joe_padavano

It has now been almost four weeks, and I have not been able to get a car transport company to commit to shipping my 62 F-85 wagon from Nevada to the D.C. area. Many have promised, all have failed. I'm open to suggestions.

Some details.

The car is in Overton, NV, about an hour northeast of Las Vegas. If you look up "middle of nowhere" in the dictionary, there is a picture of Overton. Apparently I'm the only person in the country who wants to ship a car in or out of Nevada right now, so no one wants to drive there to get it. My problem is compounded by the fact that the car has leaking freeze plugs. The shipping companies don't want to take responsibility for checking the coolant level before starting the car, so I am shipping it as an inoperative car. There is a price increase because of this, but it is still one more reason why no one wants to touch it.

If anyone has a lead on a shipper who will actually commit to moving the car, I'm all ears. I'm also starting to explore other options.

One option is to get the car to a big city. I suspect that Vegas is not enough - I probably need to get the car to L.A. to make the shipping doable. That means hiring someone who can trailer the car from Overton to L.A. Anyone up for that?

Another option is to fly out to Vegas, rent a U-haul and tow dolly, and drive it back myself. The one-way rental costs, plus the airfare, plus hotels and gasoline makes this unattractive.

The final option is to drive the car back. Unfortunately, I'd need to fly out, fix what was wrong with it (freeze plugs, new tires, tuneup, possibly brakes) and drive it back. I might have considered this more seriously in my young and stupid days, but I'm not thrilled with the option right now, especially since I wouldn't have all my tools with me.

As I said, I'm open to suggestions. Anyone with a trailer and some free time want to see the U.S.A.?

gearheads78

Joe in the past I have had very good luck with Uship. It is a reverse auction and most of the time you are dealing direct with the transporter and not the middle men. Place an add on there with a realistic target price you want to pay and with in days I bet you have something put together.

Also if you are a member of HAMB post a wanted ad on there. If you are not PM me you info and I will put an ad up for you.

Richard

joe_padavano

OK, thanks for the leads.

jaunty75

I had good luck with Autostar Transport.

http://www.autostartransport.com/

But I did not have anything like the transport need you have, and the car was driveable with no leaking fluids. Mine was 90 miles from West Virginia to Ohio. But it can't hurt to check them out.

442oldslawyer

You need a carrier based on the West Coast. They will pick it up on a run to the east Intercity has an office in Seattle I believe. Also Reliable has an Arizona office. I have used both with good results.

cutlassgal

.....The company I used to move it from NC to CA (M2Reeves Car Shipping) was fantastic so I'm putting in a plug for them. Inexpensive and efficient. A rare combination these days.
__________________
.......from the land Down Under


This is from another thread from Col. Wickham - might not hurt to investigate them!

Oldsmaniac

Had the same problem trying to get the 442 back to NJ from Minnesota. Some haulers wouldnt do it because car did not run and no brakes. One company had several drivers but lost my contact info....so they say, and then in my frustration I decided to go get the car myself. Got a friend to help with the driving and did the 2800 mile trip without rest.

citcapp

Had the same problem trying to get my 48 from Oklahoma to Washington. Decided to take the wife with me and make a vacation out of the trip. Rented the U-haul van and trailer one way. Had a great time and picked up parts on the way home for the build.

Bluevista

That place is in the middle of nowhere, the trains don't even go through there, just a spur.
The in-op part is what the problem is, nobody wants to mess with them and it really limits the options. The out of the way location too, they want them near the main drags. You can take it to a bigger city for transport or a holding lot and wait for somebody to take the job but the cars sit forever sometimes.
They wouldn't have anything to do with the Vista when I told them the brakes were almost totally gone, so I didn't tell them after that.
I bet that car would fit in the back of a U-Haul straight truck?
Just need some long ramps or a really steep driveway to back up into to cut down the loading angle, loading docks work too.
If the car runs and it's just freeze plugs leaking tell them nothing. Just have the previous owner drain the water and run it dry. It will run for the few minutes it takes to get it on the truck or move it around on the way, it sure won't boil over?
Those guys check for body damage for hours, never seen any check the fluids?
You're going to yank it and and put a Fido engine in anyway?
What's the worst that can happen?
The block melt into a pool of aluminum?
"What happened to the engine?.. I'll be a son of a gun?"

joe_padavano

No, it's the opposite problem. I don't want them to ruin the 215 and if they think the car runs, there's a good chance they will try to drive it on a storage lot. No one want's to take responsibility for checking the coolant level before starting.

