Sell your semi truck for cash in Charlevoix the easy and convenient way

The dominant industrial point here is a cement works run by St. Marys Cement, and it reports 214 employees to the federal mine regulator. For a northern town on the lake that is a very large single employer, and it shapes the truck population more than any road does.

The same operator holds one other row in this state, the works down in Wayne County, which reports 91. Michigan’s two largest sites of this kind report 264 and 214 — the larger is the Amrize Cement works up at Alpena, and this is the other one. So this is the bigger of the two by a distance, which is not what most people would guess about a plant this far north. Its parent company is understood to be a larger international group, but that was not verified in the research behind this page, so it is not stated as a fact here.

What a works of that size runs is not a mystery: mixers, bulk tankers and dump trucks, continuously, in a part of the state where there is not much else generating heavy freight.

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. 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 St. Marys Cement work, the same trade the Amrize Cement works up the shore runs. Dump trucks off the aggregate and the road jobs. Day cabs and road tractors, 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.

Up 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 a long day. We can also come to you and drive it away or tow it, and you are welcome to bring it south if you are heading that way 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.
• It has hauled cement its whole life.Then say so. A St. Marys Cement load reaches the axle limits with the body half empty, so the truck has worked its driveline, brakes and suspension hard while the body stayed tidy. It is the same story on the Amrize Cement run up the shore, and it does not change whether we buy it.
• Will you come this far north?Usually we do not need to. Most trucks up here are bought remotely and towed, with nobody visiting at all. If it does need somebody, we come and either drive it away or tow it.
• It has sat outside through a lot of winters.Expected on the lake, 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 within sight of the St. Marys Cement works, or one that ran the Amrize Cement road up the shore, 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.