how did you ship your car?

[bbehnke]

Hello all,

My team and i are going out to the California competition and we are just looking at the cheapest way to get the car out there. from teams who have done this before how did you do it? how much was the cost and with what shipping company did you do with? Were coming from Hartford, CT and going to Fontana, CA. thanks for all the opinions.

Brian Behnke

[RollingCamel]

You really don't need to know...lol!

[Sormaz]

We packed up into a rental Penske truck and two of our team members drove out there. I'm pretty sure it was ~2 days of nonstop driving (thank you 70mph governor!) and that's from illinois...would be a bit longer from where you are of course http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

I'm interested in shipping options/costs as well, as I don't think we will have people available to do that again.

[js10coastr]

We went the other way for Fomula Hybrid...

We went through school and used a shipping courier... had to make a crate and then deal with all the school bureaucracy or going through the right people and payments etc etc. And then making sure that NHMS would be able to accept the crate... If you can and if you have the time, I'd rent a truck and drive it across. Be safe though. Not everyone here remembers what happened at Detroit '05.

[exFSAE]

Screw shipping, drive it.

Likewise, did the Penske truck thing. Two guys and a case of Red Bull.

[Some Guy]

We had a team member whose family generously loaned us the use of their Winnebago. Not the easiest on gas, but it was great once we were there.

On a more serious note, if you haven't already I would be sure to take into consideration whether or not you trust a shipping company with your car, both in terms of shipping time and how they are going to handle it.

But I have wanted to drive across the country for some time now so I am little biased towards that anyway.

[mcphill]

driving across the country can be pretty enjoyable with the right people. make sure to have a spare tire or two for the trailer, as you never know when one might go flat (the middle of nowhere, texas, in the middle of the night is never fun). and always have a passenger awake with the driver. 3 people in a truck seemed to work pretty well as one could sleep while the others were awake.

do be careful, js10coastr is right in that a lot of the newer guys haven't heard about 05 but i think it needs to be reminded. better to be safe than sorry.

[bbehnke]

i would love to drive cross country with an rv adn out trailier of with just a rental tuck but none of out team members have enough time to do that. plus from some of the quotes that i have been doing so far shipping it out there might be cheaper than driving.

[MegaDeath]

A truck towing a trailer and a rental van that fits everyone else. That is how we have done it the past two years. Worked fine for us.

[Luniz]

Just being curious... what happened in Detroit '05?

[Crispy]

Three students on the Minnesota State-Mankato team died an several more were injured on their way to competition.

First link if you Google: "Three Minnesota College Students Killed in Car Crash"

If you take a look at most any 2005 car that attended the Michigan event you should find a purple and gold "M" decal in memory.

[cjanota]

We shipped to Cali for 2 years using ABF relocubes. We built a shelf about 2.5" from the celing to put stuff on and the car and tool chests went below. The container is not long enough for a car so you have to tip the car up on its back wheels (probably won't work if you have an aero package.)

Cost was about $2500 round trip including like $300 to insure the delivery time for arrival at the competition. I have pics somewhere of the packed container. I'll post them if I find them.

Sormaz, the pics might be on the shop computer somewhere.

[thewoundedsoldier]

Went from San Jose, CA to Concord, NH for Formula-Hybrid. Did it in my parents RV + open-bed trailer.

The open-bed trailer thing sucks going through snow storms in Wyoming--the car was pretty rusted and dirty once we got there even with tarps on. First thing this year we bought a big enclosed trailer which we'll use both for FH in New Hampshire and for FSAE-Michigan two weeks later.

The whole excitement of driving across the country wears off about 300 miles in. At that point, you still have 2,700 miles to go. We went north to I-80. All the cool cities are on the coasts or in Texas, so pretty much the only interesting city you drive through is Denver. The rest of the drive is a hell of a lot of fields. You might want to go South first and take I-70--which would put you right into Las Vegas for a good couple nights of fun. Show the car to some go-go dancers, maybe?

Oh yeah we had six dudes and my dog in the RV, so nobody ever really got too tired and there was enough to do that nobody went insane. We had three separate blowouts--two RV tires and one trailer tire. We got ~7 miles to the gallon. It was definitely a fun "life experience", but this year I'm flying.

[frontie5]

I would suggest trying to find another team nearby who may be driving. We have coordinated with several teams in the past to take their cars to California in our trailer in exchange for a small fuel stipend.

Might be worth looking into.

[Andy K]

Wow, '05 brings back some memories... I missed that year for FSAE, but I still remember hearing the news about the accident and messaging the guys I knew who were on the road to comp. That's the type of scenario I've dreaded the most.

Last year, we had 4 guys leave on the Saturday morning with a couple of cases of RedBull (although they saved them for the trip back), drove 50hrs straight from Montreal on a 2 awake, 2 sleeping rotation, stopping only for gas and food. Our F-150 Crew Cab consumed over $4000 in gas for the round-trip, towing a 20-ft v-nose. Once we total the trailer rental for 2 weeks, we had spent over $5000 even using our own tow vehicle. Needless to say, we're working on air freight this year, although we're ready to drive again if the deal falls through. Also, if you pack your tools and spares correctly, you shouldn't need anything larger than a 16-ft trailer.

[Umur Selek]

I would ask FEDEX or UPS for a quote. Try to get a discount from them. Explain yourself and the FSAE.

Hit up the local shipping/freight companies (ie. YELLOW, Crater's & Freighter's) and ask for discounts.

Do not try to drive it without any sleep ! Please.

Trust me, even with a case of redbull, chances of a fatal accident is too big.

[mickeldavid1]

That does not seems to be a big problem.Now a days their are many shipping companies that provide this service.Last year I also hired service from a shipping company to transport my motorcycle to another place.Check on different shipping sites.