Fido???

In any case, the swap is unlikely to happen anytime soon, and I'd like to take this car to the nationals, hence the desire to preserve the 215 for now.

Oldsguy

Would Kansas City be a good location for shipping from? If I could do it in a weekend (no idea of the distance) I might consider getting it if you could arrange shipping from here. I would be willing if the friend I have in mind for taking me there could get free to do it.

edit: OUCH! I just mapquested it, that is a long way. I guess I forgot my geography, probably not do-able in a weekend, at least at my age.

Jamesbo

Boy

A friend would help you move. A great friend would help you move a body and the ultimate friend would move your car from Timbuctoo to KC

rptw32

you can try Posey Transporters - I used them to bring a F-250 from LA to Detroit couple years ago - went w/o a hitch 248-693-9680 Kim Campbell . Not sure if they'd be interested in going to EC or not but they make weekly runs between WC and Detroit

as long as your fishin--- would definitely be better if you could get it to LVegas vs. trying to swing out to nowheresville for the driver to pick up ....

Rgds

greenslade

try a moving company like Allied or Mayflower often times they are travel with part loads and can load a car on the back of trailer good luck!

joe_padavano

Thanks for all the suggestions. Richard (Gearheads78) was right on with recommending uship.com. I have a truck lined up that will supposedly be at the seller's location on Sunday for pickup. This shipper even accepts responsibility for checking the coolant in the radiator. We'll see how it goes.

I've become educated on the auto transport broker situation. All of them talked big and failed miserably to come up with a ride. Most were pretty shady as well - for example I got a firm quote from one, was working to negotiate some terms and conditions, and was finally told that the quote was wrong and the price went up $200.

My only concern now is that if the car really does get picked up on Sunday, by the time it gets here we'll still have 30" of snow on the ground and no place to put it!

Stay tuned.

ed burke

U ship is the way to go. you get to talk to the owner operators and you can get all kind of guarantees. Have had great sucess with those guys. Last itme I used them Jersey to Ca. they promised it would not get off the truck. (Enclosed carrier) Also the price was very reasonable after talking with a few drivers.
Rocketlover

Yellowstatue

If you don't like snow send it up here...we are having a severe shortage and my shovel is accumulating rust as I neglected to coat it with oil...when the wind blows we are having small dust storms

jaunty75

No! Not to Toronto! From what I read, any extra snow needs to be sent to Vancouver, where they're trying to run the olympics with an amount of snow equivalent to what you would get from a snow-cone machine.

Yellowstatue

Yah, I wasn't thinking in my time of greed send it to Vancouver so they can have a super zippy snow board run- I forgot the name of the run where they really need that snow

Lady72nRob71

:d

joe_padavano

Well, the 62 F-85 has finally been delivered. Unfortunately, I still haven't seen it. With all the snow, there's no way the truck was getting anywhere near our farm, so I arranged to have the car dropped at a storage lot about 10 miles away. Since I can't get out, a friend was able to meet the truck and supervise the offload. It has been a very stressful couple of days, as the driver was not being very helpful and did not appreciate the fact that we have already exceeded the historical high seasonal snowfall in D.C. The car is supposed to be in a 10x20 storage locker, but it is not clear that the lot has been cleared enough to get it in yet. Will post additional pictures when I can get to them. At least my friend was able to give the car a once-over and proclaimed it in pretty good shape.

ent72olds

Someday, you'll look back and laugh at all this......are you really "snowed in", I know it's a little rural down there.....

jaunty75

Well, who can blame him? You, as the owner of the car being shipped, ARE responsible for the weather, you know!

Jamesbo

Glad you got her home Joe, Given the storms I'd say it's a small miracle

joe_padavano

Does this answer your question?

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums/148186-post32.html

And I now have confirmation that the 62 is safely ensconced in the storage unit.

cutlassgal

Glad to hear it!!!