shipping tractors

D

dave hoffman

Active member
Does anyone know how to find a shipping source for transporting tractors? I live in north Georgia and always seem to find Super A's in Alabama
or Tennesse, just need to know how to source
 
I've done several epic, cross-country trips to bring goodies back, but that's just not all that much fun anymore. I've used Uship.com once with good results. You're talking professional carriers and they're not always cheap. I had a Super AV hauled from NJ to NC in 2023 and the process went smoothly and the expense wasn't awful, especially when you figure what my cost would have been to go get it myself.

I've done Cub Expresses in the past here, but it seems like anymore the stars have to align perfectly for that to work.


Al
 
It's true what Al said about Cub Express. It used to be pretty easy to get parts, or even a whole tractor, moved even considerably distances. But with fewer Cubfests and the price of gas & hotel rooms, fewer forum members are roaming around!

I'm hoping to go to the LA CUBFEST in Bogaloosa, LA, in March & THE BASH in Harrison, OH, at the end of May... probably hauling a cub or 2 on my 18' trailer.

Unfortunately, it's pretty much hit or miss these days. 🫤
 
I rented a U-Haul car hauler, picked up in Lex. Ky. hauling to central Ohio several years back for just over $100 one way to haul a Farmall 130 & moldboard plow and FH rear blade home. It was right at 250 miles. Just checked U-Haul and it's now $138 for the same trip. My other option was to use my C3500 dump truck and my tri-axle Eager Beaver trailer. I pulled the trailer and tractor with my K1500 GMC with no issues, and got 14 mpg average gas mileage, which wasn't bad considering the trailer's weight. They are heavy..!!

It would have cost me more in gas alone than the trailer rental and a lot better ride. Just have to watch the tractors wheel spacing, as this one just did fit.

I can't tell you how may times I got chastised on other tractor forums for using straps to hold it on. I snugged it down pretty good when loaded, then travelled the
8-10 miles to get back to I-75. Pulled in a gas station to fuel up for the trip home and snugged maybe 2 notches after it settled, and headed for home. Stopped at Aberdeen, Ohio for lunch and checked straps again, still as taught as when I left Lexington. Checked again when I got home and still tight.
 

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U-ship never left me feeling good. The responses I got were always very generic "We have trucks in your area ready and waiting for your load!" I was told that these people were brokers, not even necessarily operating in the USA, who had no trucks, but would bid the load in the hopes of finding someone who would do it for a few hundred less, then pocketing the difference.

The one time U-ship did work for me, it just happened that the driver used to pick up milk at our family farm years ago. He recognized my name and somehow got ahold of me back-channel. He trucked a tractor down to Virginia and back for me to have the powershift transmission repaired.

Any other time I've had a tractor shipped it was by word of mouth. Both times ended up being a bit of a manure show. One tractor showed up on the coldest day of the winter in the middle of a blizzard, and my dad ended up having to unload and reload his entire trailer because my tractor was on the front. The other one showed up in the middle of a freezing rain storm at 11:30PM after the driver tried to go down a "no trucks over 9 tons" hill and had to turn around and take a long detour. This tractor arrived with dead batteries, and I almost got my leg taken off by the block he was using to hold up the corner of the trailer as he backed the tractor off.... fun times...
 
My experience with uShip was getting a vehicle from SW Utah to Colorado. The bid I accepted was from a company in the town where the vehicle was located. Arrived on time and undamaged. Sorry that you had just the opposite Matt.
 
Mikelly Transport Services, 910-894-2831.
They transport mainly motorcycles, but will do anything that loads into their enclosed trailer.
They operate out of SE NC.
 
Bob McCarty said:
Try uShip.
Click to expand...
I have shipped two Cubs 700 miles using Uship. Last time about 4 years ago. The most recent one cost me about $850. You’ll get a lot of very high quotes. If you’re flexible with regard to your time, then you can wait for some somebody going in that general direction with an open trailer or room for your equipment. So it depends on how flexible you are. Fortunately, I was very flexible and the shipper even stored my tractor for a few days in order for us to coordinate meeting at the destination.

I definitely got some very high quotes. And you may get comments like, “You’re not gonna find anybody to ship it for the price you’re looking for.” I just responded that, you might be right, but I have a lot of time and flexibility. To me, it was kind of like any other business transaction. You get a good or bad feeling based on communication. I found a guy passing through the Cleveland area that lived in eastern Wisconsin and was going that way anyway so it worked out good for both of us because he had an empty trailer and was heading in the direction I needed my tractor to go. He insisted that I do not pay him anything until the job is completed. They all get reviewed after the job is completed. I think most of these people seem like just you or me, out to do a job and make a profit. Like I said, my flexibility was the reason I got a price that was acceptable to me. There are a lot of haulers on Uship. It only took 2-3 days before I found someone to ship it. I also live 5 miles from I-80 and my destination was 35 miles off I-94 so it’s a heavily traveled route.
 
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