[susan53]

People aside, at least in Brit Eng it tends to depend how "big" the thing is and how long you want it for. So you would "rent " a house for a year but "hire" a rowing boat for an hour. That's usually a good "rule of thumb" guide for students.

But there's a mucky area in the "changeover" period - a semi-big thing for a semi-long period. And that's where regional and even individual differences come in - eg a car for a week. Because it becomes subjective. Is a car big or small? Is a week long or short? Some dialects/idiolects go one way and some the other - it becomes a matter of collocation rather than logic. Often, both are used interchangeably, as with rent/hire a car in Brit Eng. - so againstudents can relax. If in doubt, it probably doesn't matter.

I've no idea what a cherry picker is - I presume it's not something you use to pick cherries. So I don't know if it's big, small it is or how long you'd need it for. But the large/small thing long/short time may explain it and if it's in the middle, then again regional /individual differences will probably take over.