Coal mines work around Cadiz, Bellaire and Barnesville, and rail yards are spread from Bellevue to Belpre.
That range is why we don't pick a lane. A Volvo day cab out of Columbus, a Freightliner sleeper off a Toledo run, a Mack dump truck near Cadiz or a GMC dually out of Dayton all get the same look: send us photos and the particulars, we come back with an offer, and if it suits you we can come to you, buy it remotely, or you can drive it to us.
Ohio’s trucking industry is one of the top manufacturing states in the nation and a major freight crossroads at the intersection of I-70, I-71, and I-75.
The allowance, and the day it disappears
A permit of that size feeding short hauls is exactly the case Ohio’s weight law singles out, and then withdraws in spring. Ohio sets gross weight at 80,000 lb, limits tyres to 650 lb per inch of width, and allows non-interstate axle groups up to 40,000 lb on two axles and 48,000 lb on three by spacing. On top of that, Ohio Rev. Code § 5577.043 lets a surface mining truck carrying minerals from the place where they are loaded exceed those provisions by no more than 7.5 per cent. Farm, log, coal and solid-waste vehicles get their own 7.5 per cent under the neighbouring sections. The exception is written into the grant itself. The allowance does not apply on the interstate system, and it does not apply on any highway, road or bridge subject to reduced maximum weights. Ohio does not leave that to a separate federal-system section the way most states do — it is in the same sentence that gives the allowance. Under § 5577.07 the Director of Transportation may reduce weights and speeds on state highways by up to 25 per cent, and county commissioners on county roads by up to 50 per cent, with schedules filed and signs posted at least one day beforehand at both ends of the stretch and at intersections with principal roads. A vehicle legal at 86,000 lb in February can be illegal at 40,000 lb in March, on the same road, with one day’s notice. A first violation is a written warning placed on the permanent motor vehicle record — not a fine, a record. A second inside a year is a minor misdemeanour and a third a fourth-degree misdemeanour.
Ohio Rev. Code § 5577.04 on base limits, § 5577.043 on the surface-mining variance, § 5577.07 on seasonal reductions and § 5577.081 on designated roads.
One Ohio rule is worth knowing before anybody starts work, because it is about paperwork rather than metal. A rebuild done without keeping the paperwork cannot be retitled in Ohio. Ohio checks the receipts for the components, at the counter, on the day, where other states check the components themselves. Every subsequent Ohio title bears REBUILT SALVAGE in black boldface on its face. Colorado stamps the vehicle instead and Connecticut issues a clean-faced replacement — the same repaired truck, three different outcomes. Ohio Rev. Code § 4505.11 carries no numerical threshold, no valuation base and no age limit. The standard is that an insurer, a self-insured organisation, a rental or leasing company or a secured creditor declares the vehicle economically impractical to repair. The owner is not on that list.