We buy trucks in Bismarck

What is on the record here is short. A Guard complex about 2.6 miles north of the middle of town and an Army Reserve centre about 3.3 miles south-west — and no quarry, no mill and no rail yard inside the city at all. The nearest yard is about 9 miles west at Mandan, over the river in Morton County.

After that the map is genuinely empty until the coal. The Center Mine is about 30 miles north-west in Oliver County with 182 people on it, which is by a long way the largest workforce within forty miles, and a second, much smaller Center operation about 37 miles north-west has 1.

That single mine changes what the road work looks like. The Center Mine runs 182 people on a surface operation, and the trucks feeding and clearing a site that size are doing 30-mile legs on state and county roads rather than city miles — out through Oliver County, not through town.

It also changes what we lead with when somebody calls from out that way. On a 30-mile leg we frequently buy the truck remotely and arrange the tow, and that is the realistic answer rather than the polite one. Coming out to drive it away, coming out to tow it, or you bringing it in all stay real options; the distance decides which makes sense.

Those legs run under a rule with three tiers where most states on file have two, and the statute makes the split by excluding the interstate from its own scope. Under N.D. Cent. Code § 39-12-05.3 the gross weight ceiling is 105,500 lb on state highways and 80,000 lb on all other highways — unless local authorities designate otherwise, for up to 105,500 lb. So the third tier is a decision taken by the road’s own authority, not by the state.

Underneath it: 20,000 lb on a single axle, 10,000 lb wheel load, 34,000 lb tandem, and 48,000 lb for three or more axles. Directors and local authorities may permit farmers and motor carriers to exceed the limits by ten per cent up to that 105,500 lb ceiling, and the highway patrol issues those permits. The interstate is governed separately under § 39-12-05, which our files record as not read.

N.D. Cent. Code § 39-12-05.3. Whether the three-or-more-axle figure carries a bridge formula on top was NOT determined. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.

And on top of those three ceilings sits a seasonal regime that is unusually specific. Under § 39-12-03 the state posts named restriction levels on the state highway system — Legal Weight, then 8-Ton, 7-Ton, 6-Ton and 5-Ton — and unlike most seasonal rules on file these carry actual axle weights rather than a vague warning. At the 8-Ton level that is 16,000 lb on a single axle and 32,000 lb on a tandem.

The 7-, 6- and 5-Ton figures are not in our files and must not be worked out by scaling, because the relationship between the level name and the permitted weight is not established as linear. If you are hauling in the spring, read the posted level rather than doing the arithmetic.

N.D. Cent. Code § 39-12-03, administered by NDDOT on the state highway system. Only the 8-Ton figures were captured. Information, not legal advice.

The river work and the mine runs use different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers on the coal and overburden work north-west. Grain hauls and farm trucks off the country around. Day cabs and road tractors on the runs west through Mandan, flatbeds, box trucks, service bodies and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.

Most of it works either inside about 9 miles or out at 30 — the Mandan yard at one end and the Center Mine at the other.

• 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 this far?Often we do not need to. We buy it remotely and arrange the tow, and where the nearest yard is 9 miles west at Mandan and the Center Mine is 30 miles north-west, that is frequently the straightforward answer rather than a last resort. We also come to you and drive it away, come to you and tow it, or you drive it to us.
• 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.
• The road is posted for the thaw. Does that stop you?No. It changes how the truck leaves, not whether we buy it. The posted levels here carry real axle weights — 16,000 lb on a single axle at the 8-Ton level — so it is a thing to work around rather than a surprise.

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 over toward the Mandan yard 9 miles west in Morton County, and out along the road to the Center Mine 30 miles north-west in Oliver County, hold a fair number of trucks in exactly that position.

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.