We buy trucks in Fargo

The record on this side of the river is thin and worth stating plainly rather than dressing up. A liquid bulk terminal about 2.6 miles west of the middle of town, and the airport about 3.6 miles north. That is all of it inside 6 miles: no quarry, no mill, and no rail yard in the city.

The nearest yard is about 6.5 miles east at Dilworth — over the river in Clay County, Minnesota. After that the next ones are a long way off: about 40 miles south-west at Enderlin in Ransom County, and about 43 miles south at Breckenridge, back in Minnesota again.

Those gaps are the point rather than a gap in the research. This is flat grain country, and what a truck does here is run between fields, elevators and terminals rather than between industrial gates. The Minnesota work starts at Dilworth 6.5 miles east and the line is crossed constantly, so a truck working out of here routinely spends its week under two sets of rules.

It also means that when somebody calls from out toward Enderlin or Breckenridge, 40 miles either way, we usually buy the truck remotely and arrange the tow rather than sending someone. Coming out to drive it away, coming out to tow it, or you bringing it in are all still options; the distance decides which is sensible.

Those same farm distances and that open country also mean weather, and this state writes the weather into its title law. Under N.D. Cent. Code § 39-05-20.2 the owner of a vehicle damaged in excess of 75 per cent of its retail value must forward the title to the department within 10 days and a salvage certificate is issued — but glass damage and hail damage must be EXCLUDED in determining whether the vehicle passed that 75 per cent.

That is a real difference on the plains, and it is worth pairing with a second point: the percentage on its own is not the rule. The percentage plus the cost definition is the rule, and states define the cost differently every time. Oklahoma counts only suspension, motor, transmission, frame or unibody and structural components; Virginia counts everything except the engine, transmission and drive axle. Here it is everything except glass and hail. Anybody quoting you a bare percentage for another state is quoting half a fact.

The value benchmark is named too, which is unusual: retail value as determined by the National Automobile Dealers Association official used car guide. Georgia, Wyoming and Tennessee all point at any nationally recognised guide. This one names the book.

N.D. Cent. Code § 39-05-20.2. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.

The road rules run the same way — specific about who, not just how much. The ceiling is 105,500 lb on state highways and 80,000 lb on all other highways unless local authorities designate otherwise, under N.D. Cent. Code § 39-12-05.3, which excludes the interstate from its own scope. Single axle 20,000 lb, wheel load 10,000 lb, tandem 34,000 lb, three or more axles 48,000 lb.

On top of that, directors and local authorities may issue permits allowing farmers and motor carriers — named as such in the provision — to exceed those limits by ten per cent, up to the 105,500 lb ceiling — and it is the highway patrol that issues them. A permit that names its beneficiaries is unusual, and in grain country it is the one most likely to apply to the truck you are selling.

N.D. Cent. Code § 39-12-05.3. The interstate section § 39-12-05 is recorded as not read. Information, not legal advice.

Grain country runs different iron, and whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change — we buy all of them. Grain hauls and farm trucks off the fields and elevators. Day cabs and road tractors on the runs east through Dilworth and south to Breckenridge. Tankers off the terminal work, dump trucks, flatbeds, box trucks, service bodies and the pickups that follow the rest of it around.

Most of it works inside about 7 miles of two points and then reaches 40 miles to the next yard in either direction.

• 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.
• The cab is hail-marked. Is it a write-off now?Not on that ground here. Glass damage and hail damage are expressly excluded when working out whether a vehicle passed the 75 per cent threshold, so a hail-marked truck is not pushed into the salvage column by the hail itself. Send photos and we will tell you what we actually see.
• The truck is parked over in Minnesota. Still yours?Yes, and here it is routine — the nearest rail yard is about 6.5 miles east in Clay County. Tell us where it actually stands and where the title was issued, and we will work from those two facts.
• 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.

Beyond the trucks themselves, the reasons repeat. A DOT physical didn’t go the way it used to. A grain 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 farmyards between here and Dilworth 6.5 miles east in Clay County, and out along the road toward Enderlin 40 miles south-west in Ransom 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.