Demoing old trailers

TC29-dude · Sep 28, 2007

I recently purchased 7.5 acres that adjoin my existing property.
The previous owners left behind 3 old house trailers that need to go away.
Actually a big bonus was getting rid of the neighbors.

Has anyone dealt with gettting rid of old trailers? I keep hearing about scrap
guys who will come and take them for the scrap metal but so far I have yet to meet one of these characters.

Let me know what you guys have done. I do not want to bury then on my property...I want them gone.
I was thinking about attacking them with my FEL but am a little concerned about dinging my tractor.

Thanks!

Egon · Sep 28, 2007

Midnight fire of unknown origin??? That should get it all down to the bare bones.

gordon21 · Sep 28, 2007

Most rural fire depts will do a controlled burn as a training exercise. No cost to you except what to do with the steel frame afterwards. In many places, the county will haul them off for free.

Do not try to burn it yourself. That is too big a job for one man to watch in case it starts getting out of hand.

randy41 · Sep 28, 2007

after we moved from our old trailer into our new house we put an ad in the local paper for a free trailer and it was gone in a week or so.

SnowRidge · Sep 28, 2007

It costs money to move a mobile home and set it up, sometimes quite a bit of it. If the trailers are really old and in bad shape, free might be more than they are worth.

In other words, you may have to pay somebody to get rid of them. I hope you considered that when you figured what the property they were sitting on was worth.

Still, I would go with the suggestion to put them in the local paper, especially the weekly "Shopper" variety that is usually given away at convenience stores and such. And because it's free and can't hurt, try craigslist, assuming they have a page for your area.

Make sure you sell them "As is, where is," but make sure you have legal title to them first. In some states, they are treated as motor vehicles and the vehicle titling people are the ones to talk to if you have questions.

Good luck.

Egon · Sep 28, 2007

The Midnight burn was actually meant as a joke. Please don't think of it as serious.

Perhaps a practice fire for the fire department??? But this would also not fly as there may be hazardous goods involved.

tallyho8 · Sep 28, 2007

I don't know how far you are from a scrap metal yard but metal prices have skyrocketed in the last few years. I used to bring trailer loads of sheet metal to the scrap yard instead of the dump because they would unload them at the scrap yard and I had to unload them at the dump. I only got about $10 for my trailer load. Now that same trailer load is selling for $60. Heavy iron is selling for what copper used to sell for and copper is selling for almost what silver used to sell for.

schmism · Sep 28, 2007

Egon said:
The Midnight burn was actually meant as a joke. Please don't think of it as serious.

Perhaps a practice fire for the fire department??? But this would also not fly as there may be hazardous goods involved.

no you can still do it, im in the process of doing it. Requires an espestos inspection for the EPA permit.

But im burning down a full size farm house.

Burning them is diffentilty the way to go. the old ones were built like a house of cards. The guys around these parts usually strip the tin off the side (AL sideing is worth $$) once your down to the steal frame and wood sides/roof, tip it over on its side (easy to do with the FEL) then drive through it. you can then bust it up and burn it in a normal burn pile.

I watched a neighbor burn one up like that over a period of about 4 days. Hed come home and add a few more FEL loads of trailer (from the pile-o-trailer) to the fire a after a few days he was left with the steel frame

you can then cut that down for a trailer, or haul it off. Round my parts they are getting about $125 a ton for mix, more for "clean" stuff. Word has it copper scrap is a $1 a pound.

sandman2234 · Sep 28, 2007

I have built a couple of trailers out of mobile home frames. One I still see running around here with a JD450 dozer on it. I used 4 lenghts of the 10" lightweigh "I-beam" to make runners for it, and short pieces between them, plus the front and rear ends. Trailer weighed more than a ton, and it handled the dozer fine. Even short lenghts can be modified to use as something else, such as one piece cut and bent, then two more pieces cut with an angle one one end to make a heavy duty set of car ramps. With enough of the material, you can make a set full lenght to drive your cars/tractors up on. I saw another guy stood two of them on end, and one across the top to make a lightweight crane rail. He built a building over the top of it, and braced the I-beam for side sway. Also works great as roof trusses if you have enough of it.
David from jax