Is U-Haul the cheapest way to move cross country?

[mrsklamc]

We are hoping that someone our family will be moving soon. If they have large furniture they want to bring with them, do you think renting a u-haul will be the cheapest way to deal with that?

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Get estimates. They are free. Call three Major named moving companies and then Uhaul. When you find out how much is actually being moved, call and ask for a price on a POD. Remember U-haul and POD is labor intensive on your part.

Make sure your estimates are all binding not to exceed. Always compare apples to apples. If you choose insurance, get the same type on all three estimates.

DO NOT call and use the companies that say have a truck going to Florida..... etc.

If you get an estimate that is in your price range from one of the major moving companies, feel free to PM me. I used to work for one of them and can answer questions for you.

Have a safe move.

 

[trip]

One of my DDs used ABF U-Pack Moving. http://www.upack.com/

Her husband had already moved to their new city, so she handled the move by herself. You can select the services that you need. They already had packed their belongings, but they did need to have their stuff loaded on the truck, driven to their new state and unloaded at their new house. It worked out great for them.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

NO it is NOT.

In Dec 2007 We moved ourselves from New Mexicon to South Carolina and it ended up costing WWAAAYYYYY more than we thought it would.


We ended up with the largest size we could take out of state, I think it was 24 or 26 foot. We went with Penske, because they had the largest of any company.
The rental info said we should estimate 9-12 miles per gallon. That was a joke, I WISH we got that much. It was an average of more like 3-5 miles per gallon.

Also, almost all larger rental truck take desil, which sounds easy enough, but there were times we had a really hard time, fiding a station with desil, or one that we could even pull the truck into the station and maneuver around the parking lot to line it up at the pump

There were a few times, we have to stop after only 1 hour of driving, because it was empty.

It ended up taking almost 5 days of driving rather than the 3 days we estimated according to the fuel milage.

There were may times, going up hill the truck would bog down to like 35-40mph, in a 70 zone. DH was driving the truck and I was in my SUV with the 3 kids, there were times I would get so far ahead of him, I'll pull over at the rest stop and let the kids run around for 30-45 minutes, just waiting for him to catch up. He'd call me 1 mile away from the stop, I'd load the kids up and get on the highway and catch up right at the same time.

We had estimated like 800-900 in gas, it was more like 1,600.00, I'm at todays prices it would be insane.

We really really wish we had went with something like U-pack instead

 

[hopemax]

One of my DDs used ABF U-Pack Moving. http://www.upack.com/

Her husband had already moved to their new city, so she handled the move by herself. You can select the services that you need. They already had packed their belongings, but they did need to have their stuff loaded on the truck, driven to their new state and unloaded at their new house. It worked out great for them.

This. Their rates are very competitive compared to a self-service moving company by the time you factor gas. But without the stress of having to drive the truck. Although, the times our family has had to use a moving van for in city stuff, my Dad much prefers Budget to Uhaul. My parents used Upack to move from WA to FL, and my DH and I have used them to move from AZ to CO, and to move some stuff from my parents house in FL to CO. We've been extremely satisfied in all cases.

 

[bettymae1121]

My brother moved from IL to AZ. At first he was going to rent a truck and either pull his SUV behind it or have a friend follow him in it. Then when he crunched the numbers, he figured he could replace most of his large furnature for less than the cost of moving it. By selling/tossing/donating most of his furnature and a lot of his smaller possesions, he got his stuff down to the point he only needed to pull a medium trailer behind his SUV (it had a hitch already). Most of his furnature was older too, so replacing it once he got to AZ (where it may not fit in the rooms well, or not fit the decor of the new place) wasn't a bad idea anyway. I think he only took his bed, a dresser, and all his kitchen and electronic stuff, and his clothing.

Now if you have a lot of high quality, high end, rather new furnature this may not work. But if it's getting old and you didn't pay much for it to begin with, it may not be worth moving.

 

[jdb in AZ]

When my sister and I moved we didn't think we had that much stuff so we rented a u-haul trailer and pulled it behind my car. Our stuff weighed enough that it blew out the transmission on my car. Expensive repair.

As others have said, get estimates!

 

[mrsklamc]

My brother moved from IL to AZ. At first he was going to rent a truck and either pull his SUV behind it or have a friend follow him in it. Then when he crunched the numbers, he figured he could replace most of his large furnature for less than the cost of moving it. By selling/tossing/donating most of his furnature and a lot of his smaller possesions, he got his stuff down to the point he only needed to pull a medium trailer behind his SUV (it had a hitch already). Most of his furnature was older too, so replacing it once he got to AZ (where it may not fit in the rooms well, or not fit the decor of the new place) wasn't a bad idea anyway. I think he only took his bed, a dresser, and all his kitchen and electronic stuff, and his clothing.

Now if you have a lot of high quality, high end, rather new furnature this may not work. But if it's getting old and you didn't pay much for it to begin with, it may not be worth moving.

