Sell your semi truck for cash in Ecorse

One rail-yard row sits here, operated by Canadian National, 0.32 miles from the middle of the city and squarely inside it. In a place this compact that is not so much a yard near the town as a yard in it, which is the ordinary condition of the riverfront cities along this stretch.

It is a bare directional name, and Michigan carries four of those under different carriers in different cities with no two of them pairing — so the name tells you nothing beyond which end of the yard somebody meant. What moves through it could not be determined from anything we read.

The useful thing on the ground is that this city runs straight into River Rouge on one side and the rest of Downriver on the other, with no gap in the built-up area. A truck working here crosses two or three municipal lines a shift and nobody notices, including us.

Whatever it carries, it carries under a state weight statute that is not the one the rest of the country uses. 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. Scrap and steel are dense enough to reach those axle limits with the trailer nowhere near full.

The consequence is purchase-relevant. A Michigan-legal heavy combination is a physically different vehicle rather than a heavier one, and one built for these weights may not be configured for anywhere else. The same statute then reduces axle and wheel loads through March, April and May — 25 percent on concrete pavements and concrete-based roads, 35 percent on everything else.

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.

Those rules cover trucks we are glad to buy. Flatbeds off the plate and scrap work. Dump trucks and roll-offs off the demolition. Day cabs and road tractors off the Canadian National yard 0.32 miles out. Box trucks, straight trucks and rollbacks out of the trades, and service bodies, work trucks and pickups off crews across Wayne 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 — and you are welcome to bring it to us. River Rouge, Lincoln Park and the rest of the riverfront are all routine.

• 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 scrap or steel its whole life.Then say so. A dense load reaches the axle limits with the trailer half empty, so the truck has worked its driveline, brakes and suspension hard while the deck stayed tidy. It does not change whether we buy it.
• The truck is really in River Rouge.It makes no difference to us. The two cities run into each other and the yard on this page is 0.32 miles from the middle of one of them. Wayne County either way.
• The place it worked for has shut down.That has happened to a lot of people along this river and it has never changed the answer. Tell us what the truck has been doing since.
• 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 questions is usually the reason for the call. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A contract that ended and never got replaced — which on this ground has happened to a lot of people at once. A flatbed standing on a Wayne County lot a few streets from the Canadian National rails, 0.32 miles from the middle of the city, 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.