Would You Rent Out Your Snowmobile?

Would you rent your sled to a complete stranger if it would help cover some of the costs of owning a snowmobile? I asked myself this question after I received an e-mail today from a company that enables owners to rent their powersports vehicles to “qualified, insured parties.”

Fun2rent.com a firm that provides insurance and facilitates the transaction by providing the forms needed for rentals along with the platform for the listing. Renters are pre-qualified for the equipment they rent. The company’s program is in its early stages in California, connecting would-be renters with ATV, motorcycle and watercraft owners, and its ready to expand nationally.

This is an interesting program that could catch on as people look for ways to reduce the financial impact of powersports. How do you feel about making your snowmobile — or ATV, boat, PWC and motorcycle — available for someone else to ride without your supervision? I’d be pretty wary about doing it because, well, no doubt you’ve heard the expression: “Ride it like a rental.”

Even though the company’s website says renters would be qualified to ride and I’d go over safety features and operational procedures with the renter, my pessimistic soul says there’s a one-in-a-thousand chance that my sled would be returned undamaged or unworn. Maybe I don’t put enough faith in my fellow men and women, but I know that snowmobiling requires a set of learned skills that are needed to ride without causing accelerated wear or harm to the machine, and to do it safely. I’ll leave it to snowmobile rental shops to bear this burden and keep my snowmobiles to myself.

— Andy Swanson, Managing Editor Snow Goer magazine