Moving from Oregon to Florida in February

New member here! We are moving from Lebanon, OR to central Florida around late February. Any advice for the best route with a front wheel drive and all wheel drive vehicle, along with a UHaul truck? We will also have our pets with us, so will have to make some stops and find pet friendly hotels along the way, but we plan on some long days of driving. We have relatives near Chico, CA who have room for us, so our thought was to stay there the first night and do more of a southern route to avoid as much winter driving conditions as we can. Advice and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

The first thing to point out is that heading south by no means guarantees avoiding winter weather and should the south be hit with a winter storm they are not as well prepared to deal with it as their countrparts further north. Thats not to say you shouldn't head south, it's more of a caveat. The other thing is that by heading to CA to stay with family will add another 300 miles to your journey and the longer you are on the road the bigger chance of catching a storm, so something else to consider. Travelling with pets and UHaul truck means that covering 500 miles per day would be 'work like' but what you could expect to do reasonably comfortably travelling for 9-10 hours a day with appropriate stops for food, fuel, bathroom and rest breaks. So heading to Cico would be a day gone then it would require another 5 overnight stops/6 days to complete your journey. If you decided to go more direct and head east on I-80 you could complete the jouney in 6 days, either way you should be build in some extra time so that if you did run into a storm you could get off the road and wait it out. The most important thing is not to cover too much ground at the start, it's a marathon and not a sprint, meaning that if you push hard to early when fresh and excited you could 'crash and burn' along the way. You can find 'pet friendly' lodgings by clicking on the 'Lodging' link in the green tool bar above. If you have specific questions please ask. Safe travels !

Welcome to RTA!

There's no route that can avoid possible winter driving conditions, but if you take I-5 to I-10 the likelihood should be minimized. This is also close to being the fastest route.

Suggestion to avoid most of the LA metro area:

At Lost Hills, take CA-46 east to CA-99. Take that south to CA-58 east. Then take US-395 south to I-15 south. Take I-215 south to CA-210 east to I-10.

To avoid most of Phoenix:

Take AZ-85 south to Gila Bend, then I-8 east back to I-10.

To avoid New Orleans:

At Baton Rouge take I-12 back to I-10.

From Chico to Orlando is about 3000 miles and I would allow 6 days. You might be able to do it in 5, but that's pushing safety when you are driving a U-Haul truck in convoy with cars.

Bear in mind that U-Haul is going to allot a set number of days from the point of pickup to the point of drop off. Those number of days have to include your loading day and your unloading day. The good thing? You can negotiate for an extra day or two, thrown in cheap or free, just in case you come across bad weather.

I-10 is usually snow-and-ice free. That said, however, there are occasions when western TX is hit by an unusual storm. They are by no means set up for it. Snow plows and trucks with de-icing chemical, found easily in places where snow is common, have to travel to get to the bad weather areas in TX where snow is not-so-common.

OTOH, I-80 was just closed not so long ago, because of bad weather. It happens along I-90 and I-94, as well. Watch the weather before you go, and make your plans accordingly.


Donna

I've seen rental charts for UHaul suggesting that the company has a big problem with their vehicles heading to Texas and Florida but not coming back often enough. Price to go to Texas or Florida is 8X that of the opposite trip.

I suggest checking prices if you have other options.

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Price to go to Texas or Florida is 8X that of the opposite trip.

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This past summer, that was true of any rental vehicle (car, truck) leaving the state of California and not rented for a round trip.


Donna

I don't know how large a truck you need, but you may want to check Penske. They have promos and discounts (AAA, military, etc.), and their 22 and 26 footers are diesel. U-Haul does not rent diesels. A 22 or 26 foot diesel will get twice the fuel mileage of the equivalent U-Haul gas truck. Last time my nephew rented a 26 foot Penske for a cross country move, with the AAA discount it wound up being a bit cheaper than a U-Haul and he saved a lot on fuel.

I've seen rental charts for UHaul suggesting that the company has a big problem with their vehicles heading to Texas and Florida but not coming back often enough. Price to go to Texas or Florida is 8X that of the opposite trip.

I suggest checking prices if you have other options.

We actually have not settled on doing UHaul at this point so that's good information. We're trying to factor in cost of fuel for a UHaul vs. paying more for something like a pod that we would fill and then ship.

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Originally Posted by glc

I don't know how large a truck you need, but you may want to check Penske. They have promos and discounts (AAA, military, etc.), and their 22 and 26 footers are diesel. U-Haul does not rent diesels. A 22 or 26 foot diesel will get twice the fuel mileage of the equivalent U-Haul gas truck. Last time my nephew rented a 26 foot Penske for a cross country move, with the AAA discount it wound up being a bit cheaper than a U-Haul and he saved a lot on fuel.

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Thank you! We'll check that out. Definitely not sold on UHaul.

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Originally Posted by Southwest Dave

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

The first thing to point out is that heading south by no means guarantees avoiding winter weather and should the south be hit with a winter storm they are not as well prepared to deal with it as their countrparts further north. Thats not to say you shouldn't head south, it's more of a caveat. The other thing is that by heading to CA to stay with family will add another 300 miles to your journey and the longer you are on the road the bigger chance of catching a storm, so something else to consider. Travelling with pets and UHaul truck means that covering 500 miles per day would be 'work like' but what you could expect to do reasonably comfortably travelling for 9-10 hours a day with appropriate stops for food, fuel, bathroom and rest breaks. So heading to Cico would be a day gone then it would require another 5 overnight stops/6 days to complete your journey. If you decided to go more direct and head east on I-80 you could complete the jouney in 6 days, either way you should be build in some extra time so that if you did run into a storm you could get off the road and wait it out. The most important thing is not to cover too much ground at the start, it's a marathon and not a sprint, meaning that if you push hard to early when fresh and excited you could 'crash and burn' along the way. You can find 'pet friendly' lodgings by clicking on the 'Lodging' link in the green tool bar above. If you have specific questions please ask. Safe travels !

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You make some really good points. We are familiar with the drive to southern California and I do agree that there's no way to completely avoid the risk of winter weather. I guess maybe because we're familiar with driving down to California and Arizona, I was thinking it would be a better route for us than the more northern route that we aren't familiar with. We are still toying with doing pods instead of a moving truck, so that would definitely make for an easier drive. Lots to think about.

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Originally Posted by glc

Welcome to RTA!

There's no route that can avoid possible winter driving conditions, but if you take I-5 to I-10 the likelihood should be minimized. This is also close to being the fastest route.

Suggestion to avoid most of the LA metro area:

At Lost Hills, take CA-46 east to CA-99. Take that south to CA-58 east. Then take US-395 south to I-15 south. Take I-215 south to CA-210 east to I-10.

To avoid most of Phoenix:

Take AZ-85 south to Gila Bend, then I-8 east back to I-10.

To avoid New Orleans:

At Baton Rouge take I-12 back to I-10.

From Chico to Orlando is about 3000 miles and I would allow 6 days. You might be able to do it in 5, but that's pushing safety when you are driving a U-Haul truck in convoy with cars.

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Thank you for the information. That helps a lot to at least get started planning a route.