Pricing a Toy Built 27 HP unit for sale

[pybyr]

Selling my/ family's 27 HP Troy Built splitter to move up to something else, more rugged.

Unit is about 6 years old; only used moderately for direct family use. Fluids and filters have been changed per manual intervals.

Rarely left overnight or outside in rain- in those cases, covered by tarp ; looks/ is clean

What'd be a good "asking price" and what would be a good bottom dollar price?

As to "where/ how" to sell, aside from chaining it to a tree in mu front yaard during days, I am thinking Craigslist- any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[TreePointer]

An informed buyer might want to start at a price lower than a new splitter that's locally available. Around here, it would be the $1000 22-ton Huskee.

 

[MasterMech]

I noticed that 27 Ton Troy-Bilts are selling for about $1400.00 new at Lowes. I would ask 8-900 and settle for whatever your comfortable with. Also worth noting that a local outdoor power-equipment dealership might have a "Blue-book" (Such a thing does exist!) and be able to help you out.

 

[mayhem]

- Local paper.
- Craigslist.
- Here in the For Sale forum.
- Classifieds over at Arboristsite.

Start around $1000, settle for $800. It'll be gone in 3 days.

 

[pybyr]

Thanks everyone!

 

[fire_man]

Pybyr:

Just curious, if its used for "moderate direct family use", why do you want something more "rugged"?
That splitter chews through the tuffest wood without problems. I have bent the cradle, but that's an easy fix.
Nothing wrong with wanting a new shiny machine, just wondering.

 

[smokinj]

Darn sure know a 50-75 cord troy built is worth 800-1000.00 all day.

 

[pybyr]

Pybyr:

Just curious, if its used for "moderate direct family use", why do you want something more "rugged"?
That splitter chews through the tuffest wood without problems. I have bent the cradle, but that's an easy fix.
Nothing wrong with wanting a new shiny machine, just wondering.

'cause I am doing substantially more wood than when it was originally acquired (I now heat my big ol' VT farmhouse with nothing but wood, whereas wood used to be just an augmentation to oil)(in addition to doing my parents' wood with them with the same splitter), and expect to be doing that for decades to come, and the more I work with it, the less impressed I am with the overall design and construction and performance. I'm doing a lot of yellow birch these days and it really is working to its limits to get through some of the wild grain that the yellow birch can have in crotchwood or near the stump-

...and after reading this:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/57455/

I decided that I really don't want to even _think_ about someday getting a high pressure stream of hot hydraulic fluid in the face while hunkered down next to it in vertical position trying to go through a particularly twisty-grained section of the lowest end of a yellow birch trunk... I am not trying to fob off something that I think is "ready to blow" - it probably has several lifetimes of good use in it for someone who's splitting moderate amounts of not-difficult-to-split wood types. I'd rather trade this horse while it is decent than ride it until it is dead.

And we got a wicked good deal on one of the smallest TimberWolf horizontal/ vertical splitters that's engineered and built in a way that looks ready for several lifetimes worth of anything you could throw at it short of a nuclear warhead...

IMHO, while the Troy Bilt "horse" flagship model tiller still seems to be a really robust machine even after MTD's acquisition of Troy Bilt, everything else with the Troy Bilt label is "just barely-average-designed-to-a-price-point, not performance or longevity" stuff...

I only like to work with (and on) two kinds of equipment- robust old stuff that someone else doesn't know how to repair and I get for really low or no $ and get going again and get years out of even if it takes some ongoing fiddling (my old Russian Motorcycle/ sidecar falls in this category)... or something that is bought once (only if and when it is found at an unusually good deal) and is robust enough to run ____-out (with appropriate maintenance) without a hiccup for as long as I'm around to run it. I like that old saying "too poor to buy cheap"

 

[TreePointer]

Sounds good to me. Good luck with the sale, pybyr!

 

[pybyr]

Timberwolf TW-HV1 absolutely ROCKS. I'll try to do a review some time, but it's so much quicker and more effective it's almost hard to describe. The other evening I split so much wood in an hour, with no strain, that the pile of split stuff almost walled me in on two sides. I wouldn't have gotten a third of that done with the old splitter.

 

[mhrischuk]

Depends on the engine. Is it a Honda? I had one (MTD version) with the Briggs engine. I had all kinds of trouble getting it started in the cold raining days. One night a big branch fell on it. It dented the cylinder and no longer had hydraulic power (bypassing). I sold it fully disclosed for $500. Turned around and got the 27 ton Troy with the Honda engine. It was $1299. I asked for a 10% discount and the obliged.

I don't know... 6 years old and around $1300 new. I'm thinking more like $750

 

[pybyr]

FWIW, put the TB 27 (honda engine) on Craigslist asking 950 and the email box filled right up. 2 days after listing sold it for 950 cash, with others lined up if the sale fell through.

 

[mhrischuk]

Nice. You played it right.

 

[smokinj]

FWIW, put the TB 27 (honda engine) on Craigslist asking 950 and the email box filled right up. 2 days after listing sold it for 950 cash, with others lined up if the sale fell through.

Nice!

 

[Kenster]

Trevor, I guess you might have been helped out a bit by Irene. Surely she kicked the demand up some. You're up pretty far north. Did you get it as badly as they did around Ludlow and Ruthand?

 

[pybyr]

Sold it pre-Irene; my place and general vicinity were almost completely unscathed; other people a short ways away had devastation of almost biblical proportions- and now up to 2 inches of rain is forecast for Monday. Ugh!

 

[bpirger]

Trevor....so what is it about the Timberwolf that speeds up the process? faster cycle time? Higher frame? Four way wedge? Smart sensors that look at the ground to find the next chunk and only moves back 1" further? I have the troy built...I'm curious what makes the TW so much faster! Or is it the satisfaction of the shiny new machine?

 

[pybyr]

Trevor....so what is it about the Timberwolf that speeds up the process? faster cycle time? Higher frame? Four way wedge? Smart sensors that look at the ground to find the next chunk and only moves back 1" further? I have the troy built...I'm curious what makes the TW so much faster! Or is it the satisfaction of the shiny new machine?

Cycle time is immensely faster. Pump far less frequently needs to hunker down into the slower second stage- keeping it in the fastest mode, as compared to the TB that would go from slow to slower as soon as it med anything other than straight grain.. Height at horizontal lets one work without stooping. Side 'tables' far better designed and made, allowing one to focus on splitting, instead of focusing on not having things fall off. Ergonomics of layout much better. In vertical position, the end piece has a little "pin" on it that lets one spin large rounds in an incredibly fast and agile way as one takes small chunks off of them. I am able to work at about 3x the pace with about 1/2 the effort/ strain.