08/06/2026
There's a fire truck on GovDeals right now going for less than a used pickup.
You can study the photos. You can drive out and walk around it, if you book an appointment. You can put your hands on the paint.
What you can't do is start it. Or run the pump. Or put the ladder up.
That isn't a seller being difficult. It's the deal. JJ Kane spells it out in their own terms: there is "no certification of operability." Nobody road-tests it. Nobody load-tests it. And on GovDeals, the one claim you're allowed to make — that the truck wasn't as described — dies the second you tow it off the lot. Their words: "upon removal of the property, all sales are final."
So you bid. And then you find out. 🚒
Sometimes you find out you did fine. Apparatus averaged just over $16,000 there last year, and plenty of departments have put honest trucks in service for that kind of money.
Sometimes you find out about the torque box. Real repair quotes on rotted aerials: $108,940. $152,000. One of those rigs sat four months waiting on it. Getting to a torque box means pulling the ladder, the body and the outriggers off the truck.
The truck is the cheap part. The finding out is what costs.
We buy at these auctions too. We just do the finding out first — pump test, certification, all of it — so the department buying from us isn't the one rolling the dice.
Ever bought a rig sight-unseen? How'd it go? 👇
