We buy trucks in Marshall

The mine row here is unusual twice over. MGB Mott carries Iron Ore as its commodity and is typed as a surface operation — the only Texas row in its research batch not typed as a facility. It reports 3 employees, operator Top Rocks LLC.

It is also new. The federal records show it active since 12 February 2026, which makes it one of the two newest nodes in its slice.

The record disagrees with itself about where it is. The row carries the county string Marion. The same coordinate, put through the federal reverse-geocode, comes back Harrison County. The research logged that as unresolved rather than picking a winner, and we are leaving it that way.

East Texas does have genuine iron-ore deposits in the Rusk and Marion belt, which supports the row being an actual mine. At three employees and six months old, nothing further was confirmed, and the research recorded that gap explicitly.

The other row here is the rail yard: a Union Pacific record 0.95 miles from the centroid, the only rail-yard row attached to this city. Its commodities could not be determined. The mine and the yard sit 6.06 miles apart.

Both of those rows sit at the humid end of the state, and that is the part that shows up on a truck.

The mine and the Union Pacific yard sit 6.06 miles apart, and East Texas humidity works on filtration and on seals, against the frame and the underside. The other end of Texas — the dust and heat out west — attacks the same components differently and leaves a different signature. A truck from one end of this state and a truck from the other are not comparable vehicles, and we do not price them as though they were.

The other thing worth saying about a six-month-old operation is that the equipment is older than the operation. A site that went active in February bought its trucks somewhere, from someone, with a history attached. Purchase date and prior history are the first questions we ask on a unit coming off ground this new, and they are worth having ready.

Whatever came off either row, it moved under a ceiling that does not bend.

Texas caps gross weight on a group of two or more consecutive axles at 80,000 lb, including all enforcement tolerances, and it says regardless of tire ratings, axle spacing and number of axles. Single axle 20,000 lb, tandem 34,000 lb, tolerances inside both.

That is structurally different from the states that compute gross from a bridge formula or from a table, where adding axles or stretching the wheelbase buys weight. In Texas no configuration buys additional gross. And because the tolerances are already inside the figures, nothing may be added to any of them.

The one exception the statute names is fuel: a vehicle powered by natural gas or by electric battery may exceed the gross limit by up to 2,000 lb, to a maximum of 82,000 lb.

Tex. Transp. Code § 621.101. Information, not legal advice.

Beyond the weight rules, two pieces of Texas paperwork are worth having straight before a sale, and the first one is the reason some trucks never get sold at all.

A worker who repairs a vehicle in Texas may keep possession of it until the amount due under the repair contract is paid. Notice has to be filed with the county tax assessor-collector in the county where the repairs were made, no later than the thirtieth day after the charges accrue. Once that notice is filed, the owner or a lienholder can get the truck back by paying all charges due before the thirty-first day after the filing. If your truck is sitting at a shop over a bill, that sequence is the thing to check first.

The second is the salvage line, and here two records read for this page do not agree. Both put the threshold at the truck’s own value before the damage, with no percentage anywhere in the test — which is what makes Texas the most seller-favourable state on file. They differ on the arithmetic: one states the cost of repairs alone against actual cash value, the other adds the salvage value to the repairs before making the comparison. This page does not resolve that, and says so rather than picking the friendlier reading.

What both agree on matters more than where they differ: there is no percentage in the test, the damage must involve a major component part, and repainting and sales tax come out of the repair figure.

The ordinary case is still ordinary. We need a title unless the truck never had one; lost titles have a counter replacement, and where none exists there is a bonded route.

Tex. Prop. Code §§ 70.001 and 70.006; Tex. Transp. Code § 501.091. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.

All of that iron is iron we buy. Dump trucks and haulers off the Top Rocks ground, day cabs and road tractors working to and from the Union Pacific yard, lowboys for the loaders and the flatbeds that follow them.

Then the rest of it: rollbacks, box trucks, straight trucks, service bodies, and the work trucks and pickups that go with a crew.

A new mine and a rail yard 6.06 miles apart put more equipment through one county than the headcounts would suggest.

Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. We buy all of them.

• Does it have to run?No. It does have to be complete — if the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Rust is not a disqualifier.
• There is surface rust everywhere underneath.Expected across Harrison County and along the Union Pacific line. Humidity gets at seals and filtration before it gets at anything structural. Tell us about the driveline and let us judge the rest.
• A shop is holding it over a bill.Then the repair lien sequence matters and the notice date is the number to find. Tell us where it is sitting and what the paperwork says.
• What about the title?We need one unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. Lost titles have a counter replacement; where none exists there’s a bonded route.
• Do you have to come out to look at it?Not necessarily. We can come to you and drive it away, come and tow it, buy it remotely and arrange the tow, or you can drive it to us. Whichever suits the truck and your week.

Beyond a job ending, the reasons are personal ones. Retiring. A medical that went the wrong way. A truck bought for one job that outlived it.

Yards around the Union Pacific line and across Harrison County usually have one waiting.

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.