My wife and I plan to move to Arkansas in a couple weeks. I am looking for some advice on the best/easiest/cheapest way to do it. We have a Kia Sorento and a Chevy Silverado and enough household goods to fill a large UHAUL truck as well as a 95 pound red lab. I had been thinking about driving a UHAUL truck back and having my wife drive the pickup with the bed loaded up with various items and then having her fly back to get the car and dog but she suggested maybe having the Chevy shipped back to Arkansas. Problem is that I need to have the bed of the Chevy loaded so that the other stuff will fit in the UHAUL and one of the items going in the bed is our chest freezer which I figured on trying to plug in each night at the hotel. A shipper would not likely do that I am guessing.

Anyway hoping some of you might have some bright ideas for me to consider.

Tow the car behind the uhaul. And Penske trucks were far better than uhaul when I moved, but that was quite a while ago.

+1 for Penske. U-Haul sucks.

That's a long haul from Oregon to Arkansas. Over 2,000 miles I believe. Be very careful at truck stops, rest stops, and at motels/hotels at night. Lots of thieves and bandits looking for the opportunity to steal your goods, especially at night when you are asleep and usually, exhausted.

I wish you and your wife the best of luck and a safe, UNEVENTFUL journey.

L.W.

I raced a toyota Yaris when I had a 20 footer last month


My advice: do you any friends that could drive one of vehicles full of stuff? Fly them back

I have several that could do it, ext family membs too

Sell everything you can, give away what doesn't sell, burn the rest.

Arkansas has freezers, Chevy's, and Kia's.

Shipping is pretty tight right now. It might be a longer wait and higher cost than you are prepared for to ship the truck. I'd put the Kia on a trailer behind the Uhaul and have the wife drive the truck.

Having moved many times, I agree with sell what you can and burn what you can't give away and don't need.

Pack the freezer with dry ice, all you can get it to hold, and duct tape all the seams tight. Back in 1980 we took a week getting from California to Tennessee, and still had stuff in the freezer frozen rock hard when we arrived. I was driving a 1970 Cadillac Fleetwood and towing an 18 foot 3-axle trailer, and my wife was driving a 59 Chevy Suburban and towing a Datsun station wagon. The Caddy and trailer weighed 16,700 pounds at a certified truck scale. The dry ice was gone, but the food stayed frozen. We were only able to plug in the box twice in 6 days, I believe. Sell the KIA (Killed In Action), tow the pickup behind the rental truck, and buy a real car when you get settled in.

Towing the car would be a good idea except that the dog will have to go in the back of the car and we wouldn't leave him back there like that.

When we moves from Michigan to Oregon we towed a UHAUL 6×12 trailers behind each vehicle but we have more stuff now which includes 2 Lazy Boy recliners. Both trailers were packed full. We had already gotten rid of a bunch of stuff before leaving Michigan.

Rent a big enough moving truck to put most everything in it. Lockit in there. tow the car on a dolly and let your wife drive the pickup. That way you don't have visible goods for someone to steal when you stop to sleep. Anything in a car or back of the pickup would be fair game for methheads while you are parked. Locked up in the moving truck it is unknown and not worth the chance for someone to break into it.

Another complication that I should have mentioned before is that we will need to store most of our stuff in a storage unit when we get to Arkansas since we haven't found a house to buy yet and will be renting a place.

On our last move we used PODS. Worked out well.

The main concern about having our dog in the car being towed on a trailer is temperature control. We wouldn't want it to get too hot for him. I don't think it would be a good idea to have the engine idling all day in order to have the air conditioner on. Does anyone know if that would be a problem? While it won't likely be very hot in early October it sure tends to warm up inside a car.

Pods are a good idea. Look into those.
Sell the Kia if you don’t need it.
Pull a uhaul trailer with essentials you don’t want damaged behind the Silverado.

The vision of this is hilarious! Probably took you a half an hour to clear an intersection! lol

Start looking for Storage, it seems it, like everything else is in short supply.

The dog complicates the move, running the AC on the KIA? I wouldn't do it, crack the windows and roll-out.
Wouldn't be surprised if someone called the cops about the dog riding in a towed car.

Solid advice....

Not sure how big your freezer is, but, we used a chest freezer plugged in to a 2K watt Honda generator to bring home our moose from Alberta. We ran it during the day while driving and shut it down @ the hotel for the one overnight.

Put a couple sheets or blankets on the passenger's seat of the pickup and let doggie keep momma company.

this is what my buddy did when they moved from PA back here to CC texas.

Leave the wife and Kia in OR. Pack the dog, guns, in the truck and move to Arkansas.

