Scrapping several trailers on one property. Need Advice! (With Pics) - Page 2

You could put an ad on craigslist for trailer parts. Make the people take the parts out themselves and charge them twice the scrap value.

Originally Posted by Instaed

What were you thinking? Windows? Stuff comes out pretty torn up with several layers of years of house paint. I like where your heads at Scrap Man.

I mean let them go in and take a look at anything they may want before you start tearing it apart. Even if you wanted to give any non metal away, it would save a lot on dump fees

Originally Posted by Scrap man

I mean let them go in and take a look at anything they may want before you start tearing it apart. Even if you wanted to give any non metal away, it would save a lot on dump fees

Sounds like a very good idea. You have my wheels turning.

Glad I could help

Looks like your doing good, may i suggest you DO NOT cash in any non ferrous (copper, aluminum, wire, etc) until you have it all out of the trailers, you get better prices the more weight you have, cashing in small loads at a time may put money in your pocket but you would be surprised how much of a difference in price you can get when your cashing in hundreds of pounds a pose to A hundred pounds..

***Keep your MAGNET Handy!***

Brass is at an all time high here in Oregon at 2.10 a pound. It comes in many colors (Red, Yellow, White) Faucets, Bathtub Drains, Water Spouts.. Even toilets usually have a little brass inside the plumbing (including some toilet handles)



Inside the walls of the house should be high grade wire, Romex or the likes.. Keep the high gauge wire seperated from your other wires (example: speaker wire, electrical plugins, etc) it will bring in a better price and if you can burn the rubber off you can get a copper price. If you wash the burnt wire in a bucket with bleach/comet and get the black off of it you will have bright copper, which here in oregon brings in over 4.00 a pound

Go grab some recycleing bins/garbage cans from your local yard and start throwing your brass/wire/copper in them. If possible, cash in ferrous metals when you need to money...

When you do have all your metal removed and piled up ready to cash in try and do a rough estimate on what you have. Grab your house scale and weigh a bucket or two, call around and see who is paying what, ask if they can give you +.20-50 per pound for what you have because you have "xxx" amount of pounds. Chances are they will be more than happy to give you a better price.

You have a chance at some very good money if you do this job right and i hope my little bit of info helps, any further questions feel free to call me 503-875-1097 my name is tyler and i hope my info helps.

$2.10 for brass and $4 for copper??? That's quite a bit. Are you selling it directly to some kind of metal processing facility? Also, burning the insulation off copper wire is illegal, toxic to anyone near it, and extremely bad for the environment. Take a box cutter or knife and strip it that way.

Originally Posted by hobo finds

Contact the local Fire Dept and see if they want to do a live fire drill on one of them. I am sure that they will only do one but after its burnt only metal left...

I was gonna suggest something like this, but I was gonna say just light the thing on fire yourself after stripping out the goodies

For the screws, did you try a cordless drill or screwdriver? Or is it some kind of weird screw?

If these are screws holding aluminum lapped over the next aluminum sheet - how about a Sawzall? Put the blade between the aluminum sheets and just cut downward. Should go pretty quickly.

Originally Posted by hobo finds

I would use a drill bit that cuts out circles then you could cut around the screw and pull up the alum leaving the screw in the wood

(No sawzall on site as yet. btw)

Woke up to no water on the property today.

I replaced some parts and got water at the pump house, but the lines to the homes on the property wont charge.
Pump house


The care taker came behind me and turned a valve in the line and then proceeded to inform me the the valve has been problematic in the past. Looks like I will be doing other work in the morning besides the trailer demo. Replace the valve.

We were able to get over there for a few hours today though.

I hooked a 2,000lb winch up to see if it would help.




Here we are so far.

Basically spent the day looking for the water leak on the property, finding it (A blown valve) and trying to get parts to fix it.

My wife threw her shoulder out scrapping the trailer and I put it back in. My truck is making a new noise up in the front differential that I haven't heard before.

The trailer is still days away from harvesting the frame and the roads in and out of the property are a muddy mess. My truck is filthy and none of us have showered in 2.5 days.

We haven't gone to the scrap yard as yet and if I don't get some money in soon, I will lose internet. Not to mention others bills.

Looking now for something my wife and I can do on craigslist to get some income flowing. We can get down to Atlanta pretty easily for work and are searching further south into Florida as well.

I have ten years as a dish network technician and can paint or whatever. If anyone has ideas please let me know.

Blown valve. Day two with no water service.

If the roads get bad, try putting hay or woodchips on the particularly bad spots. It really helps