U-Haul tow rules....

[Dollytrolley]

So suppose you need to rent a U-Haul car trailer....

 

The U-Haul geek will ask you a bunch of questions but the Two important questions are...

 

1. What make and model car are you planing to hauling with OUR U-Haul car trailer?

 

2. What make and model is the tow vehicle you plan to tow OUR trailer AND your vehicle with?

 

Then.....the U-Haul geek dives deep into the... U-Haul computer and inputs the combo of tow'r and toe'ee and....the computer spits out a answer ....IF they will OR...will NOT rent you their car trailer.....sorta...

 

The rule of thumb is that U-Haul really cares NOT what the tow rig is factory rated at for towing .... U-Haul'$ max allowed load on THEIR car trailer is limited to 80% of the empty weight of the tow rig AND many tow rigs are downgraded as low as 55% of empty weight...gulp...

 

So how many of us could comply with the U-Haul combo rules with our combo...?

 

Wonder how little the U-Haul lawyers tow?

 

Drive on....(what's 80% of too much?)

[I'mdonewiththis forum]

I wonder what they would do if you said you were going to use a twin screw tractor(RV)? Bet they wouldn't know what to do...........

[SIBERNUT]

I wanted to rent a car trailer to bring home an '88 StarCraft Nova pop up. They said "No, it is not a vehicle". OK idiot, so why does it have plates, and it's lighter than a car anyway". So I waited a few days, and went to another location. Same question. So now being considerably smarter, I said "it is an '88 Nova". No problem, down the road I went. You just gotta' know how the game is played.....

[jkoenig24]

After my enclosed car trailer was stolen when I was in Elkhart, IN back in 2014, I guess I was lucky I only needed a tow dolly to get my Prius back to NY.

[chiefneon]

Howdy!

 

Yep, been there done that. Tried to rent a small U-haul trailer to pick up a brush hog. when I call them they could not do it over the phone for my MDT. So I drove to them and the lady finally said "I'll just put it in the computer that it's a Ford", I said "what every it takes".

 

"Happy Trails"

Chiefneon

[Darryl&Rita]

As Sibe, play within the constraints they want to use. You only have to comply for the booking, you can pick up with a Yugo. They won't even question it.

[Hot Rod]

Go the the neighborhood uhaul franchisee, they will rent you pretty much anything as long as they get paid The company stores are a little stricter.

 

But don't forget, only 45mph max towing speed!

[HERO Maker]

I thought it was 55 mph printed on the fender?

[GeorgiaHybrid]

I ran into this stupidity when I needed to rent a car hauler from them to take the smart car to Texas from Georgia. Guy asked what I was hauling. I answered "A smart car". He replied that there was no such thing. After 5 minutes of trying to convince him, I gave up and said Fiat 500.

 

Great, that is in the computer. What is your tow vehicle? Freightliner M2-112 was the answer. That is not in my computer was his reply. I told him never mind the model number, the word "Freightliner" should be a big enough hint that the truck was more than capable enough. He said "Not in the computer".

 

My reply was to hold the trailer and when I come to pick it up, he could take a look and see if he thought the truck would be be enough.

 

When I got there, the car hauler he reserved was the LARGEST one UHaul has. He agreed that the truck might be big enough and off I went to load the smart. Stopped back by later to let him see it. The car is so light the only way I could get that trailer to track right was to put the entire car in front of the axles and had about 15 feet of empty trailer hanging on the wind.

 

When I pulled in he said "I didn't think a car could be that small" Felt like telling him again that a Freghtliner was a big truck and that I had told him the car was smaller than a Fiat 500 but that he was too stupid to listen and comprehend that but I resisted and smiled and left the lot.

 

I really wonder if this country will survive this new generation.

[accumack]

I can tell you they will not rent a trailer to you if you have a soft top Wrangler jeep. Some idiot must flipped one and then sued them. Hard top Wrangler not problem.

[Dollytrolley]

Here I am sorta hijacking a three I started but.....

