Montana's trucks cover more road per load than almost anywhere, hauling wheat, cattle, coal and ore across a state four hundred miles wide. In FMCSA's October 2026 census, close to 9,000 carriers give a Montana address, close to two thirds registered for in-state work only and about half private fleets. More than three and a half thousand carry machinery and large objects, two and a half thousand carry grain, feed and hay, two thousand carry logs, poles and lumber, close to two thousand carry farm supplies, fifteen hundred carry livestock, and close to seven hundred carry oilfield equipment. Cattle lead 40 of the 56 counties in USDA's 2022 census and wheat 14. So the Montana truck is the wheat truck on the Hi-Line at harvest, a cattle pot out of Miles City, the log truck coming down to the mills at Columbia Falls, a coal truck at Colstrip or the Bull Mountains, the ore truck at the Stillwater mine at Nye, a winch truck in the Bakken out of Sidney, a semi truck with a sleeper on I-90 between Billings and Missoula, a dump truck loading at a Belgrade pit, and the pickup every ranch runs. We would buy any of them. Write to us with the year, make, model and VIN, photos all round, a photo of the title and the town, and the offer comes back.
The statute states a formula; the number is in the rule
Montana Code section 61-10-107 sets the axle limits and a bridge formula, W = 500((LN/(N-1)) + 12N + 36), with two consecutive tandems allowed 34,000 pounds each; no axle may carry more than 20,000 pounds and no two consecutive axles between 40 and 96 inches apart more than 34,000. ARM 18.8.431(1) makes that formula the general ceiling for a divisible load, and the permit stack above it is three deep: gross vehicle weight fees for the total carried, a term restricted-route permit at an annual fee, and a single-trip overweight permit before each trip.
The thing not to assume is that those figures stop at the interstate. Section 61-10-107 switches itself off on the interstate where applying it would cost the state its highway funding, but Montana's pre-existing higher limits were grandfathered past the federal 80,000 pounds, and 23 CFR 658 appendix C carries the state at 137,800 pounds under its memorandum and 131,060 for other combinations of that class, so in Montana the high figures do not stop at the line the way they do in most states. A Rocky Mountain double that ran those figures, a tandem dump truck at 34,000, a heavy-haul tractor on permits and a dually that never saw a scale are four trucks and one offer process with us.
The county treasurer, and up to eight weeks
Montana titles through the Department of Justice's Motor Vehicle Division, and under section 61-3-201 the application goes to the department, its agent or a county treasurer; the state says it can take up to eight weeks to get a title back from DOJ, so a lost title is the first thing to start on. The treasurers: Yellowstone County in Billings, Missoula County at 200 West Broadway, Cascade County in Great Falls, Gallatin County at 311 West Main in Bozeman, Silver Bow at 155 West Granite in Butte, Lewis and Clark at 316 North Park in Helena, Flathead at 290 North Main in Kalispell, Hill at 315 4th Street in Havre, Custer at 1010 Main Street in Miles City, Dawson at 207 West Bell in Glendive and Richland at 201 West Main in Sidney, 56 in all. Where there is a lien it clears first, and the payoff figure is what takes the time.
The state defines a salvage vehicle as one damaged to the point that the owner or an insurer decides the cost of parts and labor makes it uneconomical to repair, and the rebuilt inspection afterwards under section 61-3-212 is about ownership and the source of the parts rather than condition; a brand is one line in your first message. The rest of the state's work: thirteen racks from Billings, Laurel and Lockwood to Missoula, Bozeman, Helena, Great Falls and Glendive fill the tankers, cement comes out of Trident and Montana City, the Golden Sunlight and Continental mines sit at Whitehall and Butte, the Decker, Spring Creek, Rosebud and Absaloka coal mines along the Wyoming line, and 23 rail yards run from Laurel and Billings to Havre, Whitefish, Glendive and Wolf Point. Malmstrom and Fort Harrison field the military trucks. The offer is the same offer for a sleeper, a day cab, a heavy-haul tractor, a dump truck, a roll-off, a mixer, a garbage truck, a wrecker or rotator, a log truck, a tanker, a boom or crane truck, a box truck, a straight truck, a utility truck, a pickup or a dually: name it, name the town, and say whether we come to it, buy it where it sits, or wait for you to bring it.
Neighboring states
Montana shares a border with four states.
Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.