Watch Low-Buck Garage Explore Some Semi Trailers In An Abandoned Mine

A little over a year ago, James over at Low-Buck Garage bought himself part of an abandoned silver mine out in the hinterlands of New Mexico to store his assorted projects, equipment, and antique buses on. The part of the mine he bought was the equipment yard, and it came complete with literal tons of scrap metal, equipment, half-broken machinery, and a slightly radioactive ’60s-era Dodge sweptline pickup. It also came with half a dozen mysterious, locked semi trailers.

The purchase agreement stated that James owned the land, not what was on it. That meant that all the interesting junk still belonged to the previous owner, who had a year to clear it all off or said interesting junk would become James’ property. The year passed and the previous owner, in an act of PO-style laziness and chicanery of almost legendary proportions, took one pickup truck load of old steel pipes and left the rest for our hero to deal with — including the mystery trailers.

With a handful of keys and a clear conscience, James set about digging through the trailers to see what was in them. Luckily for us, he took us along on the adventure.

If you’re not familiar, Low-Buck Garage is a criminally underrated YouTube channel hosted by my kinda guy — a gearhead Of A Certain Age who is more interested in having fun, hoarding parts, and doing dumb things with old machines than he is with things like safety, sponsorships, or making things look nice. Clearly a man of taste and refinement, he’s entertained us with projects like his $2.00 Jeep Wagoneer, heavy construction vehicle revivals, an M16A1 WWII half track tow truck, and the revival of an amazing 1953 Kenworth Pacific bus converted to a motorhome. Then, of course, there’s the mine and the mystery trailers.

In the back half of a recent video, which I’ve helpfully included for you here, James methodically goes through the trailers and documents for us what he found. As you can imagine, most of it is junk. Lots of old records, documents, maps, cast-off furniture, shelving, broken tools, assorted hardware, etc. There’s some real gems in here, though. In one trailer he digs up a complete Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Model II home computer. In another he found a pile of cameras, projectors, film editing gear, and optical equipment. In yet another, he discovered a massive Miller tig welder. 

One trailer remained a mystery, however, as he didn’t have the keys for its locks and couldn’t cut them off with bolt cutters. In a follow-up video, which you should also absolutely watch, he opens the last trailer with an angle grinder and finds something inside so valuable that selling it lets him buy an old semi truck with which to move the trailers. 

Once you’re done watching James dig through all this weird junk, I highly recommend giving his channel a follow. If you’re reading this, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.