We buy trucks in Kathleen

The mine here employs twelve people, and two of its figures land almost exactly on the same line. Its coordinate is 10.29 miles from the centre of the place it is filed under. Its only restricted crossing is 9.79 miles from the gate.

One is just outside ten miles and one is just inside. Within that radius the National Bridge Inventory records 32 structures, one posted for load and one coded below legal loads, and that one is county-maintained.

So the pit sits at the edge of its own named place and meets its only rated bridge at the edge of its own measurement. Neither is a defect; both are reminders that ten miles is a line we drew.

So it is worth being plain about what the count does and does not promise, because a crossing 9.79 miles out would have vanished from this page if the circle had been drawn a little tighter.

It admits about 10.4 tonnes of stone over the tare of an empty tandem dump — the middle band, where a truck crosses part loaded or goes round. Move the radius in and the same pit reads as unrestricted; move it out and there may well be tighter crossings we have not counted.

Statewide only 4.4% of Florida structures are coded below legal loads, so the odds favour a clear run in Polk County. The odds are not the point when the one you meet is on the road to the market.

Which is the number that does not move when the circle does, because it is written into the vehicle 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.

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.

All of it is iron we buy across Polk County. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers off the mine, held to 70,000 lb where a combination gets 80,000 lb and part loaded over the crossing 9.79 miles out. Day cabs and road tractors, flatbeds, box trucks, tankers, rollbacks, service bodies and the pickups that go with a twelve-person crew.

Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. We buy all of them.

• 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.
• The pit is ten miles out of town. Do you still come?Yes. At 10.29 miles it is barely outside the place it names, and in Polk County that is unremarkable — where a visit makes no sense we buy it where it stands and arrange the tow.
• 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.

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 that ended and left one dump truck standing in Polk County with nothing booked for it, 9.79 miles from the crossing that shaped every loaded trip it made.

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.