Steel shipping racks/pallets

rd_macgregor · May 26, 2016

I walked on a trail past the back lot of the local Kubota dealer yesterday and noticed a bunch of new tractors, without wheels, bolted to shipping pallets. There was a fair amount of steel in these and I wondered if anybody had ever repurposed one as a trailer, firewood rack or somesuch.
I would have taken a picture except I am an old-time, dumb-phone user and can't get the low res (1mp) pics I do take off my phone!

Bob

k0ua · May 26, 2016

rd_macgregor said:
I walked on a trail past the back lot of the local Kubota dealer yesterday and noticed a bunch of new tractors, without wheels, bolted to shipping pallets. There was a fair amount of steel in these and I wondered if anybody had ever repurposed one as a trailer, firewood rack or somesuch.
I would have taken a picture except I am an old-time, dumb-phone user and can't get the low res (1mp) pics I do take off my phone!

Bob

The 1MP photos would be just fine. That's what the photo's you see here are. If you don't have an email account you can email the photo's to your self to attach them with a PC you can usually get an USB cable for next to nothing (your phone may have come with one) to attach the phone to your PC and use the PC to pull the photo files off of your phone. The phone usually looks like an external drive to the PC. or you can usually download simple software from the phone manufacture to pull the pictures off of the phone if you prefer. You can do this, and you will be proud of yourself when you do.

murphy1244 · May 26, 2016

rd_macgregor said:
I walked on a trail past the back lot of the local Kubota dealer yesterday and noticed a bunch of new tractors, without wheels, bolted to shipping pallets. There was a fair amount of steel in these and I wondered if anybody had ever repurposed one as a trailer, firewood rack or somesuch.
I would have taken a picture except I am an old-time, dumb-phone user and can't get the low res (1mp) pics I do take off my phone!

Bob

They send those skids back to mother kubota for re-use.

davrow · May 26, 2016

Um, K0ua, he did say "dumb-phone". My dumbphone takes good pics, but without a data plan they can't be emailed or sent in any way, shape or form. And there is no way to attach any cable other than power. No Wi-Fi, either.

We did break down and get smartphones but I still have the dumbphone on a voice only pay-as-you-go plan.

k0ua · May 26, 2016

davrow said:
Um, K0ua, he did say "dumb-phone". My dumbphone takes good pics, but without a data plan they can't be emailed or sent in any way, shape or form. And there is no way to attach any cable other than power. No Wi-Fi, either.

We did break down and get smartphones but I still have the dumbphone on a voice only pay-as-you-go plan.

So of what possible value is the camera in the phone? To take a picture you can look at only on a 1.5 inch display? Are we sure there is no USB/power plug?

davrow · May 26, 2016

Well, all the cell phone companies want you to have a data plan; then it would be useful. We simply resisted for a long time.

In the end, we too were assimilated. :laughing:

k0ua · May 26, 2016

davrow said:
Well, all the cell phone companies want you to have a data plan; then it would be useful. We simply resisted for a long time.

In the end, we too were assimilated. :laughing:

Yes, "resistance is futile"

Wagtail · May 26, 2016

Hey! Enough with the idle chit-chat... lets see the pictures of the pallets. :drool:

Post them in the "Pallets in Fields" forum too, where they'll be appreciated by true aficionados. :thumbsup:

k0ua · May 26, 2016

Wagtail said:
Hey! Enough with the idle chit-chat... lets see the pictures of the pallets. :drool:

Post them in the "Pallets in Fields" forum too, where they'll be appreciated by true aficionados. :thumbsup:

Well, most of us that have been to a Kubota dealer have already seen them. I too have wondered what they do with them, and wondered what I could make with the steel. But if they just ship them back, it ain't gonna do us backyard guys much good.

