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Location: The Northeast - hoping one day the Northwest!
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My husband and I might be relocating back home to CT soon. YAY!! I am very excited. (crossing fingers, toes and everything else I can!) When we moved to Florida, we had our clothes and that was about it. Now, we have a 2 bedroom apartment full of furniture. Some stuff we are going to sell, but some stuff we do want to keep. Besides, all the stuff we want to keep (even just the books, movies, cd's, clothes, etc) they won't fit in the back of our two cars, so we need a truck.
How difficult is it to drive a moving truck w/ the car? It just seems that it would be easier than driving one car (or budget truck) up, getting a one way ticket and coming back for the other one.
We currently live in Wesley Chapel, Fl (just north of Tampa) The move is about 1240 miles and 18 1/2 hours. The most concern I have would be going through NYC. That would have to be timed just right so we are not going north on I-95 at 5pm leaving NYC!
Of course there is always going around NYC which we did before,(I moved here by myself in 2006 to go to school when we were dating, missed him WAY to much and moved back and we went back through PA. We moved back here together in 2008) however that is through PA and mountains and will be more in gas, especially one of those moving trucks, so the best option is through NYC.
Does anyone have experience driving a moving truck w/ towing a car through NYC? Also, just in general... how hard is it to drive a moving truck towing a car? It would be a 16 ft truck towing a Hyundai. My hubby has driven moving trucks before, but never for this length of time and never towing anything.
It is doable. But let me give you some food for thought. Look at the cost of a one way ticket. Figure out how much gas it would cost to drive there. The math worked in my favor in one move from Kansas City to Florida.
To drive, figure cost of gas and one way ticket back. Let's for arguments sake say its $300.
To tow it, you need to also rent a trailer from truck rental place. That can vary, but let's say $250 (check to make sure). Then the truck will lose a few miles per gallon since it's towing a heavy car.
If it's close, them go for it.
As far as towing, it isn't too bad. But remember it will be tight pulling into gas stations, restaurants, etc with a trailer behind you.
If you guys are apprehensive about it and the math is even whether you fly or drive them I suggest flying to get rid of one headache
Check the cost of a pod vs a truck. Also ABF Upack. Pretty much a wash. You will be doing good to get 7 mph on the truck. At an average of $3.50 a gallon, and a distance of appx 1250 miles, you are looking at fuel of $625 m/l. Then you have the truck cost and trailer cost. The truck cost moving to CT will possibly have a lower charge because more people are moving out of CT than moving in, so that would be a plus.
Either way figure a cost of about $1500-2000. But the pounding on the body is tough if you are not used to driving a truck. Also, you are looking at a 3 day drive with the truck (lower speeds) vs just driving a car, so you will have additional motel costs.
I've made 4 cross country moves driving a rental truck and towing a car. Once you get used to driving the truck, it's pretty easy. Just remember that you can't back up, so always have to pick a place to stop that allows you to drive forward when you leave. The other thing to remember is to pack the truck well so that nothing is moving around.
I generally drive my car with a fairly heavy foot and always drive in the left lane. So it was tough mentally to drive 20-30 miles an hour slower than normal and drive in the right lane. Nothing like driving across Texas at 63 MPH.
No don't go the pods route way too exspensive and most times apts wont let you park them there so they take them to a storage facility which means you would have to rent a truck again to move the stuff to your new apt major inconvience . The truck and tow the car route is your best bet we have always moved that way and it works so much better and I usually hire someone on the other end to unload for us ...I know where Wesley chapel is we used to live there and we moved away .
Check the cost of a pod vs a truck. Also ABF Upack. Pretty much a wash. You will be doing good to get 7 mph on the truck. At an average of $3.50 a gallon, and a distance of appx 1250 miles, you are looking at fuel of $625 m/l. Then you have the truck cost and trailer cost. The truck cost moving to CT will possibly have a lower charge because more people are moving out of CT than moving in, so that would be a plus.
Either way figure a cost of about $1500-2000. But the pounding on the body is tough if you are not used to driving a truck. Also, you are looking at a 3 day drive with the truck (lower speeds) vs just driving a car, so you will have additional motel costs.
Good point about ABF and pods. I used pods for a move and it was similar price to doing it myself.
If going thst route, also look at cubic footage. If I recall, a POD is smaller on the inside than the largest Penske or uHaul truck.
If I move again, I'll definitely do ABF or pods. Then I'll hire people here to help me pack and people there to help me unpack. At least with all of the heavy things
My hubby has driven moving trucks before, but never for this length of time and never towing anything.
That would be the deal breaker for me. I agree with the other posters about looking into alternatives.
I sent ABF relocubes ahead of me to Iowa and then drove my vehicle. In that case, there was no way I was going to tow a vehicle on I-80 in August during prime t-storm season (high winds and hail!)
Pulling a car trailer behind a U Haul is no biggie. You just have to realize you have a trailer and plan accordingly. If you pull off, go to the truck parking lot so you'll have straight thru parking.
Location: The Northeast - hoping one day the Northwest!
1,107 posts, read 1,452,127 times
Reputation: 1012
Thanks everyone! I did some number crunching this evening w/ the hubby, and it's not really worth it to bring our furniture. If we did the budget truck and did the whole one way ticket back (he decided he really didn't want to drive a moving truck towing a car that far) it would be about $500 more. That is just an estimate too. Then, we would have to pay for storage for furniture in addition to that... so 70-100 a month depending on the size and how long we stay w/ his mom until we find our own place... it will add up!
I decided either just to do the Uhaul U-box for our belongings that don't want to get rid of (ie: computers, my keyboard, dvds, books, board games, clothes, etc) We both have small cars (I have a Mazda 2 and he has a Hyundai elentra) and we have pets that we will be traveling w/ us, so everything we have will need to be in the trunk.
I am still undecided about the kitchen plates, cups, and all of the other kitchen supplies. They are nice, but by no means expensive. (ie: A lot of our stuff is from Ikea) If we did the Uhaul box, all those boxes i would store at my parents in the downstairs family room which gets very little use now. However, I'm still in that stage should we just ship the stuff we know we want to keep for sure (ie: books) and sell off all of our kitchen stuff vs the u haul u box.
The most expensive kitchen item we have is the Keurig and that for sure is coming w/ us.
Recommendations?!
Thanks!
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