Philly to Seattle in March/April

Hi,

Recently when I bought my car in Dallas Texas and wanted to have it transported to Toronto, I researched many transport companies but in the end decided to drive it myself. I found the this website to be very useful for investigating trucking companies. This was not the only tool, but one of the most helpful.

Also, I believe some people on this forum have been in the trucking/driving business and they might be able help with this as well.

One thing I must say, which ever company you pick, must read their contract carefully.

Good Luck.

One of Roadtrip America's sponsors is U-Ship Vehicles (link on front page, upper-left corner). This is a portal where you can list the car transportation you need and then you will get bids from several shipping companies so you can choose which one seems best. You might get a good deal with this! But, yeah, double/triple-check the contracts to ensure that there are no unpleasant surprises.

Adding to the many prior cautions related to towing a trailer are the trailer rental company's own limitations. They'll require you to state the exact make and model of vehicle you plan to tow with and will decline renting a trailer to you if your tow vehicle doesn't meet their requirements. Liability concerns, I'm sure. So, it may not be up to you to decide to begin with.

And I sure agree that a 5x8 is going to be a huge load and aero drag behind a Jetta. If it's an automatic trans, you may well overheat it. If it's a manual, your clutch may give it up. Shipping is relatively cheap and at least as simple as packing up, hauling, and returning a trailer.

Foy

Thanks again, all. Thing is, we're not going to be shipping our car across the US... that would negate the idea of a road trip! :) But the question now is: what is the most economical way to get our non-car stuff from PA to WA? (I'm talking about umpteen boxes of clothes, shoes, music and sports equipment, books, furniture, etc).

I've since nixed the idea of renting a UHaul trailer (or a trailer of any kind) to haul behind us. We'll pack up the car as best we can, and ship the rest either by post (large boxes?) or by freight. But I am just not sure what the best way of doing that would be. I don't really know how to find a freight company, and certainly don't want to get swindled, or have our stuff broken on the way!

I have absolutely no experience using a moving company to move so I'm sorry I can't be of more help.

I googled "moving company reviews" and there were websites that would give you comparison prices for several moving companies at once, and other websites with reviews by users. These should give you some good information to make a decision and find out prices, etc.

Hopefully someone will pop in here with personal experience and some more specific suggestions.