Decisions, decisions....

[patgund]

Heading to Seattle, and two ideas are in play.

Option 1 (My original plan). Rent 16" truck on the 23rd, Load contents of storage unit in Lakeside into it. Place the Saturn on the tow trailer, drive to Monrovia. Pack the items I have in the apartment, then drive up on the 24th. Once I arrive in Seattle, detach trailer and car, rent storage unit, place items in storage until planned move with seattlejo et al in fall.

Pluses - Move is done, all my belongings together.
Minuses - Have never driven a truck that big OR towed any kind of trailer. The 16 footer is needed for the trailer and is bigger than I need. Several people, including seattlejo and mysryael have voiced concern about my driving that far by myself. It's expensive gaswise as well, looking at 6-10 mpg. And thanks to the dental work I had, eats up far more of my savings than I'm completely comfortable with.

Option 2 (Which seattlejo suggested last night). Bring LA stuff down to Lakeside, take back (if possible) 30 day notice on storage unit. Pack up storage unit for future move, pay several months in advance. Pack Saturn with clothes, MacMini, and small personal belongings. Drive to Seattle in Saturn. In December, after move and during holiday break, fly down to SD with seattlejo for obligatory family visit. Pack 12" truck, drive that to Seattle, unload at apartment/duplex/whatever.

Pluses - cheaper in short term, allows me to settle up there faster, have more savings to live on until I find a new job. Also means a faster trip, and allows a possible side trip or two to see family and friends.

Minuses - means 95%+ of my belongings are 1000 miles away. Driving 12" truck in winter though NorCal, Oregon and Washington. Two long driving trips.

Option 3 -like option 2, but uses something like UPack or the like. We still pack the truck, but professional drivers drive it to Seattle.

*ponder*

Comments

[spiffikins]

I've driven a 17 foot truck from Vancouver BC to Santa Cruz CA (and back again, actually) by myself, and although I didn't tow a car behind, I found that it wasn't that bad.

If I remember right, it was about $900 all told, after truck, insurance and gas/1 night hotel - couldn't tell you what mileage I got though.

I looked into the ABF "pack a portion of the trailer and they fill the trailer and it eventually gets to you" type of thing - but it didn't work for me because I had to cross the border out of/into Canada.

Both times I did it in late August/early September - I would really not want to do it during winter with any possibility of snow/ice in the mountains or in Washington/Oregon.

The driving itself I didn't find that bad - I stopped often at rest stops where I parked by big trucks - pull in, pull out - no backing out ever. I would stop, walk around the truck, rest my knee (I found my knee got stiff in the position I drove in - I'm used to driving a car) and then get back in and drive again.

Both times I made it to Ashland, OR as my "midway" point and did the drive in basically one full day and then hit my destination about 3pm the next day.

Personally, I would move everything now - I know a lot of people who end up with stuff they're paying to store in a unit far away from where they end up - and by the time they are able to get their belongings, they've replaced much of the important stuff because they needed it and couldn't really wait.

[buddykat.livejournal.com]

You might also look into "less than truckload" shipping. I know heisenfeature and filmbuff used a service that did that (can't remember the website they told me though), and it was a significant savings over Pods or UHaul.

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

Thats what upack is, and its more expensive then i remember from my move to Seattle

[buddykat.livejournal.com]

It's probably still significantly cheaper then UHaul or Pods or something, and definitely cheaper then professional movers.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

PODS primarily works if you have someplace to place the pod while packing, or care to rent a truck to unpack it from their centre.

[marymont.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily. I used the Public Storage version.

It is true that you need a spot to park it whilst loading it. The size units I used fit two in a standard parking space, but they'd also fit quite handily in a driveway. However, you can have them warehouse your pod until you're ready for them to deliver it to an address that you can give them either at the time of rental or at any time in the future; for an additional fee, they will pack and/or unpack your stuff at an appointed time and take the stuff from/into your house/apartment. You can access your pod any time you want, with a minimal amount of notice (I seem to remember 24 hours). They will forklift your pod down to the warehouse floor, you go through it and take out whatever you want, relock it, and they re-shelve it once you've left.

I was very happy with the arrangement. The only downside was having to go to the warehouse, which was a little farther than I'd rather, but not too bad.

I don't know about PODS's arrangement.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

PODS primarily works if you have someplace to place the pod while packing, or care to rent a truck to unpack it from their centre.

[heisenfeature.livejournal.com]

It was about 1700 for us to take 10 linear feet from San Diego to Colorado door to door.

Which was about 3k cheaper than traditional movers, and about $700 cheaper than PODS quoted me.

