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

Start with a correction to the record, because it affects what a seller here is told. The single rail yard attached to this city sits about 2 miles from the middle of town, and the carrier on its row reads Montana Rail Link — a company that discontinued all active rail operations on 1 January 2024, when its lease of the former Northern Pacific main line was terminated and BNSF Railway resumed control of the route. Six rows across the state still name it. If you have been told anything about who runs the line here, check the date on it.

The rest is short and real. A Grain Craft flour mill sits in town, and a Knife River crusher works here with 5 people on it. The Brick yard at Lockwood is about 5 miles north-east, and a Fisher Industries plant at Laurel about 10 miles south-west has 7. The Laurel yard is about 13 miles south-west.

Those six places are the whole of the close work, and the map does not fill in again for a long way. The next fixed operations are the Guard training site near Pompeys Pillar about 38 miles north-east, the Black Otter coal preparation plant at Klein about 38 miles north in Musselshell County, and the Beartooth Pit at Columbus about 40 miles west in Stillwater County with 3 people.

So this is a short dense middle and a very long tail, and it changes what we lead with. On a truck sitting out toward Columbus or Klein we usually buy it remotely and arrange the tow, because that is the realistic answer rather than the polite one. Coming out and driving it away, coming out and towing it, or you bringing it in are all still on the table — the distance decides which makes sense.

That mix of short hauls and long ones runs under a rule written in two places, and reading only the statute gets you the wrong answer. Montana Code § 61-10-107 sets the axle limits and a bridge formula — W = 500((LN/(N-1)) + 12N + 36), where L is the wheelbase in feet and N is the number of axles, with an exception allowing two consecutive sets of tandem axles at 34,000 lb each. An axle may not carry more than 20,000 lb, and no two consecutive axles between 40 and 96 inches apart may carry more than 34,000 lb. What the statute does not contain is the headline gross figure: it delegates that to the department, and the number lives in the administrative rule.

That number is 131,060 lb. ARM 18.8.431(1) sets it as the maximum allowable gross weight for vehicle combinations hauling divisible loads, which makes it the general ceiling for a reducible load rather than a permit allowance or a road-list exception. Above it sits 137,800 lb for operators running under a memorandum of understanding with Alberta — the only weight limit on our files that comes from an agreement with a foreign government. The permit stack there is three deep: gross vehicle weight fees paid for the total weight carried, a term restricted route and oversize permit at an annual fee, and a single-trip overweight permit before each trip. The route is restricted, and which routes was not established.

The thing not to assume is that those figures stop at the interstate line. Section 61-10-107 switches itself off on the interstate and defense highway system where applying it would cost the state federal funds, but that does not hand the road back to 80,000 lb. Elsewhere a state allowance above 80,000 lb generally has to stop at the interstate, because 23 U.S.C. § 127 caps it there; Montana’s pre-existing higher limits were grandfathered, and 23 CFR 658 appendix C carries the state’s entry at 137,800 lb under the memorandum and 131,060 lb for other combinations of that class. In Montana the high figures do not stop at the line.

Montana Code § 61-10-107 and § 61-10-124; general gross weight at ARM 18.8.431(1); Interstate figures at 23 CFR 658 appendix C. Seasonal and frost restrictions were NOT established for this state and none is stated. Information, not legal advice.

Beyond the weight equation that is the whole of it in one sentence, and everything after it is a fix rather than a category. A counter replacement if the title is lost, a bonded route if the truck is old enough that it never had one. Neither stops a sale, and neither changes with the drive — the file is the same for a truck at the Laurel yard 13 miles south-west and one at the Beartooth Pit 40 miles west.

One thing here works differently from the state files that put a number on this, and it is worth knowing before you worry. A salvage vehicle is defined as one damaged to the extent that the owner, an insurer, or somebody acting for the owner determines that the cost of parts and labour makes it uneconomical to repair. There is no percentage and no valuation base — it is a judgement, and the owner is named first in it. The rebuilt inspection afterwards is about theft rather than condition: you present the vehicle, the salvage certificate or title, receipts or bills of sale establishing ownership, and the source of the component parts used to rebuild it.

Montana salvage definition at MCA § 61-3-210(8); rebuilt inspection at MCA § 61-3-212. Information, not legal advice.

That short middle and long tail run different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Day cabs and road tractors on the yard and the long legs west. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers off the Knife River crusher and the Fisher Industries plant at Laurel. Grain hauls and farm trucks off the mill work, flatbeds, box trucks, service bodies and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.

Most of it works inside about 13 miles — the yard, the mill, the crusher, the Brick yard at Lockwood and the Laurel end of it.

• Does it have to run?No. It does have to be complete, though — if the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. A missing bumper is fine. A missing driveline is not.
• Do you actually come out here?Where it is close, yes. Where it is not — out toward the Beartooth Pit 40 miles west in Stillwater County, or Black Otter at Klein 38 miles north — we usually buy it remotely and arrange the tow instead, and that is the realistic answer rather than a brush-off. Coming out to drive it away, coming out to tow it, or you bringing it in are all still options.
• What if I can’t find the title?We need a title — unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. If it’s lost, there’s a counter replacement. If there was never one to lose, there’s a bonded route. Neither stops a sale.
• There’s still money owed on it. Now what?That’s a payoff and a lien release, and it’s the slow part rather than the hard part. Tell us up front and we’ll work it into the paperwork.
• How do you pay?Cash or electronic payment, whichever you would rather have.
• Nobody can tell me who runs the rail line any more. Does that matter to you?Not for buying your truck. It is worth knowing though: the carrier named on the yard record here stopped operating on 1 January 2024, when its lease of the former Northern Pacific main line ended and the route went back to BNSF Railway. If a broker quotes you something that depends on the old arrangement, check when they last looked.

Beyond the trucks themselves, the reasons repeat. A DOT physical didn’t go the way it used to. A hauling contract that filled the season for nine years went to somebody else. The truck is just sitting beside a shed, and every month it sits is another month of insurance on something that isn’t turning a wheel.

The lots around the yard and out toward the Brick yard at Lockwood 5 miles north-east hold a fair number of trucks in exactly that position, and so do the yards down by the Fisher Industries plant at Laurel, 10 miles south-west in Yellowstone County.

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.