Swear to god I used to think rental places were just scapegoats and that most crews were blaming their own mistakes on the machines. Then last spring we had a power trowel that would just die every twenty minutes no matter what we did. We checked the fuel, the filters, everything. Turns out the carb was shot and the shop had just slapped a fresh sticker on it. That little episode cost us a whole day and I nearly ate the deposit on that job. So yeah, I get where you're coming from. I'm a believer now, these places will rent out anything that still rolls out the door. Hand floating in that heat sounds like pure hell, man, I feel for you.