Pull Behind Generator - Powering Your Portable Sanitation - Top Entrepreneurs Podcast

Grant Stahla, Co-owner of Stahla Services, a nationwide provider of restroom, shower, and ADA trailer rentals again joins Enterprise Radio.

On this episode, the focus will be on their pull behind generators, all the benefits and the specifics of renting one for powering your restroom needs.

Listen to host Eric Dye & guest Grant Stahla discuss the following:

(Host Eric Dye): Grant, why should our listeners care about pull-behind generators right now?

(Guest Grant Stahla): Yeah, good question. If you imagine a multi day music festival in a remote field or a long term construction site far from the grid, restroom and shower trailers are absolutely essential for those spots. But we have to make sure that we have good power supplying them. We have smaller portable generators like the Honda 3000 Watt and a Honda 7000 Watt which are typical generators we use, but it just won’t cut it for these multi day demanding and continuous applications. Today I’m excited to talk about the range of pull behind generators that range from 20 kilowatts to 40 kilowatts, which is our our most used, just most common generators that we’re going to use for these events and sites.

(Host Eric Dye): What exactly qualifies as a pull-behind generator in this range, and what’s its role?

(Guest Grant Stahla) : A pull behind generator. It’s a self-contained power unit mounted on a durable trailer. It’s designed for easy towing to various locations. Today, we’re going to talk about the 20 kilowatt to 40 kilowatt range and these units provide continuous capacity electrical outlet output. They commonly feature diesel engines to power them for fuel efficiency and durability. The origin of these generators stem from the need for mobile robust power. Systems, especially for remote sites lacking grid access, you’ll find them all the time at construction sites, large outdoor events, critical disaster relief operations and film production. And then, crucially, they’re engineered to support multiple high demand loads simultaneously, like a lot of A/C units or electric wall heaters that pull a lot of power. Unlike smaller generators, these things are purpose built for extended and heavy duty use.

(Host Eric Dye) : Walk us through the anatomy of these generators – what makes them work so effectively for our trailers?

(Guest Grant Stahla) : Yeah, you bet. So I’ll go pretty in depth with some of the technical deep dive for this. As far as the specifics for power output, like I mentioned a couple times, it’s 20,000 to 40,000 watts. Or you could say it another way. It’s 20 kilowatts to 40 kilowatts for an engine.cIt’s gonna be typically a Tier 4 diesel engine, which is just an emissions, an emissions and efficiency rating. And that’s the standard for modern units. Fuel capacity wise, they’re gonna have large onboard fuel tanks typically between 20 and 60 gallons. And they’re often designed to provide, provide 24 hours or even longer continuous run times at full load. So that’s a big fuel tank, the voltage output, so these units are incredibly versatile. They have voltage outputs that include 120 volts, 208 volts, 240 volts and 480 volts, which is really important when you go to a lot of different situations you’ll need to be able to change up the voltage to power. A variety of things at your site as far as sound attenuation, they come enclosed and then they have sound attenuated designs significantly reducing noise levels, often to around 63 to 66 decibels, which is just a little bit louder than the sound of a normal conversation. Weight and mobility wise, these are usually around 2000 to 4000 lbs.

