For years I have parted out and scrapped a couple trucks a year, kinda piddled with it... year and a half ago I worked at an auto salvage yard doing sales and random stuff, occasionally I drove rollback, bought cars over the phone, internet sales all kinds of stuff... anyway several times a day I would get calls from people wanting junk cars picked up and I would basically buy them over the phone, send out a rollback with a check and we kept him fairly busy picking up cars from individuals or auctions and such... I would buy all kinds of junk cars for half of scrap price, we'd throw them in the inventory and sell parts off of them and when we cycled inventory the remains would get scrapped... I never had a big trailer to haul on so I always had to borrow my neighbor's trailer.... Recently I made a good purchase on a junk truck I sold a lot of parts off of in a hurry and made mint on the scrap leftovers, and it motivated me to get into the business of buying and scrapping cars. I bought a gooseneck trailer and have been hard at it since. The competition is fierce around here but I've been able to stay really busy at it somehow with practically no advertising. Picked up one Thursday, hauled it off yesterday morning, then went back and picked up a second one, stripped a bunch of parts off of it that I sold, and hauled it off, then picked up another last night, planned on taking it in monday morning, but had to roll it off the trailer so I could go pickup another this afternoon. So now I have two to haul in Monday. And I practically have a waiting list! I have a van to get when they return this week from vacation, and two grain trucks I will have to sub the hauling out to a friend who has a bigger trailer, if the scrapyard will take them whole (they use to require full size vans be cut in half so they fit in the crusher). If I can stay busy with this year round, I will have created for myself a very nice living... so far I'm doing very well with it, on a good day I make what I used to make in a week..... so if I only get two a week, its very well worth my effort. And I grab up small stuff to store for when I get a slow time i will strip that stuff down, not near as much money but better than nothing.
My rig: custom built 1977/1992 Dodge 1 ton crew cab long bed diesel 4x4 and 24' gooseneck trailer with winch and toolbox loaded with chains, boomers, jacks, two batteries for winch, wrecker hooks, snatchblock for winch, ratchet straps, blocks of wood, etc. Keep a couple pairs of gloves handy as well.
With the snow, I've had some hard to get to vehicles, and from having previously ran rollback truck a little here and there, I know I would definitely rather have a rollback than a trailer, but between purchase cost and insurance (which is sky high on one of them), its out of the question right now. But I think the ultimate rig for getting junk cars in hard to get places would be a old military 2.5 ton "duece and a half" truck with a custom rollback bed. There's so many places I can't get truck and trailer to pickup the cars..... The two I bought on thursday/friday were both from the same guy and fortunately he had a tractor he was able to drag them up to his driveway, and the one I got today they pulled it to the road as well as their driveway was too slick for me to get into and the yard was soft. Hopefully once i get some better tires on my truck and warmer weather rolls around things won't be as tough. I have an out of work friend with a lifted Jeep I can always call to drag them out to the truck if need be, but that greatly increases operating costs.... my truck gets 16 mpg with the trailer, gross about 11k empty truck and trailer. Not bad!
Anyone else care to share their story of how you got started in hauling cars, what equipment you use, and how many cars a week you average?
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