Moving Used Machinery Out
After an Auction
Direct answer: Auction removal means moving a machine out of someone else’s building — usually a closing plant with cracked floors, tight rows, and a hard deadline — with no house rigging support. Machinery Sliders™ handle the damaged, dirty concrete these floors always have, slip into row gaps no wheeled skate fits, and a full twelve-slider kit weighs less than one steel dolly and rides in a milk crate to the site. Sets of four start at $142.97.
You Won the Bid. The Clock Started.
Auction removal is its own kind of move: The hammer falls, and now the machine must be out of the building by the removal deadline — someone else’s building, usually a plant that’s closing, with floors nobody has maintained in years, machines packed in tight rows, no house rigging support, and a dock everyone else’s buyers are fighting for too. Miss the deadline and you’re paying storage, penalties, or worse: forfeiting the machine you just bought.
Price the removal before you bid: The sharpest auction buyers cost out the removal before the hammer falls. Read the sale terms: removal dates and hours, whether the sale requires approved and insured riggers (show up without approval and you may be denied access), whether utilities disconnection is on you, and whether any loading assistance is included. Treat the catalog weight as preliminary — verify it independently before choosing your equipment and trailer. Every one of those answers changes what the machine really costs.
Built for the Floors Auctions Happen On
Old plants, honest floors: Closed plants have cracked concrete, oil-soaked patches, filled trenches, metal chips, and debris — exactly the surfaces that stop small skate wheels dead. A wheeled skate plows chips and grit ahead of itself until they jam under a wheel; a slider’s broad face rides over them. Machinery Sliders™ spread the load across their full face — non-point loading — and glide over damaged and dirty concrete, dock plates, and floor transitions. One route-walk tip: old plant floors hide protruding anchor bolts where machines used to sit — find them before the move, not during it. See the full surface guide on our floors and truck surfaces page.
Between the rows: Auction machines sit packed together — the aisle between your machine and its neighbors may be the tightest clearance of the whole move. At 3/8″ (single-direction) to 1″ (multi-directional) high, sliders slip under machines and thread through gaps where no skate or dolly fits, and round multi-directional sliders give 360° control to work a machine out of a dead-end row. More on that on our low-clearance page.
The whole kit in one hand: You’re working in someone else’s building with what you carried in. A full set of twelve sliders weighs less than one steel dolly and rides in a milk crate — add a toe jack, cribbing, a strap or come-along, and a tape measure, and you’re equipped for most removals.
From the Row to the Truck to Your Floor
Old plants, honest floors: Slip the sliders under (each carries roughly 10 tons), pull the machine out of its row, across the plant floor, over the dock plate, and onto the trailer — then leave the sliders under it, secure the machine over them per FMCSA cargo securement rules, and it arrives at your shop already on its moving system, ready to slide straight to its new spot. Full trailer guidance on our flatbed loading page.
Know your limits: An honest word from people who do this: a mid-sized machine with Sliders, a toe jack, and a forklift at the dock is a very doable removal. A massive machine, a basement machine, or anything that has to come apart is rigger work — and auction houses can usually point you to riggers already working the sale. And if the machine is still bolted down, wired, or plumbed, those anchors and utilities get cleared by authorized people before anything moves — an anchor bolt nobody noticed will stop a pull cold, or worse. Sliders make the doable moves cheap and fast; they don’t make every move doable.
For the dealers: If you buy at auction for resale, Machinery Sliders change your math: cheap enough to outfit every truck, light enough to always be aboard, and cheap enough to deliver the machine to your customer still sitting on them. Sets of four start at $142.97 in our store, in the field since 2014 — or call 1 (570) 622-2848.
Straightforward returns: Standard shipping via UPS, USPS, or expedited shipping is available at checkout. LTL freight shipping for larger volumes is available upon request. We select the fastest shipping method that is available in that price-range even though a different carrier has been selected. If a Slider arrives with a material defect, or you decide it’s not right for your application, we accept returns on unused product — buyer covers return shipping and original shipping cost is non-refundable. No runaround, no restocking games.
Auction Removal Questions, Answered
For mid-sized machines: lift 3/8″ with a toe jack, slip Machinery Sliders™ under, and pull the machine to the dock with a forklift or come-along, then onto the trailer over the dock plate. For very large or complex machines, hire a rigger — auction houses can usually refer ones already on site.
Yes — cracked, oil-stained, and dirty concrete is what non-point loading is for. The broad slider face glides where small skate wheels catch and stop.
Sliders slip into clearances no skate fits — 3/8″ to 1″ high — and round multi-directional sliders give 360° control to walk the machine sideways out of a packed row.
Treat it as preliminary. Catalog weights are often estimates — verify the weight independently before choosing your sliders, forklift, and trailer, because every downstream decision depends on it.
It depends on the sale terms: the buyer commonly owns the removal, but some sales require approved, insured riggers, and removal windows range from hours to days. Read the terms before you bid — they control everything.
Yes — leave them in place, secure the machine over them per FMCSA rules, and it arrives ready to slide straight to its new position.