Last year I cut up an old garbage truck that had been sitting for 20 years, if I find my receipts I'll give you a breakdown. It was a HEIL rear-loader that was rotted out on a Chevy C-6500 single-axle.
ASSETS
-The body of the box went as #2 steel (18'' x 3' x appx 1/8" thick).
-The packer, hydraulic cylinders, frame, transmission (drained), rear end/axles/wheel hubs got cut into #1 Steel (18"x 5' x >1/4" thick)- "Five foot plate" as my yard calls it.
-I rolled the cab off (750 lbs, glad I'm not a little guy, I did it by hand :-P) and took it to the yard that crushes cars with all the other crap that was mixed or too thin for #2
-Motor got taken apart for motor cast.
LIABILITIES
-Disposal of tires
-Hydraulic fluid, motor oil, transmission grease, rear end grease (plan for 30-50 gallons in all, depending on the truck).
-Fiberglass hood
-Cutting gasses
It was worth it though, especially considering it was my first big truck to cut up, I got it all figured out on that one. The same people had me cut up an old water truck after that and it took 1/4 the time for 1/2 the value. :-D
As far as using an old truck there are MYRIADS of things that are or can be wrong on those old garbage trucks, the primary issues are the floor/frame of the box rotting out, the hydraulic system being destroyed, and the clutch/transmission being ground to nothing (the one I took apart had most of the teeth in the reverse gears gone). My Dad bought an old rear-loader as a spare for his Garbage route, got it for $8k and had to dump another $6k into it just to make it mostly reliable and DOT legal.
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