flamin-roids

Just toss the engine in the back on a tarp. I've hauled a long block and a transmission with room to spare. As long as the **** ain't leaking you won't even notice it was there.

Sideways7

iTrader: (7)

It was a woman (my g/f at the time, now wife) and all of her stuff. Dresser, mini-fridge, lamps, tv, vcr, etc.
I've heard about Ubuntu, just never used it. I'm partial to SuSE myself, but I've found Fedora to be pretty good too.

nickn505

I work for Uhaul. This is just my opinion and I'm not getting any payment for anything I write.

Working at Uhaul I have discovered that customers are very stupid. They think that just because they have a truck that is "the best in Texas" they can tow anything regardless of what we tell them and what the owner's manual in their car says. Just last week I saw a Nissan Xterra (sp?) that had a bent hitch so badly it was about 4 inches lower than it should have been. It even took off a few bolts holding it on. This is a class 3 hitch that's meant to withstand 5,000 pounds. When asking the customer what happened and what he was towing, he refused to say. Might I also say here that the guy in the story says he knew the limits of the trailer with his truck and was worried about overloading. When he got halfway to his destination, he loaded more crap into it. Plus, even though the 4x8 is smaller (and cheaper) than the 5x8 I don't think it weighs less. The sides of the 5x8 are wood and the 4x8 walls are metal. Our hitch pro (remember this title) spent 4 hours repairing the frame on the guy's Xterra. I should mention that the labor and parts (with new hitch) were free to the customer in compliance with his warranty even though we could have had grounds not to. The hitch pro does all the hitch work including wriring. They are not robots and do have days off. If he isn't there to do wiring I think it's only fair to tell the customer that there isn't anyone there who's been trained specifically for wiring.

If you're worried about accidents just get insurance with the trailer (or make sure your own insurance covers it, if you don't do either don't bitch to us). I think it's like $5 a day in-town. It protects the trailer from any damage that occurs including if it's your fault. It also protects your posessions in the trailer, the hitch on your 7, and your vehicle in case anything happens as a result of towing. It even has a limited health insurance policy. From my experience the people who get into wrecks always want to save money and never get insurance. Always get insurance, I see it as a good luck charm the people who get it almost never get into wrecks.

As for trailers, I have changed trailer tires and it is required that we use a torque wrench on the bolts. If we don't it's an automatic termination as per uhaul policy. The guy in the story complains that nobody said sorry or asked if he was ok. All I can say to that is that I have taken alot of customer service calls and can say that usually the customer is pissed off about moving, refuses to admit any guilt for mishandling equipment, and thinks there could never possibly be anything wrong with his truck- after all it is "the best in Texas." Usually I make an apology at the end just because it's good professionalism and that's how I've been raised. But I almost never mean it, just like anyone else I don't like getting yelled at and used as a vent. My best advice is to be as nice as you can to the people you meet at uhaul and they'll do the same. I know I do, and I give so many freebees my boss has threatened to fire me more than one for helping out a perfect stranger that treated me right. I've actually made alot of friends out of customers and help them out whenever I can including giving the occasional preferential treatment. It's a good way to live life in general, always be positive even if you have to fake it and people will treat you right in return.

Tyblat

^ Thanks for the input on that.

nickn505

^ Thanks for the link. I think chances are there's alot of info they're leaving out of their stories but they did have a few good points. Especially with the reservation policy, I've disagreed with it ever since I started usuing it. But contrary to what they say, we try everything we can to get them a truck at another location and don't just "leave them out to dry"

nickn505

I'd hate to hijack this thread but as a uhaul employee I find this site very interesting. Here's some things I saw in the other person's story:

"After our years of experience fighting crowds in Chicago, we knew that sometimes just being louder than the next guy was all you needed to do."

"The doors opened, we kicked and screamed for an hour. We didn't get anywhere."

Read my other posts above, just stay calm and know that the person who invented these stupid policies is not the person you're yelling at. We're just employees like you working for a living. Yes there are other moving companies but you get what you pay for. We require no deposit with a credit card or $100 cash (for a truck, trailers are $60). Pensky's deposits start at around $500. It's unfortunate that our business practices attract some people who are cheap, bitch about everything, and expect to be treated like a Saudi prince while they treating others like crap. I see that every day.

slpin

iTrader: (9)

maybe you are the professional ones...
u-haul hooked my trailer up, i assumed everything was fine...
drove to my car, load it up... bam, they didnt tightened the coupler... took my plate out, and left some marks and dents on the tailgate...

then after realizing i have to call this and call that just to get any money, i dont even bother...

there may be compendent people working at u-haul like you, but the majority people who work there doesnt know ****... i was watching a guy 'help' a customer unload the autotransport back (back it into a huge 2 car spot...), and really didnt technically make it...

then it is my turn to park the trailer... and he said he could do it for me... i just parked it straight between two white lines...


and then there was this other time where they hook the trailer up, and forgot to raise the stopper all the way - how? i dont know... i took off, scrap scrap scrap... i got out, and realize they didnt raise the leg on the a-arm all the way - the trailer was half supported by my truck, and half on the tonge

micah

Yeah, I always double check their work... but so far, they haven't done it wrong.... With u-haul.. ALWAYS get the insurance.

nickn505

Yeah, some uhauls in El Paso are bad too but thankfully I work in one of the better ones. To date I've only seen two instances where a customer had to come back over something went really wrong with their install. First was the guy with the Xterra, where I don't think we were at fault. The second was a guy who had his car inspected and was bitching about us using those bridge terminal thingys and not using a snap in OEM harness. Nothing was wrong with the hookup though. I don't know how it ended up but IMO that's what he ordered and it costed him like $30. If he wanted it OEM he should have gotten the tow package from the factory (which still doesn't make the right connection) for $300-600 when he got the car new. Or just get the work done at the dealership. Like I said before, we'll do the best we can with what we have but don't expect to get space shuttle hardware for $30 or at least just ask before you buy.

My5ABaby

iTrader: (7)

**** happens. The guy in the stories wheel fell off and he blamed it on U-Haul. Sure, it was probably U-Haul's fault, but it also could of been a freak accident. I LOVE how people are using this one guy's "horror" story to generalize for all of U-Haul.

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Well I think we're off-topic enough to consider this thread done.

U-Haul and their suckness can be discussed in the Good Guy/Bad Guy forums. Linux should go to the Lounge.

Now if anyone has any actual info about towing with an FC that has not already been covered, feel free to post.

aram

iTrader: (1)

Just rent a pickup truck from enterprise or something.. it's about $50 a day and then you won't put any wear or tear on your rx7. I rented a full size silverado for about that a while ago.

Tyblat

I thought about doing that, but I live in FL and the engine is near my girlfriends parent's two states away, They charge by the mile, that would kill me Lol.

slpin

iTrader: (9)

dont you have another car? ask your daddy for his truck or your friends?
if not, your best bet would be, pass seat out, and put it there....

if you do really want to tow, that **** is going to want to swing back and forth under braking. get the shortest trailer possible...

Tyblat

I was going to ask her parents to borrow their truck. It's a Nissan Titan. V8. But I doubt they'd let me use it. Only other thing that would be a problem is, how the hell would I unload the motor, that trucks high off the ground Lol

slpin

iTrader: (9)

a titan is not high off the ground at all
that ***** slammin, its almost scrapper status

what you do is you tak etwo hands, lift it up and put it there... then you lift it up and pull it out.....

Asterisk

iTrader: (3)

DAMN MOTHA-******* STRAIGHT you shouldn't buy a Caddilac!!!!!..... EVER! :smiley_12

Or I'll haunt your grand-children!

micah

w00t

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

We're done here.