We buy trucks in Pendleton

The node attached to Pendleton is the Pendleton Quarry, worked by IMI Aggregates, and the federal mine regulator records twenty employees at it. It sits in Madison County.

Ten miles out the Indiana bridge file returns 221 structures, with the nearest posted crossing 1.84 miles from the gate. That is one of the fuller circles in this research — a lot of small crossings on flat ground — and the number that matters is how few of them are posted.

Of those 221 structures, nine are coded below legal loads. That is 4.1%, about one crossing in twenty-four, and all nine are county-maintained. The nearest is 1.84 miles from the pit.

The ratings are correspondingly loose. The lowest operating rating among the nine is 21.2 metric tonnes, about 23.4 US tons. Because the rating is the gross weight of the vehicle and an empty tandem dump runs about 11.0 tonnes, even the tightest crossing here takes something like 10.2 tonnes of stone on top of the truck. That is a working load, not a token one.

Set against much of this state that is an easy network. Indiana’s counties maintain 12,676 of the state’s 19,542 structures, 64.9%, and county posting rates vary enormously between them — so the fact that the local tier posts nine out of 221 is a fact about Madison County’s programme rather than about the rock or the traffic.

FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025, Indiana file, items 41, 64 and 70.

So around here the statute bites before the bridges do, because Indiana keys its weight 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. A truck on an undesignated county road therefore starts 6,720 lb below the federal gross.

On a circle with only nine postings in it, that 6,720 lb is the main thing standing between a truck and a full load, and which Madison County roads carry the designation was not established. 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 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, farm trucks and grain hauls, day cabs and road tractors, flatbeds, rollbacks, tankers, 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 Madison County speciality — they are everywhere. They are on the list because we buy them here too.

Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. The IMI Aggregates gate, the nearest posted crossing 1.84 miles from it and the Madison County farm roads between 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.
• It has run at full weight all its life.Plausible here, with only nine restricted crossings inside ten miles of the IMI Aggregates gate, the nearest 1.84 miles out, and the tightest of them taking about 10.2 tonnes of stone. A truck that has actually carried its rating is a truck that has worked, and we read the truck rather than the dash.
• Do you actually come to Pendleton?Often we don’t need to — plenty of these we buy remotely and arrange the tow, so nobody has to be at the gate. All of Madison County either way. 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 because the reason for the call is usually not the truck. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A hauling contract ending. A truck standing beside a shed since somebody stopped driving it, costing insurance every month it does not turn a wheel.

Around the IMI Aggregates gate, the posted crossing 1.84 miles from it and the Madison County roads that carry its stone, 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. That’s what we’re here for.