Hand Truck Rental in Fresno: Get the Right Equipment Before Move Day

What Hand Truck Rental Covers and When You Need One

A hand truck is simply a two-wheeled upright dolly like the ones movers lean back and roll down a driveway. It’s a very basic tool that is still one of the single best ways to save your back, your walls and about two hours of your day for a typical move from Fresno.

We’re frequently asked, “Do I need to rent a hand truck?” The answer is “yes, in the vast majority of cases.” If you have an item weighing more than a basic kitchen chair, the right hand truck will change what was going to be a two-person job into a one-person job. We’re talking about a refrigerator, a washer, that filing cabinet in the spare bedroom you haven’t gone into since 2019. You aren’t going to be able to carry those items down the front walkway without help, never mind get them up into a moving truck.

Hand truck rental is a great choice in a move like this:

• Moving an appliance such as a refrigerator, washer or dryer out of a cramped Fresno kitchen or laundry closet
• Delivering stacked reusable moving boxes or bins from a garage to the truck and saving on multiple trips
• Rolling heavier pieces of furniture over a flat surface, a porch or the driveway
• Loading heavy boxes, like book boxes, tool chests or even a light safe

We’re often asked for hand truck rentals in the Tower District and close to Bulldog territories where they have a lot of older buildings that have very narrow hallways and doorways. A hand truck is easier to get through such spaces than trying to squeeze the side of a dresser with another human being and a wall that might also get marked up.

So, what exactly does a hand truck rental include? A rental hand truck is a properly maintained rental unit and comes to your home with the rest of your order of reusable moving boxes and any other items you ordered through EZPak Bins. No need for a detour to get one at a hardware store or a long wait to rent one. We deliver, you use and we come back to collect once you have wrapped up the move. That’s the entire package.

And even if you don’t have much to move like when moving a single bedroom in Clovis, a hand truck will cut your total loading time by half. Your knees will be thankful come the next morning.

Choosing the Right Type of Hand Truck for Your Job

Not every hand truck works for every load. People in Fresno frequently ask, “Do I just need a standard hand truck?” It depends on what you are moving.

Most people picture the classic upright hand truck: two wheels on the bottom, an L-frame with a flat ledge at the bottom that you can lean back and roll with it. It is best for stacked boxes, smaller appliances and any heavy load you can balance on its back. If you are just moving a lot of boxes or moving bins from the house to your truck, you probably will just need one of those hand trucks and that is what we include as part of our hand truck rental packages.

That said, there are situations to be aware of.

Moves in the Tower District or the area around Fresno State, for example, might entail lots of stairs, tight hallways or very heavy furniture that will need more than a basic upright hand truck to handle.

If this describes your situation, a furniture dolly is definitely your better option. A furniture dolly has four wheels and rests flat to the ground. Simply place the dresser or bookcase on top and roll it across the floor. We have furniture dollies available to rent too, so you can rent them at the same time.

Which one do you need?

• Hand truck: stacked moving boxes and bins.
• Furniture dolly: heavy furniture and large flat items.
• Not sure: rent one of each to avoid any stress.
• Hand truck: appliances, such as a mini fridge or microwave (with a strap).

If you’re moving a one or two-bedroom apartment in Fresno, we typically recommend renting a hand truck along with your reusable moving boxes. It will move everything much faster. Rather than hugging the plastic moving boxes and bins, you can just tilt and roll them.

If you don’t know what you need, give us a call at (559) 470-7904 and we can walk you through it for about two minutes. We do this all the time, and depending on your unit’s size and what will fit in the truck, we can often tell you exactly what you need.

What to do before you pick up your rental?

Even just a few minutes of planning ahead on moving day can be useful for your hand truck rental. Before we deliver your hand truck rental and reusable moving boxes, it is a good idea to just walk around your home and mentally make a list of the things you won’t be able to lift by hand.

We see this happen every week. A customer will rent a hand truck for their fridge but then realize about midway through the move that they also need it for a filing cabinet, a stacked washer-dryer, and six bins of books. If you know your load ahead of time, you’ll know exactly what to pull from the truck.

Fresno Moving Checklist:

Here’s what to do ahead of your rental delivery:

1. Walkthrough and measure doorways and hallways, particularly in older homes. Some homes near the Tower District have narrow hallways that can dictate how you angle the loaded hand truck to get it out the front door.
2. Clear out a direct path from the area where each item is currently standing to your front door or the garage. Move all rugs, shoes, and pet gates on the floor, and be sure you can easily pass through any room between you and the moving truck.
3. Count any stairs. If you have more than three or four, you’ll want a second person to help stabilize a tilted hand truck in the stairwell.
4. Decide if you also need a furniture dolly rental for wide, flat items like dressers or couches. A hand truck is best for tall, stackable loads, whereas a furniture dolly is designed for wide, heavy items. They’re two different tools for two different jobs. Not sure what one you need? In fact, it’s actually standard practice, and most clients moving a full house in either Clovis or Sanger get both.

