I said I'd never do that again .... well ..........

The last time I went to a Groff Machinery Consigment Auction I said I'd not be back.  Well ... never say never.  I went with one specific purpose and a couple side interests if they went cheap enough.  Didn't come home with any of those.  I did come home with this

That is a 70 foot 10 inch diameter belt conveyor.  It was more in my price range than the 2 10" augers they had.  I kind of think the guy in the trees was bidding on it.  Maybe I should pause and explain that.

One of the things at Max's auctions that irritates the **** out of me is the guy up in the trees bidding. There has to be one, because too often the auctioneer is taking bids when nobody seems to be bidding. I know, some guys are masters at hiding their bid.  I watched one guy I know bid on something and if you were not watching him carefully you never knew it.  The ring man was standing right in front of him, and an almost imperceptible wink or nod and there was a bid.  But I was down on the far end of the lot when they sold an old Safety Klean box truck.  Ugly, theft resistant green.  There was me and two other guys there when the bidding started.  Everyone else had walked off to where the auctioneer would be next.  We were talking.  None of us bid.  But the truck sold for $3500.  The guy in the trees must have bought it.

OK, so I am standing there watching this conveyor sell.  It was cheap for what it was.  REALLY cheap.  But 2 guys kept bidding it up.  And then I noticed I was standing there all by myself, just me and 2 ring men.  And the price kept going up slowly.  One ring man came over trying to get me to bid.  Then both of them.  I finally said I would bid one time, a very small increment higher than the current bid.  And I won it.  I think the guy in the trees almost bought that as well.

Oh, and this:

Yes, I bought a semi tractor ... at Groff's.  THAT might cause the end to get kicked out of the coffin.  It was clean, but not too clean.  I heard a couple guys talking, one was a company employee, and it had been driven up from Florida.  Not hauled, driven.  300 Hp, 8 speed transmission, air conditioning, good looking.  The only problems I have found is a broken mirror, the air hose to the fifth wheel slider is leaking, a rear fender is missing, and the gear shift need a worn pivot pin replaced.  Ralph says that is common in this transmission.

So, for the next question, "Now what?"  Ralph has a set of twin screw tandems that will fit it, and gave me an estimate on switching the axles, lengthening the frame, and moving the bed and hoist off the Ford to it.  It was less than a trailer will probably cost.  So I told him to put me on the schedule and I was going to advertise the Ford as is.  If someone wanted it bad enough before he started we'd cancel and I'd go trailer shopping.  I figure I have a month or more to try and sell it.  Anyone want a good old Ford?

Do you know what a $500 disk looks like?

Yes, that brought $500! I would have hauled it home for it if I had a empty truck.  Not paying $25, you pay me to take it.  They also sold a really good M&W big red wagon with a seed auger on the side for $2500.  If I weren't trying to get away from wagons I would have been really interested.  Big orange is for sale, too.  Guess I need to take some pictures of it.