We buy trucks in Texarkana

This city straddles the state line, so a truck based here routinely works under two vehicle codes rather than one. That is not a curiosity; it is the single most useful thing to know before selling one, because which state issued the title decides which rulebook the paperwork follows.

The rails cross the same line. Two yards are attached here, 3.1 and 3.13 miles from the centre, and both belong to Union Pacific.

Those two sit 0.18 miles apart, which is close enough that they read as one operation rather than two. The second carries a suffix naming the St. Louis Southwestern — the Cotton Belt — a predecessor road that no longer operates under its own name.

A name in a dataset outliving the company it belonged to is ordinary, and it is a good reminder that a record describes what was written down rather than what is running today. This page reads them as one yard under one carrier, because that is what they are.

Whichever side of the line a load starts on, this state’s weight statute governs the miles run in it.

Ark. Code § 27-35-203 holds a single axle to twenty thousand pounds and two or more consecutive axles to thirty-four thousand. Where a vehicle takes the section’s axle variance, three axles may not exceed seventy thousand pounds gross and four or more may not exceed eighty thousand — ten thousand pounds settled by the axle count alone, 31.75 metric tonnes against 36.3.

A second limb reaches older equipment. Where a vehicle carries no plate attached by the manufacturer giving its axle and gross ratings, the maximum allowed on the front or steering axle is twelve thousand pounds, which turns a rating question into a statutory one on any truck old enough to have lost its plate.

Ark. Code § 27-35-203. Information, not legal advice.

Beyond the weight rules, the paperwork is one sentence: we need a title, unless the truck is old enough that it never had one.

Everything after that is a fix rather than a category. A lost title has a counter replacement; where none exists there is a bonded route. Neither stops a sale.

The wrinkle here is the line. This state brands a vehicle salvage where it is water-damaged as the rule defines that, or where other damage reaches seventy per cent of average retail value in a pricing guide the Commissioner has approved — and none of it applies to vehicles more than seven model years old before the year of the occurrence. Texas runs its own rule set with its own thresholds, and a truck titled on that side is read against those rather than these. We will not guess which applies to your truck: tell us where the document was issued and it is a short conversation.

Arkansas DFA administrative rule 006.05 2007-8, read alongside § 27-35-203. Texas rules not summarised here. Information, not legal advice.

None of that narrows what we will look at. Day cabs and road tractors, flatbeds, dump trucks and aggregate haulers, tankers, rollbacks and car haulers, service bodies, farm trucks, box trucks and straight trucks, and the work trucks and pickups that go with a crew.

Box trucks and straight trucks are not a Miller County speciality — they are everywhere. They are on the list because we buy them here too.

Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. We buy all of them. Most of what turns up comes off the yards near the Union Pacific tracks, a shop lot, or a place on the far side of the line entirely.

• My truck is titled on the Texas side. Can you still buy it?Yes. Which state issued the document changes the paperwork route rather than whether we buy the truck. Say so at the start and it is straightforward; it is much harder to sort out after somebody has driven out.
• Does it have to run?No. It does have to be complete — if the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Rust is not a disqualifier.
• The engine is out of it. Is that different?Yes, and that is the line. A tired engine is fine; an engine that has been pulled out and sold means we can’t buy the truck.
• What if the title is lost, or there never was one?A lost title has a counter replacement. Where none exists there is a bonded route. A lienholder means a payoff and a release, which is the slow part — and if the lien sits with a lender in the other state, tell us that too.
• Do you cover both sides, or only Miller County?Both. We come to you and drive it away, we come to you and tow it, we buy it remotely and arrange the tow, or you drive it to us — on either side of the line and out around the Union Pacific yards.

Those answers matter more than the railroad history does, because the reasons behind the call are ordinary. Retiring. A medical that didn’t go the way it used to. A contract ending, or an owner-operator stopping for good. A truck standing behind a shop since somebody stopped driving it, costing insurance every month it doesn’t turn a wheel.

Around Miller County and the streets either side of the Union Pacific yards there is usually one waiting.

Most of those aren’t happy reasons, and we don’t treat them like they are. Somebody wants a straight answer and the truck gone by the end of the week. That’s what we’re here for.