 

Sorta a I-Haul episode....so a few weeks ago wanted to check out some Jeep trails on Wheeler pass between Pahrump and Las Vegas....

 

So the day of the Wheeler Pass geezer trip arrives and the Dollyomma reminds me that it was my last day to use my $.50/gal discount on diesel to fill the Dollytrolley at Smith's fuel....I say well no problem you drive the Samuria to Smith's and then I'll fuel the Dollytrolley and you drive it back to cowgirl camp and I will meet up with the Jeep's for the geezer attack on Wheeler Pass...no dice she say she needs the Chevy to pick up four of her cowgirl friend for lunch out.....

 

Being a smart guy I had some choices .... pull the ramps out and drive the Samuria up into the cargo on the Dollytrolley or....just hitch the Samuria tow-bar to the Dollytrolley....no problem, I hitched up and followed the Dollyomma in the Chevy to Smith's... I fueled the Dollytrolley and pulled over and parked in front of the Chevy...I was idling for a couple minutes and then say Dollymomma pushing a shopping cart toward the Chevy so I checked the backup cam and eased the Dollytrolley into REVERSE to backup a couple of feet to give Dollymomma a bit more shopping cart room ....all of a sudden see a guy yelling and waving his arms.... he comes up a yells your forgot that your Samuria is hitched up to your truck... I smiled and said your kidding me....he said I am not kidding you ...you can't backup...I set the park brake and stepped down and walked back and put my hands on my hips and said....those darn kids next door are playing a joke on me again by hitching the Samuria onto the truck while I was taking a nap....this explains why I could get up to 35 mph into town.....the guy smiles and say your pulling my leg.....I smiled and said oh ya....

 

People are used to motorhome'$ towing small toads but a HDT towing a Samuria looks a bit odd.

 

Drive on....(is that darn Samuria still back there?)

[Ronbo]

My friend and I used to go from Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas over the mountain to Pahrump. After fueling we would return over Wheeler Pass. Enjoy the drive.

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

I usually say I'm driving a F150 and need to carry a VW Bug. Once had an argument when the young clerk asked what year VW, I said '53 he swore to me that they didn't make them then only since 2006 or so when the new model came out. Another good car is to say you need to carry a Karmann Gia..... poor kid couldn't even spell it.

[BlueLghtning]

I ran into Uhaul's computer stupidity a few months back. I needed to get my Jeep Liberty 4x4 back to my house from my parents (30 miles). I only needed it for a short while and figured it would be easier to just rent a tow dolly instead of the full car hauler. I knew I had to pull the driveshaft since the Jeep can only be towed 4 down, but that was easy enough. Sure enough though when they put in their PC, it said sorry this can't be towed on a dolly. I said I know, but I've pulled the drive shaft, it will be fine. He couldn't figure out how to get the computer to change that even though he knew better. I finally said, just put in my VW Bug since it's FWD. He protested at first that he wasn't supposed to do that, but finally did.

 

Sometimes you have to be able to use common sense.

[beyerjf]

I used to work for Penske Truck Leasing. Dealing with the general public on such items is an entire education in itself. Penske has never directly competed with U-Haul on the trailer business. As you will notice, no one will. They are literally the only player in the country with one-way trailer movements. There used to be a couple of others, but U-Haul put them under every time with predatory pricing.

Penske will only rent a car hauling trailer/tow dolly behind the Penske truck they rent to you. And you can understand U-Hauls point of view. They have had every conceivable screw up happen with their equipment since their inception in 1945. Remember once upon a time you could rent a bumper hitch and bolt it to the back of your 1956 Chevrolet 150 and trundle down the road blissfully unaware of how dangerous it was. They used to tap in to the tail light wiring in the trunk of the family sedan in such a way as to almost guarantee failure.

A corporate mindset to protect the public from themselves, a legal dept to die for, and a computer system rigged to prevent the ignorants who work for them any wiggle room( like the auto parts counter guys at Advance Zone O'Reilly's) and your experience evolves.

