Business & Industry

Tractors from the cane fields, the pineapple belt and the hillsides:

where a used machine worked tells you how it was worked. Guanacaste holds most of the country’s sugar cane and much of its rice, and tractors there put in long harvest days hauling carts and dragging heavy disc harrows through dry, hard ground. Most Costa Rican pineapple grows in the Huetar Norte, so a tractor from around Upala or Los Chiles has usually spent its hours at walking pace behind spray booms and bed-shaping implements, often in mud. The cane slopes around Turrialba and Juan Viñas call for something smaller and narrower, and a big flat-country tractor bought for a steep finca is money spent on the wrong machine. Tractors sit under machines and heavy equipment, while the feed, livestock and trailers that go with farm work are in agricultural.

Four-wheel drive, the PTO and the three-point hitch:

matter more to a farm tractor’s fit than the brand on the bonnet. Start from the implement you already own or plan to pull, and match the horsepower to it rather than the other way round. Four-wheel drive earns its cost on wet clay and on slopes; on flat, dry ground a two-wheel-drive John Deere or Massey Ferguson does the same work for less. Check that the power take-off and the hitch suit your slasher, rotavator or sprayer, and that the hydraulics have the remote outlets a newer implement expects.

Forklifts, mixers, restaurant kitchens and office chairs:

come from different trades and are judged on different things. A warehouse forklift runs on electricity, gas or diesel, and on an electric one the battery decides most of the value. Contractors finishing a job pass on scaffolding, concrete mixers and tools through construction, and on a mixer the drum and gearbox matter far more than the paint. Refrigerators, ranges and dining furniture from restaurants and hotels sit in hospitality; the desks, chairs and filing cabinets of an office are in office.

A worn seat, a sinking lift and blue smoke on a used tractor:

each tell you something the advert did not. Polished pedals, a shiny steering wheel and a seat worn through do not belong on a machine claiming light use, and a replaced hour meter needs a reason. Raise something heavy on the linkage and see whether it holds or creeps down. Oil weeping from cylinders and couplings, blue smoke on a cold start and fumes pouring from the engine breather all point to money you will spend soon. Rock the front wheels of a four-wheel-drive model to feel for play in the axle, and pull something under load to catch a slipping clutch. Tyres filled with liquid ballast can rot the rims from inside, so look at the rims as well as the tread. For a commercial refrigerator, ask the seller to have it running empty before you arrive and see whether it has reached temperature; for office chairs, sit in a few and check that the gas lifts hold. Ask for service records and for the papers that show the seller owns the machine.

Listing a tractor, a forklift or a closed restaurant’s kitchen:

brings serious replies when the advert answers the phone calls in advance. Photograph the hour meter, the serial plate, the tyres and any leak you know about; give the horsepower, drive and hours, and say which implements or attachments go with it. Say where it stands: a buyer from Filadelfia will not drive to Parrita on a maybe. For a business clearing out, list the lot with a count of every piece and say whether you will split it. Anyone serious about a used tractor will come with a mechanic and want to hear it start from cold, so leave it standing overnight before they arrive.