We buy trucks in Wichita

The centre of this place is grain. An Ardent Mills plant sits about 1.5 miles north-east and a Grain Craft mill about 1.9 miles, and that is a state position rather than a local accident: this state ranks first among the fifty in flour-milling capacity. Three rail yards sit among them under three different carriers — a Kansas & Oklahoma yard about 1.9 miles south-west, and two BNSF Railway yards about 2.9 and 3.7 miles north-east whose relationship to each other was never resolved.

The sand is a ring further out, and it is all small. Cornejo & Sons about 7 miles north with 10 people, Air Capitol Materials about 7 miles north-west with 7, a Martin’s Central Sand plant about 7 miles south with 5, Northridge Sand about 7 miles north-west with 8, an Associated Material plant about 7 miles with 4, and the Banks Quarry about 8 miles north-west with 6. Six operations, none over ten people, all at roughly the same radius.

That ring of short runs crosses one of the densest bridge networks measured anywhere in the survey. Within 10 miles of the Banks Quarry the national inventory records 506 structures — the twentieth densest of 998 nodes examined. Of those, 31 are posted for load and 22 are coded below legal loads, 4.3 per cent, and only 12 of the 22 are county-maintained.

The useful part is which one binds. The nearest restricted structure is 1.12 miles from that quarry gate; the one that actually sets the ceiling is 9.47 miles away. Those are two different bridges, and they usually are — at eighteen of the twenty nodes examined alongside this one the nearest restriction and the binding one were not the same crossing. The commercial floor around here works out at 16.3 metric tonnes, which admits a part-loaded truck and not a full one.

Those grain runs have a permit written for them, and it is a configuration rather than a number. The special annual agricultural permit allows a maximum of 90,000 lb with a minimum of six axles, and it cannot be operated on the interstate. The vehicle must be registered for 85,500 lb, and above that figure it may carry only a closed list — agricultural inputs, farm supplies, biofuels, feed, raw or processed agricultural commodities, livestock, raw meat intended for further processing, or farm products.

Two things follow for a seller. A five-axle combination gets nothing from it however it is loaded, so the truck’s own axle count is part of whether the permit is worth anything. And the interstate cap stands separately at 80,000 lb under 23 U.S.C. § 127, which a state cannot raise — so this relief exists only off that system, which is where these runs are anyway.

Kansas special annual agricultural permit; 23 U.S.C. § 127. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.

Beyond the road rules that is the whole of it in one sentence, and everything after it is a fix rather than a category. A counter replacement if the title is lost, a bonded route if the truck is old enough that it never had one. Neither stops a sale.

Two state-specific points are worth having straight, and neither depends on where in the ring the truck is parked — the file is the same at the Banks Quarry 8 miles out and at a mill gate 2 miles in. First, a salvage brand here applies to a late model vehicle whose repair cost is 75 per cent or more of fair market value immediately before the damage, and expressly not where the damage was merely exterior cosmetic from windstorm or hail. Second, getting back to a road title takes two counters: a Kansas Highway Patrol inspection station issues form MVE-1, then the county treasurer’s office issues the title.

K.S.A. § 8-197; Kansas Department of Revenue form TR-13. Information, not legal advice.

Mills and sand run different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Grain hauls and farm trucks off the country and the mill gates. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers out of the Cornejo, Northridge and Air Capitol plants. Day cabs and road tractors on the yard work, box trucks and straight trucks on the pallet runs, flatbeds, service bodies and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.

Most of it works inside about 8 miles of one point — two mills, three yards, five sand plants and the Banks Quarry.

• Does it have to run?No. It does have to be complete, though — if the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. A missing bumper is fine. A missing driveline is not.
• The road out to me is posted. Does that stop you?No. It changes how the truck leaves, not whether we buy it. There are 506 structures inside 10 miles of the quarry end of town and 22 of them are coded below legal loads, so working around a posting is an ordinary part of the job here rather than a surprise.
• What if I can’t find the title?We need a title — unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. If it’s lost, there’s a counter replacement. If there was never one to lose, there’s a bonded route. Neither stops a sale.
• There’s still money owed on it. Now what?That’s a payoff and a lien release, and it’s the slow part rather than the hard part. Tell us up front and we’ll work it into the paperwork.
• How do you pay?Cash or electronic payment, whichever you would rather have.
• It’s one truck off a small outfit. Too small?No. The six aggregate operations in the ring around this city employ 10, 8, 7, 6, 5 and 4 people. One truck from a small operator is the normal call in Sedgwick County, not the unusual one.

Beyond the trucks themselves, the reasons repeat. A DOT physical didn’t go the way it used to. A sand contract that filled the season for nine years went to somebody else. The truck is just sitting behind a shop, and every month it sits is another month of insurance on something that isn’t turning a wheel.

The lots out toward the Banks Quarry about 8 miles north-west, and around the Northridge Sand and Air Capitol Materials plants, hold a fair number of trucks in exactly that position.

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.