tow vehicle rental?

[Dave]

Ok, so Geo and I are off to the OTC (www.opentrackchallenge.com) in a few weeks time and we're still struggling to figure out what to do in terms of a tow vehicle. We've looked into renting a RV, a SUV and trailer, or selling my pimpmobile Maxima and buying a tow vehicle and trailer. Just wondering if any of you guys have suggestions on a cost-effective way to tow my car out to California. Any rental places that you know of that have SUV's equipped with a trailer hitch?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Dave

[ctheo]

I rented an Explorer for $79.99/day unlimited KM from Hertz last week. It had a hitch reciever, I'm sure not about a wiring the harness. I think most SUV came equiped with the harness though.

For the same price they can also rent you an econoline E350 van (Caius calls them wormpicker vans) for the same price. The E350 has tonnes of room and I'd hazzard would be no worse on fuel then the Exploder. The Exploder cost me $20 to go 200km.

That van holds 12 pasengers, so if you took the seats out you'd have plenty of storage space and a nice place to sleep.

Let's check the specs on the Van...
Tows 5200lbs 15mpg city 20hwy

The Exploder
Tows 5060 15 city 20 hwy

Just about the same specs but the van had WAY more room. You can probably get them down to $69/day with unlimited km on the van.

I think renting would pay for itself if you look at the cost of repairing the Maxima should the tranny explode. Hell, if you do have car trouble you might miss portions of the event entirely.
If the rental blows up just pull into another Hertz angent and they'll give you a new one.

[ADAM]

yeah..be carefull thats a real long haul..make sure you have new bearings on your trailer..and that it has full size tires that are new.....and carry a spare...

[ctenche]

What about having it shipped down there? Not sure of the pricing and timing though.

I know that Preet had his Rex shipped to Vancouver for about $700 each way.

It might be an option. I dunno...

[Dave]

Theo, thanks for the info. I didn't realize most trucks come with towing hardware (and maybe wiring) these days. Your E350 idea is a damn good one. I'm going to call Hertz today to see...with our CAA Plus membership they do offer a nice discount an unlimited mileage and the Exploder was only going to be $818 +tax for the two weeks.

Adam, how about you drive your beast to the track and let me borrow your trailer for two weeks! ;)

Caius, I have looked into shipping the car, but unfortunately it's about $1200-1500 each way, which is just too darn much bling bling.

We can rent a RV with unlimited mileage and towing capacity for $2300 for the two weeks we'll be gone. That's still a pretty strong contender on our options list since we could cancel all our hotel reservations and save about $1k right there.

This trip is a real logistic challenge!

[ctenche]

Ouch, I didn't realize that the shipping would be that expensive.

Maybe the RV thing is the better way to do it then since like you say, you will be able to save quite a bit on hotel room costs. Will you be getting one of those RVs with the rooftop patio? That would be cool.

\\ Caius - RV dreamin'

[ADAM]

if i was not racing i would have lent it to you..but i really can't rely on my beast to get me from here to there :) not yet anyway...plus no street tires...

i think the hertz thing would be the best idea..and the cheapest...just bring some sleeping bags and go to it..

[Dave]

Hey Adam, I'll pay for you to rent a trailer the weekend you need one so I can take yours to Cali :) You KNOW your trailer has been dying to go to California for years now! :p

[Bad Karma]

Speaking of trailer rentals, any good places around the GTA to rent an open car trailer (16 ft min)?

I know U-Haul rents car trailers, but (A) these are heavy, and (B) in talking to a couple of buddies that work at U-Haul, they say they're generally hard to get ahold of.

The heavy part I'm not too worried about, as my daily driver is a 3/4 ton Ford 4x4....

I have a friend that will loan me a trailer nearly any time I'd like, but he's also towing his car to a couple of events I'm planning on attending this year as well.

Until I sell my boat, I'm trying to keep my spare cash from buying a trailer of my own....


Pat