Trying to move my Kawi.

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Beware that regular shipping services frequency move motorcycles by rolling them up against the inside wall of the truck and then securing them to the wall with with ratchet straps across the frame/body/tank/etc.  Movers did this to my bikes and bent a bunch of stuff.  When I asked them if there was another way, they just said "Oh, it's fine.  We do this all the time."  It was not. 

 

I used U-Ship to transport a bike I bought on eBay. They secured it inside the truck in the way you described, but there were blankets between the bike and the truck wall and there was nothing sitting nearby. It got here undamaged, thankfully. The trip was about 700 miles and cost about $400.

The driver was a little squirrelly, though. His schedule changed a lot and he didn't always communicate but he arrived eventually.

I used U-ship twice with good results.  About $340 from Houston to LA a few years back.  You put up the transport on their system and then wait for a good price to come back.  The early offers are always high, you have to wait out a good price.

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I used U-ship twice with good results.  About $340 from Houston to LA a few years back.  You put up the transport on their system and then wait for a good price to come back.  The early offers are always high, you have to wait out a good price.
 

That's a good point; I had forgotten about that part. Some of the immediate responses were $800+ but after 18 hours or so the incoming quotes were more reasonable.

I've used Uship several times, with great success.

You get the best rates if you're flexible with pickup and dropoff.

I tried a listing with U-ship but had little success. Also no luck with salvaging any second hand crates. So I will be loading the Kawi into the moving truck, securing it to the bike stand and possibly the stand to the truck bed. Anyway I slapped together a plywood cover, (think ' Monroe  Brothers ' if you remember them ) to protect it from the rest of the load. Now all I need is the truck to put everything in and a bit of luck for the 2500 mile road trip.   

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I tried a listing with U-ship but had little success. Also no luck with salvaging any second hand crates. So I will be loading the Kawi into the moving truck, securing it to the bike stand and possibly the stand to the truck bed. Anyway I slapped together a plywood cover, (think ' Haney Brothers ' if you remember them ) to protect it from the rest of the load. Now all I need is the truck to put everything in and a bit of luck for the 2500 mile road trip. 

 

 

Hoping for your safe trip and so as your belongings. 

Just informed today by U-Can't-Haul (U-Haul), that they definitely will not have a truck for me on moving day, 10/26/21. The one that I reserved with them 6 weeks ago ? Asked them why and they said that you can't always get what you want.. Anyway got a guaranteed reservation today, truck and trailer, from Penske for just about 13K. ??   Times they are a changing....

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 Anyway got a guaranteed reservation today, truck and trailer, from Penske 

That price is shocking.  But here is a bright side.  In my experience, the U-Haul trucks have been old and beat up, while the Penske trucks I've rented have all be newer and nicer.  The Penske truck I drove cross county started out with something like just 5000 miles on it.  So maybe you'll have better luck with the Penske anyway.  That's a long drive.

I just moved and used upack:   www.upack.com/

basically, they drop off a 28 foot trailer at your house, you load it, put up a bulkhead in the trailer, and pay for the amount of linear trailer feet you use. Then they pick it up and drive it to the destination. 

It was really easy and the price was reasonable. I was able to fit 4 motorcycles in there too and bolt them down to the floors.

$13,000.00 for a truck rental??  Guess I have been out of the loop on this stuff for far too long.  Even if it's a one-way rental it seems like an awful amount of money to pay, but as I said, I haven't looked at truck rental prices in many moons.  I wonder what the price suggestion from MoveOver would have been?

Rick H. 

Wish I'd have checked out upack but it's a bit late now. But with my AAA discount and some other promotion the cost is now down to $11,300.   

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 Anyway got a guaranteed reservation today, truck and trailer, from Penske 

That price is shocking.  But here is a bright side.  In my experience, the U-Haul trucks have been old and beat up, while the Penske trucks I've rented have all be newer and nicer.  The Penske truck I drove cross county started out with something like just 5000 miles on it.  So maybe you'll have better luck with the Penske anyway.  That's a long drive.
 

One U-Haul I rented (early 1990s) was equipped with a 4-speed manual, complete with granny gear first, vinyl bench seat, and no AC - in the summer. Thankfully I wasn't going very far.

The last one (and I do hope it is the last) was in 1999. It was newer but had a weird electrical fault where, as I was driving along, the door buzzer would come on and the needles on the oil pressure/fuel/temp gauges would all go full-right. After several hours (okay, probably 20-30 seconds) the buzzer would stop and the gauges would go back to normal. That was totally fine for a 5+ hour trip.

No idea what would cause that so I'll just assume it was a poltergeist.

Picking up the Penske truck tomorrow. Goodbye California, Hello Pennsylvania. Time to turn the page. Here's one last pic of the Kawi in the So-Cal mountains. Will try to update once I hit the laurel highlands of P.A..