Their purpose? Built on towable trailers for easy transport, typically you want to tow them at least with a half ton pickup as far as connection goes, you’ll find multiple outlets and robust connection points for various cables which allows for a flexible set up and then like I mentioned earlier, I wanna compare these with two other units that we commonly use. These are two Honda generators and they’re not towable. They are more a generator that you can lift into the back of your truck and transport it that way, and the first one is the Honda EU 3000. This unit offers around 3000 watts of output. It’s best for a single low power demand, perhaps running at two stall restroom trailer or a 4 stall restroom trailer. It can run the air conditioning, but if you need to run the if it’s in the winter and you need to run the electric wall heaters and the waste tank heaters, then you’re gonna want the bigger Honda EU 7000. It provides up to 7000 watts. Like its name implies, and it has 5500 watts of rated continuous output. It can handle some smaller loads like two smaller trailers at one time or two, you know, trailers with two air conditioner units which draw a heavier load. But typically you only want to run them for two or three days continuously, or ideally you know just a few hours for that event. It this runs on gasoline. Both of these do, and the 7000 has a 5.1 gallon fuel tank and the runtime on that is anywhere from 6.4 up to 16 hours on the 16 hours on the lowest output. It also comes with a wheeled kit for mobility, since it’s about 315 lbs without any fuel in it. The EU 3000 is about 130 lbs. without any fuel in it, and I did want to know that both of these models, our inverter models, which significantly increases the cost the Honda EU 3000 is about is about $3000 new and the EU 7000 is about $5000 new, but it makes the inverter technology way quieter. So this is one of the quietest generators in the market where you can have a conversation right next to it and you can hear the person that you’re having a conversation with, which is really good when you have these, uh, these at a wedding or an event. So in contrast to that, the 20 to 40 kilowatt pull behind generators are designed to handle multiple trailers. So multiple shower trailers, restroom trailers, or any combination typically that your per 10 kilowatts you can handle one trailer, so if you have a 20 kilowatt trailer kilowatt generator you can handle 2 trailers. You know, 30 kilowatt, 344 these run on diesel. They have very large tanks for multiple days of continuous operation and they’re built for rugged demands of towing and harsh environments. They have robust construction built in safety features for long term use and then for restroom and shower trailers, they’re able to support all multiple trailers, but also in the winter, they’re able to support the highest electrical demand when you have all of the electric heaters on. So that’s a pretty in depth technical deep dive of all the different levels of generators specifically for how they work with specialty trailers like restroom trailers and shower trailers.

(Host Eric Dye) : Help our listeners understand the pull-behind generator market – who are the major players and what should customers expect?

(Guest Grant Stahla) : You bet. So it’s a specialized market driven by the need for continuous high capacity power, especially where you don’t have access to it in the first place. It perfectly complements the significant growth in rushman shower trailers and increased construction demand, increasing events.

The major rental companies are giants like Sunbelt Rentals, Hurc Rentals & United Rentals. They offer the full lineup. Typically you’ll see the generators categorized as a range, so it’ll say 20 to 25 kilowatts, 26 to 30 kilowatts, 31 to 35 kilowatts, so it’ll have a range. The manufacturers of these typically, you’re gonna see Multiquip, Generac, Wacker Neuson, and Doosan, and their focus is on fuel efficiency. Quite, quite, operation. Ease of maintenance.

To support construction and events when you’re looking to acquire or rent one, some of the things that you really should be looking at is reliability, fuel efficiency, quiet operation, maintenance and service deployment and cost effectiveness of whether you should get multiple smaller units or one larger unit, so that’s a quick market overview of of the pull behind generator market.

(Host Eric Dye) : Give us some memorable stories of these generators in action, especially with trailers.

(Guest Grant Stahla) : Yeah, you bet. Happy to do that. I’m just gonna give you some scenarios. These aren’t specifically we may or may not have had these scenarios, but they’re helpful in kinda describing where they could be used. So the first one’s a large music festival. Yeah, three day festival in a rural area accommodating 5000 attendees. So then there would be 10 restroom trailers there, and four shower trailers. All seamlessly powered by a mix of 20 to 40 kilowatt pull behind generators. With all with those 14 trailers. Then you would wanna mix your of about 12 smaller generators or you could have 30 to 40 kilowatt generators depending on where the different sites were. If they’re all bundled into one location, or if each trailer was in a different spot.

So the second case study would be a remote construction camp. Long term pipeline project with over 100 workers in a remote camp, daily showers and comfortable restrooms are critical for those workers. In that situation, you’d want 230 kilowatt pull behind generators ran continuously for six months, and then you’d also want to make sure that you had extra fuel tank capacity, which is another thing you can rent or purchase, and they can be offloaded from the supply truck with either a crane or forklift. And you can put those right next to the generator.

The third case study is emergency disaster relief. So imagine following a major hurricane, a Community Center became a vital shelter for the community around it but the power grid was completely down. So in that situation, you’d want a single 25 kilowatt pull behind generator to provide critical power for the emergency restrooms, and the shower trailer. And to provide a little bit of extra power for residents to be able to plug in their phones and recharge their batteries.

