So I just bought a 1968 International harvester scout 800b off ebay fully restored... However it's on the other side of the country... I'm in Virginia, it's in Eureka California.

Does anyone have any recomendations on inexpensive, reliable vehicle shipping companies?

NICE! Screw the shipping, drive it in a straight line from CA to VA. Scouts are like tanks!

I'm beginning to think I might just do that, how far is Eureka from sacremento? Jet Blue has a redeye, if I go this friday, it's 150 bucks for a one way.... Just need to get to eureka after that to pick up my new ride...

I would definitely drive it back. I drove a 1988 Isuzu Trooper with almost 200,000 miles on it back from FL to NY during the snow storm that closed down all the NY airports. And guess what.... the truck had NO HEAT. Ahh, a time I will never forget all for the price of a one-way airline ticket and some gas.

this is 3000 miles in a vehicle with no AC and vinyl seats.... But hey, I'm up for the adventure...

...Careful what you wish for...

well, looking like it's going to be cheaper to ship it then a short notice flight to Eureka, being even if I get the cheap ticket to sacremento, still have to rent a car, or book another flight to Eureka, then the gas and hotel money for the journey back... all evens out to about the same price. And if I ship it I don't have to miss any work.

dependableautoshippers.com

Yeah but it would be fun to drive cross county.

Yeah but it would be fun to drive cross county.

A lot of people do that every day just going to work.

It stops being fun roughly as you leave Colorado, and doesn't get fun again until you're almost out of Ohio. That leaves a pretty big gap of "not-fun" in the middle.

That leaves a pretty big gap of "not-fun" in the middle

That's what Tornado Alley is for, to keep up the excitement level...

Pickup a copy of Hemmings Motor News. There's at least 50 different transporters that advertise in there. Costs vary depending on how you want to ship it (enclosed or open trailer). Average rate for open trailer is about $0.75 per mile. I've seen it done for as low as $0.48 a mile, but you need to be carefull you know who you're dealing with at those rates. If you want a recommendation from someone who uses car transporters all the time, call Fred at RedLineAutoSports.com and ask who he would use.

I hate to go AOL on your ass, but...

LOL!

Yeah but it would be fun to drive cross county.




NOT in a 36 year old, noisy, drafty, hard-riding, high-effort International Scout!

These were pretty rude, crude vehicles even in their day -- and by comparison to modern SUVs, they are positively neanderthal when it comes to driveability, comfort, reliability, and economy of operation.

If somebody kidnapped me and put a gun to my head and told me I had to drive 3000+ miles across the country in one of those, I would carefully evaluate the calibre of the weapon before I started the engine. As Jack Benny said so many years ago, "I'm thinking! I'm thinking!"

That said, it will be a fun toy for occasional weekend use. Just let somebody else deliver it.

tanstaafl.

I would carefully evaluate the calibre of the weapon before I started the engine.

ROFLMAO

But hey, I'm up for the adventure...

I don't know what they're called, but there is (or was) an organisation that matches up people who want odd vehicles moving cross-country, with people who want to travel cheaply cross-country. Some friends of mine had great fun delivering to Chicago a hearse that a hearse-collector had bought in LA.

Peter

dependableautoshippers.com

I've used these guys, and others like them, several times. The cheap answer is shipping your car "terminal to terminal" rather than door to door. Back when I was in grad school in New Jersey and got myself internships out in California, I twice used them for round-trip shipping of my car. The price is pretty good, especially if you're getting somebody else to pay for it. What you're not getting is much if anything in the way of a quality-of-service guarantee. Once, for example, a different firm who I won't name managed to park something above my car that dripped heaven knows what corrosive gunk onto my roof that required the roof to be repainted. Even when all went well, they still chained my car down, using big metal hooks to latch onto the holes in the car's frame. Several of those holes because noticably distressed, but thankfully never gave way.

For an old beater, like your Harvester, cheap shippers might be the right ticket. If you were shipping something fancier, I'd use a different service.

A friend used to work in an office in Southampton that overlooked the car storage yard for cars that had come in from the Far East. He said he wouldn't mind working as an offloading driver because they looked like they have fun "testing" the cars on the way to their parking spaces!

Gareth

The cheap answer is shipping your car "terminal to terminal" rather than door to door.

Door to door was $100 more than terminal to terminal, and I needed door to door, the car wasn't legal when it got here.

And I bought the insurance. It was $700 all told, and I had no complaints.

there is (or was) an organisation that matches up people who want odd vehicles moving cross-country, with people who want to travel cheaply cross-country

My buddy did this in college. He took a week long drive from L.A. to Kentucky in a practically new Jeep Wrangler to deliver it to some stripper in Lexington.

Yep, My Dad had a Scout at the time I was learning to drive. Gee did that thing have a stiff clutch! At many a stop light, I had to shift into neutral so I could let the clutch up.

In reply to:

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At many a stop light, I had to shift into neutral so I could let the clutch up.

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IMO, you should always be in neutral, with the handbrake on, when stopped at a red light (or indeed anywhere that you're not going to be starting from without notice). I was always taught that it's dangerous to sit there with feet on the pedals, because if you're rear-ended, chances are they'll slip off and launch you into the vehicle in front (or into the junction if you're first in the queue).

Perhaps standard techniques differ in countries without a red-amber phase on traffic lights, or in petrol-engined vehicles?

I seem to remember being told in driver's ed years ago that if you saw that it was inevitable that you were going to be rear-ended that you should let up on the brake, as that reduces whiplash effects. So I think using the e-brake may be a bad idea. Certainly putting the car in neutral makes sense.

The current teaching for the UK test is to put on the hand brake whenever possible (what they say is if you have time to consider whether to put it on, put it on).

The idea is to stop being shunted into cross-traffic when waiting at a junction - ie. the damage from a rear-end collision is preferable to 60mph in the side.

Gareth

I was rear ended while waiting at a light recently. I did not have the brakes applied and was shoved into the car in front of me with enough force to set off my airbag. (and total a five month old car)