Anyone used U-Haul before? Need some advice!

Hey Duders!

I figured Giantbomb would be a great place to turn to with questions about moving long distances; so here I go!

I'm looking at moving a pretty big distance; in the passed I've exclusively used moving companies who take care of everything for me, but this time it 'seems' more cost effective to go the uhaul route and do it myself.

My question is for everyone who has done this themselves; how did you find the experience?

On the website everything seems really slick; but its all done online and there is no number I can call to talk to a representative to help me with my decision making. Are their hidden fees? How crazy is it to tow my Tacoma behind a 15' truck?

Any sage wisdom would be appreciated!

Cheers

When I moved from Baltimore to BFE Arizona I used U-Haul; however, I used the U-Box service. It was a great experience for me, kind of costly, but I think it was well worth it.

The truck we got was not very comfortable and had a very noisy cabin. There was a small gap on the passenger door window gasket, so the drive was WOOOOOSH for a thousand miles. I don't recall there being an AUX in, so we used an FM transmitter to listen to The Adventure Zone while taking our thousand mile trek.

I'm trying to remember what our MPG was. I'm going to say it was around 10-12 MPG, depending on whether we were driving in really windy conditions or not. If you're towing a car too, I'd expect to make even more stops.

The only fees we worried about was making sure the truck was topped off when turning it in and that the hand truck they provided was secured inside the truck. We dropped it off at a chocolate shop and the employee inside did an inspection before signing off.

Used to work at a self storage facility for about 5 years that offered U-Haul trucks and switched to Penske. The thing with U-Haul is that they charge on a per-mile basis, so if you go over the miles, you'll have to pay the difference, and the trucks are really hit or miss on the quality (more miss with the ones we had going in and out). Penske replaces their trucks every 2 years and you're given unlimited miles (just drop it off with a full tank) and overall are just better maintained (they also have AAA discounts if you've got a membership, plus military discounts too). The bad part about Penske is that there are fewer locations than U-Haul.

Towing your Tacoma might be an issue since there are limits on what sort of vehicles can be towed using U-Haul's car trailers. I think it qualifies, but it's hard to know without confirming it with the rep.

I've moved something like 5 times in my life using some combination of U-Haul and Budget. Never had a problem with either. Just be careful not to scratch up the truck or anything. They are pain to manuever around narrow streets (particularly in cities). The longest I've driven in one was the trip on route 95 up from Philly to Boston (like 6 or 7 hours). Didn't have any issues aside from being miserably hungover.

Also, don't touch the pads or the handtruck unless you plan on paying for it. Even if you decline them, they often include them with the truck "just in case you change your mind." In that case, they will be tied to the side of the truck and if you break the seal on them, they will charge you for their use.

I've used UHaul multiple times and it's always fine in the end, Cost wise I couldn't tell you much as It's different up here for everything.

Some warnings, give yourself lots of time on the pick up day and get there early, I have been given the wrong truck, or they attempted to give me the wrong size truck like 40% of the time, UHaul, Budget, they're kind of all the same. somebody doesn't return a truck on time and they don't want to lose your money so they try to pawn off something on you since you usually don't have much choice...

Do the walk around when you pick up the vehicle, look for any major or even minor damage that doesn't have the little "we know about this" sticker on it already. Take a picture with your phone so it saves the time and location, just in case. Same with the mileage, take a picture of the dial when you pick it up and drop it off. i'd rather delete 30 annoying pictures than fight with a faceless company without them.

I also used to do deliveries when I was younger, If you're not familiar with big vehicles, or towing for that matter be careful. Even experienced drivers screw up in unfamiliar trucks and locations, don't be afraid to have somebody get out and guide you around tight corners or in reverse, and work out some basic hand signals if you can. e.g. Left, Right, Go, Stop, How many feet between you and an object, etc.

The Beds of the trucks are also usually pretty rough even if they're in good shape, lots of rivets and lines in the metal to shred any wood you have, especially Ikea type stuff. Use lots of blankets and sheets and cardboard as separators and bungies/rachet straps to keep stuff where you want it. If you own a truck in general you probably know a lot of this stuff already, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded, good luck. bring lots of music/podcasts.