We buy trucks in Palatka

The rail row filed under Palatka is called Pecan, and no facility-level source was found for it. That much is straightforward and is stated rather than filled in.

The research note attached to the row is the part worth flagging. It characterises a central Florida yard on the warehouse belt between Tampa and Orlando — a real description of a real corridor, and not a description of this place. Palatka sits in Putnam County on the St. Johns River, in the north-east of the state.

So that note is carried at county scope and does not fit this row, and repeating it here would put a page about Putnam County into somebody else’s traffic. What is left is the name, the absence of a source, and the county — which is honest, if thin.

So take what is not in dispute. Palatka sits on the St. Johns River, and Putnam County is timber and river country rather than warehouse country.

What that puts on the road is log trucks and timber rigs off the tracts, dump trucks on county and forest road work, flatbeds moving equipment between landings, and the service and pickup traffic behind all of it. Short runs on rough surfaces, mostly.

It is the pattern that puts hours on a machine ahead of miles, and it is the opposite of the corridor the note describes — which is the practical reason the mismatch was worth naming rather than ignoring.

Which changes where an inspection starts on a Putnam County truck. Soft ground and forest road wear at the suspension, the frame and the driveline rather than at the brakes, and a log truck shows it in different places than a highway tractor does.

Water is the other half. Florida salts no roads anywhere, so what accumulates near the St. Johns River is humidity rather than road salt — corrosion at connectors, grounds and fastener heads as much as along the rails.

Photograph underneath as well as around, and the engine from both sides. On this kind of truck that is where the answer actually is.

So the load rule sits over all of it. Florida allows 80,000 lb gross including all enforcement tolerances and 20,000 lb on a single axle.

A single-unit vehicle used as a dump truck, mixer, waste vehicle or fuel tanker may not exceed 70,000 lb gross including the weight of the vehicle — ten thousand pounds below the same truck run as a combination. The divisible-load permit adds ten per cent off the interstate system only, and does not reach those single-unit vehicles.

Fla. Stat. § 316.535 and § 316.550(4). Information, not legal advice.

Those are the load. The paperwork is what decides how fast a sale closes. We need a title unless the truck is old enough that it never had one.

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 stays in the owner’s name, so it comes off the truck and either moves to a replacement vehicle of the same class or goes back to the county tax collector.

Fla. Stat. § 320.0609(1)(a). Information, not legal advice.

All of it is iron we buy across Putnam County. Log trucks and timber rigs off the tracts, dump trucks and aggregate haulers held to 70,000 lb where a combination gets 80,000 lb, flatbeds and lowboys, day cabs, box trucks, tankers, rollbacks, service bodies and the pickups that go with a crew — the same over the St. Johns River at East Palatka and out towards Interlachen.

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.
• Do you know anything about the yard here?Honestly, no. No facility-level source was found for the Pecan row, and the note attached to it describes the Tampa–Orlando belt rather than Putnam County. Putnam County sits on the St. Johns River, not on that belt, and we would rather say so than repeat somebody else’s corridor back to you.
• 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 timber contract that ended and left one log truck standing in a Putnam County yard near the St. Johns River with nothing booked for it.

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.