Making the move 700 miles away

This forum seems to have legitimate experts in every field so I'll present my next challenge here and see what comes up.

I live in the KC area. I'm moving to the Lansing area. We're looking for a house but if we don't get the ball rolling for one within the next couple day there's no way we'd be moving straight into a house, so we're probably looking at storing at my MIL's.

We're leaving the day or two after Christmas. My MIL is coming out to help pack, drive, whatever.

1. I have a minivan that my wife and kids and one other spare adult (to entertain kids) are taking. No towing with this.

2. I have my Z4. I'd rather not drive it all that way, but whatever.

3. I have an Accord that needs some work and right now wouldn't trust it to drive across country.

4. I have a 26' truckload's-worth of house innards.

5. I have a couple of spare drivers if needed.

I feel like my issue is like the man who has a wolf, a goat and a sandwich but can only take one at a time across a river in his boat.

Any suggestions on these ideas?

A. I understand there are moving companies where we could load our loot + the Accord onto one portion of a semi trailer. Then the Z4 and minivan get there under their own power. Any issues with that? Any idea of price?

B. I spend $1400 + fuel on a one-way 5-day Penske with car trailer rental, this requires a spare driver for the Z4 and probably a $130 plane ticket back for that driver

C. Is it worth the savings of a ( plane ticket ($130) + third car gas ($85) ) = $215 to do the Penske + car trailer and then have a car hauler take the remaining car? Surely it's more than that, right? The first quote I pulled up was for $650. That seems excessive.

Additional questions:

i. Since we probably won't be driving straight into a new house's driveway, Mrs. P3PPY called around yesterday to see about the possibility of loading up a PODS type storage here and having it delivered to MI to await our abode purchase. It's like $2.5k for a couple months. Are there better prices for that? Is it feasible to also load up and ship a car that way?

ii. If I rent a Penske, do I need to sign up for any of their insurance? It always seems like a rip-off. I have house and comprehensive car insurance already and will pay with a Chase CC.

Our parish looking in to using a PODS for some temp. festival storage  earlier this year and they were absolutely crazy expensive.  There are a couple LTL type trucking companies that will drop off a small trailer for you to fill and then pick it up and get it across the country for you.  I know that R+L Carriers does that and there are a couple others.  Might be less expensive, but it might also require unloading all the stuff into a storage locker and then renting a truck and moving it all again when you're ready to move in.  They're supposedly kind of slow, but not 2 months slow.

When we moved and had extra cars we paid good friends a couple hundred dollars to come with us. Not only did we have the extra hands behind the wheel, but we had extra hands to offload things quickly when we got there. Best decision ever. 

Shipping the Z4 is always and option, but it’s not cheap. Having another person drive it and fly home is a cheaper viable option. 

I literally just did this a few months ago. 500 miles with 1 minivan, 1 drive-able, and 1 non-runner, and a 26ft truck. 

I rented the truck and trailer with Penske. It was worth the money compared to Uhaul. The equipment was in great shape (10k miles on a Cummins!) and they have better customer service on both ends. The truck was loaded to the brim but pulled with confidence. Around town or for retrieving projects, yeah I'll do Uhaul to save money. But I did not want to find out what their "roadside assistance" was like on this long-haul drive.

Wife in the minivan with our baby (cat). Me in the Penske pulling the non-runner. I flew a friend one-way and he drove the runner. 3-person convoy! We even had walkie-talkies which made the trip much more pleasant. 

U-ship for 1 car was like 700 bucks, plus you still have to get a moving truck anyway. U-ship for two cars cost more than the Penske. 

Buy me a Detroit-Kansas City ticket for the evening of the 14th and I'll drive the Z4 back. I need a road trip. 

(Edited to say what day I can drive.)

What's the problem with the Accord?  Seems like it's the major hold up. Something you could just sell and be done with it?

Just checked - first class on Spirit Flight 804 is $98, and it'll cost me $25 for parking and $70 for gasoline. 

There are plenty of GRMers that would fly-n-drive.  bobzilla immediately comes to mind here.  But it sounds like you may already have enough drivers.

