Hello, I need to ship my jeep from Chicago down to Houston and I have been getting a million quotes from brokers and this seems like a crazy industry. I got one quote from Long Distance Towing which has their own network of trucks for $1400 and reliable carriers can do it enclosed for $3000 which seems nuts. Any recommendations to ship the jeep to another state? https://longdistancetowing.com/

 

If you are stuck on "shipping" it, it won't be cheap. I think the price has a lot to do with how much space it takes up, weight and distance. On a flat trailer you are taking up about 1/3 of the space, probably close to that in a box van. If you had a choice, I would suggest driving/towing it, but its not mine!

 

I know you probably end up spending with gas and hotel and food $800-$1000 and you spend 3 days to ship and all the time doing it your self. Seems like a headache to me.

 

I live within 100 miles of Houston, that being said, its about 1100 miles from a "general" Houston to a "general" Chicago. Optimistically, you would think 20mpg or 17mpg pessimistically thinking So plan your fuel stops around Walmart Supers for consistent fuel prices currently down here its close to 3.10 a gallon (thanks JB) . That would be 55 gallons estimated for one and 65 gallons estimated for the lower mpg or a cost of $170.50 for one and 201.50 for the lower mpg. Stay in decent hotels for $100 a night by shopping around and only stay 2 nights for a easy drive and 1 night for a coffee binged aggressive drive. and you are at or below $400. Also depends on what your time is worth.

 

and if you have no mechanical breakdowns...........

 

Yep, that adds some time to the trip! I have done 1150 miles in a day before when I was younger in a XJ, then a few times later with a co-driver. Once while doing the return, I had a alternator go out (during winter) so that killed all my heat and I had to stop for a night to replace the alternator and recharge the battery before I could continue. At that point I was still a 12 hour drive from home. Never shut it off the rest of the way and made it! Had to rebuild a couple of U-joints using a hammer and a rock to back up the joint when it went bad in the mountains while hunting. Of course I knew they were likely bad is why I had spare u-joints with me. A smarter play would have been to replace them before I made the trip!

Back to the point, you need to know your vehicle pretty well to make those trips for sure. When I get a new to me XJ, (last 2 have been trailered home, upon purchase) I start off small. Drive around town to detect anything going bad, then venture out in the 50 to 100 mile trips and finally push it out to 500 mile trips before I would trust it enough to make a 11 or 1200 mile trip. So far, I have been lucky!