The Gustavus Thread

[gustavus]

Jack won't pay on site? How does Jack keep track of what comes in, Does the scale you weight at call him?

My deal with Jack is based on trust, I weigh my loads on the fertiliser plant scale and keep track of the weigh tickets myself when I off load my cars at Jacks set them off to the side so that he knows they're mine.

First load in today while on the loader a guy popped into the yard and told me to go an pick up a chevy 1/2 ton at one of the Industial buildings a few doors down so I nipped on over with the loader and grabbed it. Since Jacks yard is closed Saturdays, I could very easy have kept this as my own and Jack would have been none the wiser, but its not how I do business.

If jack had a scale at the yard I would drop my loads after hours and let hime run them over the yard scale in the morning, when I lived in BC I would drop my cars outside Amix's gate at night with my initials painted on a door, this is not a new concept.

The yards are notorious to screw someone over who is only bringing in the odd loads or small loads using a car or light pick up truck not someone who hauls in regular.

Sure I have to agree the guys with small loads are also making the yard money but the handling time is more nusiance and costly over larger so who are you going to cater to.

Historically its a well known fact the guys hauling in with cars and light pick up trucks are not in for the long haul. They're vehicles are ill equiped for the task of hauling heavy loads and soon end up in the scrap pile. Most guys get a few tickets for being overweight then toss on the towel on hauling scrap, I'm no were near my legal weight and prefer hauling in the evenings the D.O.T can always find something on an older truck to give a ticket for.



The guy pulling a decent trailer shows some initiative, chances are he'll get the same type of service that I do with the same priceing, now if I had a tractor trailer rig the local yards would be paying me a better price than I'm now getting.

In other words the equipment you using speaks volumes for you. A 3 ton truck only puts me middle of the road but its all that I care to invest into this business as my game plan is not going after hoards of farm scrap it's cars I'm after and this truck suits the purpose.

Started off explaining my business relationship with Jack and get into writting another book, bottom line it's based on trust. Jack is free to pull anyone of my loads to run over the scale to check my weights as I his should he ever get a yard scale.

The highways dept provides my with free scales as a commercial truck I'm required to pull into them, all I have to do is write down my front and rear axle weights then add them up to know within 100 lbs what my load is. I also keep record how much my truck weighs empty.

I've told you guys before always get a tare weight of your empty truck and trailer, post these numbers on the truck and trailer along with the gross vehicle weight.

Here are the weights of the loads I hauled in since starting this thread.

Pat has the weigh slip for my first load filed, any how I received just over $500.00

Then I have an additional

8980 lbs
6424 lbs
6140 lbs
4900 lbs
2640 lbs

Not bad for the first week grossed $2681.30 and used $400.00 worth of fuel. And had a splended meal at Mr. Ribs

By taking different routes home secured 4 more cars and a swather which are near Jacks end of my run.

Next on my To Do list is replace the 5 hp electric motor on my air compressor so that I can use my plasma cutter. Went through two motors over the winter months before I wised up and changed the oil in the compressor to a lighter oil. Next winter the shop will have heat so this problem will not happen again.

[myekem]

wow, around here trust is hard to come by because even the regulars try to screw you here and there. you have a good thing going thats for sure. thanks for explaining the process to me. I'm looking at buying a tractor trailer right now because we don't have rail access and I figured it would make more sense to have the freedom to haul where and when I want rather than paying someone else the costs + profit to do it. Still not sure if the headaches are worth it for the little gain I will get, but the only way to find out is to go for it.

[gustavus]

wow, around here trust is hard to come by because even the regulars try to screw you here and there. you have a good thing going thats for sure. thanks for explaining the process to me. I'm looking at buying a tractor trailer right now because we don't have rail access and I figured it would make more sense to have the freedom to haul where and when I want rather than paying someone else the costs + profit to do it. Still not sure if the headaches are worth it for the little gain I will get, but the only way to find out is to go for it.

If it were me I would purchase my own trailers then rent or lease the tractor. This way your getting the newest trucks and the cost is deductable

During the winter months scrap prices come down so lease the truck after the road bans are off end of April 1rst of May to the end of Oct / Nov - hire a driver and keep those trailers rolling.

http://www.paclease.com/index.asp

http://www.pensketruckrental.com/

The little guy hauling with a 1 ton or small truck like I have can reap much better profits by stock pileing his cars the crusher guys the pros are getting preferenctial treatment from the mills and will pay you very good for your hoard as even in crushing it very competitive out there.

