Shipping for Vacation

[scapistron]

Any of you ever ship a vehicle to a destination for vacation? We're going to Yellowstone in September and with my wife's work schedule time off is limited so adding several days on the front and back end to drive from the east coast isn't in the cards. There's a possibility I make the drive myself and meet her there, but that is less appealing.

I think it'd be great to have my own vehicle with my own stuff. We can toss our bulky items like hiking boots, packs, and a cooler into the back and send it. I'm thinking it'd be great to get off the beaten path into some of the fire roads of the national forests (Custer - Gallatin and Bridger - Teton). Stuff a rental car company would frown upon.

We don't need the LR4 for daily driving needs so sending it ahead of time and waiting for it to get back aren't a problem. I've got a pretty good handle on the cost, $1500 each way. Surprisingly competitive with the cost of a decent rental. Last piece of the puzzle is figuring out storage and receiving in SLC.

On a scale from 1 to 10 how crazy is this? 1 being only a fool would put a new motor in a 10 year old Land Rover and 10 being this sounds like my dream vacation.

 

[Longtrail]

I think only you can make this decision, personally I'd look to take the $3K and see what I can rent that would be interesting to me (like a Defender!)... Good luck.

 

[16FujiDisco]

I like your thinking @scapistron , thought about this too when dreaming of trips to Montana, Wyoming, Utah or Colorado. It would really come down to price and risk of damage in transport.

I like @Longtrail thoughts too; maybe on Turo you could find a new defender or grenadier or something, maybe an old D90/110

 

[Nechaken]

From the experiences of people I've known, you may have difficulty finding a shipping company that won't balk at having objects in the car -- fear of claims of theft / damage /etc.

I would look into renting something near the destination -- if you're only looking at fire roads and not real off-roading, I wonder if you could get something from Turo. Probably just a question of insurance / deposit. Or if you want to go more seriously off-road, I know in Moab, for instance, there are a few companies that will rent off-road equipped Jeeps, etc. Perhaps there are similar options near where you want to go exploring...

 

[NoleAnimal22]

Any of you ever ship a vehicle to a destination for vacation? We're going to Yellowstone in September and with my wife's work schedule time off is limited so adding several days on the front and back end to drive from the east coast isn't in the cards. There's a possibility I make the drive myself and meet her there, but that is less appealing.

I think it'd be great to have my own vehicle with my own stuff. We can toss our bulky items like hiking boots, packs, and a cooler into the back and send it. I'm thinking it'd be great to get off the beaten path into some of the fire roads of the national forests (Custer - Gallatin and Bridger - Teton). Stuff a rental car company would frown upon.

We don't need the LR4 for daily driving needs so sending it ahead of time and waiting for it to get back aren't a problem. I've got a pretty good handle on the cost, $1500 each way. Surprisingly competitive with the cost of a decent rental. Last piece of the puzzle is figuring out storage and receiving in SLC.

On a scale from 1 to 10 how crazy is this? 1 being only a fool would put a new motor in a 10 year old Land Rover and 10 being this sounds like my dream vacation.

I'd put it at a 5 or 6. I'll second what Nechaken said about vehicle shippers having a problem with stuff in the car- so that won't be an advantage. But having your own rig out there if you plan to do off-roading would be pretty awesome. But only if you plan to do some overlanding or pretty serious off-roading. Check Turo to see if there are any off-roaders for rent out there that allow for Forest Service Roads.

If you are really set on taking your own rig out there and don't have the time to drive... is there anyone who you trust to drive it out there ahead of time for you? You could have them drive it out there and pay for a plane ticket back for less than what it would cost you to ship it. But then you'd have to drive it back. Just brain-storming here.

I'd love to do the same thing one of these days- but I resigned myself to the idea that I'll probably just have to road trip it out there.

 

[powershift]

10/10. Wait until you can get more time to travel the way you want? I wouldn't want to fly somewhere to go camping, but if you are talking about staying in bed and breakfasts or a hotel then just keep it simple and rent a car.