same invoice. Tax jurisdiction is set on the delivery-site record, so a unit that worked across more than one county still gets the right rate per site. Invoices post to QuickBooks Online on close.

Maintenance on towable generators.

Generator PM is hour-meter driven, not calendar driven, and generators rack up hours faster than almost anything in the yard because a prime-power unit runs around the clock. A machine on a frac pad can burn through a service interval in a couple of weeks while a standby unit on a backup contract sits for a season barely turning over. The hour meter posts when the return inspection records it, and the maintenance module advances the PM clock from that reading so the next service lands on real run time. Generator PM leans heavily on oil and filter changes, fuel filters and water separators, coolant condition, and the air cleaner, because the engine is doing continuous-duty work rather than the start-stop life of most equipment. Work orders, parts, and meter history live on the unit record, which is also where a damage charge off a return inspection turns into a repair ticket.

Towable Generator return inspections.

Two inspection rhythms apply. While the unit is on rent the customer is responsible for the daily running check — fuel level, oil and coolant, leaks, and that nothing has tripped — which the operator does on site. The yard's own control is the return inspection: before a generator comes off rent, the driver runs a mobile-web checklist on a phone, no app install, captures the hour-meter reading, and attaches required photos that cannot be skipped. Generator-specific checks matter here: fuel level against what went out, the condition of the enclosure doors and louvers, the control panel and breakers, the receptacles and lugs, and any oil or coolant weep under the unit. The inspection ties to the rental record before the truck leaves the site, so a fuel shortfall or a damaged panel is documented with a photo and a timestamp behind it.

Common towable generator classes in the field.

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

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

Operator guides for running towable generators.

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

• Fuel and Environmental Charges on Rentals →
• Temporary Power and Light Tower Rentals →
• Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Rental Rate Structure →
• How to Forecast Equipment Demand →

What you give up running towable generators in EquipFlow.

EquipFlow is a web app, so the return inspection needs a signal to load. On a remote pad with no coverage the driver cannot finish the mobile inspection on site; most yards handle this by running it at the yard on return, which means the photos and hour reading land later than ideal. There is no built-in remote-monitoring or telematics integration today, so a generator's auto-start status, fuel level, and fault codes are not pulled from a manufacturer portal automatically — the hour meter and fuel level are captured at the return inspection instead. And the rate logic is built around the MSA-and-standby model the oilfield runs on; a yard with an unusual billing structure should bring it to the demo to be scoped honestly.