That said, what is the Accord worth to you?  Is it worth driving the Z4? Or shipping it?   If yes, rent the truck and trailer, toss the Accord on it, and have someone drive the Z4 or trailer it.   If you have someone to store the Z4 cheaply, that is an option, but I'm guessing you don't want to store it outdoors.  Indoor storage until spring can get pricey.  (assuming the weather is why you don't want to drive it)

If the Accord isn't worth that much to you, sell it for whatever you can get, and trailer the Z4.

If and when I move more than a few hundred miles again, I'll sell as much as I can prior to the move. 

Yes, it's cheaper to keep stuff than it is to buy all new stuff, but we just found so many different instances where the old stuff didn't fit our new lifestyles.  For example, in Arizona, buildings done have basements and closests are smaller, so I should've sold a lot more of my tools and other extras in the garage, and not brought so many bikes. 

Stampie said:

What's the problem with the Accord?  Seems like it's the major hold up. Something you could just sell and be done with it?

You make a good point.

I messed up the half shaft replacing the lower ball joint. And somehow messed up the new ball joint in the process. I want to keep it for really snowy Michigan days, per this Michigan winter driving thread.

Will all that's going on I don't have time to fix it myself before the move or the financial wiggle room to just pay to have it fixed. Writing that, I'm reminded though that I still need to do that ASAP because I'm on call no matter the weather as of the first week in January. POOP

chaparral: thanks for the offer, that's really cool of you. I think I'm good on extra drivers though and in any case I'm going to still need the Z4 at least until the 21st. You may end up with a PM if your dates are flexible, however

I'm pretty sure you can buy something cheaply in Michigan to drive on snowy days.   

What if...

Pay to fix Accord and bring to Lansing

Store the BMW in KC

Come back for the BMW in the Spring.

Driving the Z4 in the Michigan winter will be hard on the car.  Any car that you want to save gets pulled off the road about Thanksgiving or when they start to salt the roads for icy temps and back on the road about April.  Its not the snow that kills the car, its the salt so even if the temps improve you want about 2 really good rainstorms in the spring to wash away all the residual salt on the roads before you drive that nice car again.  

I suggest just drive the Accord all winter. Get a self-store storage locker for the BMW in KC.  Its going to sit un-driven in MI.  Could just as easily sit un-driven in KC.  Preferably get a storage locker near the airport so when you do go to retrieve it, it will be just a short cab ride from the airport.  Bring a AAA Card too to jump start the car if needed too after 4 months of sitting.  

While the BMW is sitting in KC, do what we do here and lower the insurance to just fire and theft.  Basically, not insured to really drive it.  This creates a big savings.  More than enough savings to pay for the price of the storage locker.  

Cooter said:

I'm pretty sure you can buy something cheaply in Michigan to drive on snowy days.   

It might be a good idea to have a car that does not have a head start on the rust train though.  (I am assuming KC has far less snow)

In reply to aircooled :

For a $1,000 car, I don't know if really makes that much difference.

I will make this suggestion.  I did a very similar thing when I moved from L.A. to Austin.  Renting a 26' box truck for a week and leaving it in another state is stoopid expensive... and you are forced to stash all your stuff somewhere and then probably rent another truck to move it in the future.

Buy a 26' box truck.  Seriously.  I ended up buying an F700 with a 6 speed Road Ranger, Cummins ISB, and a 26' box and 100k for about $9000.  It was nicer than I needed, but I had the cash at the time.  I bought it, drove it to Austin, and paid a farmer $25/mo to park it at his ranch until I found a place.  I kept it for a year or so and used it as storage or rented it to our shop for moving things.  I sold it for what I paid, but even if I had lost $2000 on the sale it would have been cheaper than a rental.

Lots of trucks out there for cheap.  Rent a tow dolly or a car trailer.

Take the box truck and Accord on the trailer.  Ditch the cargo and rental trailer at the destination.  Take the box truck back to get the Z4.  Just find somewhere with a 4' loading dock at both places that will let you use it.  You can probably find a commercial property (behind a WalMart or a feed store) that would let you do it.  That is what I did.  I took a load and a car on a trailer.  I ditched the trailer and cargo and went back and put my Impala in the box of the truck.  Tight fit with a B-body, but a Z would fit easily.

Then sell the truck for what you paid.  You're only out the fuel cost and tow dolly rental.

