Moving - Penske 16' vs 22' truck rental

[ohio_peasant]

I must disagree with the above posters, with considerable vehemence. Get the SMALLER truck! Even the 16' truck is a behemoth, ungainly and difficult to drive. The 22'-26' truck is a leviathan, best left to professionals. Forget about maneuvering it, even in a rural highway truck-stop, let alone anything approaching a city.

Furniture is fungible and cheap. Take books, papers, keepsakes. I fit most of the worthwhile possessions of a 1650 sq ft house (plug gym equipment, plus various tools from the garage) into a Penske 16'. You'll run of weight-rating of the vehicle, before you run out of space.

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by ohio_peasant

I must disagree with the above posters, with considerable vehemence. Get the SMALLER truck! Even the 16' truck is a behemoth, ungainly and difficult to drive. The 22'-26' truck is a leviathan, best left to professionals. Forget about maneuvering it, even in a rural highway truck-stop, let alone anything approaching a city.

I agree. There's a big difference between driving a 26' and a 16' (having personally driven the same route with these two sizes).

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by hikernut

I agree. There's a big difference between driving a 26' and a 16' (having personally driven the same route with these two sizes).

+1!

I’ve literally driven both sizes of trucks at least 8x between Phoenix and Michigan, (roughly 2100 miles per trip) towing cars each time - the smaller trucks are much quieter, easier to handle and waaaaay faster (for merging onto short on-ramps and climbing hills). The last 22 foot Penske truck (just a couple months ago) was a serviceable truck in good condition, but literally couldn’t maintain even 35 miles an hour going up big hills, and merging in areas with short on-ramps was a “floor it and hope for the best” situation.. and that truck wasn’t even loaded very heavy. There were several times on my last trip where I almost got into accidents simply because the truck was so wimpy and underpowered. And I haven’t bent a car up in over thirty years of driving, so I am careful- and I don’t expect a moving truck to handle like a regular car.

The larger diesel trucks that are being rented now by Penske are actually dangerous IMHO, especially in the hands of someone who isn’t used to driving them. Usually, you can kinda “time” your merges if you can see approaching traffic before you enter the on-ramp, but there are many on-ramps that you will encounter where you’re going too fast to stop, but also don’t have the horsepower and torque to get moving fast enough to merge.

I’ve rented UHaul trucks locally probably ten times over the past ten years, and have only gotten one truck I would even try to drive at highway speed.

Based on my experiences - especially the most recent one, I won’t rent the larger diesel trucks ever again. It’d be worth it to me to drive the smaller gas trucks twice than to try to manhandle the bigger, underpowered diesel truck once.

It is that much harder and more stressful to drive the bigger trucks.

[StealthRabbit]

Commercial driver in Mtn States since 1972. I often drive rental trucks CC for friends.

I much prefer the bigger / heavier Penske with a REAL engine (DT466) and suspension to handle a load.

I have refused several Penskes and told the rental agency to deliver a better one.

U-haul... I would not drive one of their vehicles if possible, especially if loaded heavy, as they use light weight frames / suspension / brakes / tires / engines.

I don't do gas (in my cars or trucks.) That stuff is HAZARDOUS and dangerous. Drivers cannot even pump their own in NJ and OR.

YMMV, but mine is 50+ in cars and 12+ in trucks (even my last Penske). I was loaded very heavy and towing a 3500#+ car. Mtn passes were no problem for speed / power / brakes.