Grassroots Moversports - Relocating a GRM'er with 2.5 project cars

This is more of a logistics question. How do you move a 2 person household with 2 daily drivers, 1 classic car, and 2 inoperable project cars? 

Ground rules:

• 9 hour drive one-way
• 2 weekends to do it, starting this weekend
• No vacation time, working 8-5 M-F
• Wife prefers not to tow cars or drive anything too large
• Minimize cost

Besides a typical 2 bedroom household, here is what else needs to move:

• 02 Town and Country, daily driveable with tow package and 145k miles
• 08 Saturn Astra, daily driveable
• 72 El Camino, could daily, but has no A/C, has a 5,000 hitch and air shocks, but don't want to push it too hard.
• 80 Datsun wagon "Datsaniti" project, less than 2500 lbs, RWD, rolls and steers but no brakes
• 31 Ford hot rod, less than 2500 lbs, RWD, rolls and steers but no brakes and awfully low
• Garage full of E36 M3 including 2 welders, hoist, work benches, etc
• Pottery studio with 2 large electric kilns

Or maybe I should just hire a moving company and have a real truck haul the projects.

Driving from where to where?

The easy button is to hire someone. Whether that is your friend/brother to drive some of the vehicles, or a professional, hire someone and be done with it. Possibly sell a vehicle or two as well. 

I'd personally sell at least one vehicle. 

Figure out what would be more effort to move than to replace. Work benches are easy, so leave them there and build/buy new ones when you get to the new location. Also, if you haven't used it in the past two years, sell it or ditch it. Don't move it. (I'm silently screaming in frustration at my wife's insistence that she uses everything we moved. Twice.)

seems like this would have been a good question to ask about 12 weeks ago.  hope everything is OK...

maschinenbau said

Or maybe I should just hire a moving company and have a real truck haul the projects.

This. Its really the only logical solution to be honest. Everything else is going to add stress and complexity to an already world berkeleying moving timetable.

Friends with tow vehicles and co-drivers that are capable of driving with a trailer. Could be done in two weekends by stuffing everything into the tow vehicles and towed vehicles, but would require round robins with little to no lay over at either ends.

Might be safer and easier to put some stuff in storage and do this over a few weekends.

Just because moving is one of those stressful things, I highly, highly recommend paying someone to fix this problem for you. And get rid of EVERYTHING you don't use. It is all worthless anyways (seriously, go to an estate sale and find out how little everything in your life is worth)

No, it's only worthless to other people.

Fair enough--but you can still probably replace it out there for very little money at an estate sale or similar.

Having the 3 project cars shipped would greatly ease our troubles, until I start stressing about the carrier damaging or losing them. I don't mind doing the u-haul 16 footer for moving our house and garage contents. We could knock that out with plenty of friends/family on either end to help load/unload.

Easy solution: leave the Rice Rod and Dasaniti with me. Problem solved. I promise to give them both a loving home.

Wait, does this mean you're moving out of state??????

Nooooooooooo!

I moved from California to Texas last summer. When I found out I was moving it was May 2017. At the time I had a 1979 240D Benz, 1979 450SEL Benz, 2000 Jaguar XJR, 2013 Ford Fusion, and 1987 Chrysler Conquest. I sold both of the Mercedes with the quickness. Put the XJR in storage and took my Conquest to a friends house. From there I bought a Excursion and 20ft car hauler. Movers packed my house and garage and shipped it to Texas ahead of me. I loaded the Fusion and Excursion with stuff we wanted to take with us personally. Put the fusion on the trailer and hauled it across the Southwest to central Texas. If I could've done it all over, I should've just sold all the vehicles. Good news is, I got paid per mile for every every person I took with me child, wife, and myself plus lodging expenses and $2000 in dislocation. 

My advice is to sell every car you can, especially the non-runners and have a moving company do the household stuff. Make a detailed inventory of your tools! 

Okay new ground rule, cannot sell any cars dammit! I'm attached to the Camino, wife and I need daily drivers, and I'm obsessed with completing the two projects. 

Yes, moving back home to Atlanta for a new job! 

Congrats on new job! 

I'll also recommend paying to ship the projects. And maybe the dailies too.

Either that, or see if you can borrow the tech challenge trailer. It looks like it will fit 2 cars...

Atlanta!!!!!

Atlanta? I would think you'd want to sell everything before getting there! Its the holy grail of craigslists!

In reply to maschinenbau :

Congrats on the new job.

If it helps out the timing of things, you're welcome to park one of the cars in my driveway for a while. Other than that, can the elco pull pull the Saturn on a dolly?

Penske box trucks are a pretty good diy option for transporting maximum stuff and things, unlimited miles one way.  We used to use those all the time for Baja back in college and really stretched the "one-way" clause, we would pick them up on the east side of Milwaukee drive 3000 miles to Portland and back and then drop off in South Milwaukee by the airport. 

The 26 footer can be had with a lift gate which is a must have for transporting full tool boxes and other metal things with a lot of gravity.  We almost bought one of the guys a rust free CRX down south and disassembled the baja car to fit it on one of our racetrips.

Nothing to say other than I don’t envy you  one single bit. 

Tow one of the non runners with the van while the wife follows in the Saturn loaded with anything you can stuff in it.  Leave non runner and Saturn in Atlanta and drive home in the van.

Rent a Penske truck and trailer for everything in the house and the other non runner on the trailer. Leave the elky with a friend for a couple of weeks.  You drive truck and trailer,  wife drives to Atlanta in van.

Rescue elky with a fly and drive or weekend trip. 

Alternately,  find a friend in Atlanta who you can borrow for a week and who isn't afraid of trailers.  Bring friend back with you after first trip and put them to work on packing and loading.  The second weekend put them in the van with the smaller non runner behind it and the elky behind the box truck.

Stuff behind the van can be daily rental tow dolly the first weekend if you tow it back with you empty, but for your two small project cars a single axle 14' utility trailer bought and sold after you are done with it would probably be cheaper in the long run. 

I'm really leaning toward towing the Datsun with El Camino this weekend. It's rated for more, it's proper body-on-frame, won't be loaded to brim with other boxes, and I trust its transmission more than the van's. It's a rebuilt TH350 with only like 40k miles on it. No A/C will suck, but that's what dry-fit shirt and windows are for. Also has newly upgraded disc brakes and rear air shocks. I've hauled up to 1200 lbs of mulch in the bed. It's a risk, but an adventurous risk I'm kinda excited about. 

Phase 1 (this weekend)

• Wife in minivan loaded with boxes
• Me in El Camino dolly-towing the Datsun. Leave both cars at new house.
• Drive back together in minivan

Phase 2 (next weekend)

• Me in ginormous Penske truck towing the hot rod on a full car trailer
• Wife in minivan again, more boxes
• Fly-a-friend one-way for the Saturn. 

This all comes out to under $2,000 plus gas. Just to hire a truck to move 3 cars is over $2,200, plus we would still need a moving truck for the house.

In reply to maschinenbau :

I agree with yupididit - now is the perfect time to buy a 1-ton dually and 3-car hauler. 

Ya'll are killin' me! I'd like to end next weekend with the same amount of cars, no more, no less!

Something else I noticed. The U-haul 26 footer with full car trailer is only like $1200 compared to Penske's 26 footer with trailer for $1700. Is Penske really $500 better?

In reply to maschinenbau :

If the U haul doesn't have a lift gate and the Penske you quoted does I would say so, your spine will thank you.