I would love to fly n drive for you, but I would have to fly to KC, then back from Detroit.  Kinda kills the deal.

any hope of fixing the Accord before you go?  How much is it worth (both fixed and not)?  I'm just thinking about the math of ditching the Accord and buying another winter beater when you get to Lansing.  Makes sense to transport it if it's worth money; like if it's a 2015 with 80k, that's one thing.  You would lose your shirt selling it in its current condition and I would transport it.  If its a 96 with 300k, sell it to a kid who needs a cheap college car and can finish the work.

In reply to Curtis :

I've been toying with the math on sell vs repair too. It's a 2004 4 cylinder automatic. No rust as of yet. Engine has 150k, everything else has 250k.

if I pay Honda to fix it's absolutely not worth it. Little shop might do it all for $800 - passenger ball joint and half shaft.

it won't pass Missouri safety inspection w/out ball joint and the clunking is obvious and nerve-racking so I might get a grand for it but might run out of time dealing with tire kickers in the mean time. 

Fixed, I could probably get $2,000 in a week, $2,500 if I'm patient. Net $1,200. Saves the negligible cost of Z4 gas since it would be riding the trailer and also the $130 of flying someone back.

I still need to get snow tires for the Accord, assuming $600 all around. Now I'm into it $1400. But it's nice, in nice shape, been reliable. However (train of thought going here) the weak spot on these is trans and mine has a quarter million on it. In $2018 challenge forum there is (or was) a late 90s Sidekick 4x4 going for the price of my half shaft and ball joint, with tires. I'm reluctant to go that old for a daily in bad weather, can I get a witness? So $1,400 on a 4x4... I'm too tired to figure anything else out right now. someone else figure this out for me and I'll check this in the morning  

I like what you're thinking about buying a rig. I've wanted to make a Skoolie for some time and thought this would be the right time to pick up my foundation. I found an '00 for about $2k. Found a box truck for $3 which is less disagreeable to Mrs P3PPY. That's the most if not more than I could reasonably throw at it. It would be nice to be able to make my money back and have a storage container like you say. Money really is right and though it costs more in the long run I don't see that happening right now  sadly also time to get licensed inspected all that, just not enough of it. as an aside, if anyone has one that they want delivered to Michigan AND paid rent on, even an RV or whatever, im your man  

I just wish I knew where we were moving TO. If I knew we'd have a shed or just an empty lot in town vs the country ... oh well. At this point with no purchase happening yet we will be spending at least a couple weeks with my MIL. 

I looked on CL in my destination town (Austin) and looked for storage.  Often there are people with a little acreage just outside of town looking to make $25/mo.  I didn't find any so I posted on Austin CL and a rancher came through for me.

My truck was nicer than I needed, but it held its value for the year I owned it, and considering the times I rented it to the shop where I worked (recycling metal from our busted transmission pile) and renting it to friends it likely paid for its own insurance and fuel costs.

Just for reference, my wife and I moved from Bloomington IL to Blacksburg VA last year... 

We paid a moving company to move all the stuff, sold the extra car (a miata), and we each drove our daily drivers to VA.

The mover was around$9k, but worth every penny because they did all the heavy lifting (plus work paid for the move). However, we moved into our rental house which is a little different than your situation.

What about the optional insurance on a Penske? Never worth it, right? Between homeowners, comprehensive car and paying with a chase CC it seems like it's all covered anyway. 

OPTIONALLY, has anyone in Missouri ever gotten a school bus retitled to a truck (that no longer needs a CDL for the 40 passengers?)

In reply to P3PPY :

I can't say for sure in MO, but usually, to get the decertified as a truck you actually have to remove enough seats so that it can seat no more that 14 people.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Not going this route but FWIW I talked to the highway patrol today and all you do is remove the seats, the "school bus" signage and the stop sign and you're good to go. It will still say bus on the title but no special license required to drive it. 

Venting here. I really hate to "throw money away" by just renting something like a box truck. Buying one to resell later just isn't an option. I even looked into a shipping container since the Michigan family has need for one anyway but the cost to get it delivered to my house, picked up, shipped 700 miles and dropped off again is not an adventure to try to undertake right now.

Oh well.

Happily, the first people to check out our house also gave us an offer for only $300 less than asking. I won't feel settled until after the inspection and we hear back from them. In my mind this is only a pause to the sale until/if they proceed without asking for the moon in concessions.