Need to ship a '68 442 hood from Albuquerque to Willington, NC, both on I-40. Any suggestions?

 

You could try and see if "Freighter Jim" is available. He advertises on the V8buick site, looking for loads. Obviously he primarily transports whole vehicles but he might take loose parts as well. www.uship.com is the usual "go to" for this type of transport now, it's always been difficult, and EXPENSIVE to ship hoods, only small, usually foreign ones were accepted by the Bus, back when they did non passenger freight.

 

It will need to be secured in sturdy, padded wooden crate. A heavy item would normally then be strapped to a wooden pallet. For this item you may be able to attach some two by fours parallel so a forklift can move it about. Plan on other heavy freight being stacked on it so the plywood will need to be thick. Then use a bidding service like U Ship for transporters. They will require the total weight and dimensions and pictures.

Just to give you a feel, I had an A833, shrink wrapped and strapped to a pallet, shipped from California to N.C. These are cast iron. The weight was 150-200 pounds. A loading dock and forklift was required at the California end for pick up. The final delivery truck went to a residence. It had a lift gate. You moved it from the lift gate.

My bids varied from $800 to $2400. With the exception of the lowest bid, the range was between $1400 and $2400. I took the lower bid. Due to its size, your tab will be higher.Dimensional weighting is the term.

I would start out by calling a local carrier to see if they will ship it with the side of the crate on the floor and compare that price relative to the other options. The crate's forklift feet will need to modified accordingly, I would likely put feet in both locations.

My amateur guess for your hood shipping is $1500-$2000. For future reference, I hope that you will post here your own experience.

 

Figure out some things you wanna see along the way, you and wife go on a road trip!! Take a pickup and put hood in back! Good times!

 

At 75 cents per mile and counting motels and meals, the tab for driving yourself is in the $3000 range.

 

IMOK freight, they find trucks that are returning empty or have small loads.

 

Wow, where'd you get this figure? Seems high to me.

Doing some math.

Albuquerque to Wilmington is almost exactly 1800 miles each way, so 3600 miles total. My Silverado gets about 20 mpg, so that's 180 gallons of gas. With gas at about $3/gallon in most places, that's $540.

Figure three long days of driving at 600 miles each day there and back for a total of six days on the road, so five hotel nights. You can shop around, but assume about $150 per night. That's $750.

For meals, I figure you can be careful and do it for $100 per day. Stay at hotels that have a free breakfast. Take a cooler and have lunch on the road at rest areas. Have a decent meal for dinner each night. Total is $600.

$540 + $750 + $600 = $1890. Be real pessimistic and round that to $2000. That's still far less than $3000.

I don't worry about wear and tear on the truck. Not enough miles to significantly affect it.

Am I missing something?

 

Cargo van from Budget from A to B is $1550, gas from above is $270, hotel from above is $450, plane ride home is $150 on Southwest. $2500 and you save two days and don't need to have your own hauler.

This is why shipping is an issue for big items and why pre-arranging a swap at a national meet works well.

 

You are leaving out a some of the costs per mile to drive a vehicle by calculating based upon just direct costs. Even the federal reimbursement rate per mile is 70 cents. I added just a nickel to the 70 cents due to the transport being by truck which is less fuel efficient than average.

Every mile counts in figuring the cost of depreciation. For newer vehicles depreciation cost per mile is even greater than average.

 

Some of our best vacations have happened around picking up cars and parts. Went to Minnesota thru the UP and came back on SS Badger across Lake Michigan to get a top for my truck, Went all thru Pennsylvania and checked out old railroad history on way to New York state to pickup a 65 Dodge-(used tow bar). Count the costs as a vacation and it's not bad, I know it's harder if still working- but I was still working on those trips.