Looking at buying a race car that's about 22 hours drive away. I don't want to drive an empty truck and trailer that far and then all the way back. How about flying to the destination, renting a truck and trailer and driving home.
What's the best way to do this? I would just hire a shipper, but I want to see the thing before cash exchanges hands.
EDIT: LOOKING FOR EYES IN NORTH FORT MYERS FLORIDA
DaveEstey said:I would just hire a shipper, but I want to see the thing before cash exchanges hands.
Check into the Uhaul rates for truck and trailer (not cheap.) It may still be cheaper to fly out and back but leave the moving to a shipper. This does sort of depend on which resource you have more of; time or money. Also a deciding factor is how accommodating your seller will be?
Consider Penske instead of Uhaul. Penske seems to have better maintained vehicles.
I'm going through the same thing. Car has spares and extra wheels, and while street legal, is not something you'd want to drive all day in.
I looked into Uhaul but I didn't see a trailer option that gave me any confidence. We've decided to meet halfway, and move the car from his trailer to my buddy's.
how big is the car? Can you just rent a box truck and put it in the back?
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
If I could build ramps - yes.
Good opportunity to get a new tow pig and trailer. Fly out and buy the whole enchilada. Drive home victorious.
KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:Good opportunity to get a new tow pig and trailer. Fly out and buy the whole enchilada. Drive home victorious.
Then sell tow pig and trailer to me...
...break even?!
Ask a GRMer to do the PPI for you?
Wait to find something a lot closer?
Fly out, buy it, ship car back, fly back?
Fly out, buy it, rent truck and trailer, drive back?
Fly out, rent uhaul pickup, purchase trailer, drive back, sell trailer (or keep it)?
Fly out, buy truck and trailer, drive back and sell truck and trailer (or keep them)?
Drive both ways?
Those are the only 6 options I can think of, besides buying and shipping sight unseen.
After the uhaul trailer I rented caught fire on the turnpike, I cannot in good conscience recommend them
Assuming car is south and you are north?
Buy southern truck and trailer and sell up north seems like the cheap way out if you can swing that.
Pete
DaveEstey said:In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
If I could build ramps - yes.
You can have a ramp come to you:
How big is the car? Usually it's cheaper to buy a landscape trailer and then sell it at the other end than rent a uhaul, especially if it is light enough for a single axle trailer. Oftentimes a car is not able to be driven because the engine or something is out, and that in the back of the truck instead of the car drops the weight of the car down to safe enough for a lighter trailer.
Most of the big SUVs have trailer hitches and wiring, including rentals. Enterprise rents one way.
Depending on where you are going there's sometimes huge cost savings for taking advantage of Penske's unlimited mileage. For example, if you are looking at a car in the middle of Iowa and coming from Boston it might be cheapest to drive to Bradley, fly a cheap direct flight to Chicago, get an Uber to Penske and rent the truck from Chicago to Hartford, then take the long way around through IA, to your house, then back to Hartford, where you can take another Uber up to your car at the airport and drive back home. A few extra hours of driving at each end in exchange for no layover are hugely reduced truck rate.
oldopelguy said:How big is the car? Usually it's cheaper to buy a landscape trailer and then sell it at the other end than rent a uhaul, especially if it is light enough for a single axle trailer. Oftentimes a car is not able to be driven because the engine or something is out, and that in the back of the truck instead of the car drops the weight of the car down to safe enough for a lighter trailer.
Most of the big SUVs have trailer hitches and wiring, including rentals. Enterprise rents one way.
Depending on where you are going there's sometimes huge cost savings for taking advantage of Penske's unlimited mileage. For example, if you are looking at a car in the middle of Iowa and coming from Boston it might be cheapest to drive to Bradley, fly a cheap direct flight to Chicago, get an Uber to Penske and rent the truck from Chicago to Hartford, then take the long way around through IA, to your house, then back to Hartford, where you can take another Uber up to your car at the airport and drive back home. A few extra hours of driving at each end in exchange for no layover are hugely reduced truck rate.
Someone's put some thought into this.
I've pulled a Penske car hauler behind one of their 26 foot box trucks a few times. That worked out okay, but the 64 MPH governor was frustrating, especially when I had no other load, and especially so when I had one of their identical trucks blow by me at 75 miles per hour. They won't rent you just the trailer, or I would be renting car haulers from them.
I have rented U-Haul car haulers a few times without any problems other than once picking up a nail in a tire.
I just drove about 1200 to 1300 miles with one last weekend.
That said, U-Haul isn't going to be the most reliable option, ever. I hope to never rent something with an engine from them and a trailer of my own is on my wishlist.
Just have the car shipped to you? Have done this with completely incapacitated race cars before and sounds like it would save considerable hassle while being cost neutralish.
In reply to oldopelguy :
It's about 1,400lbs and could easily fit on a landscaping trailer. My only concern is that I'm then looking to buy a trailer that won't fail on the way home.
Right now, a 2-way plan ticket and a shipper is feeling like the easy button. I have more money than time for once in my life - usually I don't have enough of either.
Is the car in Florida or near?
Over in this thread, I commented about a Jacksonville based shipper I once used and recommend.
It's in Florida, thanks for the shipper info
For me, he moved a fully running Prius about 440 miles from Sandusky, OH to Springfield, IL. I was just one stop on his loop around the nation. He went from FL up toward DC then West to IL and then more stops heading south again to FL.
Onboard with my Prius he had a "Gator" like ATV. I paid for open trailer service but this loop had a lot of "enclosed customers" so I got enclosed for the price of open.
DaveEstey said:In reply to oldopelguy :
It's about 1,400lbs and could easily fit on a landscaping trailer. My only concern is that I'm then looking to buy a trailer that won't fail on the way home.
Right now, a 2-way plan ticket and a shipper is feeling like the easy button. I have more money than time for once in my life - usually I don't have enough of either.
I'd buy a brand new trailer and then sell it when you get home. Shouldn't lose much on it.
DaveEstey said:It's in Florida, thanks for the shipper info
I have a smaller trailer here that could be bought.
DaveEstey said:It's in Florida, thanks for the shipper info
Lots of us in Fla! 
It's getting near the time for the FL to Northeast snowbird vehicle shipments to start, usually early April. I don't know if this makes shipping cheaper or $$$$.
If it runs at all from FL the Amtrak autotrain is an option too, though on the east coast I would borrow a trailer and GRM relay it back to its owner when you're done.
In reply to LarryNH :
More expensive for the shipper, your view is opposite of the carrier when your good paying job becomes someone else' marked down haul back.
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