In January I plan on being completely retired. I'd like to help folks like you when that day arrives. It sounds like a great adventure to me.

kwg

Based on your pondering's I'd say you are nowhere near ready to leave Oregon.

LOL

Please stay.

When I finally cleared out our stuff from CA after selling the house I thought about a UHaul but couldn't stand the idea of driving one of those clapped out trucks 1000+ miles. We found a company that will let you buy space in a 40' Conex. They then get other people who are sending stuff in the same general direction to fill up the rest of the container and off it goes (via rail for longer trips, then local truck delivery to your house). It took about a month, total, to load it up, wait for the other customers to do their thing and then get it to its destination, but we weren't in a hurry.

We got rid of most of our stuff beforehand (either sold it or took it to the dump) because it was just cheaper to buy new stuff and that made life a lot easier.

Red Lab + Plug Freezer in @ Motel + Idling KIA = Stay in Oregon.

LOL

an adventure driving from Oregon to Arkansas?

I wouldn't get your hopes up too high about a "great adventure"...

Myself, I wouldn't trade Roseburg OR for Arkansas....locals may be the same in both places...

but for outdoor activities, and just getting away from people... I'd stay here in Oregon...

there are good people in Oregon... but we also seem to have more than our share or quota of useless meth heads & drug addicts/ welfare bums.

The idling KIA is straight epic.

LOL

C'mon now. It would keep the puppy nice and cool......


Until it started on FIRE!

LOL

Good luck. Moving is not a DIY project in my mind. Moving is bad enough without all the logistics headaches to boot. Hopefully the declining fuel prices will make a shipping company an attractive alternative.

However you decide to get it done, make sure everything is fully insured. As Leanwolf pointed out, moving vans are a very, very popular target.

PODS

Agreed. We rented a Penske and got a substantial discount using our AAA card. The discount was worth more than the membership. Worth looking into.

https://www.pensketruckrental.com/discounts/aaa/

12% discount and unlimited miles with AAA card.

So why does the dog have to ride in Kia that is being towed?? How come the dog can’t ride up front in the uhual with you? Or I don’t know ride with the wife? Far as freezer give the 5yr old meat you been hoarding away. Also have one big ass yard sale… chit down Arkansas, Mississippi is dirt cheap you.

You are not doing a very good job selling oregon

Declining fuel prices?

LOL

You really are a dumb fugk aren’t you?

The dog is too big to fit comfortably in the front seat of the truck. The back seat area of the truck will likely be full with stuff that I don't want in the big truck and even if it didn't my wife thinks that space is too small for the dog to be comfortable. He is her baby and keeping my wife happy helps the marriage. Some of you understand this.

Maybe the dog could be on the seat beside me in the big truck. I will see how that would work.

Thanks for the Penske AAA discount idea. Will look into that as well.

I don't see the pods as a viable option because it would need to be dropped off at the storage unit place and the owner of those would not want it in the way until the company could come back and pick it up.

When we moved from Michigan to Oregon we were able to plug the freezer in at the hotel each night. Hopefully we can do that again.

Stay in Oregon..
If your ol lady thinks it’s fine a dandy to throw ol rover into the towed Kia with windows rolled down on a 2k mile road trip. Then you all need to keep that logic in Oregon. When I moved my family back to Alaska 2014, we gave away couches, beds, bedroom sets, TV’s etc. less is better..

the dry ice is perfect for the freezer -fergit pulggin it in.

i have used 10 lb to freeze elk that was not in a freezer to get from colorado to arkasas.

I just hauled the fam from Washington to South Carolina.

I purged….Sold two boats, a truck, the car…..Gave away the big chest freezer along with 100ish pounds of beef and other schit. Most of the furniture was sold or donated.

Packed up and shipped what was left and hauled the fam cross country with the camper. Great trip. 2 and 1/2 weeks and 4300 miles.

I have what’s left of my schit spread out in 3 states. Lol. Can’t even change the freaking oil.

And you know what? It feels good😁

Good luck Rofous!

PENSKE if you insist on going that route.

Dog in the front seat with you. I can't imagine your dog enjoying the ride in the Kia alone.

Sell the Lazy Boys and any other thing you think you "need". If you haven't found a place to rent/buy yet you have no need for a Lazy Boy recliner and will only have to pay to store it and any other crap you haul there. Unless it's family heirloom stuff, furniture is replaceable.

Others have given you a lot of ideas. Here's another. Will the new vineyard owner give you permission to park one of them Pods things there until you find a house? Realize also, many (most??) Storage places also store boats and vehicles. See if they can arrange for the Pods deal to sit in a boat space or such.

