You guys get much stuff off the side of the road?

I seem to score alot of aluminum off the side of the highway, big peices of stuff like a fender off a double axle trailer that weighed about 20 lbs. last Sunday.



The biggest thing I ever found was the front part of an aluminum dump truck bed that had been cut up and I guess fell off some other scrappers trailer. I was in a car and went back for with my truck but as you'd expect it was long gone.

I went up in the mountains today to get a free trailer. Was running late so I didn't get them....but I saw numerous cans along the road.

Always finding stuff..from car parts to cans..even tools and cash.. It's one thing to see something "noticible" while driving in your truck, but to actually walk along the road, it's like being in a candy store.

Best place to pick bottles! Thats how I made money as a kid, the teens and alcoholics in small rural towns love throwing beer bottles at signs, its actually an art to be able to do it at 60MPH, used to have a friend who could throw it over the cab of a truck and hit a sign ay 60MPH, needless to say....alcoholic lol I never ever picked the whole ditches, just by the signs!

In Indiana, Road Crew is the big thing for community service when you get hit with a charge. However, they tend to bag up the trash and leave the bags on the side of the highway for a week or two until the county designates a day to pick them up. I have absconded with road crew bags for can sorting. Last time I did this I made well over 150 bucks.

I have found many items on the side of the road
I found a bumper to a 18 wheeler it weighed over 125 pounds and was all SS(was bent up)

I also found a SS bed cover for a truck (like F150) it was a double cover and weighed 100 pounds

I often pick up a muffler or 2, once I found an aluminum ladder and I live walking distance from an exit from a highway, sometimes I make it part of my route and pick up 5 or 6 lbs of cans in 20 minutes.

Found a 20" copper pipe just off the shoulder last time I had a flat tire.

Few yeas ago i saw a large pallet like crate with a big spool of bright copper something. just as i was getting ready to pull over i saw the owner walking along the shoulder from his truck.. I occasionally see the odd car battery and car part that was probably thrown from an accident, without one of those blocking trucks none of it is worth my life though.. The Cross Bronx in NY is a little dangerous for this kind of picking...lol..

Everybody seams to be talking about highways, but what about city streets. I will take different routs to places just to see what people put out by the curb. I know when most of the garbage needs to go out and I drive around and pick up anything worth while. I get a lot of appliances this way.

I also drive around on trash night and pick up anything worth while. A few nights ago I came across a house that had a central air unit, a 1,000ft spool of coax and 45lbs of extruded aluminum that I had to clean/prepare before scrapping. Sometimes, I will try and pick up free appliances and misc. metal items on craigslist but alot of it seems to be either a scam or other scrappers beat me to it. Goodluck!

I went out tonight and found a nice washer,cast iron firepit,a few sweepers I cut the cords on, alot of smaller misc. metals, atleast 200ft of extension cords, small bicycle and believe it or not I found a really nice JVC am/fm 3 disc cd changer stereo w/ nice bookshelf speakers. The stereo and speakers were in excellent condition and I hooked everything when I got home and it sounds great! Overall, not a bad night but would of liked to find more appliances.

Originally Posted by Rob_B

I also drive around on trash night and pick up anything worth while. A few nights ago I came across a house that had a central air unit, a 1,000ft spool of coax and 45lbs of extruded aluminum that I had to clean/prepare before scrapping. Sometimes, I will try and pick up free appliances and misc. metal items on craigslist but alot of it seems to be either a scam or other scrappers beat me to it. Goodluck!

Do you guys actually stop outside peoples house and go threw theyre trash?

Originally Posted by dherik

Like many other divers, I don't go through dumpsters,but if there's a pile on the side of the road I have been known to stop.

Nothing wrong with that. If you actually did go through bins you would probably get a hell of a lot of scrap but someone would probably call the police.

Originally Posted by rca987

Picked up a full size fridge, and 2 mattresses on the side of a highway a few nights ago.

What do you do with mattresses?

i was wondering the same thing