Sell your semi truck for cash in Alpena

The dominant industrial point here is a cement works run by Amrize Cement, and it is not a small one. It reports 264 employees to the federal mine regulator, which makes it the second-largest site of its kind anywhere in this research — the largest, at 274, is another Amrize Cement plant, down in Texas.

That scale is the whole argument of this page. A cement works of that size runs mixers, bulk tankers and dump trucks continuously, and it does it in a part of the state where there is not much else generating heavy freight. The trucks around here are shaped by one employer more than by a road network.

There is also a military installation carried in the record, and it is thin: acreage, strength and mission were all not established, and the file says so in terms. We are not going to build anything on it.

Beyond the plant there is a Lake State Railway yard 1.11 miles from the middle of town. It has a small piece of history attached: a scan looking for carriers in geographically odd places flagged this row hardest of all, at 103 miles from its nearest sibling under the same carrier.

The scan was wrong, and it is on this page because the reason it was wrong is the interesting bit. That carrier serves north-eastern Michigan, where the yards really are that far apart. The row was not an error; the assumption that a carrier keeps its yards close together was. What moves through the yard could not be determined from any source we read.

It also tells you something true about selling a truck up here. Distances are long, and that is ordinary rather than a problem — which is why we usually buy remotely and arrange the tow rather than asking anybody to drive.

That cement traffic loads under a state weight statute unlike any other in the country. Michigan permits a maximum gross of 164,000 lb on a combination of up to eleven axles, the highest regularly usable truck weight in North America, with eleven the ceiling since 1967.

It gets there by going the other way on the axle: 18,000 lb on a single axle against a federal 20,000, and 32,000 lb on a tandem against 34,000. More axles, each carrying less, because pavement damage climbs with axle load rather than with gross weight. For a dense commodity like cement that matters — the load reaches the axle limits with the body nowhere near full, and a higher gross means fewer trips for the same tonnage.

Then the same statute reduces axle and wheel loads through March, April and May, and northern routes stay restricted longest of all: 25 percent on concrete pavements and concrete-based roads, 35 percent on everything else. Because the whole regime is built on the axle that is a straight cut in the load, and no overweight permits are issued while it is in force.

On paper the rule is one sentence. We need a title — unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. Everything after that is a fix rather than a category: a lost title has a counter replacement, and where none exists there is a bonded route. Neither one stops a sale.

Gross and axle limits at MCL 257.722, read from the Michigan Vehicle Code and the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Maximum Legal Truck Loadings and Dimensions. Information, not legal advice.

All of that is work done by trucks we buy. Mixers and bulk tankers off the Amrize Cement work. Dump trucks off the aggregate and the road work. Day cabs and road tractors off the Lake State Railway interchange 1.11 miles out. Flatbeds, box trucks, straight trucks and rollbacks out of the trades, and service bodies, work trucks and pickups off crews.

Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. We buy all of them.

Out here the honest thing to say is that we often do not need to come at all: we buy remotely and arrange the tow, which saves everybody a long day. We can also come to you and drive it away or tow it, and you are welcome to bring it to us if you are heading south anyway.

• 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.
• Will you actually come out this far?Usually we do not need to. Most trucks in north-eastern Michigan are bought remotely and towed, with nobody visiting at all. The nearest yard under the same carrier is 103 miles away — distances are long here and it has never stopped a sale.
• It has hauled cement its whole life.Then say so. An Amrize Cement load reaches the axle limits with the body half empty, so the truck has worked its driveline and brakes hard while the body stayed tidy. It does not change whether we buy it.
• It has sat outside through a lot of winters.Expected up here, and not a disqualifier. Tell us how long and whether anything has come off it. Cold and salt find brake lines and air systems first.
• How am I paid?Cash or electronic payment. That is the whole list.
• What about the title?We need one unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. A lost title has a counter replacement; where none exists there is a bonded route.

None of those is usually why the phone rings. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A contract that ended and never got replaced. A mixer standing on a yard somewhere between the Amrize Cement plant and the Lake State Railway rails, 1.11 miles from the middle of town, that has not moved in two years and is still costing insurance every month.

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.