Glashub

Wonder if you folks can help me out with something. I'm moving back to SoCal from Portland, OR. 900 mile trip. I'll be driving a Budget truck with my TL hitched to the back. Both Budget and Uhaul reccommend a car dolly (where only the front wheels are elevated). I thought this was for front wheel drive cars. I want a car carrier where the whole car is on the traler but both sites state, "Not reccomended". Do any of you have experiences with this? Your help will be appreciated.

sddale

There must be a car carrier that is suitable. Maybe it's not suitable because of the type of truck? I drove 2kmi with a 15ft U-Haul using a car carrier for a Jetta.

Glashub

^^^^
I'm using a 16' or 17'. But there's merit to your thought and I'll inquire. I'm thinking maybe the ste isn't registering that its an AWD. I can't imagine that its cool to have the rear wheels of an AWD on the pavement but may be wrong.

Kandiru

AFAIK, the AWD is permanently engaged so you will grind your rear clutch if you tow if from the front.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SH-AWD

My R32, S60R, TurboX, and Sienna AWD, all have big warnings about proper towing.

Platform hauling only or expensive repairs will be required.

They have those interstate trucks too, they haul everything inlcuding cars, North American is
who my company used.

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

might be too small of a truck to be carrying your shit , while still being able to fully carry a car

and i will try and see if i see more on the rentals websites

easy way of putting it, but true though, all 4 wheels gotta be off the ground,



BUT OP you can possibly just disconnect the rear driveshaft though, so the rears spin freely, but considering that the "clutch pack" for the awd is back there, i would still not even recommend doing that (too many sensitive components inside of that rear diff); and personally i would not want to even see the bill to fix the rear diff, if it did in some way get screwed; and i am sure that you do not want to pay for it either $$$

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

and on that budgt rental site, they are assuming that most of the TL's out there are only FWD, unlike yours which is actually AWD (not a huge percentage of them out there actually are, and the older years are only FWD)





also on the u-haul site
http://www.uhaul.com/Reservations/Eq....aspx?model=AT
, the say the trailer weighs 2210 lbs BY itself, so you add on a roughly 4,000 lb car (plus a couple of hundred extra lbs, for when you pack/fill it up also), and you are looking at roughly 7000-7500 lbs worth of trailer weight; basically the trailers gross vehicle weight

so basically what i am getting at, is that you are going to need a truck that can tow at least 7500 lbs, PLUS be able to carry all of your stuff that you pack in the truck itself; so you really should probably be looking at AT LEAST the 24' foot truck (20' is basically an extended 17'; with the exact same gross vehicle weight rating) to be able to carry/tow everything safely

edit: or even maybe the 14' truck, and basically the reasoning is that again the gross vehicle weight is the same as the 17' and 20' trucks, but because it is smaller, it is also lighter, so it's able to put more of the GVW towards payload instead of the truck itself

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

also it might make fiscal sense to actually make two trips, to get all your stuff to cali
first one would be with the u-haul truck (or budgt), which then you drive back afterwards; and you would not have to pay the one-way rental fee either; and then pack your tl up, and drive that out, which would also save you from having to rent a trailer
so basically with no one-way fees, or trailer rental, it may likely pay for the additional gas used on the multiple trips; but you also have to factor in how much your time is worth though, so that maybe a factor also (also what about a friend say drive the TL out, with you in the uhaul, then when you are done unpacking the friend drives the uhaul back, would save you some time )

Glashub

@friesm2000 & Knadiru...thank you. You've helped me out. Prolly the truck is too small....never thought of that. The info about the rear wheels...forgot about that. Gonna go play around with the u-haul site to see if size matters (my wife swears it doesn't)

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

truck can easily be too small, almost never too large though


also is she driving her own vehicle out then? if not, i say have her drive the TL out, then just pay the one way fee...
also if she is driving out her own vehicle? what does she drive? might make more sense to put it up on the dolly/trailer, either if her's is smaller then the TL (aka smaller truck possibly) OR it is only 2WD, so you might be able to get away with just a dolly instead



and NP helping, i hate it when people wounder why there brakes are wearing out and such so fast (or the vehicle is just not stable at highway speeds loaded down), when in fact they just need a larger vehicle designed for the heavy payload (if you have figured out yet, i am an auto tech )








btw, you know full well size matter to women, they just don't want to admit it

sddale

Have you looked into movers that ship your stuff via freight and just driving your car? We boxed everything up except the furniture and they picked it all up, boxed the furniture and put it on pallets. It took about 10 days (2k mile trip) and came from UPS Freight dropped at my door...about 4k lbs and didn't cost much more than moving it all myself when you consider the truck rental and difference in gas.

Glashub

My fear is that my wife and I will get to the house and end up waiting, maybe days, for our stuff. Did you encounter that? Thx.

sddale

Yes. It took 10 days from the day we gave them the address to ship to but it was 2000 miles away. We were able to track it and knew it would take that long so we were prepared for the wait.

Glashub

^^^^

Thanks.