uhaul trailers? (Atlanta, Doraville, Lexington: fit in, rent, how much)

[proudrcf]

Hey guys i'm moving in a few months from panama city, fl to ATL. My main plan was to get a 5x8 uhaul trailer for my stuff. Me and my wife don't have very much so it should fit in the trailer. I came acress a forum though that bashed uhaul trailers like crazy. I want to think that its just bad driving but have no idea. Can any of you let me know that you have used trailers with no problem.

[billl]

Bashed them like how? We used their largest trailer (6x12) to move my daughter from Atlanta to Lexington. Other than having noisy pneumatic brakes the trailer handled just fine. A trailer must be loaded properly! If you put too much weight behind the axle then your hauling experience will be quite unpleasant.

But my U-Haul experience was uneventful. The trailer stayed on, stopped when it was supposed to, and didn't try to throw our car off the highway.

Bill

[Eresh]

My only experience with a u-haul trailer (for towing a car), we had two tires go flat on the trailer and then the truck's transmission conked out.

My brother had a u-haul trailer come off as he was driving down the interstate and nearly cause a bad accident. It WAS hitched up correctly, but it literally fell apart.

We use Penske now.

[proudrcf]

Originally Posted by Eresh

My brother had a u-haul trailer come off as he was driving down the interstate and nearly cause a bad accident. It WAS hitched up correctly, but it literally fell apart.

We use Penske now.

Yeah thats the kind of stuff i've heard and really discourages me for a 6 hour drive from florida. Which is also pretty much highway. Does penske rent trailers? I'm trying to go the most affordable route, where I can get the 5x8 trailer for $91. I know renting an entire truck can be a lot more expensive.

[DASULAR17]

The advice is good from members. All I can add is U-hauls are fine although overpriced which is another story , Anyway, you will need a hitch and wire kit installation (do it yourself for directionals and stop signals.) Look on the internet for a hitch recommended for your car. Generally a 6 cylinder car/truck is recommended although a small trailor can be towed with a four cylinder contingent on you cars towing capacity. Prearrange your drop off location and how much time your able to keep the trailor. You should be fine, but get with U-haul folks as they will give you better info then me as they have more experience.

[proudrcf]

Originally Posted by DASULAR17

The advice is good from members. All I can add is U-hauls are fine although overpriced which is another story , Anyway, you will need a hitch and wire kit installation (do it yourself for directionals and stop signals.) Look on the internet for a hitch recommended for your car. Generally a 6 cylinder car/truck is recommended although a small trailor can be towed with a four cylinder contingent on you cars towing capacity. Prearrange your drop off location and how much time your able to keep the trailor. You should be fine, but get with U-haul folks as they will give you better info then me as they have more experience.

Yeah I have to factor in getting a hitch too which will be like $120 but thats something i've always wanted to do. We have a 2000 honda crv which is a 4 cylinder, I think it should pull the 5x8 no problem but anything larger I would be skeptical. I'll just have to go up there and talk with someone.

[Mishap]

Check out the trailer carefully before you leave the store. Go for a test drive if you have to. I rented a U-Haul car carrier to take my brother's Maxima from Atlanta to Bristol, TN and we're lucky we made it out alive.

Apologies for the long story:

I originally reserved the carrier from the Shallowford location but when we went to pick it up, they somehow were out of them. They sent me off to the Jimmy Carter location which had a dozen but no harness adapters so I had to run to a resale location to buy one of those.

The store manager then proceeded to give us the most beat up and decrepit one available. It was more rust than steel and I asked if I could get one in better shape but he said it was fine and none of the others were available. Once hooked up, I took the short drive back to our Doraville warehouse and could feel the trailer pushing the truck which was a new 5,500lb '05 Dodge Ram 4.7L 4x4 Quad Cab. My brother's employee told me something wasn't right so I took it back to U-Haul where they checked the brake fluid reservoir and said that was the problem. They filled it up and it still felt the same but they told me I was just being paranoid. We were already 2 hrs behind schedule so we just gave up and spent the next hr trying to load a car that was lowered 3" from stock onto a trailer w/ fairly steep ramps.

Fully loaded w/ a '97 3,100lb Nissan Maxima + 2,200lb trailer, about 500lb of equipment, and 3 people plus luggage, I figured we were around 12,000lb total which was probably a ways out of the duty rating for that Ram (especially a non-Hemi). The truck was definitely a hand full and I kept the speeds around 55-60. Since we were going the 220 miles to Bristol on the northern border between TN and VA, we also had the fun of going through some mountains and the truck could manage 35-40 max uphill. Every time it came to braking, it was an exercise in planning ahead and white knuckled driving as the trailer pushed the car around. By some miracle we made it there w/o any incident beyond a dented bumper from some very raised railroad tracks. The whole time, the brake reservoir kept emptying itself so we just kept filling it up.

Three days later we took the whole rig home and driving back down those mountains were some of the scariest driving moments I've ever had. Every mountain descent was a new chance to cook the brakes or jacknife off a ledge.

I get it back to the original U-Haul that lost my reservation and the guy takes one look at it and asks how they rented me this thing. It's brake lines had rotted off and brake fluid was basically just being pumped out some broken hose underneath the fender. I was absolutely enraged by the store manager's complete disregard so of course I tried to file a complaint. Unfortunately since the guy was apparently a regional manager that complaints were filed to and the call center people couldn't fathom how to file a complaint on him, I was forced to fax my complaint to the head office where I was never acknowledged. I eventually gave up but I hope that manager gets his foot run over by one of his dangerous trailers.

So moral...make sure the brakes work and get a suitable tow vehicle.

Here's a picture of the whole setup:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ULElRPci6ic/R7O_lg_W44I/AAAAAAAAFKA/pmCs61crwn8/s640/DSC03946.JPG (broken link)