Logistic Challenge: Cheapest way to move from Chicago to Dallas?

[Schadenfreude]

[thread=2264334]Me and my wife are moving from Chicago to Dallas[/thread]. We have an apt that we've selected and reserved, now the only problem is moving there.

We have 2 cars - one is a Civic, the other is an Explorer. We were thinking about renting a small trailer to fit on the Explorer from U-haul, but no dice; Apparently there's some bad juju between explorers and trailer hitches so no-can do. Which means it has to go on the Civic.

Now, we're looking at approximately $500~600 for the trailer + installing a hitch to the Civic, and I know that the gas mileage down is going to take a much bigger hit with the Civic pulling this trailer as opposed to the Explorer - We've looked at renting a truck and getting a car hitch, but that doubles the cost.

Any other options? We have to take 2 cars and what meager belongings down there (enough to fit a small trailer, nothing more).

 

[heymrdj]

Yup explorers are rollover risk so U-Haul disallows them. You're going to need to rent a truck + car trailer, and pull one of the vehicles. Then drive the other. Either way you're looking at two drivers unless you want to pay an auto transport company.

 

[Arkaign]

How married are you to the Explorer? You may have a good opportunity here to sell it, pocket the transport savings, and buy something else when you get down here. Used vehicles here typically have zero rust problems and the market is pretty good in terms of selection and price.

Just a thought

 

[herm0016]

get a trailer and sell it when you get there. pull it with the exploder. Uhaul has some no explorer policy, but you should be fine as long as you have pulled a small trailer before. the factory says it can pull and it comes with a hitch.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/cto/3233796483.html

 

[thedarkwolf]

You could always just borrow a truck from a friend to get the trailer and then put it on the explorer. I'd feel a lot better towing with the explorer than a civic. Just don't wreck or u-haul might cause problems .

 

[HarryLui]

Does the explorer have a roof rack?

Pack what you can in and on the two vehicles and sell/get rid of the rest?

 

[manimal]

sell POS exploder. If it has ANY rust its gonna be worthless when you get to dallas since most trucks there havent been in saltland..

Rent a larger truck and pack it and tow other cars taking turns driving. Wife and I did this when we moved from NYC to Indianapolis and we saved over 2k over the moving company. We briefly condidered shipping most and getting smaller truck but the cost savings were too great.

 

[Doppel]

Holy crap I found an article and uhaul really does, or at least did, say no to any owners of an explorer for towing, lol.

Anyway, explorer is still a better tow vehicle. You could pick up the trailer with a friend's vehicle and then move it to your explorer post-pick up.

Or you could buy a trailer, as mentioned, and sell later. They aren't that pricey, even new. You could buy any number of utility trailers on craigs list or locally (e.g. Lowes) with walls on them and tarp the top. Then keep it when you are down there or sell it. You would have to get it registered, though.

Rent a larger truck and pack it and tow other cars taking turns driving.

An option and it would make the drive much better going together instead of in two vehicles, though that many miles on a uhaul is going to cost a lot, including on gas. Also forces him to buy a new vehicle at the other end, increasing stress. I've moved a lot and the less crap on either end, the better!

 

[heymrdj]

Holy crap I found an article and uhaul really does, or at least did, say no to any owners of an explorer for towing, lol.

Anyway, explorer is still a better tow vehicle. You could pick up the trailer with a friend's vehicle and then move it to your explorer post-pick up.

Or you could buy a trailer, as mentioned, and sell later. They aren't that pricey, even new. You could buy any number of utility trailers on craigs list or locally (e.g. Lowes) with walls on them and tarp the top. Then keep it when you are down there or sell it. You would have to get it registered, though.An option and it would make the drive much better going together instead of in two vehicles, though that many miles on a uhaul is going to cost a lot, including on gas. Also forces him to buy a new vehicle at the other end, increasing stress. I've moved a lot and the less crap on either end, the better!

Uhaul for some odd reason *still* denies all explorers. When they made the ban, they made a single handed sweep against all explorers. Even if you select a new 2013 model (which has no basis on any previous generation explorer) they will give you this. You can tow with a 2013 focus hatchback, but not an explorer .

