Dixie County
The county posts half of what it maintains, and the pit meets one
Dixie County posts eight of the sixteen bridges it maintains. Half. That is the highest county posting rate we have measured anywhere in Florida, and on its own it reads like a warning.
The pit inside it meets one restriction in thirteen structures. The Dixie County Pit employs two people, and within ten miles of it exactly one crossing is coded below legal loads: record 315250, carrying Canal Avenue, rated 20.9 metric tonnes, 9.56 miles out.
Two true numbers about the same county, and they are not measuring the same thing. The county rate covers bridges the county maintains anywhere inside it; the thirteen are whatever falls in a ten-mile circle around one pit.
So the crossing that binds is not the county’s at all
So the detail that matters is who owns it, and here it is not the county that posts half its stock.
The maintenance code on the Canal Avenue structure says a city or municipal highway agency. None of the restrictions near this pit are county-maintained. That is the third city-maintained binding crossing we have found, all three in Florida and all three within four batches of each other — Florida’s cities hold 1,249 of the state’s structures.
It matters because the tier decides who to ask. A driver cannot tell by looking at a bridge whether the state, Dixie County or the town is responsible for the number painted on it.
Which leaves what it actually admits
Which is the number worth carrying rather than either percentage. That crossing is rated 20.9 metric tonnes, and NBI ratings are the gross weight of the vehicle rather than the load.
Take off the tare of an empty tandem dump and about 9.9 tonnes of stone goes over. That is the middle band: not enough for a legal load to cross whole, and far more than nothing, so a truck goes over part loaded or takes the long way at 9.56 miles out from a Dixie County pit.
The two-person operation running it will have made that decision on every loaded trip for years, which is exactly the sort of thing worth telling us about a truck.
Florida weight law
And a ceiling that travels with the vehicle
That crossing sits under a limit written into the truck rather than the road.
A single-unit vehicle used as a dump truck, a concrete mixer, a waste collection vehicle or a fuel tanker may not exceed 70,000 lb gross, against 80,000 lb for a combination including all enforcement tolerances. The divisible-load permit that adds ten per cent off the interstate system does not reach those vehicles at all.
Fla. Stat. § 316.535(6), with § 316.550(4). Information, not legal advice.
Florida paperwork
We need a title — unless the truck never had one
Those numbers stop mattering the day the truck changes hands, and the paperwork is what is left.
A lost title has a counter replacement. Where none exists there is a bonded route. Neither is unusual and neither stops a sale.
The plate is the Florida detail people miss: it stays in the owner’s name and comes off the truck, to be moved to another vehicle of the same class or surrendered to the county tax collector.
Fla. Stat. § 320.0609(1)(a). Information, not legal advice.
What we buy here
All of it is iron we buy across Dixie County. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers off the pit, held to 70,000 lb where a combination gets 80,000 lb. Log trucks and timber rigs off the Big Bend woods, flatbeds and day cabs, box trucks, tankers, rollbacks, service bodies and the pickups that go with a two-person outfit.
Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. We buy all of them.
We buy complete trucks. If the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Small things — a missing bumper — are fine.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked in Cross City
- 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.
- Half the bridges round here are posted. Does that put you off?No. Dixie County posts eight of sixteen and the pit meets one restriction in thirteen structures, 9.56 miles out — those are different measurements, and neither has ever changed what we do with a truck.
- What about the title?We need one unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. A lost title has a counter replacement; where none exists there’s a bonded route.
- How do you pay?Cash or electronic payment, whichever suits you.
Why people call
Beyond a truck that has simply done its turns, the reasons are personal ones. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A pit contract in Dixie County that ended and left one truck standing with nothing booked for it, 9.56 miles from the crossing that shaped every load it carried.
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.