Best rental truck for a one way move over mountains?

[Nitemare]

Planning on moving the stuff in my storage unit over the holidays from San Diego to Phoenix. If it was on flat land I would just choose the cheapest, but it's a little different since there are some winding stretches through the mountains.

 

[StageLeft]

Uhaul rents trucks that are barely in working order, hence the reason it's cheap. I am not sure budget is much better. AFAIK Penske gives the newest trucks - all 1999 or newer I think. They are pricey, but after my experiences with uhaul and those I've heard I wouldn't be taking one through any mountains, by god.

 

[iamwiz82]

penke and ryder both market high quality trucks.

 

[MomAndSkoorbaby]

NOT UHAUL!

The truck will fall apart on you! Yup, it will!

 

[AU Tiger]

I did UHaul from NC to Minnesota without any problems, but the truck I had was fairly new. I would go in person to see the truck you will be getting.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: MrsSkoorb
NOT UHAUL!

The truck will fall apart on you! Yup, it will!

I've always used uhauls for local moves.

The only one way move was from San Diego to the Bay area and I believe that was a Ryder truck. Care to share the bad experiences?

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: MrsSkoorb
NOT UHAUL!

The truck will fall apart on you! Yup, it will!

I've always used uhauls for local moves.

The only one way move was from San Diego to the Bay area and I believe that was a Ryder truck. Care to share the bad experiences?

Let's see, we got a 24' truck. The odometer had stopped turning at 180k miles. The only guage that worked was gas and - well gas, that was it. The stereo didn't work (I lie - one speaker half worked). The air conditioning worked though - for the first few minutes of driving, then it just stopped and the cabin started to stink. I thought the engine had caught on fire. Needless to say driving in Alabama in July without AC isn't fun, but I had to do it. Oh, and the gear shift lever knob fell off while driving and fell to the floor. The transmission barely worked.

Of course I had it easy! Somebody else I know in a 24' Uhaul who moved within the same couple of weeks from Missisippi to Alabama found that their thermostat in the truck was locked closed. THe only way to keep the engine from overheating was to run the heater at full. They ran the heater at full IN JULY in Alabama.

Uhauls in Canada were fine it seemed to me, as I'd rented them before, but this was not fun. That uhaul of mine did not like to drive.

 

[scauffiel]

If you're going over mountains I would highly suggest a turbo'd (I'm pretty sure they're all turbo'd) diesel engine. I made the mistake of using a regular gas type (350 Chevy) going over the mountains of Virginia/West Virginia and I thought I'd never make it. Seriously. I'll never use a gas engine again for a move.

S.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
penke and ryder both market high quality trucks.

i agree, i have rented both penske (20ft) and ryder (15ft) and they have been quite new and in very good shape
plenty of power in both trucks

 

[vi edit]

heh. The one time I rented a UHAUL, the horn somehow broke and stayed on - even when the truck was off!. The only way we got it to turn off was first by disconnecting the battery, and then actually finding the horn thingy and ripping the power cord out of it.

 

[Mavrick007]

I wouldn't use a Uhaul cause like they say, they are in pretty bad shape.
I've used Ryder and I had a nice diesel 24' that I used to go halfway across the country. It is expensive for fuel though. I would use a good quality truck if you have to go over a long distance and rough terrain. Don't know about Penske but Ryder was good.

 

[BooneRebel]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Planning on moving the stuff in my storage unit over the holidays from San Diego to California. If it was on flat land I would just choose the cheapest, but it's a little different since there are some winding stretches through the mountains.

Moving from San Diego to California, huh? Boy, I don't envy you. I moved from Dallas to Texas once, took me days to figure out the directions I'd been given by the cab driver. Good luck.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: BooneRebel

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Planning on moving the stuff in my storage unit over the holidays from San Diego to California. If it was on flat land I would just choose the cheapest, but it's a little different since there are some winding stretches through the mountains.

Moving from San Diego to California, huh? Boy, I don't envy you. I moved from Dallas to Texas once, took me days to figure out the directions I'd been given by the cab driver. Good luck.

Doh! Fixed it...am still recovering from my finals and days of sleep depravation supposed to be San Diego to Phoenix bout a 6 hour drive

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Penske has the best trucks, Ryder is also good. But if you can, REQUEST A DIESEL. The 24' Ryder I drove for my aunt was based off an International chassis and pulled down 12-14MPG, where as a 20' UHaul that did the same route a year earlier did about 6MPG, and didn't handle as well. Nor did it have as much cargo area. The Ryder actually made it a pleasant drive. (more comfortable than the ride back in my dad's Dodge Ram). Also, the diesels make it up hills quite a bit better, I was able to keep about 45-50 over the Tehachapi pass, my grandma's escort wagon w/o anything but two people in it had accomplished about the same speed.

Edit: The moves were between Lake Havasu and Placerville. (about the same amount of terrain)

 

[Thegonagle]

Stay far away from U-Haul.

I've seen some Budget trucks that aren't bad. They're mostly newer Isuzus, IIRC. My old roommate did a MN to RI one way without a problem.

 

[BooneRebel]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Penske has the best trucks, Ryder is also good. But if you can, REQUEST A DIESEL. The 24' Ryder I drove for my aunt was based off an International chassis and pulled down 12-14MPG, where as a 20' UHaul that did the same route a year earlier did about 6MPG, and didn't handle as well. Nor did it have as much cargo area. The Ryder actually made it a pleasant drive. (more comfortable than the ride back in my dad's Dodge Ram). Also, the diesels make it up hills quite a bit better, I was able to keep about 45-50 over the Tehachapi pass, my grandma's escort wagon w/o anything but two people in it had accomplished about the same speed.

Edit: The moves were between Lake Havasu and Placerville. (about the same amount of terrain)

On a more serious note (than my earlier post), I'd second the vote for a diesel. Don't plan on requesting one the day you show up, make an effort to reserve it when you start calling around. The mileage difference is worth it.

 

[Mill]

I had a UHAUL van that had 27 miles on it. It worked pretty good. Skoorb didn't have as good of an experience.

 

[brtspears2]

Uhaul is hit and miss quality. Rented one of the smaller ones on a toyota chassis, worse drive ever. Poor V6 couldnt haul tons of stuff.

 

[dakata24]

my bro drove a uhaul from portland to s.f. without any problems. but i guess he was just lucky from what i'm reading in this thread.

 

[notfred]

I drove a ford F series uhaul truck. It was fine. Only problem was that the passenger side mirror wouldn't stay in the right place, so changes lanes to the right was a bitch. AC, radio, etc all worked fine though.

 

[Windogg]

If you are going througn mountains and you know how to drive stick, get a manual truck. If you do get an automatic, make sure you use low gears. It's very easy to overheat the brakes in a truck in the mountains. I've seen cases where novice truckers set their brakes on fire from overusing them. That is actually a good outcome compared to losing the brakes altogether and plunging off the side of a mountain.

With that in mind, skip UHaul. Their trucks seem to have been around since the Carter administration and of dubious mechanical integrity.

Windogg

 

[Freejack2]

Gah, for long distance definitley stay away from uhaul. Last one I rented was a total pos. Good thing I can drive stick too as that's all they had. The thing looked older than me. Signals didn't work and I was afraid to touch the radio or the thermostat controls. Don't even think it had air conditioning.