rd_macgregor · May 27, 2016

My old flip phone does have an additional port, besides the charging port, but I'm not sure what it does or what kind of cable it takes. I've often asked why it even has a camera if I can't do anything with the pics once I have them.
As for the steel pallets...I wondered if they were valuable enough to justify the cost of shipping them back to Kubota, or whether they just sent them to a scrap steel recycler. Sometime when I'm there for parts or something, I'll try to remember to ask them what they do with the pallets.

k0ua · May 27, 2016

rd_macgregor said:
My old flip phone does have an additional port, besides the charging port, but I'm not sure what it does or what kind of cable it takes. I've often asked why it even has a camera if I can't do anything with the pics once I have them.
As for the steel pallets...I wondered if they were valuable enough to justify the cost of shipping them back to Kubota, or whether they just sent them to a scrap steel recycler. Sometime when I'm there for parts or something, I'll try to remember to ask them what they do with the pallets.

Likely a USB port.. I know take a picture of it and we will help you identify it

Just kidding.. Tell us the phone make and model, and we may be able to help.

countrybumpkin · May 27, 2016

A friend of mine knew a guy that worked at a large local ATV dealer and we would get all the shipping crates we wanted for ATVs, until they went out of business , we built all types of things with the steel from those and they weren't near as heavy material as the tractor ones.

zing · May 27, 2016

murphy1244 said:
They send those skids back to mother kubota for re-use.

It is probably worth talking to the dealership to see, just in case. I was looking for steel from some of the ATV crates and got three different answers from three different dealers. First one said no because they ship them back, second one said no because they throw all of the steel (crates, old rims, etc) into a dumpster and get the cash value of the metal they sell, the third said go ahead and take what you want!

I never did get around to making a trailer out of the metal though. :thumbdown:

muddstopper · May 27, 2016

On my flip phone, the charge port is the usb port. I use the same cable to upload to computer as I use to charge the phone. My phone has the mini usb port on the phone and one end of the cable is mini usb and the other end of the cable is a standard usb port that plugs into the charger or the usb port of the computer. I pick those cables up for free at the motels i stay at all the time. seems folks forget to take their phone chargers with them when they check out. It comes in handy when ever i forget my charger at home.

Xfaxman · May 28, 2016

My old dumb phone transfers pictures to my computer via Blue Tooth. :thumbsup:

Leejohn · May 28, 2016

When you buy a new tractor just tell them you want your shipping crate, you paid for it.

dfkrug · May 28, 2016

rd_macgregor said:
I walked on a trail past the back lot of the local Kubota dealer yesterday
and noticed a bunch of new tractors, without wheels, bolted to shipping pallets. There was a fair amount
of steel in these and I wondered if anybody had ever repurposed one as a trailer, firewood rack or somesuch.

I got as many Kubota crates as I wanted, several years ago. I used the channel steel on the bottoms for
several of my backhoe subframes. The rest of the angle-steel was useful for various welding projects.
The dealer I went to just has them picked up by a local metal scavenger.

I have a hard time imagining the crates getting shipped back to the factory. The deliveries I have seen
have been via non-factory-owned semis. Indeed, my bro is an owner-operator and has delivered
Kubota excavators before. Who is gonna pay the return shipping?

Now, if they used factory-owned trucks, I can see them being shipped back in the empty trailer.

4570Man · May 28, 2016

I bet they ship them back. I work beside a lawn mower dealer. I asked about these crates which I'm sure are much lighter duty than a tractor crate. He said if he doesn't ship them back the factory charges him $450 per crate. The factory pays return shipping.

DT86 · May 28, 2016

I'll see my Kubota dealer tomorrow, I'll ask what happens to his crates. I know they don't stay long, I've never seen any piled up with the other scrap or trash.

dfkrug · May 29, 2016

BTW, the Kubota crates, at least for the L-series, are superior to others that I have gotten. 3 of the
4 Kioti tractors I have purchased new came in steel crates. The latter had many more bolts, and
none of the channel steel. None of them got returned to the factory, AFAIK.