From an ROI perspective for rental operators? Investing in these trailers could yield a high value contracts, multi day events, long term construction and emergency response. Ultimately, it could mean increased satisfaction because of the uninterrupted service, and you can run it from multiple days at a time.

So those are some of the examples of where you might be able to use power. Really you can use these towable generators anywhere, anywhere you have a need for power, but you it’s unexpectedly knocked out or. You’re building some sort of a big construction project and you’re definitely don’t have power yet or you’re have an influx of people like a large music festival and you don’t have the power required to power the entire stage set up so those are those are a few stories of where it could be useful.

(Host Eric Dye) : Let’s talk dollars and cents – what’s the real cost of getting one of these units working?

(Guest Grant Stahla) : Yeah. So purchase price to buy them new entry level 20 kilowatt diesel units, usually they range $23,000 to $28,000. The larger in size 25 to 30 kilowatts, you’re gonna be looking at $30,000 to $45,000 specifically at 36 kilowatt Generac towable generator is 37,500. For a 40 kilowatt unit, you’d be looking at $40,000 to $50,000 higher end units with some extra features could be $50,000 plus as far as rental markets, some of the standard rates for daily.

Daily rates for 20 kilowatt is $250 to $400 per day and for the larger units it could be $350 to $600 plus per day. Weekly rates often fall between $600 to $1200 per week. For the smaller 20 kilowatt units are $1000 to $1800 per week for the 30 kilowatt to 40 kilowatt units. And then once you get up to monthly, you can get significant discounts with the 20 kilowatt unit, you might be looking at $1800 to $3500 per month and then the larger units, the 30 kilowatt to 40 kilowatt, you’re looking at $2800 to $5000 per month. These rates usually include basic maintenance checks by the rental company, it’s important to note that specific rates vary widely based on location, rental duration, generator features, and any little items that are needed. In addition to that, but major rental companies often require direct quotes for accurate pricing. Some of the things driving those prices is the power output the features like sound attenuation? Remote monitoring capabilities in advanced controls fuel capacity emissions tier like the Tier 4 engines. The brand reputation of the manufacturer of that unit. And then another thing to consider is fuel. So diesel consumption is a major operating cost of these a 20 kilowatt unit consume one to two gallons per hour at full load. Specifically, 1.6 gallons per hour for 20 kilowatt is a pretty standard number, while a 40 kilowatt unit can consume 2 to 4 gallons per hour. Specifically, usually it’s 4 gallons per hour for the 40 kilowatt. So that cost daily fuel cost could be between $70 to over $300 per day depending on load and then delivery and pickup. That’s another factor. It could range between $150 to $500 plus depending on how far away it is refueling services. So rental companies often offer this service. Typically you’re going to pay a premium per gallon and then if something breaks, that’s outside of normal wear and tear, you’ll need to pay generator technicians to come out and work on the generators. So these generators definitely support multi trailer deployments, deployments, multi day deployments, directly increasing overall project revenue.

Finally, regarding target buyers versus renters, so purchasing makes sense for very high utilization scenarios such as a dedicated large event company or a major construction.

Confirm with consistent ongoing needs or for businesses specifically renting or building a rental fleet and then rentals are ideal for most event companies and contractors who need flexible power solutions without the significant capital investment, ongoing maintenance burden and storage requirements of ownership. So that’s an overview of the purchasing and some of the rental numbers.

(Host Eric Dye) : What separates smooth operations from costly problems with these pull-behind generators?

(Guest Grant Stahla) : For sure. Operational excellence is key to avoiding headaches and ensuring seamless power for the pre deployment checklist, you’ll want to verify fuel levels are good. Check all the fluid levels like oil and coolant. Ensure all the electrical connections are secure and the correct voltage is selected for what you need and then checking tire pressure is a big deal. Also, performing a test start to ensure the unit starts and runs smoothly, is a big deal.

On site management. You wanna make sure it’s a safe distance from people and structures? Regularly monitor fuel levels and then listen for any unusual noises you want to ensure the total load doesn’t exceed the generator’s capacity and if possible, stagger high demand appliances or uses for from different times of the day. And then you wanna implement a safe scheduled refueling plan to avoid running out running completely out of fuel.

