Towing my Camry back to Bama...???

[Tundra Bama]

I am about to get out of the Army and am in a bind on wether it would be cheper to ship my tundra with a transport service and drive my camry which has way!! better gas mileage or just tow the damn thing with my 07 Crew 4x4...

I don't have a trailer or car hauler and no brake controller either... and I'm really concerned about how many MPGs I will be getting on this 3000mi+ trip..

PLEASE any suggestions or comments (equip. needed, who to transport with, mpg, anything, etc...) will be greatly appreciated..

thanks,
Sgt Morris

[ramoine]

Bump for some help please .

[Codiac]

I don't know any transport companies to use. As for hauling you are probably going to be getting 10-13 MPG towing. If you rent a U-Haul car trailer you don't need a brake controller because their trailers have surge brakes. Surge brakes work when you hit the brakes and the trailer surges forward, the brakes then engage.

So 3,000 miles / 11.5 MPG x $3.52 per/gallon = $918 for fuel.


I know that freight companies charge approx. $0.25 per/pound to ship frieght. Not sure about auto trans companies. You have to remember that ALL transport companies are charging a fuel surcharge of around 10% right now on top of the actual shipping costs.

I think you could tow it cheaper but not sure, you'll have to get some quotes.

Hope this helps some.

[Tundra Bama]

thanks for the suggestions ... and im not quite sure what a bump is.. still looking for any suggestions from any othr experience haulers or anyone ever been in this situation before.

[ramoine]

A bump is a post to bring your thread to the front page for more people to see .

[TundraTough]

I was looking into this very same thing before I moved from Minnesota to Florida (1642 miles). The cheapest I could find that a transport company would do it for was $1200. I drove down instead and paid only $245 in fuel in my Pontiac G6.

[Smed]

Have you ever heard of a drive away? A lot of times you can find womeone who is looking to go that way anyway and have them drive your vehicle - all you pay is gas.... Just a thought, I don't know how the numbers would work out.

Otherwise, I'd have to see the amount they will charge for transport, but it seems unlikely to me that they could beat the cost of you towing it. Do figure about 35 cents a mile or higher cost though - you are putting miles on your truck which costs you on resale as well as the wear and tear on parts, oil changes, etc.

[mitch]

You can buy a cheap-o car hauler for fairly cheap. If you don't need it sell it when you get where you're going

I'm willing to bet it's far cheaper to tow your car then ship the tundra. Pretend shipping is 1000$ for the tundra.

Driving the tundra with the car in tow: 3000 miles at 11mpg is 272 gallons, average gas price is $3.90, that makes $1060 in gas.

if you're car gets 30mpg you're talking $390 to drive. So if the cost of shipping your car is greater then or equal to $670 you should drive. There's some fuzzy logic in there but i think you get the point, this also don't take into account the cost of the trailer.

[Davey8ter]

Tundra Bama, Thank you for your service. Of the 14 military moves I made over a 22 year career, the TMO (Traffic Management Office) will quite often ship a vehicle for free as long as the vehicle is your home of record. Is Bama your home of record? If so check with you base out-processing folks and see if they CONUS to CONUS ship a vehicle upon seperation.