We buy trucks in Muenster

Both rows on this town work crushed and broken limestone, and they are not neighbours. The Mitchell Quarry reports 5 employees under J.R. Thompson Inc. The second, North Texas Crushed Stone Inc, reports 7.

Their coordinates sit 16.36 miles apart, on opposite sides of the town. The first attaches by the source-city string on its own row; the second attaches by nearest centroid at 8.77 miles. So “the quarries at Muenster” is one phrase covering two places a half-hour apart.

J.R. Thompson also holds the Martin Quarry at St. Jo, in Montague County, about fifteen miles away across the county line.

That is three limestone faces across two counties, under two operator names, with twelve reported employees between the two rows here.

That second quarry under the same operator is the fact with consequences.

Two pits fifteen miles apart in different counties is one business working two faces rather than two separate businesses. Where the trucks run between them, the odometer carries road miles and not only yard miles — and that is worth saying out loud, because a pit truck is usually assumed to have spent its life inside a fence.

It matters for the paperwork too. Montague County is where the third face sits, and a county line is a boundary for the road authority and for the registration desk, not for the material, so a unit’s operating history can sit under a county it was never titled in.

And 16.36 miles between the two rows attached to this one town means there is no single “quarry road” here. There are two approaches, two sets of county roads, and two different wear patterns on trucks that look identical on paper.

All three faces load under the same statutory ceiling.

Texas sets gross weight at 80,000 lb, a single axle at 20,000 lb and a tandem at 34,000 lb — the plain federal figures, and there is no commodity variance of the kind Georgia and Kentucky grant.

Texas grants permits instead, each written for a named industry: ready-mixed concrete, fluid milk, timber, and super heavy single-trip. Nothing on that list covers aggregate, stone, sand or quarry products, so a limestone hauler falls back to the general permit — while a ready-mix truck, carrying what is arguably the same rock one step later, sits on the list.

The general permit adds ten per cent on the axle and five per cent on gross, with registration to 80,000 lb, a fifteen thousand dollar bond, and liability for actual damage to load-restricted roads and bridges. On a load-zoned road the permitted weight is ten per cent less than the maximum, so those two percentages run against each other and must not be added.

Tex. Transp. Code § 621.101; Chapter 623 permits. Information, not legal advice.

Beyond the weight rules, the paperwork comes down to one sentence.

Everything after that sentence is a fix rather than a category. A lost title has a counter replacement. Where none exists there is a bonded route. Both are ordinary and neither stops a sale.

The Texas salvage line runs further in the seller’s favour than any other state on file. A truck is branded salvage only where the cost of repairs exceeds its actual cash value immediately before the damage — effectively the whole value, with no percentage in the test at all. It is a two-part test as well: there must be damage to, or a missing, major component part, and the statute enumerates thirteen.

Repainting and sales tax come out of the repair figure first, which no other state on file does. On an older truck with cosmetic damage that is the difference between a brand and no brand.

Emissions inspection is not a step for a diesel truck in Texas. The state exempts diesel vehicles outright, so the county programme list never reaches it.

Tex. Transp. Code § 501.091; TCEQ vehicle emissions programme. 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 aggregate haulers off the Mitchell Quarry and off the second row north of town, day cabs and road tractors for the runs between counties, lowboys for the loaders.

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

Two quarries 16.36 miles apart and a third across the county line turn over more equipment than a town this size 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.
• It ran between two pits in different counties.Common for the Mitchell Quarry trucks working across Cooke County and the line beyond it. Then it has road miles a pit truck usually does not. Tell us the route and we will read the odometer against it.
• The box is beaten up but the driveline is good.Common on limestone work and not a problem. Tell us about both.
• 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 buy it remotely and arrange the tow, come to you and drive it away, come and tow it, or you can drive it to us. Whichever suits the truck and your week.

Beyond a quarry contract 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 Mitchell Quarry and across Cooke 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.