We buy trucks in Aurora

The node here is an olivine plant, and the first thing to say about it is that the olivine does not come from anywhere near Dearborn County. It is not mined in this state at all; United States production sits in North Carolina and in Washington.

So this is a processing and distribution point for ore brought in, not a mine with a plant attached. Which explains why it is where it is: Aurora stands on the Ohio River, and a heavy mineral of low value per ton arrives cheapest by water.

Barge in, truck out. Everything that leaves the site leaves on a road, and that is the part of the operation this page is about.

That mineral is sold for exactly the properties that make it hard on equipment. Olivine is hard, dense and angular, which is why it goes out as a blasting medium and as a foundry sand rather than as a decorative stone.

Dense means a legal load fills a short deck long before it fills a long one, so the weight arrives concentrated rather than spread. Angular means it grinds — on liners, on tailgates, on conveyor and hopper faces, and on the bodies of the trucks that carry it out to the customers.

None of that is a strike against a truck that has done the work. It is why a truck off this kind of run reads the way it does, and it is the sort of history we expect to see on equipment coming out of the Ohio River terminals in Dearborn County.

That dense load runs straight into the state weight rules, because Indiana keys its allowance to the road rather than to the cargo.

Gross weight is 80,000 lb, single axles 20,000 and tandems 34,000 on the heavy-duty network the state designates. Off that network the gross falls to 73,280 lb, single axles to 18,000, and a tandem assembly is capped at 16,000 lb for each of its axles — 32,000 for the pair.

So a loaded truck on a Dearborn County road gives up 6,720 lb of gross before it meets a posting at all, and which roads carry the designation was not established here. Local authorities may set lesser limits again, and seasonal restrictions are administered county by county rather than as one state season.

One more limit follows the load rather than the road: 800 lb per inch of tire width, loaded or empty, which a dense load reaches on a short deck length rather than spread down a trailer.

Ind. Code § 9-20-4-1; local limits under § 9-20-1-4 and § 9-20-7-2. 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 sentence is a fix rather than a category. A lost title has a counter replacement; where none exists there is a bonded route. Neither one stops a sale.

Indiana brands a vehicle salvage where repair to a roadworthy state would cost more than 70 per cent of its fair market value immediately before the damage, and the statute names semitrailers explicitly, so a trailer can carry a brand independently of the tractor. Rebuilding requires a state police officer to verify ownership of the major component parts and the source of those parts — a paperwork audit rather than a condition inspection, and a rebuild done without receipts cannot pass it.

Ind. Code § 9-22-3-3 and § 9-22-3. Information, not legal advice.

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

Box trucks and straight trucks are not a Dearborn County thing in particular — they are everywhere. They are on the list because we buy them here too.

Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. The river terminals, the plant gate above them and the roads that climb away from the Ohio River are where most of it turns up.

• 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 about the title?We need one unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. Lost titles have a counter replacement; where none exists there’s a bonded route.
• The body is worn out from hauling abrasive. Is that a problem?No. A ground-out bed or a scarred tailgate is wear, not a missing part, and wear is what a working truck is supposed to have. The line is whether the truck is complete.
• Will you come down to the river?Often we don’t need to — plenty of these we buy remotely and arrange the tow, so nobody has to be standing on the yard. All of Dearborn County either way, the Ohio River terminals included. 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.

Those answers matter here because the reasons are ordinary. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A hauling contract off the river ending. A truck standing at the back of a yard since somebody stopped driving it, costing insurance every month it does not turn a wheel.

Around Dearborn County, and along the roads that run down to the Ohio River, 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.