"U-Haul has chosen not to rent behind this tow vehicle based on our history of excessive costs in defending lawsuits involving Ford Explorer towing combinations. This policy is not related to safety issues. This is an unusual circumstance for U-Haul – we have built our success for over 60 years by saying 'yes' to our customers. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and are committed to working with our customers to find alternative options to help with their move."

And I wouldn't try the vehicle swap. If you're in an accident with the trailer, U-HAUL will deny your SafeMove(tm) coverage if you swapped the tow vehicle without calling them first to give the new vehicle model and plate number.

 

[HarryLui]

With all the explorer tire exploding and roller over accidents, I wouldn't want to loan out a dolly either. Easier to teach your employee to say "NO" to all explorer than say yes to some but no to others, that is another law sue waiting to happen.

This is American, land of where people do stupid things and then sue somebody else for their mistake, and have the possibility of winning!

 

[Vic Vega]

Yup explorers are rollover risk so U-Haul disallows them. You're going to need to rent a truck + car trailer, and pull one of the vehicles. Then drive the other. Either way you're looking at two drivers unless you want to pay an auto transport company.

Correction, TRUCKS are roll over risks.

 

[heymrdj]

Correction, TRUCKS are roll over risks.

How was I saying they weren't? I was stating UHUAL's policy as given online. After all they are the ones that also say a 2013 Focus makes a fine tow vehicle.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I wouldn't buy a trailer and try to sell it when you get here (Texas). Trailers here are a dime a dozen and they literally last forever with no rust issues. It's a buyers market for sure and you'll have no place to park it unless you rent a storage building or take significantly less than you paid to get rid of it. Not only that I imagine trailers are extremely costly in Chicago considering the low demand.

Good grief I just looked on Chicago craigslist and trailers there are nearly double the cost of what they'd cost here. The buying a trailer idea is a definite no.

 

[EagleKeeper]

depending on the size of a civic:
Get a 17 or 24' UHaul truck. 17' should work - there is the attic in a 17' truck for additional storage

Put the civic in the truck. Back the truck up along some embankment and /or loading dock.
Load the rest of the space with the furnishings you are taken with you.
Get a UHaul car trailer.
Put the explorer on the trailer.
Hook trailer to the truck

Now you only need one driver :thumbsup:

2 days later;
Find a loading dock or an embankment; drive out the Civic.
Return UHaul equipment.

Everyone happy.

File form 3903 with your taxes at end of year to have some deduction for the expenses relating to the move.

 

[EagleKeeper]

How was I saying they weren't? I was stating UHUAL's policy as given online. After all they are the ones that also say a 2013 Focus makes a fine tow vehicle.

Much also depends on the size of the trailer being used.

A 2013 focus could easily pull a load of mulch from the local nursery.:biggrin:

 

[SpatiallyAware]

How was I saying they weren't? I was stating UHUAL's policy as given online. After all they are the ones that also say a 2013 Focus makes a fine tow vehicle.

His point is that it has nothing to do with the explorer itself... It's the idiots who (statistically tend) to drive them. It's a numbers game... most of their issues were with explorers, so they stopped renting to them.

OP... What about renting a car hauler and towing that with the uhaul, then driving the civic separately?

It's hard to discern from your OP, but I hope you aren't planning on pulling the explorer with the civic.

Does the explorer already have a class III hitch? If so, you may be able to find another rental place, maybe penkse, who does cross country car hauler rentals.

 

[heymrdj]

depending on the size of a civic:
Get a 17 or 24' UHaul truck. 17' should work - there is the attic in a 17' truck for additional storage

Put the civic in the truck. Back the truck up along some embankment and /or loading dock.
Load the rest of the space with the furnishings you are taken with you.
Get a UHaul car trailer.
Put the explorer on the trailer.
Hook trailer to the truck

Now you only need one driver :thumbsup:

2 days later;
Find a loading dock or an embankment; drive out the Civic.
Return UHaul equipment.

Everyone happy.

File form 3903 with your taxes at end of year to have some deduction for the expenses relating to the move.

