Rental trucks...

Southern Fried

Well-Known Member
Thought about this while reading the "trailer strength" thread.

Would you ever buy a used straight truck or trailer from an outfit like U-haul, Ryder, etc that had been made available to the General Public??

GP has no idea about overloading weight or load securement, etc and the stresses that places on equipment.

Give you an example. Back when I started my little trucking business up home, I often did "customer breakdowns" for a guy who had a U-haul franchise. 99% of the times it was because the rental vehicle was grossly overloaded. Once I got sent to a lady who had one of those single axle van type trailers hooked to her car. Blown tire I was told. Oh yeah, it was..... both tires and the axle was bent all to heck. When I tried to winch it up on my deck I said "holy crap, this thing is heavy". Got her to unlock the back doors and looked in. . Books....front to back and to the roof. "But they're just books", she said. No clue.
 
It developed into quite a fiasco. The "lady" had a "used book" store up in Moncton, NB and her hubby had some kind of connection with the "French only" university there.

Of course she started squalling "discrimination" and "lawsuits" when we tried to explain that she'd simply over-loaded the small trailer she'd rented.
How dare we say she was at fault. :rolleyes:

Jerry wound up loading her crap on a dual axle trailer and hauling it to her store with his own truck. I wound up taking the broken rig to the regional shop where they found frame damage and added it to their "junk pile". Amazing how much stuff they had back there. When I asked what they did with it all they said " Mostly make one out of two or three and then sell it". :eek:
 
Thought about this while reading the "trailer strength" thread.

Would you ever buy a used straight truck or trailer from an outfit like U-haul, Ryder, etc that had been made available to the General Public??

GP has no idea about overloading weight or load securement, etc and the stresses that places on equipment.

given what i have seen on the roads, and at nearly any home supply center, i'd say a resounding NO.

the renters are already the "general public", and as such have no clue to properly distribute the weights, nor pay attention to height restrictions, especially at the drive thru ATM or Mc Burger World


i would find it highly improbable that any G/P renter as it is now, checks under the hood after a long trip when it comes to re-fueling.

the best things buyers of such improperly used trucks, is for junk/trash haulers, maybe a gardener, maybe (some i have seen) converted over to a roach coach.

the average truck driver i feel would not buy such a used truck, knowing they are put through the "ringer"

i'd rather buy a used truck from a trucking company, or from a rental company that rented strictly to trucking companies, not the g/p.

but then again,i have seen some sweet mini pick up trucks (former parts runners) for such places like NAPA, AutoZone, etc, for sale at the local JD Byrider, which for me, would make a good purchase, to just run to the home center. as part's runners, they would not be over loaded, but from what i have seen WILL HAVE over 100,000 miles on them.
 
Not just there. We had a guy win a contract with the Army Corps of Engineers for wire nails used in pinning mats along the Mississippi. I got sent to pick up his first shipment down to Vicksburg.

No one ever asked him about weight. As he is loading I asked what each skid weighed. He said roughly 2000 pounds. So we are going to load 22 skids right?

No he has 50 to ship. Oh and they all have to be there in the morning.

He went through the damn roof when I told him there was no way. He threatened, begged, started to call the cops saying we were trying to "fraud him"......

Eventually we got two more trucks and divided the load between us.

Oh those 2000 lb pallets were closer to 2500. I still scaled at 78k
 
It always amazes me as well these used rental car lots where they sell the old cars. Like Jeff Foxworthy said....

 
I definitely wouldn't buy from U-Haul. They run their equipment into the ground. I've rented a truck a few times from the same place. I rented a new Ford Transit 250 to help a friend move recently and was chatting the guy up. He said U-Haul is starting to invest in new equipment now, but said for the most part the equipment is well past worn. Rented a F350 from the same guy a few years back, and the transmission would take up to 10 minutes before it would shift into drive sometimes.
 
In the past i rented U hauls. Granted they were usually older trucks that had seen better days but i never had an issue. When i move i usually need the largest truck they have due to furniture size and not weight. I just got pissed that they dont guarantee reservations. So now i rent Ryder trucks. Newer, diesel, air brakes, etc.
 

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