Even in the best of times, Hawai‘i builders can’t be sure that buying construction equipment will pay off.
Market fluctuations, the steep cost of upkeep and skyrocketing insurance often discourage ownership.
Today, as new market crises unfold, those considerations might carry even more weight.
With this in mind — and with an eye to new cost-cutting technology — Building Industry Hawai‘i presents the top 2026-2027 rental machines and programs available from Hawai‘i’s leading construction equipment vendors.
Hawthorne Cat:
Mini Excavators, Trucks and Telehandlers
“It seems like everyone needs mini excavators at the moment,” remarks Michelle Palama, corporate machine rental manager at Hawthorne Cat Rentals in Waipahu.
Cat 305s, 306s and 308s have been in high demand to start off the year, she reports. “The small footprint of these machines is great for smaller home projects as well as busy projects that are tight on space.” She is also seeing high, statewide demand for “our Cat 309 with mulcher setup for contractors focused on land management projects.”
Within Cat’s rental fleet of on-road water trucks, dump trucks and off-road articulated dump trucks, “the water trucks by far are most popular,” Palama says, noting that they are “a great mobile solution” for project dust migration. “We offer them in both 2K- and 4K-gallon options.”
Palama says she is very excited to introduce the newly released Cat TH telehandlers to the Hawai‘i market: “They offer a roomy operator station, a load stability indication system for safer operation and solid tires.”
Hawthorne Cat rental equipment can be rented “for any duration,” Palama says. “For customers looking to rent long-term or eventually purchase their rental machine, we offer a rental purchase option to help customers build equity into [it].”
Bacon Universal:
New
Honolulu Facility, Lifts, Excavators,
Track Loaders
Bacon Rentals, a new standalone facility located directly opposite the existing Bacon Universal location on Ahua Street in Mapunapuna, opened in December.
The new Honolulu facility “is a significant step forward for our rental customers,” says Matt Elvin, Bacon Universal president and CEO. “It allows us to deliver a more focused rental experience while continuing to invest in the facilities and teams needed to support Hawai‘i’s jobsites.”
2026-2027 models include lifts, telehandlers, excavators, track loaders, trucks and more, and are available at all Bacon Rentals Hawai‘i locations unless noted otherwise.
“We are seeing sustained strong demand for aerial lifts and telehandlers and expect this to continue throughout 2026,” Elvin says.
“However, the traditional skid steer market is diminishing, as more customers choose compact track loaders for their superior performance on soft, uneven or wet terrain and increased stability when working on slopes.”
Customers are curious about the new Kubota SVL110-3 compact track loader, and “we intend to add this model to our Hawai‘i rental fleet,” Elvin says.
He reports mini excavators in Bacon’s rental fleet remain popular on compact jobstites and smaller projects. But “our customer base tends to lean more towards mid-size and large excavators, such as the Kubota U-35 and larger models, and we are seeing continued strong demand on all islands for these units.”
Lifts in Bacon Rentals’ fleet also span the spectrum, including its new JLG DaVinci AE1932 all-electric scissor lifts as well as traditional electric scissor lifts.
“The DaVinci features zero hydraulics, meaning it is completely electric, removing all hydraulic hoses and components, which eliminates leaks and reduces maintenance,” Elvin says. The lift “provides a maximum working height of 25 feet, with a maximum lift capacity of 606 pounds. JLG DaVinci scissor lifts are already deployed on construction projects across Hawai‘i, and customer feedback to date has been very positive.”
The JLG 1500AJP articulating boom lift, a 2026 newcomer, “will be available to rent in our O‘ahu rental fleet from early April,” Elvin says. Featuring a maximum working height of 156 feet and a maximum working outreach of 77 feet, it can lift up to 1,000 pounds.
The company is expanding its rental line-up of compact crawler boom lifts with additional sizes, and this year is adding two more JLG 1350SJP telescopic booms on O‘ahu and Maui.
Bacon is also expanding its construction truck rental fleet. The Ford F-150 Crew and Toyota Tacoma 4×4 Crews are available in limited locations.
Elvin says Bacon Rentals offers a wide range of solutions to “take care of our customers, including daily, weekly, monthly and long-term programs. Rent-to-own is a tool predominantly used by our equipment sales team, alongside other financial solutions, such as traditional finance, leasing and OEM-backed programs.”
