moving/driving from Dallas to LA - advice! (fit in, apartment)

[achenn]

I'm moving from Dallas, TX to LA at the end of January. My plan was to drive my '03 Subaru Forester with a small(5x8, maybe?), enclosed trailer towing behind. As you can imagine, I have a lot of questions a few being:

- What kind of terrain/weather can I expect on the drive? Driving through West TX & NM during the winter has me a little worried.

- Will an '03 Forester safely tow(and stop..) a full trailer that size(I'm really only bringing clothes, books, kitchen stuff, & a coffee table)?

- Has anyone tried a U-Haul truck that distance with 2 people, 2 dogs, and a cat? (This is Plan B.)

Any insight and tips are greatly appreciated.

[Dunbar42]

Originally Posted by achenn

(I'm really only bringing clothes, books, kitchen stuff, & a coffee table)?

My suggestion is ditch the coffee table and ship whatever doesn't fit in your car. I doubt it will cost much more than the U-Haul trailer rental + trailer hitch install fee (if you don't already have one installed.) If you really think about it, spending lots of money and energy to bring along inexpensive belongings doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Have the second person fly out with the pets.

To answer your towing question though look up the two rating of your car. I believe U-Haul lists the weight of their trailers online. To be conservative figure a few hundred pounds for your belongings. The only catch is getting the tongue weight right.

[achenn]

Ah, the coffee table was handmade by my grandfather- it's got to come with! It doesn't weigh much thought, and I planned to flip it upside down and stack boxes in the space between the legs.

Thanks for your input!

[Dunbar42]

Originally Posted by achenn

Ah, the coffee table was handmade by my grandfather- it's got to come with!

Or you can ship it if it's that important to you. My brother just moved from Chicago to LA and hired movers. He said if he could do it all over again he'd toss the old stuff, save the $2700 movers fee, and put that money towards new furniture. You seem to be in the fortunate situation of not having lots of pricey furniture to bring along.

[achenn]

Yea, that's precisely why we're getting rid of everything else- bed, sofa & chair, dining table & chairs, etc.
I'll look into shipping the table, thanks.

[Joe Van Fossen]

You already have some great tips on everything else, so I'll speak to the terrain question. In my younger days, I toured with bands and made that TX-to-LA trip probably about 4-5 times. Once or twice in the Winter, once in a full sized van with trailer. I'm assuming you're taking the 20 to the 10, and then the 10 the rest of the way... It can get cold in NM and AZ. Generally it's not too wet, but there can definitely be some black ice on the road, so proceed with caution at night. The drive is mostly flat, but I do remember driving over some mountainy areas somewhere around the NM/AZ border. It's really not that bad of a drive at all. Though it does get cold going through the desert in winter. We literally had 1/4" thick ice build up on the inside windows of the van.

[achenn]

Yea, 20-10 seemed to be the best route.
I planned to time the drive so that we could drive through NM & AZ (mostly) during daylight hours to give us a bit of an edge on the ice. Hopefully this winter won't be too bad! Do you think making it all in one shot is doable? There will be two drivers.

[Dunbar42]

Straight through would be about 24 hours. I'd split it up into two days. When I used to do Chicago to FL I'd drive as far as I could stand the first day.

[Joe Van Fossen]

Yeah, one shot is going to be rough. I once did Seattle to LA in one shot (20hrs, 3 drivers), and it was brutal.

[rb29335i]

I will be doing the same move from Houston to LA at the end of February. I've decided to use Moving Companies | U-Pack: The Money Saving Alternative to Traditional Moving and just drive my car rather than a moving truck. It's a bit more expensive, I calculate less than $500 difference over a truck/gas & car trailer. That's a full apartment in 2 pods. When I was younger I moved a similar distance in a moving truck and it was not comfortable at all, and that was just by myself. With 2 of us and a cat, I plan to split the drive to 2 days in Tuscon but I live on i10 already so it's a straight shot. 20+ hours is a long drive!