If it were DH and I we would probably do this. But the family in question lives in NC, and when they moved there 10 years ago they bought a bunch of quality wood stuff. I think it would be hard to talk them into parting with much of it.

 

[mrsklamc]

Thank you! It looks like upack may be the way to go. How do you pack furniture? Just load it up wrapped in blankets?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Thank you! It looks like upack may be the way to go. How do you pack furniture? Just load it up wrapped in blankets?

There are lots of web sites with this information, including the moving company sites.

I would NEVER use U-Haul to move cross country. Just do a search on Google for "u haul complaints." If you do use U-Haul, never arrange for a rental through their 800 number or website. Do it with your local U-Haul company, because many times the national office has no idea what is available locally and there are lots of horror stories on the web about reservations for vehicles that were not available. It happened to me, so I know it happens.

 

[hopemax]

Thank you! It looks like upack may be the way to go. How do you pack furniture? Just load it up wrapped in blankets?

Basically. You can go to garage sales and thrift stores to find bargains and not risk damaging yours (we always have a few that end up with holes in them). My Mom used heavy fabric remnants once. Or you can buy moving blankets, like the professional movers use. They can be expensive but if you have some pieces you really want to protect, it may be worth it. You can find some of this stuff on Craigslist too.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

FWIW, we moved some stuff MN>ME last year and Budget was significantly cheaper. Check them and Penske as well. (Penske probably would have been cheaper for the distance, but there is no dealer near us we could drop off at.)

Both had specials for reserving online. CALL to confirm though, we had an issue with that.

 

[rhiansmom]

If you go that route... remember that Uhaul guaranteed reservations are more like "if we have a truck you will get it but if not oh well we really don't care"

 

[tasha99]

My brother moved from IL to AZ. At first he was going to rent a truck and either pull his SUV behind it or have a friend follow him in it. Then when he crunched the numbers, he figured he could replace most of his large furnature for less than the cost of moving it. By selling/tossing/donating most of his furnature and a lot of his smaller possesions, he got his stuff down to the point he only needed to pull a medium trailer behind his SUV (it had a hitch already). Most of his furnature was older too, so replacing it once he got to AZ (where it may not fit in the rooms well, or not fit the decor of the new place) wasn't a bad idea anyway. I think he only took his bed, a dresser, and all his kitchen and electronic stuff, and his clothing.

Now if you have a lot of high quality, high end, rather new furnature this may not work. But if it's getting old and you didn't pay much for it to begin with, it may not be worth moving.

This is what I'm doing (sort of). I'm moving from Oregon to Alaska in a couple of weeks. I downsized from a three bedroom house full of furniture to 4 boxes that I mailed to myself Parcel Post and what can fit in my corolla. I figure with Craigslist, I can refurnish my house up there for far less than it would have cost to take a moving van through Canada.

 

[JB2K]

We are hoping that someone our family will be moving soon. If they have large furniture they want to bring with them, do you think renting a u-haul will be the cheapest way to deal with that?

It may the "cheapest", but is it the "best"?

I say this because U-Haul has been in and out of bankruptcy in recent years, and their fleet of trucks still needs some improvement.

For the DIY mover, I recommend Penske -- they have a new/clean fleet of rental vehicles, plus they offer a discount to AAA members.

 

[Jedana]

The truck may be cheapest, but don't forget to add in the gas, hotels, food, etc. And can you drive it? Some of those suckers are huge!

Once we had a Uhaul, the room had been damaged prior to us getting it, but we didn't know it. Went through a bad snow storm overnight and the snow got into the truck and damaged several boxes (when it melted the next day, when we hit the desert) and a tv. They refused the claim, stating there was no proof we didn't damage the truck or that the items weren't damaged prior to packing.

Our first few moves were with a Uhaul (CO to northern NV, NV to AZ, AZ to Vegas). The NV to AZ trip is where we had the bad truck.

Our last move, NV to FL, we used a Pod company. They delivered, we loaded, they picked up and a week and a half later, they were at our house. Cost about what it would have to rent a Uhaul and a car carrier, plus gas for the truck and the 2nd car.

 

[phorsenuf]

I did the move from NH to FL. Priced all the different options and renting a Budget truck ended up being the cheapest. I took hotels and food out of the equation because even if someone moved the stuff for me, I still had to drive down.

I ended up with a 24' truck with a dolly on the back for the car. And yes, I did the drive all by myself. Finding diesel wasn't a big deal because I would just stop at the same place where truckers stop. It was always easy on and easy off. Same with the hotels and food.

 

[DawnM]

We used ABF to move from CA to NC.

Dawn

 

[ndfi78]

One thing to remember if you do end up renting a truck, I know UHaul will price match and I'm guessing Budget and Penske will also. So if you find one of them is cheaper and you want to use another service then you can see if they will price match for you.

 

[ZehnJahren]

I recently moved a few hundred miles and used one of ABF's Pods. Loaded it up at my old house, they came and picked it up, and I unloaded it at my new house a few days later. Super easy, but not cheap - however, it was nice not having to worry about my things at all.