Ever ship a car?

[OCMD]

Anyone ever ship a car across the USA? Towards late August, I have to move one of my kids to grad school at University of Washington in Seattle - from the metro DC area. I figure we pack her car with as much stuff as we can, and ship it, as we follow later on in a rental RV or the like. Hell, I'm old why not see some sites as I ship the kid west. All thoughts are appreciated both about shipping the car and ideas on how to pull this move off. But a 2 week RV rental out and back may be the ticket.

 

[AZMark]

My dad shipped a car down to AZ from Seattle a couple years ago & it was super easy but not cheap, I think he paid $800 for a Honda CRV.
Sounds like a great plan to spend some quality time with the kid.

 

[Wayloncle]

I have only shipped a vehicle overseas, but it has to be completely
Cleaned out for that, nothing that isn’t attached to the car can be inside.....
Staying inside the states may be completely different

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Be sure you look at the reviews people post on the net about car moving companies.

my suggestion would be to tow the car on a trailer behind the rental RV.

 

[2kwik4u]

Be sure you look at the reviews people post on the net about car moving companies.

my suggestion would be to tow the car on a trailer behind the rental RV.

100% agree here.

If you're gonna take the RV, just toss the car on either a tow dolly or car hauler behind it. Towing is no big deal for those giant RV's. Keep in mind you're close to a 4 day drive in an RV and trailer from DC to Seattle. Might want more than 14days of RV rental to make sure you have time to explore along the way.

I have a friend with family in Seattle. He drives out there a few times a year from Louisville. He also has an enclosed trailer and a large motorhome. He's moved several cars each direction with that method. Says it's a lot of driving, but otherwise not difficult.

If you want to just "Bonsai Run" the trip. With a couple drivers, a rented Suburban, and a U-haul car trailer you could load up a LOT of stuff, drive out, return rentals, and fly home......be a cool story, but most likely more expensive than shipping at that point.

Another shipping story....be sure your car is shipper protected. Good friend moved to SF fro Louisville. His Audi A4 that was in PRISTINE condition was shipped on top of the truck pulling the moving van. It arrived with enough rock chips on the front and sides that insurance almost totalled it. Had he taken a few hours and a toll of blue tape to cover the front it most likely would've fared much better.

 

[Ronnie]

Why not drive the car with your kid to Seattle and a small rental trailer in tow while stopping at all the places you want to see along the way before flying home.

 

[Jerlane]

I haven't shipped a car in a while, but I had a boat shipped last year. We used u-ship and it worked well.

 

[Chatt_Jetsetter]

Anyone ever ship a car across the USA? Towards late August, I have to move one of my kids to grad school at University of Washington in Seattle - from the metro DC area. I figure we pack her car with as much stuff as we can, and ship it, as we follow later on in a rental RV or the like. Hell, I'm old why not see some sites as I ship the kid west. All thoughts are appreciated both about shipping the car and ideas on how to pull this move off. But a 2 week RV rental out and back may be the ticket.

When we bought our Honda Pilot from a dealership in Texas, we used U-ship to find a carrier to deliver it to Chattanooga, TN. It was around $750 at the time, and you have to be flexible with delivery dates.

 

[Lawman25]

Anyone ever ship a car across the USA? Towards late August, I have to move one of my kids to grad school at University of Washington in Seattle - from the metro DC area. I figure we pack her car with as much stuff as we can, and ship it, as we follow later on in a rental RV or the like. Hell, I'm old why not see some sites as I ship the kid west. All thoughts are appreciated both about shipping the car and ideas on how to pull this move off. But a 2 week RV rental out and back may be the ticket.

Car has to be empty besides things that would normally be in the glove box, center console.......etc. They look at the weight of the vehicle, and in a little extra for fuel, they generally tell you to have less than a 1/4 tank, and they use that for figuring out how and what they can load on the semi. I'm sure you've seen the weigh stations on the highways. Right now is a good time to ship, prices are still down from the Coronavirus slowdown. My father-in-law owns an auto transport company. If you're interested private message me. He picks up on the east coast, including DC area, but won't actually go into to DC because of traffic, nobody does. Or a tow truck will pick it up and take it to a terminal outside of the metro area that semi trucks can easily get into, that just adds to the cost though. He'll bring it to the Chicago area where he's based out of and someone else will pick it up and take it to Seattle. That's how it works for the most part. Nobody really goes all the way across the country, they'll take it to a certain point and it'll change hands.

 

[OCMD]

Lots of great ideas as always. I forgot to add I will probably have to take 2 dogs with me. But I tell you the rental Suburban and trailer sounds like a good idea. I am not happy about this at all but it's her life so that's cool with me. If I could just find someone to watch my dogs I'd love to fly back......time to start planning.

 

[AZ Jetboater]

I work in the transportation industry for a company that held cars for cross country transporters. We did it for 15 years and got out of it about 10 years ago and a little has changed since then but you'll want to deal directly with the person whose hauling your car and not a broker who never touches or sees the car, always gets paid and has zero responsibility or liability. We dealt with large and small companies and the smaller ones were more apt to admit responsibility where the large ones would try to blame anyone other than themselves. I can also tell you that the large companies want zero household goods in the car and even want it with less than 1/4 tank of fuel as they are trying to maximize profit by getting as many cars on that truck as the laws will allow weight wise. They tend to be not very timely sometimes as they are trying to build a load or line up a return trip load prior to putting it all in motion. My brother used uShip for a golf cart a few years back and had good results. Good luck!

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

No way I would drive 5500 miles (DC to Seattle and back) in 14 days towing a car. That’s an average drive of about 400 miles per day. Sounds like an expensive and not very relaxing time to me. Personally, I would ship the car and the kids stuff, board the dogs, fly to Seattle get a rental car and just enjoy the Seattle area for a week.

Jim

ps - I would love to do this RV trip in six to eight weeks!

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Anyone ever ship a car across the USA? Towards late August, I have to move one of my kids to grad school at University of Washington in Seattle - from the metro DC area. I figure we pack her car with as much stuff as we can, and ship it, as we follow later on in a rental RV or the like. Hell, I'm old why not see some sites as I ship the kid west. All thoughts are appreciated both about shipping the car and ideas on how to pull this move off. But a 2 week RV rental out and back may be the ticket.

Careful with packing the car with stuff. There are a lot of carriers that will refuse the transport because of added weight and value problems.