kirks5oh Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 warning, long read-- not sure if this is the most appropriate section to put this in, but oh well. my one year of training was up in tampa, and i recently moved to wisconsin to start my (hopefully permanent) job. i learned a bit from the last move, where i towed two UHAUL trailers with my cars on it--never again. here's my move from last year for reference http://www.columbusracing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52255&highlight=move+tampa. i decided to ship my '85 GT through an open trailer company called Agape auto shipping. $650 to go on an open truck like the dealerships use. it took 3 days, the car was/is dirty as hell, but otherwise completely undamaged/unscratched. the GTO and cobra were shipped via Horseless Carriage. considerably more expensive, they are much more meticulous, and obviously, the car is in an enclosed trailer. here are some pics of this huge-ass truck http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7071/p4111546.jpg ferrari california, and maserati-- http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5390/p4111548.jpg http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2392/p4111550.jpg http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1914/p4111554.jpg i wouldn't normally load the cars up, but i was concerned about space, as i was only taking one UHAUL truck and covered small trailer. (i had two trucks on the way down to florida, but sold some stuff before i left). i put tons of my kids' toys in the cars, which turned out to hurt me, when the truck took longer than i expected to deliver the cars. my kids were stuck in wisconsin with limited toys until the cars got here yesterday. they were delivered, and everything went off without a hitch. THE MOVE. i talked my brother in law into coming to florida to help me move for $500 and a tom-tom navigation set-up. i gladly paid for his meals, plane tickets, etc. he drove our explorer with our dog, while i took the UHAUL. my mother-in-law had flown to tampa to help my wife fly our 3 kids to canton, so she could live with her parents for a week while we moved. here are some shots of us packing the truck to the brim. surprisingly, we didn't need the trailer. we packed floor-to-ceiling, and miraculously, nothing broke. UHAUL truck was $1250 for 7 days, 1600 miles--we were going 1,330 http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9066/p4121556.jpg http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9701/p4121566.jpg we finish at around 5pm (we had moved everything into the garage the day before), grabbed some dinner, and decided to get on the road for a few hours, as we had no place to sleep. we crash at a ramada. the next day we get on the road and are making great time. gas is $1.50 cheaper compared with last summer, and we have one less truck, and no trailers--fillups are a breeze. we eat a quick dinner just outside of indiana, and decide to go a few more hours and stop about an hour south of chicago. we're about to find a hotel to crash at (11pm) when i get a panicked call from my brother in law (he had been directly behind me the whole time, and we were using cb's every 10 minutes or so). "kirk, you gotta get back here, the car is wrecked, i don't know what the hell happened". shit. i tell him to make sure he's off the road, and determine that he's not hurt, and our dog is o.k. he says it looks like something came through the windshield and destroyed the interior of the truck. he calls 911. there's a truck stopped 200ft in front of him and we assume somthing came off the truck. nope. the trucker comes back to see if he's o.k. and confirms it: some psychotic f*ck decided to throw some rocks off an overpass and nailed both the truck and our explorer. after 2 hours of police reports, tow-trucks, and emptying our explorer of car seats, etc. we stop at the next exit to crash at some shit hole hotel at 2am. http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2488/img00066i.jpg http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9822/img00070c.jpg of course they didn't catch the pricks. one foot the other way and my brother in law would have been a goner. car is being fixxed right now $5300 damage (windshield, dash, pass airbag, stereo, pass seat torn, center console). the next day we're on our way, and make it to wisconsin safely right at noon. we get rental cars, and my wife realizes she needs an SUV for our 3 kids since the explorer will take a few weeks to get done. i had planned on buying her this truck this summer, but this incident kind of forced the issue. http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/4665/dsc00295cuh.jpg http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/5865/dsc00302nec.jpg they didn't have the 22" wheels on the car from where it was shipped from, so those should be here next week. the truck is pretty sweet otherwise, and the DVD players keep my kids quiet which is the most important thing. needless to say, the wife is happy, and i'm never moving by myself again. my work even gave me money to move, but with moving all the kids/cars, i decided to do it on my own. sorry for the novel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sprayin77 Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 That is some hell of an experience you had there. Good thing no one