McHenry County
Where Wonder Lake sits
Wonder Lake is in McHenry County, and the census counts 4,292 people here, at 865 per square mile, with a median age of 33.8 years.
What we know about Wonder Lake is what the census records and what Illinois law requires; the yards, pits and depots we have researched elsewhere have no entry here. So the question we can actually answer is how a truck gets out, not who else might want it.
Illinois weight law
That road has a number on it
That route out is where the state stops being an abstraction. Illinois sets the ceiling before any local sign lowers it.
In Illinois the gross, 5 or more axles weight limit is 80,000 lb (625 ILCS 5/15-111).
In Illinois the single axle weight limit is 20,000 lb (§ 15-111).
In Illinois the tandem axle weight limit is 34,000 lb, with no axle within the tandem exceeding 20,000 lb (§ 15-111).
Illinois paperwork
Then the paperwork has to match the truck
Those limits decide the route. The title decides whether there is a sale at all.
In Illinois, an insurance company that pays damages on a total loss claim is deemed the owner of the vehicle, and the vehicle is considered salvage (625 ILCS 5/3-117.1(b)(1)).
In Illinois the threshold for a self-insured company is 70% of the fair market value the vehicle would have without the damage, measured by the cost of repair including labour (625 ILCS 5/3-117.1(b)(1.1)).
In Illinois, the registered owner may ask to retain a vehicle nine model years of age or older, and whether they keep it is a matter of agreement with the insurer rather than something the statute settles for them (625 ILCS 5/3-117.1(b)(1)).
So what leaves Wonder Lake
Those two rules meet 4,292 people in Wonder Lake, McHenry County, at a household median around $94,655 and a density of 865 per square mile. A truck sitting in a driveway here is a working asset that has stopped working, whatever the size of the place it stopped in.
What we take out of a place like this is sleeper tractors and day cabs, dump trucks and roll-offs, box trucks and flatbeds, pickups and duallys, and the service and utility bodies that outlive the business that bought them.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked in Wonder Lake
Do you actually come to McHenry County? Yes. 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.
Do you come out to a place this size? 4,292 people at 865 per square mile is a place we reach the same way we reach anywhere else. The truck decides whether we buy it, not the population.
How do you pay? We pay either cash or electronically.