As far as the maintenance schedule, that’s best, following the manufacturers recommendation for oil changes, filter replacements and system checks, and then some of the critical spare parts to have on hand. If you own one of these is fuel filters, oil filters, air filters, spare belts for the fan and alternator spare fuses, electrical connections and coolant. And then some of the common issues are fuel issues like running out of fuel or having contaminated fuel overloading the generators, starting problems due to battery issues or cold weather. Environmental factors like dust or extreme temperatures and sometimes rain.

That’s some of the some of the maintenance and preventive maintenance you can do to help run those generators.

(Host Eric Dye) : Where is pull-behind generator technology headed next?

(Guest Grant Stahla) : Yeah, the industry is constantly innovating like a lot of different industries. This one’s driven by efficiency, environmental concerns and smart technology. So you want to expect continued development of the Tier 4 final engines as environmental regulations become stricter. The focus is going to remain on optimizing fuel consumption and then with smart technology, there’s going to be more remote monitoring and telematics. So this real time data on fuel levels, load runtime and predictive maintenance alerts and then also having GPS tracking for fleet management is also becoming ubiquitous. There’s already hybrid and alternative fuel systems. These can reduce generator runtime at low loads or provide peak savings capabilities, and then diesel definitely remains dominant for high power, but there’s always exploring. For alternative fuels and then enhanced sound attenuation, prior designs are constantly being developed. Crucial for urban environments and sensitive event locations, and then just compact designs, manufacturers are striving for more power in smaller footprints.

So those are some of the big technologies and advancements that are happening in this industry.

(Host Eric Dye) : Grant, give us the one thing listeners should remember about pull-behind generators.

(Guest Grant Stahla) : You bet, yeah. So these generators are great when you have multi trailer, multi day events or use cases.

Definitely recommend these if you have more than one trailer, or if you’re at a construction site where you’re doing a project longer than even a couple days so will pull behind generators or just indispensable when you’re needing that portable power.

Definitely check this out at Stahla.com where we have resources to help you get generators, if we don’t have them available and help get you set up if you don’t have power, to power one of our specialty restroom or shower trailers.

Tune into our ALL ABOUT Stahla Services Podcast Series – right here.

About Grant & Erin Stahla

Grant and Erin Stahla are entrepreneurs passionate about redefining portable sanitation and creating a business that reflects their values—care for people, excellence in service, and faith-driven leadership.

Their journey began with a shared passion for business, which became the foundation of their relationship. While most couples start with small talk, Grant and Erin’s first date was spent discussing sales, marketing, and operations. Grant launched Stahla Services right out of college, and Erin joined him in the business after they got married. Together, they’ve built a company that not only delivers exceptional service but also prioritizes strong relationships—with customers, employees, and the community.

Beyond their work, Grant and Erin are committed to personal growth, mentoring young entrepreneurs, and giving back through their support of Love Justice International, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing human trafficking. Their business is an extension of their mission to serve others while fostering a life centered on faith, family, and integrity.

About Stahla Services

At Stahla Services, we believe restrooms should be more than just a necessity. That’s why we provide restroom and shower trailer rentals that offer a clean, comfortable, and premium experience for event guests, construction crews, and businesses alike.

Unlike standard porta-potties, our facilities feel more like high-end hotel restrooms, featuring:

✅ Climate control for comfort in any season
✅ Fresh running water and modern fixtures
✅ Spacious, spotless interiors with fully stocked supplies

Whether you are hosting a wedding, managing a construction site, or organizing a corporate event, we deliver reliable service with a commitment to excellence. Our team ensures that your restroom experience is seamless, from setup to pickup, so you can focus on what matters most.

Beyond business, we’re driven by a purpose—to do things the right way, give back to those in need, and create opportunities for growth. With every rental, a portion of our profits supports Love Justice International in their fight against human trafficking.

At Stahla Services, we’re more than just a restroom rental company—we’re a team dedicated to providing comfort, reliability, and care in every interaction.