We buy trucks in Reno

Everything here lines up along one axis. Two yard rows sit about 2.2 miles north-east, close enough together that they are almost certainly one facility recorded twice. Then it steps east: a yard about 3.9 miles, the airport about 5.2 miles south-east, another yard about 5.3 miles east and an intermodal ramp about 5.4.

The quarries continue the same line. The Mustang Quarry is about 6 miles east with 9 people, the Lockwood Quarry about 10 miles with 11, Spanish Springs about 12 miles north-east with 14, and the Trico Pit about 12 miles east with 7 — that last one over the line in Storey County. Rilite Aggregate is about 12 miles south-east with 5, and the Tracy Pit about 19 miles east with 7.

Those near operations are all under fifteen people. Keep going and the scale changes: Basalite at Dayton about 22 miles south-east with 5, a Carson quarry about 24 miles south with 6, three separate crusher, jaw and screen operations near Silver City about 24 miles south-east with 5 each, the Spring Valley Mine about 24 miles with 3, Dayton Materials about 26 miles with 10, and then the cement plant at Fernley about 32 miles east with 123 people on it — nearly nine times the largest operation anywhere closer, the Spanish Springs Quarry at 14.

Those are mountain miles, not valley miles, and the road out to them climbs. Which is where this state gets specific in a way most do not.

On a highway posted for traction devices this state does not leave it to judgement. Under NAC 484D.235 and NAC 484D.240 a vehicle at or under 10,000 lb gross may use traction devices, chains or snow tyres — but a vehicle above 10,000 lb MUST use tyre chains. Not snow tyres. Chains, on at least two driving wheels and at least two braking wheels of any trailing vehicle fitted with brakes.

Most of what we buy is over 10,000 lb, so it is the hard half of that rule that applies; the permissive limb is for the lighter end, a pickup or a service body. If your truck has been working the grades east and south of here, it has been chaining up under a rule with a hard line in it rather than a recommendation.

NAC 484D.235 and NAC 484D.240, authority NRS 484D.515–.525. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.

The same trucks run under an axle-group table that goes a very long way up. NAC 484D.455 runs from 34,000 lb at 4 feet to 129,000 lb — nine or more axles from 101 feet, eight axles from 110, seven from 118. Underneath it NRS 484D.635 sets 20,000 lb on a single axle and 34,000 lb on a tandem, with 600 lb per inch of tyre width on steering axles and 500 lb elsewhere, plus 2,000 lb for a primarily electric vehicle and 550 lb for idle-reduction technology.

And then NRS 484D.660 switches those state provisions off on the Federal-Aid Primary, Urban and Secondary systems and on the interstate, where applying them would put federal funds at risk. So the heavy allowance is a state-network allowance, and the powertrain genuinely changes the legal weight — which is a sentence very few state files we hold let you write.

NAC 484D.455; NRS 484D.635 and NRS 484D.660. Information, not legal advice.

Those grades and the valley run different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers off the Mustang, Lockwood and Spanish Springs quarries. Day cabs and road tractors on the ramp and yard work. Mixers off the cement runs east, tankers, flatbeds, box trucks, service bodies and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.

Most of it works inside about 12 miles of one line east, then reaches 22 to 32 miles out to Dayton, Silver City and the Fernley plant.

• 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 to Washoe County?Yes. We come to you and drive it away, we come to you and tow it, we buy it remotely and arrange the tow, or you drive it to us. The Lockwood Quarry end of it is about 10 miles out and the Fernley plant about 32.
• 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.
• It has been running the grades for years. Does that put you off?No. It tells us something about the truck, which is different from putting us off. Send photos all the way round, the odometer, and the engine from both sides, and we will work from what is actually there.

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

The lots east along the quarry line, around the Mustang Quarry 6 miles out and the Lockwood Quarry at 10, hold a fair number of trucks in exactly that position — and so do the yards down toward Storey 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.