Scrapping a car - and how do I get it on the trailer

I've done the free removal via flatbed method, and the drag it on a trailer to a scrap yard method (they'll pick it up off your trailer with a forklift). I've also sawzalled a car to fit in the bed of a pickup.

Depends how much time you have, availability of truck/trailer, and how much effort you want to put in (and how much noise you wnat to make).

Scrap yards vary wildly in their willingness to take car without title, in partial cut, and/or with gas tank still attached. You'll have to feel out your yard of choice local to you.

Here is what I have done to good effect more than once: -Obtain a pulley of some type and mount it to the front of the trailer -go to the hardware store and buy (unless you have or can borrow) some 1/4 or 3/8 steel cable and cable clamps -secure one end to the car - secure other end to pickup or heavy car(note trailer is not attached to anything) -drive forward which will pull the car onto trailer. - have 2x4s and plywood on hand to guide the pointy suspension bits up the trailer ramps. If it doesn't want to go you can build a tripod and run the cable up over it. Position it on the trailer deck at an angle and have it move with the cable so it goes over centre and falls down as the car hits the ramps. This will lift the front of the car as it hits the ramps. Beer and a couple friends will help the process.

FYI the tripod is called a grasshopper and was used at one time to move boats over land.

Wish I had got here sooner. I've dragged a few shells like that on trailers with a come-a-long. Done it twice with 2x4's as sleds. One without anything, took about 10 minutes to crank it up and only had minor scratches on the concrete.

Sorry I got that wrong. Pulley goes on the front of the car. Cable is secured to the front of the trailer then passes around the pulley and up to the pulling vehicle. If you need more power you can set it up with a second pulley as a three to one.

All I do is jack up the front of the car above the trailer as far back as possible.. Back the trailer up till it hits.. The lift the back of the car... and use a come along.. Or whatever... Often I do this with the back of the car near my favorite tree and just drive back after back of car is lifted.. A big bar helps when ya hang up on little bits under the car every once in a while.. but the process rarely takes more than 10-15 minutes..

The last one I did which was really heavy ( 63 Chevy truck) I used a chain fall to raise the front of it up, and backed the trailer under it. The hoist was attached to a swing set I built and to give you perspective the top pole was a 30' telephone pole.

The easiest way for me would be to flip the car over and drag it up the trailer with a heavy duty come-along.

I use the newspaper guys all the time, make the deal over the phone, leave car or whatever's left in driveway, when guy arrives get cash and let him worry about loading.

I got $100 for a parted rabbit and $400 for a rusty parted 280 Mercedes. Not going to get more from the scrap yard.

Disposed of an old rusty chevelle, and a dilapidated beetle long ago. If they have a roof, you'd be surprised how easy they are to drag along when resting on said roof. Makes the neighbors antsy though.

You can pick up one end of an empty RX7 shell without much fan fare. Position it as high as possible on four jack stands. Put them as close to the center of the car as possible. Back the trailer so it goes under the car and just about touches the front set of stands. Get on the trailer and pick up the front. Have a buddy pull the front stands out of the way. Back the trailer up until you almost hit the rear stands. If you don't want to physically pick up the nose, use a floor jack. The jack will roll on the trailer as the trailer backs up. As soon as you can, put straps on the front so it doesn't tumble backwards off the trailer. Putting pipes as rollers under the car helps, but isn't essential. Biggest problem will be protrusions under the car getting caught on the trailer. I do this 3 or 4 times a year, sometimes alone, sometimes with buddies, but usually with the help of my daughter or my wife. If the Egyptians could move multi ton blocks of stone without wheels, you can move a 800 pound shell. Man up and get it done. PS don't fill it with stuff until its on the trailer. The yard will have a loader to remove the car for you. Its pretty cool watching them skewer the car with the forks.

Last shell I scraped was rolled up the trailer ramps on 3 lengths of some 4 inch green plastic pipe that was laying around.

I was waitin' for (tr8) Todd to chime in. Can't tell you how many bottles of aspirin I've killed helping him with his weird "Egyptian" method of getting a car onto a trailer without a drive line under it.

The roller technique works flawlessly, but you don't want any old guys involved with it. Young wives and children are the best helpers.

A couple of things...

I don't want to cut up the car. It was filled with scrap some time ago and I don't feel like unloading it. The car has a roll cage in it and I don't feel like wasting time cutting that up as well. Finally, I just want this thing gone.

I am going to give one attempt at lifting the front end and driving the trailer under it. If that doesn't work / sucks, I am getting one of the craigslist scrapper people to come get this pile of E36 M3.

Thanks for all the ideas! There were a few on here that I had not thought of.

Thanks again!

Rob R.

tr8todd wrote: You can pick up one end of an empty RX7 shell without much fan fare. Position it as high as possible on four jack stands. Put them as close to the center of the car as possible. Back the trailer so it goes under the car and just about touches the front set of stands. Get on the trailer and pick up the front. Have a buddy pull the front stands out of the way. Back the trailer up until you almost hit the rear stands. If you don't want to physically pick up the nose, use a floor jack. The jack will roll on the trailer as the trailer backs up. As soon as you can, put straps on the front so it doesn't tumble backwards off the trailer. Putting pipes as rollers under the car helps, but isn't essential. Biggest problem will be protrusions under the car getting caught on the trailer. I do this 3 or 4 times a year, sometimes alone, sometimes with buddies, but usually with the help of my daughter or my wife. If the Egyptians could move multi ton blocks of stone without wheels, you can move a 800 pound shell. Man up and get it done. PS don't fill it with stuff until its on the trailer. The yard will have a loader to remove the car for you. Its pretty cool watching them skewer the car with the forks.

I'm one of the buddies that helps Todd do this, and it really works quite well most of the time. Once we did it with an old BMW that Todd got from anotehr GRM member, and the car was so rotted, and missing the suspension on the front that the jack punched right through the sheetmetal floor!! Not a fun time. Oh yeah there was a colony of ants living in the glove box as well!

In the past I have used Todd's trailer to scrap a car, and actually rolled the partially stripped car onto the trailer with the suspension and wheels still intact, and then stripped the rest of the car there on the trailer. Not the easiest way to do things, but it beats the Egyptian method he told you of in my opinion. These were S1 RX-7's by the way.

Did I mention that my trailer is open in the middle as well?

it is just a bunch of little things that are enough to piss me off and make this complicated.

I am not spending money on poles or tubes or pipes to "roll the car". If I can't do it with the car full of scrap in about an hour, it is NOT worth my time.

Thanks for all the ideas!

Pick it up with an engine hoist- pick it as low as possible and it should be able to work. I did this with a miata tub I needed to get rid of a couple years back.