Also the beauty of trailers equiped with air ride, you can judge how much weight is on the trailer by the pressure showing on the air guage.

[myekem]

I plan on trying to buy the trailer, its a mac dump trailer 40' triaxle. A dump is so heavy you lose weight that you can scale but at the same time has lots of benefits for local work as well. can haul a 30 ton pay load. Leasing the truck sounds like a good idea but I don't want to have to worry about paying out what a used truck is worth to fix some damage that may come from hauling scrap. Just the other day I was loading a trailer and a piece of steel swung around and hit another one inside the trailer then flew out and hit the guys truck. Accidents happen and get costly especially if the truck isn't yours.

[imyourgirl]

While loading this junker found I had a massive hydraulic oil leak, must have caught the winch line on the safety valve bending it. Anyhow I got a nice shower of oil.

Below the car picture is the safety valve.

Biscuit you have a sweet set-up!

[gustavus]

Biscuit you have a sweet set-up!

Thank you, imyourgirl. I think that the truck will outlast me, some medical issues becoming worse as i get older - me and olddude will need someone to feed the fire.

[gustavus]

My partner Pat and I went over to Jacks to pick up some money while there I'm tiold that he has just purchased a roll off truck and that he will spot a bin in my yard for white goods and small bits of iron.

The we had lunch at Mr. Ribs then off to the Realitor to list a property, then from there out to check on the house when we got there found that someone had pried the front door off its frame. This is hilarious as the garage door and rear door of the house were never locked, nothing of value insdie the house but who wants kids crapping all over your carpet and tearing up the wall paper.

Had to be kids, the ceiling in the dining, living and foyer all have embossed tin ceiling tiles with a border, these fetch a fair dollor even on ebay. These were untouched, its pehaps the best selling feature this house has besides being situated on 5 lots.

Anyhow I'm not flogging a house on the scrapper forum just making some coment about the break-in.

[Dunemaul]

This is why im glad i own pitbulls

[gustavus]

Soon to be the last mile for this pair of scrappers, bonus the top car had two cats laying in the front seat with a pile of aluminum in the back. In this pile an Edelbrock 4 barrel performance intake manifold for small block Chevy. I'll give it a light glass bead blast to clean it up before listing it.

While I was loading the white Van a Bingo granny came over and sold me another Van for scrap, she's going to hit the hall and the guy who sold me the top car went out for a gram. Told him it was good to see that my money was being wisely invested.

The pain of not having a cell phone, I have a 9:30 call this eveing which screws up my night run, and tomorrow I'm going to finnish wiring in the inverter which was so large the only place I could put it out of the way was under the passengers seat.

Not a very convieniant place to get at the on / off switch so I'm going to wire in a solidnoid into the power cable then wire the solidnoid into a switch on the dash, maybe even add a light into the circuit so that I dont forget to turn the inverter off.

I'll post what I think of this inverter after I've used it a couple of weeks. Its a pure sine 1500 watt that peaks out at 5000 watts. Purchased from a seller on ebay from China and shipping was very fast, in fact much faster than my packages coming from the USA.

This morning purcashed a replacemnt 5 hp Baldor motor for my air compressor from an ebayer for $399.00 with $149.00 shipping called a few places here in Canada they want $1200.00 for the same motor. The best Princes Auto had was a 5 hp at $799.00 with no inventory. Our Princess Auto is like Harbor Freight in the USA.

[gustavus]

The funny side of life, while we were at Jacks he was loading some drill stem that they had cut up into number one, he bought a Chinese magnet and I have to say that I'm not even remotely impressed. Since he was almost done with loading I had the opertunity to become a spectator, when he cut the power the residule magnetism in the magnets core took about 45 / 60 seconds to release the iron.

Couple days before jack suggested that I take Hyw 471 a gravel road to avoid the D.O.T., this was the day that I found the Maytag engine, then further on made a house call to enquire about a few scrappers then from another vacaant farm got a telehphone number of one of the junk Vans.

The house call was a success, 3 cars to pick up later this week, its on Jacks end of my run. Ok I get talking to the woman asking who owns the Electrical contrators vans at the vancant farm anyhow she tells me that the guy only rents storage space but I'm interested in a shop that buned down full of equipment which is now toast.

