Tell me about renting a Uhaul truck. (1 Viewer)

Im gonna be renting one in march. Ill be traveling with it one way, about 850 miles. Drop off will be Seattle. The website said $179 for a Uhaul truck, with 4 days use. Somehow I don't think is the bottom line.

Anyone got any insight about how much this will cost me?

The last time I used one, there was an up front daily charge and then mileage. At the time (10 years ago), it was something like 17 cents per mile. It will add up, so make sure you know how much it is.

The last time I moved cross country with a uhaul (8 years ago) they had a blanket fee which included a certain number of miles for my trip. The distance was around 1800 miles and they added another 50 or so. If I went over the mileage then it was your standard rate added on. I didn't go over, they gave me plenty of miles to do my trip. But I haven't used them since so it might just be best to call them up, give em your trip details and get an estimate.

How BIG a truck did you get the quote on?

I moved from San Jose to Boise in April 2006 using a 24 foot UHaul truck. With one-way fees and insurance it was more like $1400 or so - I can look up the exact amount if you need it. It's about 660 miles San Jose to Boise, and IIRC they gave me about 100 extra miles in my allowance.

Your anticipated charge may reflect more customers wanting to move in one direction than the other. The rate from Boise to San Jose was much less at that time.

I would also get a quote from Rider Trucks or others. Although I haven't rented a truck in 9 years, I used to move about every 6 months to a year. My experiences were that Uhauls were not in good shape as the Riders. I never had one actually break down, but I know of others that have. A brother in law had to unpack and reload into another truck along the side of the interstate and I just had a co-worker move here last month from CA and his broke down. Another thing I didn't like is Uhauls had throttle governors. This prevented them from going over 65mph and it also made them lose speed going up hills. I think they still use them because I see many Uhauls put putting in the slow lane. The big plus they have is the lower loading deck. It makes it a lot easier on the legs if the house does not have a porch to back up to. In about a month I need to move my Mother-in-law from PA to here. I am not even going to look into Uhaul. They may be ok now, but I don't want to take a chance.

Other companies make rental trucks...look into them. I've had several poor results when using U-Haul (inconvenient pick up locations, truck not even there, lost reservations). The other companies that I have used all seemed more professional. Good luck!

Just my anecdotal input,
Chuck

The last time I rented a uhaul truck was to haul my punk band, all our equipment, and a keg with us in the back from CT to CBGBs. This was many years ago.

Things learned;

The back box is not compleatly sealed, exhaust will get in.

A keg of beer and us in the back with no way to tell the driver to stop so we can pee gets pretty uncomfortable after a while.

You can't drive a truck on all streets/highways in NYC so plan accordingly.

As an alternative you might look at PODS. You load a storage unit, they haul it for you or store it if need be.

BUT some cities won't allow the units to be placed on streets, so it might not be a good idea if you don't know where you're going to live yet.

$179 sounds extremely low. Typically 1 way rentals are much more expensive than renting a truck to move across town and then returning it to the same place you rented it from. I'll second or third what others have said about looking into other rental options. I've used U-Haul for local moves and their trucks were complete pieces of crap that had no business being on the road. About a year ago I moved 850 miles and rented a Penske truck 1 way. They guarantee your reserved truck will be available. The truck was in almost new condition.

That's been my experience as well with U-Haul. I'll never use them again. The final straw was having the U-Haul loaded, trying to start it, and it not starting. We ended up having to unload it, and have it towed away.

Ryder does not rent one way. Pick up and drop off must be the same. There is no Penske rentals in Montana. Nearest is Boise Idaho. Very far from me.

Really? Must be a fairly new, or local branch, decision. I rented Ryder one way from Maryland to Michigan a few years ago with no problems.

Well if you use Uhaul chances are you won't have any issue. Moving is stressful. I hope that we didn't add an additional thing to worry about.

I used a big U-Haul truck (sorry, can't remember the size) 11 years ago and it worked fine. I only moved about 2 miles though.

I've used their trailers before too. I've found that you never have the right connections for the lights. Each time, the U-Haul guy had to do some simple wiring to make it compatible. Taping into the wiring always took about a half hour and cost a few bucks. Not terrible though.

Ryder | Truck Rental and Moving Truck Rental Corporate policy: NO one-way moves.

Now that I remember, Ryder did make a change a few years ago and that's why I was stuck with U-Haul moving to Boise. Michael Moore made it a joke about the Ryder One Way move being a symbol of human dislocation in his earlier books but Ryder doesn't support that joke anymore.

Jeremy, the only suggestion I have is that you should really consider whether it's advisable to move MT to Seattle in March. There are lots of snow-choked mountain passes at that time. U-Haul has a very nasty company policy of NOT renting you tire chains and discouraging you from purchasing your own. They told me that if the weather is such that chains are required that you shouldn't be driving their truck! I guess they think if you encounter snow you should pull over and wait 3 or 4 weeks until better weather. :rolleyes

Wells Fargo had it figured out:

How about Budget? I am looking into them to move an In-Law from PA to KY in Feb. Cost $592.00 including a car towing dolly for $95.00. 16' truck with unlimited milage included. Uhaul is around $470.00 for a 10' (smaller) truck with towing dolly and 580 miles. You can get quotes on their web sites

I just looked at budget. They look the way to go.

I paid $1400-1500, 12 years ago to go from Monterey, CA to Ashland, KY in a UHaul.... Used a military discount to get it that low for the mileage inccurred... Included a car tow, 18 ft truck... Truck needed new brakes when it was all said and done, not the most comfortable drive either...