That's not sound advice. That's against the rental company's TOS and the truck floors are not designed for 4 heavy points of weight. They also do not have anything resembling the tiedowns of a car carrying trailer/bed. On top of that the load would have a high center of gravity. Some quickly googling shows a person that was out 80K with Penske because he loaded a car in the back. The truck rolled on a corner and Penske wouldn't cover it because of what was loaded inside. He had to pay to replace the truck, car, and goods. Personal insurance will deny a liability claim based on gross negligence.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

That's not sound advice. That's against the rental company's TOS and the truck floors are not designed for 4 heavy points of weight. They also do not have anything resembling the tiedowns of a car carrying trailer/bed. On top of that the load would have a high center of gravity. Some quickly googling shows a person that was out 80K with Penske because he loaded a car in the back. The truck rolled on a corner and Penske wouldn't cover it because of what was loaded inside. He had to pay to replace the truck, car, and goods. Personal insurance will deny a liability claim based on gross negligence.

Yes that could be the worst advice I've ever read on the internet. Seriously. If you were extremely lucky at best you'd probably be out at least 10k for the repairs that would need to be done after driving a car into a uhaul van that wasn't meant to carry much more than your grandmas sofa set.

 

[EagleKeeper]

All I know is that I brought my daughter's Elantra (about size of some Civics) from Vegas to Denver without a hitch doing such.

Tie straps to anchor the wheels to the side bars and 4x4 to chock the wheels front and back. 4x4 were nailed with cross beams next to the wheel and again at the side of the truck

 

[heymrdj]

All I know is that I brought my daughter's Elantra (about size of some Civics) from Vegas to Denver without a hitch doing such.

Tie straps to anchor the wheels to the side bars and 4x4 to chock the wheels front and back. 4x4 were nailed with cross beams next to the wheel and again at the side of the truck

And you were certainly lucky. Obviously most of the time these things will work. Now the question is what would you do if the truck was damaged. Say the car damaged the wall, broke through it's straps, or rolled the truck. This is a serious question, what would you have done? Safemove would have been voided, and your insurance would not accept a claim due to negligence. So what would you have done? Worse yet what if the accident had injured someone else? You could make a cash payment on the spot right?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

And I also didn't mention how severely you'd be overloading the truck by loading a car in the van (lol!) and then towing an explorer behind it. If you end up snapping something halfway to Dallas they might want to open up the trailer and see what you're hauling. That's not even including that the brakes would not properly stop the truck and you'd be snail slow merging into traffic which can be just as dangerous.

 

[herm0016]

even if you buy a trailer and sell it for half, you will still be cheaper than renting a uhaul. towing with the explorer is fine as long as you are not stupid about it, just like everything else. the explorer will make a fine tow vehicle for a utility trailer with a 1000lbs of stuff on it.
We used to tow a boat and and 4 wheelers with an explorer all the time. never an issue.

i bought an 18 foot flat bed trailer for $500 more than what uhaul would rent me one of their shitty car trailers. now i never have to rent a trailer again. uhaul's trailers are also built heavier than most for a good reason, but this does impact mileage and power requirements for the tow vehicle.

 

[Eos]

depending on the size of a civic:
Get a 17 or 24' UHaul truck. 17' should work - there is the attic in a 17' truck for additional storage

Put the civic in the truck. Back the truck up along some embankment and /or loading dock.
Load the rest of the space with the furnishings you are taken with you.
Get a UHaul car trailer.
Put the explorer on the trailer.
Hook trailer to the truck

Now you only need one driver :thumbsup:

2 days later;
Find a loading dock or an embankment; drive out the Civic.
Return UHaul equipment.

Everyone happy.

File form 3903 with your taxes at end of year to have some deduction for the expenses relating to the move.

Ick, ick, ick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHMNZrdh6f4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um2jf4UFsf4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS9VbXvOOnA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlqsUQIoV3s

 

[Eos]

It isn't cheap to move multiple vehicles long distances. It just isn't.

Consider paying a professional for what they do best.

 

[styrafoam]

Try Hertz for a trailer?