One last note, when stacking our reusable bins on the hand truck, they clip nicely together, making them super easy to transport without them shifting around, so remember to still put the heaviest bins on the bottom – you’d be surprised at how often people forget that! Last but not least, always keep some moving straps, or even bungee cords available! Putting a strap around the top of your stacked bins can help prevent them from moving around the hand truck frame while you’re moving. I can’t stress this enough! A few seconds of strapping it down can save you a ton of work if your driveway is a bumpy one!

What to Inspect When You Pick Up a Rental Hand Truck

Take two minutes. That’s all you need to do to check a hand truck and avoid a nightmare on your moving day. I know you’re in a rush, you’ve got a moving date to meet, and you just want to grab a hand truck and head out. This is something that happens regularly in Fresno: a customer fills up a hand truck with a big, heavy dresser only to find out half of the way down the driveway near Tower District that one of the wheels was loose, and it all tips over with that dresser on it, ending up with a scratched dresser and a sore back. It only takes two minutes to check that out.

What to Look At

You should do a quick check before moving any hand truck rental. Check these things out before you roll it to your vehicle:

• Wheels and axle: Spin the wheels yourself – they should turn smoothly and not have any looseness or clicking sound
• Toe plate: The bottom lip of the hand truck should be flat and strong, not loose or bent
• Frame and welds: Check all the welds and metal bars, look for any visible damage like cracks or bends
• Hand grips: Check the hand grips on top to make sure that they’re solid, not loose, and not in pieces
• Air pressure: If the hand truck has air-filled tires, check them by squeezing them – they should feel firm and full

If your hand truck rental has passed the check, then it should be fine! However, there may be that one time where a hand truck rental may not be in great shape. Don’t worry about checking the hand truck too much! This is what our company prefers! If you rent a hand truck from EZPak Bins, we want you to feel comfortable loading it! Our hand trucks are inspected after each use, so they will always be ready and available when you pick up in Fresno. Even then, a quick visual check is still your responsibility – you know what you’re moving. If there are any issues with a hand truck rental during this check, let us know! Give us a call on (559) 470-7904 and we’ll work through it right away! We’ll just swap it out, we’d rather do that before you move rather than struggle on the day of a move! That’s our family business! At EZPak Bins, Matt and Elisa operate on trust. Renting a hand truck should work the same way renting our reusable moving boxes or furniture dollies do. All parts should work how they are supposed to.

Hand Truck Rental: Returning it and Avoiding Extra Charges

This is the step that most people forget about until the end of the rental period. You’re done moving, your movable packing boxes and bins are stacked and packed away in your new place, and the hand truck is now leaning on the wall of your garage. What’s next?

We pick up your hand truck rental. That’s it. Once you’re done with your rental period, we come to your house (we pick up in all parts of Fresno) to pick up the hand truck and your rental bins and boxes. No driving to the other end of town to deliver something, no waiting in line at a counter somewhere near Tower District on a Saturday morning.

What We Check for When Picking up Your Hand Truck

We see hand trucks get returned all the time. And most times, the hand trucks are in good shape, and that’s fine. But, in order for a smooth transaction, here is what we check for:

1. Make sure your hand truck is empty and that it’s not buried behind a stack of unpacked boxes in the spare room.
2. Check to make sure it wasn’t damaged during your rental period. There are always times where a hand truck can come back bent or has cracked wheels from being dragged on concrete stairs or down a flight of stairs.
3. Make sure the hand truck is available when we come back to pick it up. If you have any issues, just call us at 559-470-7904 before your rental period is over to reschedule your pick up or extend your rental.

Especially the third point. Every one of our rentals comes with a free extra week of rental so that you are always prepared. That being said, if your move runs long, and you don’t let us know, then you’ll need to pay extra. So just give us a text or call and we can make sure all is good.

What do we consider damage? Well, any hand trucks can get scuffed during the move, so there will be normal scuffs on the base plate from moving it around. We don’t penalize customers for cosmetic stuff. A hand truck that has been dragged down the freeway from Clovis is what we consider damage. In fact, since EZPak Bins started back in 2023, Matt and Elisa only had to charge for damage twice. Most customers have taken great care of our equipment.

Also, we often have customers ask, “Is it okay to leave it on my porch?”. And the answer is yes. If you won’t be home for the pick up, then just place the hand truck somewhere where the driver can easily find it. We’ll send you a notification once the hand truck has been picked up. No need for a check, no need for a contract signature. It’s that simple.

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