Google image U Haul accidents and have a laugh when you see their slogan AN ADVENTURE IN MOVING" upside down on most of them.

[Big5er]

Remember the Ford Explorer and Firestone tire debacle? Well U-haul got hit with one of those suits, in Texas, where 3 college students rolled their Explorer while towing a U-Haul. Of course there was evidence of drug usage, which the judge ruled inadmissible so U-Haul, Ford and Firestone all ate it on that one.

After that mess U-Haul will not rent you a trailer to tow behind your Explorer. Now, if you are driving a Mercury Mountaineer, you can still rent a trailer. Explain that one....

[Av8r3400]

Also applies to the Explorer Sport Trak... (That useless little pickup-abomination Ford made)

[Bob86ZZ4]

Another good car is to say you need to carry a Karmann Gia..... poor kid couldn't even spell it.

Uuuummmm, it's actually Karmann Ghia.

[Dollytrolley]

I used to work for Penske Truck Leasing. Dealing with the general public on such items is an entire education in itself. Penske has never directly competed with U-Haul on the trailer business. As you will notice, no one will. They are literally the only player in the country with one-way trailer movements. There used to be a couple of others, but U-Haul put them under every time with predatory pricing.

Penske will only rent a car hauling trailer/tow dolly behind the Penske truck they rent to you. And you can understand U-Hauls point of view. They have had every conceivable screw up happen with their equipment since their inception in 1945. Remember once upon a time you could rent a bumper hitch and bolt it to the back of your 1956 Chevrolet 150 and trundle down the road blissfully unaware of how dangerous it was. They used to tap in to the tail light wiring in the trunk of the family sedan in such a way as to almost guarantee failure.

A corporate mindset to protect the public from themselves, a legal dept to die for, and a computer system rigged to prevent the ignorants who work for them any wiggle room( like the auto parts counter guys at Advance Zone O'Reilly's) and your experience evolves.

Google image U Haul accidents and have a laugh when you see their slogan AN ADVENTURE IN MOVING" upside down on most of them.

OMG Jeff when I got to the part about the logo....AN ADVENTURE IN MOVING ...UP-$IDE-DOWN...I just about wet myself...

 

Your right on when you say that has every imaginable"Event" occur with there rigs...we had a float plane that we kept on the end of a floating ramp so the floats were out of the water when we were not at the lake....our float was close to a busy boat ramp and it was a hoot to watch folks try to launch boats or even better to watch drunks try to get boats back on trailers.....one day we had just landed and was slowly taxing the old float plane to the float ramp when we rounded the end slip and there it was ....a U-Haul box truck with just part of the logo AN ADVENTURE IN MOVING slowly sinking next to our float ramp....

 

The story "floated to us" was that the boys had rented the U-Haul box truck and car trailer to tow a car and a pile of car parts back from a swap meet....they unloaded everything at home and decided to load a huge river rafting on the car trailer and fill up on beer and go to the lake....the forgot a rachet-tie on the rafters so it did not float off the trailer as planned so....they just kept backing down the ramp....when the box truck rear wheels floated free the whole shebang became a raft of sorts....

 

I wonder if the boys bought the optional insurance plan...

 

Drive on.....(can you rent paddles at U-Haul ?)

[dblr]

Had sort of the same situation when I was planning on picking up my HDT, the U-Haul lady needed all that info but told me it was more so that I got a trailer big enough to fit the car on, I said I was pleased with her help and then asked how many sizes of car trailers they had......her reply was one!!!!!!!!!! All in all they were very helpful when we picked it up and loved the truck set up with the Smart on it.

[somewhereinusa]

In the late 60's I worked at a place in Key West that rented U-hauls. They didn't really have many restrictions. I once took in a return of the biggest cargo trailer they had, I don't remember the size but it was pretty big at that time. I don't think they have anything that big now. It had come from Norfolk, VA. It was pulled by a VW beetle with one of their strap on the bumper hitches. That would have been about 36 horse, the bumper was one of the old single layer chrome jobs. The VW was about half the size of the trailer.