I got a name of the property owner but no chance to follow up, while I'm watching Jack in this comedy another guy drives into the yard we chat making small talk then Jack comes down off the excavator and this guy asks hey do you pick up scrap I have a property on 471 with a building that burned down a some swathers etc.

I'm chuckling to myself this is the guy I was trying to bird dog and here he falls into my lap so to speak so I keep my trap shut then after the guy leaves told Jack we both had a good laugh and he get the scrap I was after.

Never said anything about the 3 cars across the road that I'm picking up later in the week.

All in all today I have puchased 4 cars, the white van on my truck was paid for last fall. My 9:30 call is to see of I get a pick up truck with the 2 cars purchased earlier while Pat was vacuuming dead flys off the window sills at the Birnie house. I made a house call next door.

I like it when the cars come in pairs.

[Dunemaul]

Nice work biscuit.

[Focker]

cory you are talking about what they call a hitchhiker yeah they will pick up a car.But you wouldnt be able to stack them with it.But the bed on them trucks are 28 ft or so.That means when you loaded it you could sit the front of one car on the rear of the other.

Also when you move up to that you get in using alot more fuel and other things also have to have a class b cdl.Best to stick with what you have.

[gustavus]

Nice work biscuit.

First load weighed in at 7100 lbs, then another two cars from Jacks end of my run 6340 lbs then an orphan a big oldsmobile that weighed 3280 my total tonnage was 8.36 gross payent of $1254.00 after deducting for the car purchases and fuel put an easy $900.00 in my pocket.

So there's something to be said about owning a larger truck, fuel milelage is around 6 mpg, I may swap the hood over to the more aerodynamic one from the buss the one on the truck now is like a plough. With the swap possibly pick up another mile per gallon.

[Mechanic688]

So there's something to be said about owning a larger truck, fuel milelage is around 6 mpg, I may swap the hood over to the more aerodynamic one from the buss the one on the truck now is like a plough. With the swap possibly pick up another mile per gallon.

When I hauled campers for a living (if you could call it that) I added a scoop to the roof that I could take on and off, that way when I had a camper on I put the roof scoop on then as soon as it was delivered I removed it. It was worth about 1/2 mile to the gallon but when I ran almost 100,000 a year it added up to some real savings at the end of the year. At the end of the trip you could see the "bug splatter" pattern on the front of the camper to see how well it pushed the air over and around the front. This idea will work with any big load on the back or with a big inclosed trailer. It's worth 1/2 to 1 mpg. I bought mine but they are real simple to build.

[gustavus]

Ya have to love the woman of the house, they really know how to clean up a yard. Her old man told her which car was supposed to go and she figured that both were going I even had a hard time getting her to accept money for them.

When her old man came home, next stop was my yard he's just a cussing her out to me, gad I hate being the sounding board in domestic disputes.

After seeing his precious car on the bottom of this load with the roof crushed and the windows broken soon acepted the idea that the car is scrap. This is almost as good as a neighor giving you an address for his neighbors junker for you to pick up when he was not authorized to to so but after years of looking at his neighors junker thought it was a good idea to put the crap onto the scrap car pick up guy. Only happened once to me.

Tomorrows Load, pretty soon they all start to look the same only the colors change.

[gustavus]

Long day short post. After dropping the two cars n the post above this one, had a busy day.

The Chevy Van had a THM 400 transmission with deep oil pan, these are popular with the mud boggers, this one went for scrap.

[miked]

Very nice and glad to see you are back to being Gus. When you are rolling it the money put together another truck just like this one only less worn out. That truck with the crane is a great asset. Mike.

[Craasher]

I had just been thinking today Gus that I would like to see a video of you stacking those cars up. This is just as good.

[submarinepainter]

welcome back Gus !!

[gustavus]

Picked these up this afternoon from my end of the trap line.

My woman is moving back to B.C. she does not like to long cold winters. Last week she purchased a 32 ft Class A Motor Home once she;s made the move I may let the Internet service go - keeping only the essentials as I'll be away from home most of the time myself.

I'm hoping to work my way towards B.C. myself but only to restock my foundry sand as I plan to get back into casting this winter to both pass the time ans make some much needed money as I'll be paying her out on this property. So if it appears that I have dropped off the face of the earth, eventually I will be back.

Hopefully the assay results will be in before I cut Internet services.