Whatever happens, keep the dog with one of its people.

I thought you guys would give up better comments than this I was looking for stuff like learn to kiss your sister and Pat your brother on the ass kind of language

Hahaha

It is supposed to be 98 here in N Arkansas tomorrow. I would ride the dog in the vehicle with Air conditioning.

People and dogs lived for a decade without AC

If your not concerned about cost pod are great. They will store and deliver them to you.

Some of you guys are helpful. I appreciate that. Others are straight up [bleep]. Some think I must be made of money- just throw or give your stuff away they say, buy it again in Arkansas at these inflated prices with sales tax added on top. I figure I know how to throw away, sell and give away stuff. I did that before moving to Michigan from Walla Walla, WA and again before moving from Michigan to Oregon. We do not have a lot of stuff left but still enough to pretty well fill a Uhaul or Penske truck. I guess I should give or throw away my bear rug, cougar rug, several guns, lots of ammo and reloading supplies, several cases of wine and on and on. Give me some credit guys. We will figure it out. Again, I do appreciate the helpful responses as always.

Look into the pods thing.

My son used them when moving from VA. and the Daughter from Waco and they worked well.

They keep them in storage until you call and tell them where and when you want the pod delivered.

If i was moving across the country they would be what we would use.

Thanks Plainsman, I'll look into the pods. I didn't realize that they would store them until we are ready for it to be delivered.

Mine live outside EVERYDAY

Wooo! Settle down, Rofous! 😂
I don’t think anyone actually cares how or what you haul to Arkansas. Or how the dog gets there.

I do know moving is a huge pain in the azz, and “de-cluttering” makes it a bit easier/less costly.

Good luck!

Consider giving one of the large moving companies a call. International and American are the two highest rated. We're planning our move in January and I've been surprised at how reasonable the quotes have been for packing and shipping a three bedroom house, garage and workshop. This will be move number 18 in my life and I'm perfectly happy not to touch another box and really happy not to move a whole lot of stationary woodworking equipment.

You may be late in the game for them but they may have a partial load going that direction, or an empty truck leaving Oregon that needs a load so worth a call.

Yea but he was talking about locking it up in a car that is being towed for 3 or 4 days.

This. Takes a metric sh*t ton of the BS and anxiety out of the equation. And your cross country drive will be a lot more stress free.

The PODS method sounds like the way to go.

We last moved 20 years ago and it was a corporate transfer for my bride. The company paid for the whole thing - packing, loading, transport and unloading. Even had an extra vehicle they transported. We did have to rent a cargo van to carry guns, ammo, gas powered tools, propane tanks and such as the moving company either would not move them or I didn't want them to. The moving guys even got to move about 700 pounds of lead for my "fishing weights" . . .

Good luck with your move.

PODS doesn't work so well in rural areas. They will only pick up and drop off within 50 miles of one of their facilities. If you don't meet both criteria, you're SOL.

They will also charge you a rental fee each and every month regardless. It can make sense, but be wary of extras adding up.

For us, moving from Reno, NV to Carthage, MS, renting a moving truck was far more expensive than using PODS. And using UHaul U-Boxes was less expensive than using PODS.

1. The expense is less because you have to RETURN the moving truck or PAY to have it returned.
2. U-Box with UHaul was better than PODS because it had better delivery options, cost less, had each shipping box (we used 3) completely covered in waterproof heavy vinyl, had us put our own padlock on the box and we held the only key, made the box available to us to open up and grab stuff when it was in storage at its destination before they were delivered, kept stuff in storage for a reasonable fee until we were set up in a house in MS, then put the boxes right on our driveway for us to unload.
3. I didn't have to drive a 20+ foot truck across the country in all kinds of weather - we only took what we wanted to have with us, took our time and drove our own 4WD, vacationing along the way.

P.S. Ask your storage unit manager directly if they can accommodate a U-Box sitting on a small trailer for a couple of hours. It didn't take long for us to move things to the box from our storage unit (we hired two day laborers to help) and then we drove it away to the UHaul yard. They take care of it from there.

And with UHaul, it's not some huge box that only a special rig can deliver/take away. Some storage units don't have space for that stuff.

Instead, you get a normal sized pickup truck with a normal size trailer at the UHaul yard - they put the box on the trailer for you. You park the truck at the door of your storage unit and load the box while it's on the trailer. Then you drive the truck/trailer back to UHaul. If you need several boxes, you can pick up another one to do the same thing over again or even wait a day or two to load the others.

