Moving again

[birchyboy]

Has anyone here used PODS or U-Pack for moving long distance? I've looked at both, as well as renting a moving truck, and all of the options are about the same price.

[salsashark]

I'm in the process of moving back to CO now.

I found this informative: http://moving101.hireahelper.com/moving-options/

I priced out the PODS moving, professional movers as well as truck and trailer rental.

1. Uhaul - I priced it out, but honestly, it would be complete torture to try to do this for me. I have 2 cars, the bike and my stuff. The logistics of a self move was a PIA and take into account disruption to my help, the transit, and the cost... it just wasn't worth it.

2. PODS - you have to pay by the day for rental, so clock starts ticking right away, plus you have to pay for pick up and drop off. When doing national moves some of these can be negotiated. Nice thing is you can load yourself, or you can hire movers to load for you.

3. Professional service - Hire professionals to do what you need to have done. For me, it's load, move and unload the household stuff, the Opel and the bike. I'm assuming you're not looking to have them pack and unpack. They'll do as much or as little as you need.


In the end, it was worth it to me to hire a moving company to take my stuff (household, motorcycle and toy car). The price was a few grand more, but not having to spend multiple days driving some POS rental truck was definitely worth it. So, I'm going to pack up my house, the movers show up, load, transport and unload in CO. done.

[birchyboy]

Thanks. So far, here is what I have for data:

PODS: $3,100 for a 16' container, all in if the time doesn't exceed 30 days. If it does, it is $300 more for every 30 day period. I can get a 10% discount as well, so the overall cost is slightly less.
U-Pack: $2,900 for a 28' trailer, all in for 9 days, then $495 for every 30 days if the contents need to be stored. 9 days is their allotted time to get loaded, transported across the country, then unloaded.
Penske truck rental: $2,100 for truck rental, plus fuel and my time. This would also increase the labor because everything would be loaded, then unloaded into storage, then loaded again and then unloaded into a new house.

I would like to have professional movers but that will be too much money. I'm trying to preserve as much of our sale proceeds to put into the next place. The complicating factor is that we don't have our next place yet, and won't have until at least 30 days after our town home sale closes the end of this month. So, storage is required. We're moving from here to NC.

[salsashark]

Enjoy NC. I was looking at some jobs up there, but CO came through first... Not that I have a problem with that.

[birchyboy]

Enjoy NC. I was looking at some jobs up there, but CO came through first... Not that I have a problem with that.

Thanks. Raleigh is attractive from a job standpoint, but we're headed to the Wilmington area. I'm a teleworker, so no need to change jobs yet, which is helpful. We'll see how I feel in a year once I've fulfilled my contract obligations.

[Gramps]

Man I could write a book here. We have moved across the country so man times it's crazy. We started in NC as we are both from there but we have lived in TN, FL, NC, SC, CO .... You get the picture.


Raleigh would have been a better choice in my opinion but Wilmington will be fun. It will also be a huge change from CO. Lots of water and it's basically a college town with all that comes with a college town.

Also contrary to what you have already posted I have learned to just hire the reputable moving company. We have a couple of horror stories that include one move that everything we owned was either destroyed or beaten up. That cost me a ton of money when it was done I would have come out a lot cheaper paying more up front.(Always the case it seems) We have used Johnson Moving and Storage herein Denver a couple of times and they have always been top notch. One of our moves was around 25,000 but I didn't have to lift a finger or pack up one box.

Enjoy NC man I'm jealous in a way. Good luck with the move!

[asp_125]

+1 for Johnson Moving. My only cross country corporate move (SoCal to CO) was about $3000 over 10yrs ago. I simply packed my personal stuff and valuables in my car, and they did the rest - packing, loading, transport and unloading.

[birchyboy]

All of our stuff wouldn't fit in the POD, so I'll be pulling a trailer with a few items to NC. Any options out there beside UHaul? I'd like something in the 10' range as we may be able to get a good deal on a sofa set.

[asp_125]

All of our stuff wouldn't fit in the POD, so I'll be pulling a trailer with a few items to NC. Any options out there beside UHaul? I'd like something in the 10' range as we may be able to get a good deal on a sofa set.

If you can swing the money, one option would be to buy a small rig like this, and sell it when you're done. http://boulder.craigslist.org/tro/5664938810.html

[birchyboy]

Thanks. That's a good idea but is probably talk myself into keeping it. I called Parker Trailer and they do rent trailers but not for out of state use.

[Gramps]

Thanks. That's a good idea but is probably talk myself into keeping it. I called Parker Trailer and they do rent trailers but not for out of state use.

Another thought on buying and selling when you're done is that most things will be less expensive in NC. So you could end up paying too much compared to where your selling.

[longrider]

Unfortunately there is no one except for U-Haul that rents trailers for one-way use. If you can use an open trailer you might be able to rent a flat bed car hauler from Budget but I don't know if you can rent one without getting a truck first.

[birchyboy]

Well, the move is 95% complete. The house purchase was finished on Thursday, the POD delivered Friday and then emptied today. Some new stuff was delivered yesterday and the internet through TWC was setup as well.

I fly back to Denver tomorrow. Then, the wife, dogs and I will all drive back on Thursday with her car in tow. We'll be back in September to spend two weeks in Cherry Creek and then we'll pull the travel trailer back to NC.

Overall, the POD worked very well. The guys that I hired to pack it didn't do a stellar job, but I've only come across one broken item so far.

[Gramps]

Glad to hear it went well.

[salsashark]

Overall, the POD worked very well. The guys that I hired to pack it didn't do a stellar job, but I've only come across one broken item so far.

That's good to here... Especially because the "professionals" that moved my stuff smashed almost EVERY freakin box. When I finally do start unpacking, I'll be amazed if I have anything unbroken :lol:

[birchyboy]

Whoever designed the UHaul car dolly deserves to beaten, dragged and then beaten again. You can't backup without potentially causing damage to the car being towed. The wheels sit on the ramp, which has a pivot point over the dolly axle. When you try to backup, the car can go any direction it wants to, regardless of what the truck and dolly are doing. Never again for me; the extra money for the car trailer is worth it.

[mdub]

Sounds like it was design not to be back up. I have seen those. Appears it must be disconnected from truck befor any back up attempts. And it looks like it is design to damage vehicles when back up.

[birchyboy]

Sounds like it was design not to be back up. I have seen those. Appears it must be disconnected from truck befor any back up attempts. And it looks like it is design to damage vehicles when back up.

Yes, it could do a lot of damage to the lower door area. I had to get the CT off the dolly, get the truck backed out, and then put the car back on. Fun times!

[birchyboy]

That's good to here... Especially because the "professionals" that moved my stuff smashed almost EVERY freakin box. When I finally do start unpacking, I'll be amazed if I have anything unbroken :lol:

The guys that packed the POD did an OK job. Some of the boxes collapsed, so there might be a few busted things.