Worth every penny though -- didn't have to drive a trailer across the rockies. Everything arrived in good shape (tie it down with rope), etc.

[heisenfeature.livejournal.com]

That was with ABF's upack.com service. There is the issue of needing 7 or 8 car lengths of space to drop the truck in, because you'll get it sometime in the afternoon and they'll come get it after you call them the next morning on initial dropoff. On dropoff in CO we got it around 9am and they picked it back up same day (but we had to call them by noon for this to work).

There's also Movex, who quoted me about $2000-2200. They have a driver with the truck waiting while you load, but they're also really really pushy after you request a quote.

You can also get "relocubes" from ABF which are like pods, but smaller. Our quote for two of them was about $2200.

I spent a lot of time researching on movingscam.com. They do get a kickback from ABF if you use them to book the move, but they're still reasonably third-party neutral.

[beki.livejournal.com]

Just for giggles, you may want to see how much Amtrack would cost to ship your stuff depending on how much it is...

Mind you, I have no clue if its a worthy option, but you could drive up and still have your stuff

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

I suggested that for perhaps shipping some books/videos etc up that way only 90% of his stuff is in storage.

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

How about PODS or Public Storage

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

Stinking random log-outs.

Either one will let you pack your stuff into one of their containers and ship it up to Seattle.

PODS will even give you access to it if you need something.

[angelique69.livejournal.com]

Option 3 sounds good to me if it's not too expensive. I like the idea of you having your stuff close by and accessable. Blessed Be, Angelique

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

I support the professional drivers idea. I've gone that route before, from Toronto to Montreal.

[jeran.livejournal.com]

From having lived up in that kind of area (north-eastern Nevada), you do not want to handle a large truck in the mountains in the winter. On a clear day when they've got the roads plowed it's not too bad, but you can't guarantee a clear day and storms have a nasty habit of coming up at just the wrong time. If you don't drive a large truck regularly and/or aren't comfortable driving in snow/ice, I'd heartily recommend getting the drive done before October or so (before snow starts up).

One option: pack up as per option 2, but instead of flying down in December drive down with seattlejo. That lets one of you drive the 12" truck and the other drive the car back up so you don't need a trailer. My guess is the savings renting the smaller truck, no trailer and storage for a shorter time will pay for the extra gas and motel.

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

The problem with that is that I don't drive. I came up 5 in February of 00 and dont remember the weather being so bad, except for some rain. Upack may be the best ideal.

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

From what I see Upack is about 12-1700 depending on what option we go with.

Another $.02

[morgan-gw.livejournal.com]

When Roland was going to move from CT to CA, the original option was driving, but neither I nor his mom was happy with him making a cross-country trip alone. We also considered shipping the car, or using those "we drive it for you" services, but they were kind of pricey. Then he totaled it, which was overall a bad thing but eliminated the need to get the car to CA (shrugs).

What he ended up doing was shipping stuff to me via either UPS or USPS (don't remember which) over a period of a few weeks, then flying out (via FL to see his Mom, since she paid for the flight to get the visit).

He only had a studio apartment's worth of stuff, so this may not be an option for you, and of course you still have the car :-), so an adaptation of this would be to ship boxes of stuff to WA over however long you're still in CA, then drive up in the Saturn (packed with the stuff you don't want to ship, of course). I think I saw a variant of this up--thread -- I'll admit to skimming details :-).

Another option that comes to mind is enlist someone to drive up with you, rent a smaller truck, and you drive your car while they drive the rental and then fly/bus/train home. I don't know if you know anyone who's willing to do that as a favor/for the vacation, but that means you a) don't have to drive with a tow, b) don't make the trip alone, and c) don't have to wait :-).

Just another idea to toss into the pot. Best wishes!

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

We used UPack when we moved from Buffalo to PDX. It worked really well and I think only one glass was broken out of everything we moved. If I was ever in a position to move again over that long distance (god willing I hope NEVER to do that again, because logistically it was a nightmare) I'd use them again - that was the only part of that move that went more or less smoothly.

[henglaar.livejournal.com]

Option four: take along someone who has driven 24 foot panel trucks and has at least towed a trailer once. (Horse inside, very delicate cargo.)

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

You couldn't pay me enough to drive a large truck over the Siskiyous (the mountains on the border of California and Oregon) in the wintertime. Option 2 really could get scary depending on the weather, or you could end up making a very long detour over to the coast or holing up in some motel in Nowhere, California to wait it out. It does get That Bad (my folks used to live in Grants Pass, so I know whereof I speak).

BTW, " is inches, ' is feet [g]. That would be some tiny truck...