we buy small amounts of gear as and when we need it, if its alot then we hire it, dont want to buy big amounts for a job only for the work to dry up after! just hired 22 tonnes mixed load from generation for £1500 2 months, dont know how much that would have been to buy but until the time comes when we have that sort of money to buy, this is the safest bet for us. plus the bigger picture is, we havent got to transport all that gear from a to b costing loads in diesel, time, and hard work etc and its all brand new stuff so it looks good as well