Wayne County
An engine plant, and a trailer that is always at weight
The significant industrial point here is an engine plant — not a vehicle assembly plant, though the file it comes from files it under that heading. Michigan holds six of the eleven such rows in this dataset. Its employment and its output were not established, so neither is claimed.
What an engine lane does to freight is useful to set out, because it is a fact about the load rather than a guess about the plant. A trailer of powertrain is weight-limited, not cube-limited: it hits the legal weight while the box still looks half empty. So the truck is never overweight and it is always at weight, every trip, for years. Those lanes and a rail yard 3.49 miles out are the whole of the industrial record in this part of Wayne County.
That wears a truck in a particular shape. Tyres, brakes, suspension and driveline take a full load every run while the floor, the doors and the walls stay fresh — the reverse of a light-freight lane, where the box gets destroyed and the chassis barely notices. A truck off a lane like that will look better than it has worked, and you know better than we do what it has been through.
And a rail yard named after somewhere else entirely
Those lanes run past a CSX Transportation yard 3.49 miles out that is called New Boston, which is not this city. Its coordinate does not fall inside any incorporated place at all, so Romulus is simply the nearest place holding a page, and in that situation the name is not evidence of anything.
What moves through it could not be determined from anything we read. We mention it mostly to make the point that the boundaries out here are soft: the airport townships, Taylor, Belleville and the rest of western Wayne County all run into one another, and none of it changes what we do.
Michigan weight law
A statute built so the truck is always at weight
That always-at-weight pattern is not an accident of the commodity — it is what Michigan’s weight statute encourages. The state 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 reaches that 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. A higher gross also means fewer trips for the same tonnage, which is exactly why a heavy commodity like powertrain runs the way it does here.
The same statute reduces axle and wheel loads through March, April and May — 25 percent on concrete pavements and concrete-based roads, 35 percent on everything else — and because the regime is built on the axle, that is a straight cut in the load. 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.
What we buy here
All of that is work done by trucks we buy. Day cabs and road tractors off the powertrain lanes and the CSX Transportation interchange 3.49 miles out. Dump trucks off the road work. 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.
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. Western Wayne County is easy country for any of those.
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. A tractor off a weight-limited lane is usually all there, and that is a good place to start from.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked in Romulus
- 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 heavy its whole life.Then say so. A truck off a weight-limited powertrain lane has worked its driveline and brakes hard while the body stayed tidy. We would rather know that than be surprised by it, and it does not change whether we buy it.
- I am not sure which city I am technically in.Neither is the rail yard on this page — New Boston sits outside any incorporated place and Romulus is just the nearest one with a page. Wayne County either way, and it has never decided anything.
- 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.
- 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 those is usually the reason for the call. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A contract that ended and never got replaced. A tractor standing on a yard out towards New Boston, 3.49 miles from the middle of town, that has not moved since the lane dried up — and every month it stands is another month of insurance on something that isn’t turning a wheel.
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. Plant and rail-yard facts from the city-pages node list.