Washtenaw County
One yard, three and a half miles out, and outside every boundary
The research holds a single rail-yard row attached to this town: a Norfolk Southern yard 3.43 miles from the middle of it, whose coordinate falls outside any incorporated place at all. Belleville is simply the nearest town holding a page, which is how it came to be filed here.
So the honest reading is that the yard is out in the townships rather than in a town, which is the normal condition along this stretch between two metros. The distance is computed from the points along a stretch of track rather than surveyed at a gate, so it locates the middle of some rails.
What moves through it could not be determined from anything we read, and no claim is made about that. One Norfolk Southern row out in Washtenaw County is the whole of the local record — and it has never made any difference to buying a truck.
Michigan weight law
A statute that counts axles, not trucks
So the rule to know here is a state one, and it is the rule that makes Michigan trucks different from everybody else’s. The statute permits a maximum gross of 164,000 lb on a combination of up to eleven axles, and eleven has been the ceiling since 1967 — the highest regularly usable truck weight in North America.
It reaches that the opposite way round from how people assume. Michigan’s axle limits are lower than the federal ones: 18,000 lb on a single axle against 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.
Which matters when a truck changes hands. An eleven-axle Michigan combination is a physically different vehicle rather than a heavier one, and one built for these weights may not be configured for anywhere else. Tell us the axle count early and we will know what we are looking at.
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.
What we buy here
Those are the trucks we buy, whatever shape they are in. Day cabs and road tractors of the kind that serve a Norfolk Southern yard 3.43 miles out. Dump trucks off the road work and the gravel. Flatbeds, box trucks, straight trucks and rollbacks out of the trades. Service bodies, work trucks and pickups off crews across Washtenaw County.
Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. We buy all of them.
We can come to you and drive it away, come to you and tow it, or buy it remotely and arrange the tow with nobody visiting at all. You are welcome to bring it to us too. Sitting between two metros the way this town does, every one of those is ordinary.
We buy complete trucks. If the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Small things — a missing bumper — are fine.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked in Belleville
- 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 truck is out in the township, not the town.So is the rail yard on this page — 3.43 miles out and outside every incorporated boundary. Washtenaw County either way, and it has never decided anything for us.
- It has been parked since the spring restrictions.Common here, and not a disqualifier. Tell us how long it has stood and whether anything has come off it.
- It only ever ran between the two metros.Then it has hours on it the odometer did count, and the wear is in the driveline rather than the body. Tell us the pattern and we will know what we are looking at.
- 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.
Why people call
None of that is usually why the phone rings. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A contract that ended and never got replaced. A tractor standing on a Washtenaw County lot out towards the Norfolk Southern rails 3.43 miles from town, that has not moved since the work stopped 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.
Michigan weight rules read from MCL 257.722 and Michigan Department of Transportation publications in August 2026 — verify with the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Michigan Secretary of State before acting on them. Node facts from the city-pages node list, county attribution from its own county field.