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Any advice on how to move a boat from Dallas area to Ohio (or TN)


geogilbert

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Looking at a VLX in the Dallas area. Only trouble is that it is 1000 miles away.

If I pull the trigger Id need to get it home somehow and that is a pretty long drive...

Any thoughts on how to move it?

Also looking for anyone with experience with Waterski America North of Dallas. planning to have them do a full inspection and compression test. By all indications they are a good group just no personal experience.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Oh and anyone want an 08 VTX?

Thanks,

George

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uship.com. Our first Malibu was in Havasu, AZ and we had it shipped all the way to IN. This was almost 6 years ago and cost roughly $1,400 for the 2,000 mile trip. I would certainly do it this way again if I needed to.

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Its a long day, but I can't see any reason you couldn't do 1000 miles in one day.

National car rental rents subuurbans, no lock in the hitch reciever, just saying....

Never shipped a boat, but shipped a couple cars, never went well.

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^^^ this man knows what's up. I have first hand knowledge of his sense of adventure. LOL

I'd tow a boat 1,000 miles in a heartbeat. When I bought mine, I woke up Saturday at 5am on my birthday. Drove 500 miles to Shreveport. Met up with the guy, spent the entire afternoon/evening on the water with him and his wife test driving the boat and making great friends with them. Handed him a check, loaded up and drove 500 miles back home that night. ... well, I say "night." I rolled in around 6am on Sunday. But anyway - took a nap, hit the lake that afternoon in my new boat.

Wouldn't have had it any other way. One helluva memory, for sure.

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When I was looking at a boat in MA I had planned on using Uship. I was first going to drive but, didn't have anyone who could take the time off to go with me. The first Uship bids were ridiculous than after a week or so they were more reasonable. This link from the forum was very helpful regarding Uship!! http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/53971-boat-shipping/?hl=uship

That boat deal fell through and i eventually found a VTX in Omaha. Had a successful 840 mile roundtripper in one day with my daughter. Perfect weather so I kept the cover off but, was all set to wrap boat. I searched the forum and had great tips from members to help me through the process!

Good luck with your adventure!

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I just had a boat shipped from Indiana to California using Uship.com in July. For $1800 it travelled 2,200 miles on a 40 ft car hauler trailer. Didn't have to worry about the tires or hubs on my own boat's trailer. It couldn't have gone better.

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I have been dealing with Water Ski America for over 10 years and purchased three Malibu's from them. I have nothing but good words for the sales and service folks and would highly recommend them.

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Oh and anyone want an 08 VTX?

Thanks,

George

Hmm. Is it a Cut-diamond hull? Any pics? Engine? Hours? Maintenance? How much do you want for it?

I've been seriously considering down-sizing to a better slalom wake [and I'm partial to blue boats].

Edit: Never mind. I read through a couple of your previous posts, and it looks like you have the Wake hull. I'm sure its a great boat, but not what I'm looking for.

Edited by srab
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I'm with IBIP, road trip!

When I bought my first Bu, Dad and I went on a road trip several hours away to see it. We ran the boat all morning but couldn't quite come to terms on price. We then went to lunch to think it over and came up with our best offer. Leaving the resturant I backed into a telephone pole in the middle of the parking lot. Back at the dealer we still could not agree on a price so we left, about 2 miles down the road we decided we were fools to walk away, went back and signed the papers. My Echelon LX has been a great boat since the day I bought it.

Now on the search for Bu #2, I located one outside of Saint Louis, can you say road trip. I negotiated a deal and we set off to inspect the boat. Nothing went smoothly on our 1600 mile trip. I lost a wheel bearing in my truck. The boat was nothing like what the dealer described and it would not even run right, kept going into limp mode. The highlight of the trip was some great BBQ and beers while the local auto shop repaired my truck.

Both trips had a bump or two but they were fun and I will never forget them. Now go on that road trip to texas and bring home a boat.

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I wouldn't wanna tow that far personally but I'd prob do it if I had trailer inspected and all was well prior. WSA is an awesome dealer and have nothing but good things to say about them

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I also had a good experience with waterski America. we bought a VLX from them about 9 years ago. I put money down over the phone, test drove it a few days later, and hauled it 5 hours home. Good Times

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I used uship.com and found this guy (Wayne) and shipped my Sunsetter from CA to PA for $2k (approx 2500 miles). It also rode on a giant flatbed trailer which meant no wheel bearing/tire risk on the boat trailer. The biggest reason I liked the boat on a flatbed is there would be no stone chips from the long tow. :thumbup: He is fully insured and has all is paperwork in order - no fly by night guy towing boats.

He would send me an email each evening and let me know how far he made it across country. Super nice guy. He travels with his wife, he drives and she does the paperwork, picture taking, documentation. They do a great job.

photo%204%20%281%29.jpg

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I used uship.com and found this guy (Wayne) and shipped my Sunsetter from CA to PA for $2k (approx 2500 miles). It also rode on a giant flatbed trailer which meant no wheel bearing/tire risk on the boat trailer. The biggest reason I liked the boat on a flatbed is there would be no stone chips from the long tow. :thumbup: He is fully insured and has all is paperwork in order - no fly by night guy towing boats.He would send me an email each evening and let me know how far he made it across country. Super nice guy. He travels with his wife, he drives and she does the paperwork, picture taking, documentation. They do a great job.photo%204%20(1).jpg

Man that boat looks GOOD, at every angle! :)

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We moved from San Antonio to Columbus 2 years ago. I made the trip twice, one weekend apart. First trip was the cars loaded to the gills and then 2 weeks later a buddy and I flew down, loaded up a 26' penske truck and drove that all the way home. ~1300 miles each with without issue, thankfully. I'd say do it, make a trip out of it. Texas has so many things to see/do and good food to eat that you can make it enjoyable for sure. Plus plenty of nice things to see/do on the way back if you feel like taking it easy.

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I was just looking at moving a boat from Georgia to Michigan a few weeks ago. Budget rental had specials for people wanting to move things from South to North. I was going to fly to Atlanta, Uber my way to a Budget dealer, and go check out the boat. We had pre-arranged a price contingent on a water test. The truck was going to cost me something like $300 for 4 days, with unlimited miles. It was ridiculously low. I did know that I needed to be prepared to walk away and fly back home though. Or maybe at that point, I would have driven the truck home empty-handed.

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I bought my boat out of TX and used Uship to get it to Kansas City. I think WSA was also the dealer I had do an inspection for me. They caught a few things that I had the seller fix before I made the transaction.

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Try Volunteer Marine Transport based in TN.

They hauled my boat from CA to MI this past March, and it arrived in perfect condition. They put it on a flat bed trailer so I didn't need to worry about my boat trailer tires and bearings.

I got it shrink wrapped before they picked it up, and it held up fine.

Every UShip bid I got was for tow-away service on the boat trailer. It would have been cheaper, but probably not without some headaches.

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When I got our boat shipped out of Michigan to Reno last year, I'd read a bunch of these posts and expected to get a flatbed pull by a licensed and insured hauler for $2K or so. Nothing doing. All of the bids were more like $4-5k!!! So I amended my requirements and ended up having the trailer towed for around $2K. The boat arrived just fine and that's probably what happens 99% of the time. But while it was in transit it was really stressful on me because I kept thinking about what happens the other 1% of the time.

For a 1000 mile tow I think if I were doing it over I'd do it myself, going the budget/national route mentioned in this thread. For me 2k+ miles was just too much of a vacation at that particular time. But 1K is really a pretty easy weekend tow even if you break it up, and probably not an unreasonable 1 day tow if you resolve yourself to the fact that it's going to be 16-18 hours behind the wheel.

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