got hurt on your move, that wasnt a fucking rock that was a bolder, holy shit. Hopefully they catch the idiot that threw that thing off the overpass , because that could have killed someone. and who ever was driving that vehicle was very lucky. Glad you made it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirks5oh Posted August 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 That is some hell of an experience you had there. Good thing no one got hurt on your move, that wasnt a fucking rock that was a bolder, holy shit. Hopefully they catch the idiot that threw that thing off the overpass , because that could have killed someone. and who ever was driving that vehicle was very lucky. Glad you made it. the cops said its usually a small stone, or a waterballoon. apparently, there were some beer bottles on the overpass next to some other rocks. they were going to try to get prints off them. they can make the push for attempted murder if caught. my brother in law was, understandably, a mess. the car is 4 hours away from me being fixxed for free, because i have zero deductible for comprehensive through state farm. i have to make arrangements to ship the car though. the local gm dealer will probably pick the car up for us because they're constantly getting cars from that area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitrousbird Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 WOW, that sucks. I know how it feels to have bad luck on a move...helped 2 buddies movie to FL a few years ago; let's just say it ended up with a totalled S-10 and Grand-Am (S-10 was towing the Grand-Am), dual-trailer Semi damaged, 5k bill to tow everything out of the ravine, U-Haul trailer that seized a wheel bearing, broken driveshaft U-joint on another vehicle (which was then repaired and broke again a mile later), damaged 355 motor on the K5 that was being towed behind the U-haul truck until the accident. But at least we didn't have some BS like that; and had 4 of us to deal with the problems. Long moves can go well, or suck a fatty. Luckily your brother in-law was okay. The accident on the move I was part of, from the highway it looked like my buddy was a goner, but not a scratch on him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRN96WS6 Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 Wow that's crazy what the rock did to the windshield! So you're keeping the explorer and bought the wife a new Escalade? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirks5oh Posted August 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 Wow that's crazy what the rock did to the windshield! So you're keeping the explorer and bought the wife a new Escalade? yep exploder is an '05 and has less than 50k miles. its in great shape--or was Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 Yikes. WTF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudiOn19s Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 Crazy stuff. Glad everyone is safe despite the damage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRocket1647545505 Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 Shit like that pisses me off to no end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug1647545489 Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 Glad you made it ok. I hate moving although my last move from detroit to charlotte went very smoothly. My company gave me 5K to hire a relocation company, but I only spent 1500 doing it myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffro Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 glad everything is ok. all im seeing here is.... http://www.pachd.com/free-images/household-images/20-dollar-bills-02.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinner Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 glad everyone is ok and getting settled in. Will give ya a holla next time we are up in WI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
street pilot Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 Thanks for the couple automobile shipping references, I might be needing one soon. I was hoping I could at least pack the car full of stuff and maybe put a cargo box on top. Looks like the explorer driver was really lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirks5oh Posted August 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 thanks for the comments guys. i would use horseless carriage again, even though they were late in picking the car up and dropping it off. they haul exotics all day long, and do an excellent job. agape basically brokers the shipping to different shipping companies--but they all have full insurance, and all are the 'dealership-style' trucks. yes, your car will get dirty, but you can request the top row, so you don't get road grime on your car, or oil dripped from any cars above you. i've used them twice, and was happy both times--and they made the trip in 3 days both times. they did charge me $100 to fill the car to the brim with shit, and i loaded it with tons of weight. horseless did not charge me to load my cars. my brother in law is lucky as shit. i will owe him 'hazard pay' i wanted a denali, but gm didn't have 0% on them. when we calculated it out, the escalade was about $70 more per month with 0% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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