Why this buyer came to us
A maintenance contractor working on a refinery turnaround in eastern Saudi Arabia needed a 28 m diesel straight-boom lift on site for a 10-week shutdown window. Their preferred local supplier could not commit to delivery in the time required, and the rental rates in-country were running 3-4x normal because of the project surge. They asked us to quote a refurbished 860SJ FOB Jeddah, with photos of the actual unit and a 29-checkpoint report.
What we sourced
We held a 2019 JLG 860SJ in Shanghai, B-grade at intake (working order, paintwork worn, no structural issues). The unit was Tier-3 diesel, 28 m working height, with the original JLG control system. The buyer was happy with the 2019 vintage — the unit had been on a single Saudi site for most of its life, which meant consistent hours and a clean operating environment.
What the refurbishment covered
Our refurbished standard does not include full strip-down — the 4-level published scope here is: full external clean, single-coat repaint in JLG yellow to the original RAL, replacement of obviously worn consumables (filters, belts, batteries), functional test of all boom and slew functions, platform load test at 110% rated, and a written 29-checkpoint sign-off. We did not pull the hydraulic system and we did not replace the boom pins. For a 10-week shutdown rental role, that scope matched the buyer's needs and budget.
Turnaround was 11 days, including paint cure. The unit was loaded at Shanghai on day 14, sailed on day 16, and arrived at Jeddah on day 26. Total door-to-door was 28 days from PO, well inside the buyer's 6-week window.
What the buyer did next
The contractor commissioned the unit on arrival and ran it for the full 10-week window with daily pre-start checks. At the end of the shutdown, the unit was returned to a local dealer for trade-in. The 29-checkpoint report and the as-shipped photos went into the dealer's file and supported the trade-in valuation.
What we learned from this engagement
Refurbished is the right call for short-to-medium-term rental roles where the buyer values cosmetic and functional condition over a full structural rebuild. The price premium over as-is (roughly 20-25%) buys the buyer a unit that presents well and runs cleanly for the duration of the deployment, without the 50-80% premium that remanufactured would have added for work that was not needed for the role.