Update on eight semi-trailers

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Ignoramus17561 12 years ago

Five out of 8 did not have titles. I declined to buy them, as scrap yards are reluctant to take them without titles.

The three ones I bought, had frozen brakes and were difficult to yank out of snow piles. But we did it with a "train" of my pickup, forklift, and the semi tractor itself. We were the only ones who could to it by ourselves, all other buyers had to pay tow trucks or a huge loader.

All three were driven to a scrap yard, where they are resting in peace right now. It was funny to watch the trail of rust falling off as these old junkers were bouncing on potholes.

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azotic 12 years ago

Smart move.

Did you take any pics for posterity? The great winter of 14.

Best Regards Tom.

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Ignoramus24287 12 years ago

Well, in the end, the scrap yard did not care. (like you would expect)

No, but I regret, I should have taken a video, this would be a fun video.

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Larry Jaques 12 years ago

That's a shame. It would have been a viral video, I'll bet.

Imagine what the potholes will look like after the collapse.

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dpb 12 years ago

On 2/20/2014 7:26 PM, Ignoramus17561 wrote: ...

Hmmm...that seems a serious risk if the bears were out???

Cost would be far more than the potential reward I'd think...

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Pete C. 12 years ago

I suspect he used his forklift to load all of them onto his good registered trailer, brought them to the scrap yard and then went back to pickup the forklift.

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dpb 12 years ago

What I'd have done and am/was hoping to be so, but the choice of words and the story re: the potholes made me wonder at least a little...

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Ignoramus24287 12 years ago

I calculated risk and reward of driving them to a scrap yard 1.5 miles away, after evaluating their condition (brakes freed up but not working).

The reward outweighed the risk.

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Ignoramus24287 12 years ago

I just drove them.

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Ignoramus24287 12 years ago

Additionally, the junk trailers were registered, just not in my name. The Illinois ST plates (Semi trailer), never expire. And they had plates.

The worst that they could stick to me was operating a vehicle without current safety inspection.

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dpb 12 years ago

On 2/21/2014 9:24 PM, Ignoramus24287 wrote: ...

As long as didn't get caught... :)

I'd guess if had on even one it would've changed the outcome drastically...at least here they'd charge mightily for even the smallest infraction and an inoperable brake would likely be big bucks...

I suppose if the distance is short enough and back-roadsy enough odds of pull-over were pretty low.

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Ignoramus26524 12 years ago

The odds of a pull-over are low, the brakes looked legitimate, the fine should be manageable. Plus if you go to court, they may as well forgive you, it happened to me with the overweight ticket.

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clare 12 years ago

With an EMPTY trailer, on the way to the scrap yard, you'd have a much better chance than with a loaded trailer, for sure.

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dpb 12 years ago

On a pullover here I don't think they'd have cared about where you were going or for what reason and required everything to actually be working or throwed the book to the maximum possible atcha'...must be _mucho_ more lenient there...I'd guess a few thous woulda' done it when done.

Anyway, glad you make it... :)

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Ignoramus26524 12 years ago

I would certainly not load them with anything.

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Update on eight semi-trailers

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