Sorry to be a late-poster but I’ve been wanting to add our U-Haul horror story & this is the first chance I’ve had (Tramp, I’m glad you finally got a truck!). I hope the remainder of your move goes better than hours did:
Moving from Madison, WI, to State College, PA, we needed a fair amount of truck space. By the afternoon of moving day we ended up with two trucks, not the one really big one we’d reserved nor the time we’d reserved - and this is after multiple contacts with the local dealer (we’d gotten the same “yeah, there’s a truck for you somewhere in Wisconsin” line that others have reported). But sometime in the late afternoon we had two trucks, one 12’ and one 20’ (I believe). Our departure was delayed by an extra day, but we did finally leave.
Then came the fun part.
:Foreshadowing * Always get insurance on the big truck. Some auto insurance policies cover damages on smaller trucks (ours did) but I don’t think any of them cover the big trucks.:
On Day 2 of the trip, as we approached the mountains of Pennsylvania I noticed that Hubby, driving the larger truck, was lagging behind. Way behind. In fact he was stopped by the side of the road about a quarter mile back, in heavy rush-hour traffic.
Turns out his truck had died. Just stopped - no steam, no warning lights or pinned gauges. So we drove in my truck to the next exit & called U-Haul. “Oh yes” said the customer service representative. “Sounds like your governor (sp?) has failed. Start it by (some sequence of gears and pumping a certain number of times). Just make sure you don’t drive slower than 50 mph.”
Yes.
It was the Speed bus. With all of our worldly possessions on board and my dear Hubby at the wheel.
Hubby was following me for a while until he found (after a couple more stalls) that in order to maintain 50 mph going uphill, he had to do at least 80 going down. My little truck wasn’t doing that speed well. So now he’s ahead of me, towing our Honda.
And as dusk deepens I notice that the trailer’s lights aren’t lit, he has no tail lights. Hell, he doesn’t have a break light. There’s no rear illumination on his truck! So I try to follow more closely, to keep some light on his vehicle. But he’s flying like a bat outta hell.
And I notice that his oversized truck, which wasn’t packed as tightly as it should have been, is swaying. There’s a semi next to him, on the Pennsylvania mountain, and it’s swaying as well through the twists and turns. There’s a sheer drop to the right, and both trucks are rocking.
Somewhere around this point one of Hubby’s headlights goes out - I think a rock bounced into it.
Finally, after about 2 hours of white-knuckling it, we get close to our destination and off the highway. His rearview mirror falls off. Now that we’re in normal traffic it’s all he can do to keep the truck moving; it stalls several times on the way to our new home.
We pull into the parking lot one day and several hours late, but our new landlord had kindly waited up for us and was there to give me the keys. I went back outside to gather the cats (who’d been in my truck) and hear this strange tinkling sound. It’s my husband, who’s busy kicking out the truck’s other headlight.
When we moved back to the Midwest, we got a Ryder.
