I think most of you know by now that I’m moving from Montana to Gerogia in the next few weeks. In earnest preparation–going back several years in fact–I loaded up my pickup truck and newly-bought trailer (a 7x12’ at a steal of $4,400!) this afternoon. The entire endeavor took me all of an hour and a half. And this, my friends, is a double edged sword . . .
See, when you do a DITY (Do IT Yourself) move, Uncle Sam will pay you to move yourself, to the tune of 95% of what it would have cost them to move you. A lot of people take advantage of this and earn a few bucks in the process, myself being one of them. Going back a few weeks, I’ve had to mentally tally up how much stuff I had left in storage by weight, and buy that new trailer around it. Figuring all of the tools, guns, gear, clothes, books, DVDs, CDs, kitchen krap, and other miscellanea, I figured it wasn’t too far off the mark to figure I would max out the GVWR of my truck (roughly 13.5 kips*). I moved the stuff into the unit, so I think to myself that I’ve got a relatively good estimate going here. Deducting about 6 kips for the truck, maybe 1 for the trailer, this leaves me with 6,500 lbs of raw cargo that I’ll be hauling down to Georgia. Through discussion, I’ve learned that the trailer’s weight itself counts toward the weight of your household goods, so my total “raw cargo” load is back up to 7.5 kips: well within the rated capacity of my F-150 XLT, which is exactly the reason I bought this truck, and why I had them slap on a heavier suspension, brakes, and the works (a '150 XLT with a Class III towing kit). I’d also like to note that I drive this thing like my own personal fighter jet, and my “communications suite” is now nearly perfected with a satellite radio that rhymes with “seriously” sweet.
Anyway, I do the math again. I have a 5x10x6.5’ (325 cu. ft) storage unit as advertised. I also have a trailer whose purposefully-purchased interior measures 7x10x6’(420 cu. ft.). The math works. I can haul all of my stuff, the kitchen sink, and Jimmy Hoffa when they find him. Armed with my estimates, my truck and trailer, and an empty afternoon, I make off for my storage unit.
Here’s where it gets weird: one would think that physically moving three and one quarter tons of personal crap would take the better part of a couple of days. This wasn’t the case. I started at 12:PM, and finished at 1:30PM, basically filling the trailer, leaving maybe 100 CF available in the trailer. After finishing, I took my ensemble to get a weight ticket, and get this, I’ve only got 5,000 lbs of shit, including the trailer! How is it that the laws of physics instantly change things that my household goods are not as dense as I am? I’m still in amazement at how so much yet so little, can weigh not enough yet still quite a bit.
I mean, I’ve gone through all of the boxes of the aforementioned crap, and there’s a lot! But then you stack it all up, and it’s not quite what you thought it would be. That it’s a formidable mass to haul is true, but wow, I thought I had more/less stuff than this! And what an ecclectic collection as well! What am I going to do with three copies of the same Fiber Optics book from college?
I guess the only thing I’ve learned today, is that while you may think you have household goods, it’s a problem much like that of one interpretation of Schrödinger’s cat, whereas weights and states of matter fluctuate with dependence on time, and you can only measure it at the exact instant you decide to move your stuff.
Tripler
And you thought moving was easy.
- One kip = 1,000 lbs.