We buy trucks in Mount Vernon

Three rows sit against Mount Vernon and between them they describe one industry. There is a liquid bulk terminal, a flour mill under a large grain miller’s name, and a rail yard 1.11 miles out operated by the Evansville Western Railway — a short line rather than one of the big carriers.

The yard row abbreviates the name of the town it belongs to. The attachment is correct and no duplicate arises from it, but a lookup done on the name alone would not match the two strings, which is the kind of thing that quietly turns one place into two in a spreadsheet.

The terminal is the row that changes what a truck here actually is.

That terminal belongs to a nitrogen fertiliser producer, so what moves through it is anhydrous ammonia, urea and nitrogen solution rather than petroleum. Anhydrous ammonia travels in pressure cargo tanks — the same specification used in liquefied gas service — and those are not interchangeable with non-pressure tanks. You cannot repurpose one into the other.

Which means that a tanker sold out of Posey County comes with a question a dry van never raises: on a unit like this the certification and re-test history decides the asset. A pressure tank with a clean, current test record is a working piece of equipment. The same tank with a lapsed one is a tank that needs work before it carries anything. That is as true of a unit loading beside the Evansville Western Railway yard as of one anywhere else.

Nitrogen solution brings a second problem, and it works from the inside out. It attacks carbon steel and unprotected fittings, so the wetted components age where nobody looks — a trailer that presents well outside can have a service life question inside it. Handling and security requirements for ammonia were not extracted for this research and nothing here should be read as covering them.

So when you call about a tanker from around here, have the specification plate and the last test date to hand. It is the first thing we will ask.

Beyond the tank itself, what a truck may carry out of here is set by a statute keyed to the road rather than to the cargo.

Indiana sets gross weight at 80,000 lb, single axles at 20,000 and tandems at 34,000 — on the heavy-duty network the state highway agency designates. Off that network gross falls to 73,280 lb and tandems fall from 34,000 to 16,000. Which roads carry the designation was not established here, so nothing on this page says whether a route down to the terminal qualifies.

Local authorities may impose lesser limits on their own roads and bridges, and seasonal restrictions are administered county by county rather than statewide. A liquid load also behaves differently from a dry one under braking, which is a handling matter rather than a legal one but belongs in the same conversation.

The wheel limit applies whatever is in the tank: 800 lb per inch of tire width, loaded or empty.

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 that one sentence.

Everything after it is a fix rather than a category. A lost title has a counter replacement; where none exists there is a bonded route. Neither 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 used and the source of those parts — a paperwork audit rather than a condition inspection, which a rebuild done without receipts cannot pass.

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

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

Box trucks and straight trucks are not a Posey 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. We buy all of them. The bulk terminal, the mill, the Evansville Western Railway yard and the county roads around them 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 tanker is out of test. Is it still saleable?Yes. A lapsed test is a job of work, not a disqualifier — tell us the specification and when it last passed, and be straight about it, because it is the first thing anyone checks.
• Do you come down to Posey County?Yes, all of it and the roads either side, out past the Evansville Western Railway yard 1.11 miles from town. 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 questions come up because the reasons for selling are mostly personal. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A haul that ended when a contract did. A truck standing beside a shed since somebody stopped driving it, costing insurance every month it does not turn a wheel.

Around Posey County, out past the Evansville Western Railway yard, there is usually one standing somewhere.

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.