Don't scrap old spares
Page 60
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by Ron Douglas
IN these days of ever diminishing returns for effort most haulage concerns, large and small, have to search out every conceivable method of adding to the pot.
Having changed my faithful old eight-wheeler for the 6 x 2 drawbar outfit, a rummage round the workshop on a quiet day brought to light a whole bundle of miscellaneous junk that I, rightly or wrongly, had labelled 'spares.'
We all know the frustration of keeping such items for years, ' then deciding that it really was just junk and putting it in the scrap bin — only to find that a few days after the scrap man takes it away it is sorely needed.
Having been caught out often, in this way. I must confess that I am now something of a hoarder and, in the pile I turned out were many items which could never any more be of the slightest use to me now that my vehicle was changed. There was a front stub-axle, a gearbox casing, sundry balance beams and their pivot spindles, a couple of hanger brackets and brake chambers, starter motor and a couple of hubs.
My miserly nature got the better of me, however, and I examined, in detail, the items already in very short supply when I was still running the old
girl. I remembered that weekend, three years ago, when a seized bearing in a second steer hub had me on the phone for nearly three hours trying to place a .new one then dashing up to Carlisle in the car to collect it
I remembered the hassle trying to get replacement balance beams when my auto lubrication had failed during a longish spell of night work and the dry bushes had gone unnoticed for just too long.
I have, more occasions than once, used the services of one or other of the many companies specialising in metal component reclamation. Such methods as rebuilding and machining shackle hangers back to standard dimensions can cut the cost of replacement in half and keep you out of the VOR files of the manufacturer.
I have had crankshaft journals built up and refurbished with great success, saving many hundreds of pounds of hard-earned money. I have seen and used balance beams that have been reclaimed by having new shackle eyes fitted in place of the originals when the shackle pin has worn right through the beam. This job, in those days 12 years ago, cost only thirty per cent of a new unit — if you could get it — and worked and lasted as well or better.
In these days of hyper-infla tion, I daresay we could be talking of a saving in excess of £100 per unit for such a job.
Naturally, manufacturers frown on any such atrocity, but when a vehicle has passed its prime and can no longer be considered the subject of warranty claims, operators, particularly owner drivers, must study their outgoings with extreme care if they are to remain solvent.
Beware though, of substituting fast-moving items, such as filters, seals, gaskets and the like, with units of doubtful parentage. This can prove to be an extremely expensive way of saving money and can, quite often, result in premature failure of major units. In any case, savings made in such items at usually comparatively sma and, in my opinion, hard I justify.
Still mulling over my heap scrap spares I wondered if could make any money out of i The next Monday morninc while making my way up th AS through Brownhills an Cannock en route to Well nt ton, I got tangled up with bundle of showmen's outfi. moving on to a new town.
At Weston-under-Lizarc several of their vehicles wet parked near a small pub I us for a pie and pint, among ther an immaculate pair of eigh wheelers of the same type an model as my old girl. Ey( mindful of the need to conve assets into cash, I sorted out th drivers and got into convers■ tion with them.
I lost no time in steering th chat round to the spare par situation and quickly discovere That their problems were mans with little being available an the cost exorbitant.
Showmen being the hone: straight-dealing men they are, quickly struck a deal for bundle of -reconditioned13-,1 and pieces for their two eigh wheelers, the price of which would let them know by the en of the week.
On returning to base
phoned my reconditionin, company and organised collei tions of all the reclaimabl
parts, which, when complete( were sold off to my showme friends at reconditioning pric plus 25 per cent. It saved ther a fortune and gave them a ban of parts.
It made me £184 which would never have got in scra value and most important, proved that my instinct to hoar miscellaneous scrap, wrongl labelled 'spares,' was not a bad.