My neighbor owns a tow truck. He used to work out of a service center which closed up a while back, and he doesn't get many calls for tows anymore. He's trying to sell the truck.
It's a Ford, diesel flatbed. Craigslist is not turning up many results.
Any of you guys had experience with this? Where should he go to list his truck for sale?
FWIW, there's always a couple of old tow trucks in the Toronto AutoTrader, assuming that what he has is based on an F-350 or equivalent. Having said that, however, I have no idea if the vendors actually accomplish a sale through that route. His best bet is probably through guys he knows in the business. Somebody's bound to know somebody who needs a backup truck or whose nephew wants to start out with a rig that doesn't have killer payments.
www.truckpaper.com
www.commercialtrucktrader.com
These are the two websites I use at work when I need to try to locate commercial vehicles for sale and get values.
Thanks, both of you.
Stealth, his truck is of the bigger variety. It's based on the medium-duty chassis, probably circa the mid or late '90s.
www.dealsonwheels.com
ebay....seriously I've shopped tow trucks on there before. He may not be getting enough hits because he's priced too high. Older tow trucks can be a hard sell.
By flatbed, do you mean a roll-back? If so, I would think it would sell fairly easily, unless its priced high. I guess tweekers with rollbacks have depleted most areas of scrap yard fodder and the demand has dropped.
I once worked with a car guy that had a rollback and he said it was a royal pain in the arse. All his friends thought he ought to tow stuff for free.
Yeah, a rollback. I don't know what his asking price is, but he was uncertain what it should be worth in the first place. Maybe he does have it priced too high.
Actually, I found the listing. Here it is:
http://daytona.craigslist.org/cto/3660957060.html
2006 Ford F650, 21 foot rollback. Caterpillar engine, 125k miles. He's asking $39,000. Reasonable or not?
Rollbacks are amazing, but old ones have generally been worked to death and they have a LOT of failure/wear points compared to a 'normal' 1 or 2 ton truck.
Err, if he wants $39k he should at the very least spell his ad correctly, or even better would be writing a real "for sale" paragraph.
Tom Suddard wrote: Err, if he wants $39k he should at the very least spell his ad correctly, or even better would be writing a real "for sale" paragraph.
Check that attitude. He drives a truck, he renovates homes and he's a good neighbor. He's not a copy editor. And he helped me out this morning when my dog dug himself out of the back yard.
In reply to Alan Cesar:
That's not what I was expecting....that's a nice one! I think more pictures and a little work on his ad could really help him.
Hell, that isn't a bad price on it to be honest......and it has the good engine in it. That big bore cat will survive the apocolypse
Alan Cesar wrote:Tom Suddard wrote: Err, if he wants $39k he should at the very least spell his ad correctly, or even better would be writing a real "for sale" paragraph.Check that attitude. He drives a truck, he renovates homes and he's a good neighbor. He's not a copy editor. And he helped me out this morning when my dog dug himself out of the back yard.
attitude? he's just pointing out that he'd get more hits on his ad if he had someone spellcheck it before hitting the "send" button... he can be the greatest most hardest working guy in the world, but that won't help him sell his truck to strangers on teh internets..
He needs to list this on a site that specializes in tow trucks especially or least heavy equipment. I don't think it's overpriced for a real truck.
In reply to novaderrik:
I asked for a good place to list this truck and whether the price was reasonable for the equipment, not a critique of a Craigslist ad.
Thanks to those of you who have helped.
After some quick Googling and comparing, I'd say $39k is a reasonable price for the year and mileage.
Is there still a Truck Trader site associated with Auto Trader? Yes there is http://www.commercialtrucktrader.com/ maybe more tow industry specific trade publications have classifieds?
Every place I worked got this sent to them. It's like a buy-lines of tow trucks and equipment
http://www.towequip.com/
I buy and sell a bit of heavy equipment and craigslist and truckpaper are the only sites I really look at. If its not getting any traction on CL then the price is not right. I just listed a pretty obscure machine yesterday and I have already had 4 inquiries and an offer because I priced it to sell, which is often a painfull self analysis of needs versus wants. It is really hard to list an item for a price you know will move it because there is always that voice in the back of your head telling you it is worth more, or that it owes you more. But that is not the reality. Its worth what someone offers you.
Incidently, he has no keywords which may help a bit. But really if I was looking for a tow truck I would punch tow truck into my local CL and see what pops up.
Alan Cesar wrote:Tom Suddard wrote: Err, if he wants $39k he should at the very least spell his ad correctly, or even better would be writing a real "for sale" paragraph.Check that attitude. He drives a truck, he renovates homes and he's a good neighbor. He's not a copy editor. And he helped me out this morning when my dog dug himself out of the back yard.
And you are an Associate Editor. Help your buddy out by writing his ad for him. 
Then both you and Tom go convince Tim the magazine needs a rollback. 
I used to sell Commercial vehicles.I would spend a little time and call/send an e-mail directly to end users.
We primarily used Truckpaper for our Dealerships.
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