Owner of some Heavy Equipment passed away

[aighead]

Hey Gang, I just learned that my neighbor has passed away, leaving his wife with a few pieces of equipment that she has no understanding of. He's got a bulldozer (I've previously mentioned) that he was trying to get running, a skid steer, and likely some other stuff that I'm not sure about. I know he's got an ultralight and helicopter in the garage as well as lots of tools, welding equipment, etc. His wife told me that she expects to have an auction sometime in the next few months to get rid of some of this stuff, but the bulldozer at least isn't something that will sell at a normal auction, I'd imagine.

Anyone have any experience with a heavy equipment auction house that would know what they are talking about with a situation like this?

 

[Welder Dave]

Depending what's wrong with the dozer, it might be worth suggesting they have an experienced mechanic take a look at it. Then decide if it's worth fixing or selling as is. Some smaller auctioneers will do a lot more in regards to sorting and describing items. Big auctions don't care about small items and will just throw a lot of stuff together. Would be good to do some research and talk to a few different auction houses. If there wasn't a big rush to sell the items maybe you could help sell them privately and try to establish a reasonable value. I guess that depends on how good you got along with your neighbors.

 

[ahart]

I’d jump on Hibid.com and enter your zip code. You can select a radius that will show you current auctions that are going on in that area. Many auction companies use hibid and develop quite the following of customers and from what I’ve seen, equipment/tools, things of that nature sell very well on the online auctions. Buyers aren’t limited to the ones that can show up on the day of the sale and stand around in the rain hoping to get the deal of a lifetime. It will also give you (or the owner of the equipment) the opportunity to feel out the market on similar items in your area to see how they’re selling currently.

 

[CM1995]

Sold a few pieces of iron through Iron Planet marketplace, not the straight auction service.

She can negotiate a price and get offers. The account rep can guide her through the process and help determine value. I was able to get what I wanted for a 420DIT and a F250 a few years ago.

 

[aighead]

Thanks guys. I'm not sure what she will want to do, really. I can certainly help some but I'm not smart enough, and don't really have the time to get smart enough about the bulldozer to help much beyond pointing her to a good avenue for that kind of sale. Also, for my own liability's sake I'd prefer to stay away when they move it out (if they can find a buyer). I guess the dozer almost got away from them upon delivery and I'd rather not be a part of that, though I've helped push and pull it around a fair amount since he's had it.

A real problem is he's got stuff that kind of works but he was also willing to let things limp along and fix them when he needed them. I wouldn't mind picking up his skid steer, except it's a wheeled version and he was always struggling to keep it running. He's got an F150 I'd be interested in as well, but last I rode in it it had some weird power surging issue at 50ish mph. I'd already bought a f250 from him years ago and while it worked long enough to help me move into my house that was about the extent of it and it didn't work well even then. He had a Porsche Cayenne in his garage that he would take out every once in a while. It was nice but did a lot of sitting. When she went to sell it I considered it until we changed out the battery and I fired it up, it sounded terrible, similar to the f150 he's let sit. Now, everything he has has sat for over a year without moving...

 

[Old Doug]

Sounds like it could be a nightmare .

 

[terex herder]

If it was local I'd recommend either Big Iron or Purple Wave. You can check, I don't know if either one of them go that far east. You might have a similar auction service closer. Either one of these houses catalogues, advertises, hosts the auction, and handles all the money. They both get stupid money sometimes for junk.

 

[crane operator]

There are several local to me auctioneers, that wouldn't have a problem selling all the equipment on site on a saturday sale. You will get more $ for the bigger stuff if it is online affiliated.

 

[Delmer]

Sounds like a perfect situation for an auctioneer to handle. A dozer, helicopter, ultralight, skidsteer and a porsche, none of them running right. I'd say the most you could help would be accurately recounting when they ran last, and their current condition. IE, dozer engine turns over, was pulled into place 3 year ago and has not been started by current owner. helicopter last flew in 1974, stored since, etc.

 

[cfherrman]

Give the vehicles an Italian tune up and sell them privately, auction house for the rest, just get rid of it especially since they might be moving.

See what good auction houses are around, purple wave us awesome out here and around Ohio a little bit.

 

[InsleyGuy]

I want to hear more about the helicopter.

 

[aighead]

Again, thanks y'all. I appreciate the suggestions.

Porsche is already gone, Carvana I guess. My wife was home the first time they (Carvana) showed up and said they were there for like 3 hours trying to get things running so they could get the Porsche out of the garage. Nuts.

I'd be interested in the ultra-light. At one point in time, several years ago, he said he'd give it to me, but it never happened.

I've only seen the helicopter a time or two when he was working on the engine for it. I was in the house or something when I heard a terrible noise. It was the engine firing up for the first time that I'd heard it. It's a little single seater, as far as I could tell, open air, kind of like this but I don't remember if I saw it fully built.

He's also got a handful of smaller stuff that I'd be interested in, and selfishly, some other stuff he said he'd give me, I don't know if I'd feel ok with going over and saying "oh, yeah, he told me he'd give me that (a pile of concrete parking blocks)" or "yeah, he said we'd go halfsies on that (a 200 gallonish diesel tank)" or whatever.

 

[cfherrman]

I just walk over and say that he would go was going to cut you a good deal hell they probably sell for cheap get rid of it right away without the hassle

 

[aighead]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'm not sure of the amount of time for it to not feel insensitive but she probably wants stuff out and the money. "I'll give you 500 bucks for this pile of stuff."

 

[aighead]

Back to this topic, since the backhoe is back up... She is giving me the diesel tank (I'm guessing ~200 gallons). I haven't looked closely but the outside of it looks a bit rough/rusty, no idea what the inside looks like. He said he was going to work on cleaning it up and I can't imagine he was expecting to derust the inside of the tank.

Anything I should be exceedingly cautious about with a tank like this? I assume there is no fuel in it but I'll probably check it out more closely over the next few days. I assume, if nothing else, I could use it for yard art of some variety.

 

[56wrench]

Any fuel storage tank needs a good filter before the dispensing hose

 

[cfherrman]

Algae is a big concern, after than the cleaner the tank, the longer your filters last and long the fuel system lasts on your equipment

 

[aighead]

I figured a filter or two would be a good idea. Is it common for rust to be inside a tank like that? Is there an algaecide that is appropriate? I've heard that algae can grow but do I dump some algaecide in there and slosh it around a bunch then rinse it out? Can I rinse it out? I'm not sure how I'd dry it?

Next will be figuring out how to afford a couple hundred gallons of diesel, which will last me a long time... I've heard there may be issues with that too though? Like diesel going bad, or water getting in there, or what? I know I can add anti-gel for the winter.

 

[HarleyHappy]

If you’re just using diesel for a home owner machine and not working it daily, I find a storage tank to be a pain in the rear.
I did that for a couple of years with gasoline and diesel and with weather changes and use, it just wasn’t worth it.
It did help with power losses and the generator once or twice but now I rotate 3 5 gallon cans of gas and diesel and use one of those siphon hoses and that works with less hassle that a storage tank.

 

[cfherrman]

I've been using chemical jugs, called carboys, for fuel storage and use, gas jugs suck