Not sure of that. We live about 95 north of Atlanta. This area is rather rural. The PODS facility was in Atlanta. We stored there and it was delivered to my driveway from there.

I'm glad they worked with you on distance. We had a POD last year and 50 miles radius was the info quoted to me.

Depending on where he lives exactly, he is likely to be within 50 miles of Fort Smith or Fayetteville…or pretty close.

Shoot 79S, when I was down in Arkansas last month the only thing I saw cheaper was gasoline and property taxes. Sales tax is 10% in some areas and fast food has an 11.75% sales tax on it in places. Housing in C. AR is relatively small, so a comparable house to what I have here is only about $25-$40K cheaper now. When we first moved here, housing in AK was a lot more expensive. My mom was looking to build a small new house, $170 a sq Ft is the going rate now.
Seeing as how my job pays less, I’ll stay here for the time being. Heck I had to go to Wal-Mart to get some groceries, milk without tax was higher than the Wal-Mart here and the meat all about the same price.

Not a bad idea here ^^^

Yeah, people get the idea life in Arkansas is cheap. It is in some areas. Not so much in others. You get Arkansas wages regardless of which area you live in. Houses in NWA are going at $200/sq ft now. Not bad for some parts of the country, but damn high for Arkansas.

Arkansas has the highest taxes in the south. Depending on the town Housing is less than many places. It is high here but I own my home I bought 30 years ago. It was reasonable then. It was 100 degrees here most of the afternoon. Will be the same tomorrow then a cold front.

Nearly all of towns, even the small ones have a very high sales tax. miles

I've moved myself and my family more than once.

Your saving the Hot Pockets and Totinos by plugging in at hotels is the most Oregon schit I've ever read.

LOL

Check out ABF U-Pack.
https://www.upack.com/

Moved from Austin to Ohio 20 years ago

Had two full size U-Haul trucks worth of stuff and a truck in tow with the bed full.

Flew a buddy in to help me load and drive one of the trucks. Let the wife and kids take the car and go to a relatives house until the moving was done.

Afterwards, I built him a computer for helping me out.

The cost of the airline ticket, hotel and computer was nothing compared to the labor, convenience and peace of mind, plus I got to hang out with a friend who I hadn't seen in awhile. I get the desire to go on the cheap, but Beverly Hillbillying it is alot of stress and pain.

Yeah?

What were the quotes?

Fortunately my salary is going up by 81.8% and the homes in that area of Arkansas are much less than they are here in Roseburg. Plus full benefits in Arkansas.

That’s great to hear. Let me know when you are settled and I’ll give you a tour of the area from the air if you want.

That would be neat Kodiak. It looks like you spend time in many states. When are you in Arkansas?

Most of the time now. I'm looking for retirement property on Bull Shoals Lake in North central Arkansas.
I fly to Byrds Adventure Center about every other month for breakfast, which is just north of where you are headed.

I will admit, you can still find some deals on land in AR. If the right place came along I’d be tempted to buy it. I know real estate is hot in AR at the moment, my wife and I got contacted today asking to sell my mother’s house. My mom is buying a new to her house, but her’s is not on the market.

Byrd's sounds like a fun place.

Apologies for the delay - Been in Alberta duck hunting - It's about 600 mile move and International quoted $8700 and American $9200. International does it by weight and American by volume. Both quotes included all packing and boxes, except the stuff you'd expect they don't handle like ammo/powder/liquids etc. On both they will buy back any boxes if they overestimated. That's about 1/3 the price of a similar move in the summer.

We have decided to rent a Penske truck with a trailer. We will put our car on the trailer and tow it. Cost for the Penske truck and trailer will be about $5700 plus fuel.

Damn

Well we have arrived. After 4 days of driving and 2204 miles we are here and praise God the stuff in our freezer stayed frozen. We lucked out and were able to plug it in each night. No mishaps along the way thankfully.

Congrats on getting it done.

Now, enjoy the new life.

Only a decade? If one’s life expectancy without air conditioning is a decade then I’d say that air conditioning is an important invention for mankind. I mean how many discoveries and inventions were made by kids 10 and under? 😂

Congrats and welcome to Arkansas ! ! !

Drop me a PM if you have any questions I might be able to answer.

There is a giant shîtty junkyard you come into Paragould. Negroes laid out in rocking chairs, 2ft beer cans beside the foot with no shoe on.

A real nice “Welcome To Arkansas” coming in on that side.

Whistle blows…..Next stop LAZYTOWN


lol

You haven't been in Paragould in a while.

Strange. I have never seen a black in Greene county that wasn't travelling through.