The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Auto trailer question

Who do you folks recommend for vehicle trailer rentals? I'm curious if anyone has a recommendation cheaper than u-haul. They want $345.00 for a oneway rental! I choked. Lol

You might not get much response to this one, as the towing issue has been kinda beat to death on the forums here.
Its really just a matter of preference.
But with those kinds of prices you would be better off buying one, there's plenty of cheap trailers around.
I never knew how much I needed one until I bought it, best thing I ever bought, and when you own it they don't get destroyed like the rentals do.

In the big picture that rental price is not too bad (depending on distance)
Owning, maintaining, licensing, and insuring a trailer all cost money.

That said, if you need a trailer every so often, and have a suitable truck to pull it then buy a trailer, sure beats borrowing or renting one.

As for owning a trailer and it not being destroyed.. don't let folks, even friends, borrow it.

Grigg

My approach to lending my trailer is simple. I come too, I use my truck to pull it. No one but my son and I have ever pulled it (since I bought it).

I bought mine new and it now does have some dings and dents, but it is after all a tool not a show piece.

In Texas licensing a bumper pull trailer is more expensive than licensing a pickup which makes a trailer expensive to own and you pay 6 1/4% sales tax when you buy it. However, I have all my semi trailers as well as my bumper pull trailers titled and licensed in Oklahoma. Owning a tailor to pull every once in a while isn't really worth it if you title it in Texas.

Around here, car hauler trailers worth having start north of $2K and go rapidly up from there. If you aren't going to use a hauler a lot the $350 charge for a rental is cheap. I'm renting a trailer from the local rental place for a week in October. For what they are charging for a week I would have to rent a LOT to make buying cheaper. BTW I have a 12' flatbed trailer that I use for general hauling so I would rarely use a car hauler for anything other than car hauling.

On the rent versus buy question the amount you're going to use it really does make a difference. If you don't know when you'll use it again renting sure does make sense!

My tandem axle car trailer has an 18 foot deck and several feet of tongue in front of that. Before you buy a trailer you need to figure out where you're going to store it.

Today I own three trailers and am a fan of owning. I'm getting ready to scrap the one I built from a pickup box because its in the way, I almost never use it, and I want to use the pickup box on a pickup.

As for a trailer rental I'd check into places that supply contractors. I'd expect them to have a well maintained trailer for delivering things like tractors.

$345 seems darn expensive to me! i just sold one for $500 but i have used and abused it for several years. i still have one car hauler left and if you get one you won't know how you lived without it. i have hauled tons and tons with them from lumber, cars, tractors, bobcats, scrap, rebar, even stuff for my wife. you need one!

Budget, Ryder, Penske, are all worth checking with. Dont know if they'll be cheaper than UHaul until you get a quote from them, cuz on a 1 way transport, it depends on where you are going from and to, and how much demand they will have for the trailer where you take it...

Since its a 1 way trip, it may be worth your while to search withing a couple hundred miles of where you are to find the place to rent the trailer... If a Penske shop 100 miles away will rent you a 1 way haul for 200, you'd save a little...

Nothing wrong with the option to buy a trailer, other than the cost of ownership (title/registration/insurance) can be cost prohibitive in some states, unless you actively use it ... Maybe you could sell it when you get where you are going...

wow, i'm glad i don't live in a state where $345, one way, looks cheap next to buying. i thought MO had a lot of fees for stuff, but my trailers cost very little after the initial expense.

The initial expense is the thing. If you're going to use it regularly it's cheaper buying than renting. However the trailer I'll be renting will cost me $176 for a week. This is the first time I'll ever have used a car hauler and I'm 62 years old. At that rate I'd never get my money out of a $3K trailer.