Gas and diesel packages on a steel base, set on a pad, beside a plant or out on a producing lease — load tested in Red Deer before they ship and serviced by NexSource for as long as they run.
A skid is the steel frame the engine, alternator, controls and enclosure are bolted to. Put that frame on axles and you have a trailer-mounted set. Leave it as a frame and it goes where a trailer can't: tight against a building, inside a fenced yard, onto a pad laid out for it.
The trade is the move. A trailer hitches up and leaves; a skid is lifted. So the choice comes down to one question — will the set stay put for this job? If it will, the skid is usually the tidier answer.
| Skid-mounted | Trailer-mounted | |
|---|---|---|
| Gets to site | On a deck or lowboy, lifted off at the other end | Towed in behind a truck |
| Sits on | A pad, cribbing, a level gravel base or a building floor | Its own axles and jacks |
| Footprint | The package and nothing else | Package plus tongue, axles and room to back it in |
| Moving it again | A planned lift | Hitch up and go |
| Suits | A set that stays in one place for the job | A site that changes or a job measured in weeks |
Need it on wheels after all? The towable side of the fleet is on leasing a portable generator, and everything on rent is on generator rentals in Alberta.
Read live from the inventory — the generators whose listings say they are built on a skid. Output, voltage, fuel and whether a set can be bought or taken on rent-to-own are on each card.
With no axles to level it, the base does that job. These are the things to settle before the truck is booked.
Level, firm and drained. A gravel pad, timber cribbing or concrete — what matters is that it stays level when the ground freezes and thaws.
Who gets the skid off the truck and onto the base, and with what. Settle it at quote time, along with any limits on height, swing room or overhead lines.
The route in for a loaded deck in every season the set will be there. Road bans and spring breakup decide when it can move.
A gas line, a propane supply or a diesel tank, plus the cable run to the panel or the distribution. Your electrical contractor's scope, or arranged with the package.
Room around the enclosure for airflow, exhaust and opening the service doors. A skid tucked too tight against a wall is a skid nobody can maintain.
The lift in reverse at the end of the term. Planning it now keeps the base clear of anything built later.
Running on site gas? The natural gas generator rental page covers the gas analysis and scrubbers. No gas? See diesel generator rental and fuel tanks.
A gas set on a skid beside the separator or the compressor building, burning the lease's own gas once the analysis clears it, and left there through the seasons.
Oilfield production →Prime or standby power set beside a building, often inside a fenced yard where a trailer's tongue and turning room would be in the way.
Commercial rentals →Generation placed for the duration of a project, where the site is laid out around the power rather than the power chasing the site.
Mining →Several packages set side by side on a prepared pad and paralleled to carry a load no single set could, with distribution between them.
Megawatt power →NexSource also designs and builds its own packages in Red Deer. If the fleet has nothing that fits the footprint or the duty, the NPI Series and power systems pages cover what can be built.
A generator package built on a steel base frame — the skid — instead of on a trailer. Engine, alternator, controls and usually the enclosure are fixed to the frame, so the whole package can be lifted, set down and moved as one piece. It has no wheels of its own; it travels on a truck and is placed where it will run.
If the set will stay in one spot for the job, a skid usually fits better: a smaller footprint, a lower and steadier base, and nothing to keep road-legal. If the site moves or the job is short, a trailer saves the lift each time. See leasing a portable generator for the trailer side of the fleet.
On a truck, then lifted onto a prepared base. The lift is part of the plan: what lifts it, where it sets down, and the route in. Talk it through when you request the quote and the logistics are quoted with the unit.
Yes, where the package is a gas set and the gas suits it. The gas analysis — liquids content, H₂S and line pressure — decides the scrubber and regulation the set needs. Several of the gas sets in the fleet can also run on propane.
Rental terms run from a short dispatch to multi-year contracts. Units flagged Rent to Own on the inventory let rental payments go toward buying the set, and most of the fleet is offered for sale as well as rent.
It is quoted per job. Size, fuel, term, distance from Red Deer, the lift and the distribution all move the number, so there is no rate card. The quote comes back in writing.
That is enough to pick the package, plan the set and quote it in writing. NexSource works out of Red Deer and supplies sites across Alberta.