Bacon Rentals also offers insurance options for all customers, who can add Bacon’s Rental Equipment Protection and Rental Liability Insurance onto their rental contract.
Service Rentals:
Excavators, Forklifts, Generators
Rysan Ouye, Service Rentals & Supplies Inc. (SRS) Kahului branch manager, says 2026 is shaping up to be a busy year with orders for equipment in most categories. “We have been surprised by the increased needs [for] mini-excavators and industrial 5K forklifts,” he notes.
He also sees steady demand for track loaders and mini skid steers, and very strong demand for the Kato 17V5 excavator and its 50V5 counterpart.
“We have started to see trends that some of our customers are acquiring their own light equipment,” Ouye reports. “It makes sense as light equipment is generally lower in cost and more readily available. As a result, we are seeing an uptick in need for our heavy equipment, which we have been fleeting up to accommodate the changing market. We offer programs for long-term rentals, and we love to work with our customers to get them the best deal for their projects.”
New SRS equipment includes a Voltstack lithium battery-powered generator unit that can be charged during the day, “so that you can use it to charge items at night when no one is on-site,” he says.
“While we are always on the lookout for new equipment types to add to our fleet, our main focus this year is to get back to the basics,” Ouye concludes. “We aim to fleet up on the machines that our customers have expressed the most interest in, which are telehandlers, boom lifts and other aerial types.”
SITECH Hawai‘i: GNSS, UAVs, Tech Support
Honolulu-based SITECH Hawai‘i (“Sitech Hawai‘i”), is part of a global network that offers Trimble heavy-civil digital technology.
“Many of Sitech Hawai‘i’s core construction technology solutions … are available for both sale and rental,” says Brent Nakamura, Sitech Hawai‘i sales manager.
Nakamura reports strong 2025-2026 rental demand for GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) rover systems and base stations for site positioning and layout, machine control systems for excavators and dozers, robotic total stations for high-precision layout, terrestrial and aerial LiDAR (light detection and ranging) scanning tools for creating digital twins, construction lasers for grading and interior work, and UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) mapping solutions for topographic data collection and progress tracking.
Customers are consistently reporting measurable improvements across a wide range of operations, he says.
Since renting high-tech equipment is one thing but using it is another, “technical support is a core part of Sitech Hawai‘i’s rental program,” Nakamura says. “We provide setup assistance, onboarding and ongoing technical support to ensure customers are able to deploy the technology effectively and efficiently.”
“Support is standard with our rental agreements.”
New options planned for 2026-2027 include advanced GNSS and correction service integrations, expanded LiDAR and mapping solutions via UAV or handheld operations, enhanced machine control capabilities for a wider range of equipment classes and integrated digital workflows connecting field data to cloud-based project management platforms.
Pacific Pump and Power:
HDPE Pipe Fusion, Electric
Dri-Prime Pumps
Leading 2026 Hawai‘i projects are using Pacific Pump and Power (PPP) equipment, says Paul Leonard, company president.
“Dry Dock [5] construction at Pearl Harbor is our biggest project currently,” Leonard says. “They have many active sewer, clean water and saltwater bypasses as well as plans for a huge dewatering system and lots of pipe fusion work, both HDPE (high-density polyethylene) and PVC (polyvinyl chloride).
Another focus this year is pumping equipment as well as HDPE pipe fusion processes and air compressors.
PPP offers a full range of 32 different pump models, from small 2-inch electric submersibles up to 18-inch diesel-powered pumps that can move 15,000 gallons per minute.
As more jobsites become electrified, PPP is likewise “adding VFD (variable frequency drives) in rental cages to our fleet so that contractors can take advantage of power savings [while running] their temporary rental equipment,” Leonard says. “By partnering with Mitsubishi Electric (the second-largest VFD manufacturer in the world) we have the most robust, most cutting-edge equipment in the market. We have also started stocking large amounts of HDPE pipe in O‘ahu so that we can avoid lengthy lead times and high piecemeal shipping costs.
“We have added to our electric fleet so we now have 4-inch, 6-inch, 8-inch and 12-inch electric Dri-Prime pumps in our rental fleet as well as VFD control panels for them.”
Because PPP is a McElroy Certified rental facility, its fleet is “up to a very high standard with all like-new machines in near-perfect condition,” Leonard says. “We tend to have more of the higher-end models … with equipment like TracStar units that are on tracks and fully self-contained, making them more efficient.”
