Semi Trailer Prices? I have a lot

I am debating on whether to call a scrapper.. With prices down and the fear of them going lower I wonder if now is a good time.

Long story short from my research I have a few options. I can call the scrap yard and have them pay me .04 a pound to haul the trailers away or I can hire someone to do it. At .04 a pound you figure they will give me about $300 per trailer.

Should I take the $300ish per trailer or should I call a scrapper or should I just wait a couple years or so to see if prices rise? I'm not in a hurry, they are not an eye sore so opinions would be appreciated.

Thank you!

What type of trailers? Are they aluminum or steel? Is the scrap yard going to dock you for tires, wood, fiberglass, etc?

More importantly, do you have someone with a semi that will haul them for you? What will they charge? Hopefully it will be less than $300 per trailer.

Where are they located ?

The scrap yard is not far, they said they would pay me .04 cents to take them off my property. The trailers are aluminum, but obviously there is steel in conjunction with the aluminum

I would seriously advise NOT selling aluminum trailers for $.04 a lb. You will make a lot more money by cutting them up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by C16

The scrap yard is not far, they said they would pay me .04 cents to take them off my property. The trailers are aluminum, but obviously there is steel in conjunction with the aluminum

.04 a pound with the scrap yard doing all the work is a good deal given the current prices around here. At the same time, if you can hang onto them that would be my first choice. Scrap prices will eventually increase as they always do. I make a living moving scrap like this and could not afford to give you .04 a pound.

If the sides are actually aluminum and not fiberglass 4 cents a pound currently isn’t really that bad.we used to pay 6 cents a pound if you brought them in a year ago. If you have to have someone cut them up on site unless they are driving a 100 cubic yard dump trailer around chances are they will not pay you anything due to the work involved. If you do find someone that will pay you to cut them up and all they have is a pick up truck they will not be making anything themselves after paying to get rid of wood and tires, and fuel to cut and haul all that. Back when I left the yard I was working at I figured out that a 53’ aluminum dry van could bring in around $1000-$1500 cut up and prepared. That was with prices around 40 cents per aluminum pound and 5-6 per steel pound. It would take me 4-10 hours to cut one up depending on how it’s made and the tools available. Problem is that’s a lot of aluminum to haul so if you don’t have access to a trailer big enough that’s like another full 4 hours cutting with concrete saw. There’s at least one full 6x12 dumper trailer full of wood in there, 2 if you got a wood floor. Plus airlines and tires. Tires are $10 each to get rid of if they can’t be retreaded. So that’s $80 in tires and $120 or more for trash that you gotta pay to get rid of unless you have a wood recycler nearby. That leaves you with $800 for about two or 3 full days of work and travel expenses if the yards right down the road and your able to make trips to the yard all day long. If I paid you $300 and had $50 of gas and wear on truck, I’m down to 450 for 30 hours of ball busting work and wear on all my tools. That’s less than $20 an hour I’d be making to tear up your trailer. And that if prices are the same as they were when I left country. They are probably lower now but I wouldn’t know as I’m in Europe for a bit wearing camo on everything.

If if you need them gone I would take what that yard gives you. If they can be rented as storage trailers I know guys can get like $600 a pop for some of them selling them as storage units. If you want to hold on to them do that but you also have to decide if the space they take up is worth that possible few hundred dollars in a few years. If they are junk and not doing nothing for no one get rid of them now and use the space for something else.

Also I may be able to get them cut up in 4-8 hours and patriot probably could too as long as he didn’t slow down much with his age but the average guy off the street might take up to a week per each trailer to cut up onsite. Longer if they’ve never done that type of work before. So the hourly numbers I estimated for myself would be way lower for most guys. If all they got is a concrete saw it’s gonna take them at least twice as long as me (2 days of cutting) and another $30 goes to blades and gas. If all they got is a sawzall they are making minimum wage at best. I won’t say what I use to cut them up but it gets the job done real quick if you know what your doing. It wasn’t a cheap tool either so if I’m setting up to use it onsite like that i’m Getting at least $40 an hour in my pocket from that job. Not saying that i’ll Be doing the work but that’s some of the things to think about if you are getting someone to cut them up onsite.

If you go with the yard and have them haul everything they are taking the gamble to loose or gain money, you have money in your pocket and they have the equipment to tear everything up on their site and dime. If you find someone with a semi to haul them unless they are doing you a favor they will be charging you at least $150 an hour to haul them how they work that out between charging by the mile, load, or hour is on them but that’s what their goal is. $150 an hour or more was what the companies I worked for tried to make to keep their semi’s on the road. Hope this helps.

Take the 4 cents a pound an have the yard come get them
i dont think prices are going back up
fuel is $3 a gallon and steel hasnt budge
scrap them now