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Shipping a car vs. towing it

B

beer

Lifer
I'm moving. Soon (3 weeks).
I thought it would be a reasonable proposition to tow my car behind a 14' truck for most of the drive (I'll have a seperate passenger and they would drive my car seperately for the 'nasty' parts of the trip, i.e. through Dallas, but the car would be towed for the thousand+ miels of nothing through west texas).

Well, people whose opinion I value (dad, grandfather, friends) say that this is a bad, bad idea. It looks like it takes about $700 to ship a car.

Does anyone have any experience doing this? Any comments? Any reliable auto-shippers?

Thanks
 
Personally, I'd rather tow it, or pay some guy $500 to drive it instead. I don't think shipping a car from Texas to CA is all that common.
 
Originally posted by: Xyclone
Your post isn't too clear, you want to tow it because the drive is too boring?

Sorry for my 😕ness.
Click to expand...

He rented a moving truck. OP: What kinda car u got?
 
How far is it? Why not simply have your passenger drive it the entire trip... communicate with a pair of walkie talkies.
 
Originally posted by: DrPizza
How far is it? Why not simply have your passenger drive it the entire trip... communicate with a pair of walkie talkies.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a good idea. Stop frequently buy him/her food for thanks. 😛
 
Towing a car is only acceptable if you have a dolley to put two wheels on. I don't like towing vehicles but I don't mind trailering them. I have a 16' lowboy trailier and I am taking a car I am building to CA next month in fact.....and bringing one back. That is a little over 4 thousand miles with a car on a trailer and that doesn't bother me a bit. I would never tow a car with just a towbar and a dolly is only a little better in my opinion. Have your friend drive it the whole way. I realize gas isn't cheap but this will minimize your chance of disaster especially if you have no or limited experience towing vehicles.
 
Originally posted by: Ronstang
Towing a car is only acceptable if you have a dolley to put two wheels on. I don't like towing vehicles but I don't mind trailering them. I have a 16' lowboy trailier and I am taking a car I am building to CA next month in fact.....and bringing one back. That is a little over 4 thousand miles with a car on a trailer and that doesn't bother me a bit. I would never tow a car with just a towbar and a dolly is only a little better in my opinion. Have your friend drive it the whole way. I realize gas isn't cheap but this will minimize your chance of disaster especially if you have no or limited experience towing vehicles.
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if it's a fwd car, i don't see a problem with it on a dolly. if it's 4wd, then i'd get a flatbed to tow it. i don't see a problem at all towing it. your dad and friends just don't have any experience towing. as long as it comes out cheaper, i'd say tow it.
 
EDIT: And by tow, it means that it would be on a dolly. The dolly costs next to nothing to rent.

How hard is it to put a car on a dolly? How long does it take? Is it something that we could do quickly in case we are about to drive through a major city and want to minimize risk?
 
a mazda 3 nosed up on a dolly will be fine. Takes about a half hour for the uninitated to strap it down the first time.
don't go driving into anywhere unless you are sure you can drive on through. you won't be able to back it up worth two sh!its.
 
You can get the dolly thing with the two wheel but forget ever backing one up because most have the front of the car on a pivot so when you back up the wheels of the dolly (sorry go round and round round and round round and round), anyway, are straight but the car can go off to either side. If you want to tow it the proper way for that long of a distance get the trailer type that you can strap the entire car to. That way if you need to back up it can be done and the whole car will be much safer going that many miles on then the cheapy 2 wheeled thingy.
2 wheel one is great for local stuff but your going almost 2k and it will just be safer and you wont even notice its back there with the trailer.

Or if you like, and I have mentioned before, you can hire someone to drive the car for you. Not tow or put it in a truck and have it shipped but you can find someone that would do it for the experance and the train or bus ride back. I had to deliver a car from Chicago to Cape Cod and it was a blast. Got $200 and all food and travel paid. Just a thought. There are some places if you cant find a friend of family in the phone book or drive your car to your destonation as well. But if it were me I would do the trailer thing first.
 
drive two vehicles for a long trip, seems like good insurance for not being stranded if one breaks down. then again u have double the chance of a car breaking down heheh. but atleast u won't be stuck sitting there
 
Originally posted by: Xyclone
Originally posted by: DrPizza
How far is it? Why not simply have your passenger drive it the entire trip... communicate with a pair of walkie talkies.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a good idea. Stop frequently buy him/her food for thanks. 😛
Click to expand...

I would fly back and co-drive. Stop and see the sights...and such...

SFO=>DFW is pretty cheap, no?
 
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