Trailer rental blues


 

Andy Kaminski

TVWBB Pro
I need to move a few heavy items from the San Francisco area to NW Washington.
Several gang boxes of tools, several motorcycles and some house stuff.
The price for a trailer rental if you can find one is insane.
There are no one-way rentals and most places won’t let you leave the local area much less go a few states away.
It’s a good 2-3 thousand to do this load.

So I looked for a used trailer, thinking buy one, use it then sell it and guess what?
Everyone has this same idea so the used ones cost almost the same as the new ones.

Apparently there are lots of people moving away from California and that creates an imbalance resulting in a shortage of available rental stock.

So I finally find a new one that would more or less work ok.
It costs $3,299 and the wife thinks I’m nut so she says no.
So she try’s to find a rental and finds out what I’m dealing with and agrees to buy the trailer for $3,299.
Well that price just jumped up to $3,899 due to the seasonal pricing change.
So we agree to buy this trailer make a deal over the phone and go to pick it up on our way to California because it’s 3 hours closer to California than our house.
We get there and realize that this trailer is crap.
It’s structure is just welded together angle iron.
$5,700 later I closed the deal on a good trailer that will work and it still needs about $1,500 in improvements like walls, more tie downs and stuff like that.

I now get to spend a few days modifying the trailer and to be honest it’s fun as hell.
I have a bunch of Amazon deliveries this week and even ordered it a cool tool box.
Hell I might even put a winch on it.
I could use this trailer for our place up north for a few years (and then sell it) to clear brush between the trees, haul logs and a winch would make loading stumps and logs much easier.
 

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Trailer stuff drives me out of my mind. Good for you though for finding one that is useable, and that you can mod up to fit your needs. It's hard to predict the future, but I'm thinking dollar wise you will probably get out of it what you put in to it, or pretty close anyway.
 
We will sell the simple things like upgradable furniture and other replaceable items when we decide to move completely away and sell our place in California.
Things like my old motorcycles, my gun collection, tools that have meaning to me and my art collection go where I go.

I want a nice winter home in Scottsdale so I see us saying goodbye to California in the near future.
 
Wow!
Dang Rich, that is something odd to say the least.
Maybe there is an imbalance going on 🤷?

Me? I got mine so I’m out 👍.
Truth be told, it’s the weather and the traffic that doesn’t do it for me anymore.
“Alex I’ll take peaceful rural living with nice weather for a thousand dollars”.
 
A lot of the rentals depend greatly on where the rig is needed. If you're going with traffic, the price is sky high. Opposite traffic, sometimes practically pay your way. @Andy Kaminski , for the loads you're describing, I'd seriously consider a commercial rental truck with a lift gate.

From personal observation, the UHaul rentals that go sour somehow compared to working as intended is at least 4:1 or 5:1. I'll preferentially rent a commercial Ryder or Penske first. Ask me over a beer some time about my g/f's move into the Chicago area......
 
I swear I'm starting to see more and more California license plates than Az plates.
Traffic here has skyrocketed since we moved here 22 years ago. Every place you look now there are a sea of new homes.
Stores are mobbed and at Costco better get there before 9am or forget getting a parking space.
Spent 40+ years in orange county California and this area is starting to look just like it.
Not a good thing.
 
I swear I'm starting to see more and more California license plates than Az plates.
Traffic here has skyrocketed since we moved here 22 years ago. Every place you look now there are a sea of new homes.
Stores are mobbed and at Costco better get there before 9am or forget getting a parking space.
Spent 40+ years in orange county California and this area is starting to look just like it.
Not a good thing.
Rich, we can say the same thing here about Boca Raton.
 
yup. Uhaul offered to heavily discount my cube truck rental last year if i'd haul back a trailer they needed in CA. i declined the offer because i didn't want to pull a trailer when i was driving a laden cube truck. and i knew i had to go over the Sierras as we drove north through NV to get to CA as the goal was to spend the least amount of time on CA highways possible.

you did yourself right by buying your own trailer and then eventually sell it. i'd have done the exact same thing.
 
Negative on that one Dan, but, the platypus after cleaning will be going on the block, as will a never used Simpsons Smokey Joe. Small lip chip but, nice!
 
I swear I'm starting to see more and more California license plates than Az plates.
Traffic here has skyrocketed since we moved here 22 years ago. Every place you look now there are a sea of new homes.
Stores are mobbed and at Costco better get there before 9am or forget getting a parking space.
Spent 40+ years in orange county California and this area is starting to look just like it.
Not a good thing.
I know the feeling Rich. Not as bed here as it is in Reno, but we now have rush hour :(
 
I certainty don't begrudge those that are getting out of California as that's what Barb and I did. My son and his 5 kids and wife want out so bad they can hardly wait. But kids in school and great jobs have them tied down for a few more years.
Where we live it's still only a 20 minute drive to the forest or nearby lakes that keep it nice. It's the lousy traffic that drives me nuts.
We went to Walmart this morning and all the handicap spaces were taken and it took me 20 minuets to find a parking space close to the entrance as Barb has to still use a walker. Real pain in the petunia.
 
I certainty don't begrudge those that are getting out of California as that's what Barb and I did. My son and his 5 kids and wife want out so bad they can hardly wait. But kids in school and great jobs have them tied down for a few more years.
Where we live it's still only a 20 minute drive to the forest or nearby lakes that keep it nice. It's the lousy traffic that drives me nuts.
We went to Walmart this morning and all the handicap spaces were taken and it took me 20 minuets to find a parking space close to the entrance as Barb has to still use a walker. Real pain in the petunia.
20 minuets? Were you driving a Sonata? :ROFLMAO:

Gotta love autocorrect.
 
20 minuets? Were you driving a Sonata? :ROFLMAO:

Gotta love autocorrect.
Nope no Sonata, but my Buick Encore wasn't singing happy days are here again either. Love the morons who go to the front of the aisle and park waiting for someone to pull out of a spot with a bunch of cars lined up behind them.
 
Well I finally got the trailer mods done and got it loaded .
Every year these simple jobs seem to take longer.

Anyhow I am about to head back north after a short nap.
The wife now likes the trailer and admits we could really use it.
She is even cool with getting a new winch now after she helped push some gang boxes and old motorcycles onto it.
I’ll probably set one up that will work both on the Dually or on the trailer with some sort of quick disconnect chinga.
 

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