Welcome back.

pretty timely info for me. Will be making the move from SC to OH in June

I used a POD for about half of my household items which needed to be stored for an indeterminate time. The only thing that went on the moving van were items that I would need in my temp condo until I bought my house

The absolute cheapest way to move is to rent a Uhaul trailer and borrow a friend's pickup truck.

I work for U-Haul. If you don't want to do anything but write the check, use movinghelp.com to find movers to do the loading/unloading and ubox.com to ship. Moving help can deliver the boxes on either end and do the loading/unloading. You don't release the payment code to them until you are satisfied with the job they did. UBOXes are smaller than PODS so you can get as many or as few as you need. UBOXes are wood (They have waterproof covers when they are outside for delivery and loading), so they don't retain moisture, PODS and other boxes are metal and fiberglass, which can lead to condensation issues. Also, you can pick up UBOXes on a trailer at either end yourself with your pickup or a rental pickup and deliver them back for shipping. Other companies may not have convenient schedules.

Skip UHaul and go with Penske. Newer trucks, better service and similar prices.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeNH:
Skip UHaul and go with Penske. Newer trucks, better service and similar prices.

Certainly agree with the quality of Penske vehicles. You are also guaranteed the size of truck that you reserve, whereas I've had Uhaul bump up to an unnecessarily large size because that's all that was in the area. Reserve with plenty of time in advance, and their prices are somewhat discounted.

I used to work for Budget and have been a dedicated Pods OTR driver for 9 years. What the going rates are I could not tell you because they vary based on locations and time of year. If you are going to rent a truck try to make the move without stopping at a hotel, breakins and theft of vehicle happen all the time, plus you are in a rush with truck to get loaded, get there and get unloaded.

Pods is super convient, call they bring, you load at your pace, call they pickup and store in warehouse until I pickup. Pods are stored or loaded with doors facing each other and stacked. Heck even Dept of Agriculture and LEO cannot get in them without a forklift. Have never heard of a theft while we have the Pod, only when unsupervised at someones house.

There are three POD sizes 16,12and 7ft. Width is generally 98inches and height 7ft10 to 8ft.
Max weight is 10,000 pds on a 16footer and no Hazmat.

From my ex army brat- military life , only ship what you really need. It is cheaper to have a yard sale and just buy new than to ship a plastic kiddie pool or similar.

One more thing, moving truck you have to lift or ramp everthing up into truck, Pod is ground level makes life really easy.

I see more broke down UHAUL truck and trailers, Penke equipment is a lot better. Remember a moving truck is not a car, I had people wreck my trucks within 100ft of signing the rental agreement when I was with Budget.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeNH:
Skip UHaul and go with Penske. Newer trucks, better service and similar prices.

Definitely agree with that. Trucks are diesel, can comfortably sit 2 adults with a decent amount of space in the middle and have an auxiliary input. The driver seat is independent while the middle and passenger is a bench. I just did a drive using a Penske 26' truck with an SUV on top of an auto transport. Made the drive from El Paso to Orlando pretty quick. Left El Paso on Wednesday night at 11:30pm and arrived in Orlando on Friday night at 8:00pm.

When the wife and I moved last year ( New York to Arizona) our first step was to drastically pare down our stuff. We got a respected estate liquidator to have a huge sale at the house ( I sold boats trailers snow blowers household items you name it) they basically sold off everything and totally cleared the house out and even cleaned afterward with about zero work on our part. The sale netted us over ten grand. By the time we were done we had enough stuff to half fill a 5x7x8 moving container hauled away by united. The only thing they would not ship was my significant supply of ammo which ended up going in a van with us. Divesting yourself of as much stuff as possible is the best move. We kept no furniture and kept perhaps less than 10% of our house hold items. Wife cut loose about 75% of her wardrobe and I did the same

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

Originally posted by MikeNH:
Skip UHaul and go with Penske. Newer trucks, better service and similar prices.

Definitely agree with that. Trucks are diesel, can comfortably sit 2 adults with a decent amount of space in the middle and have an auxiliary input. The driver seat is independent while the middle and passenger is a bench. I just did a drive using a Penske 26' truck with an SUV on top of an auto transport. Made the drive from El Paso to Orlando pretty quick. Left El Paso on Wednesday night at 11:30pm and arrived in Orlando on Friday night at 8:00pm.

Mine was still a gasser. It was a 16' E-350 with Ford's V10. Got around 11-12 MPG going from Michigan to New Hampshire. Truck had like 5000 miles on it, it was clean and undamaged. And it too had the auxiliary input which was critical as my music and podcasts are what keep me focused on those drives since I'm alone.

I moved from CT to Las Vegas in the smallest pod, they charged me $2400