How to move cross-country without renting a massive truck
Traditional moving trucks cost over a thousand dollars and hit you with hidden fees for mileage, fuel, and extra days. This makes minor moves impossibly expensive, forcing people to look for smaller alternatives like pickup trucks that fit what they actually own.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Considering renting a pickup truck or van instead of a traditional box truck
- 2Selling or giving away belongings to minimize the volume of items
- 3Using a free comparison tool like Move-Price to check rental, fuel, and tolls for multiple companies at once
- 4Opening three different company websites manually to compare prices
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I don't have a lot of stuff, I called Penske and U-Haul and these guys are charging a lot ($1100+). I'm wondering if I can do with an Enterprise pickup or something that has enough space.”source ↗
“Is there a pickup truck that I can rent here instead of a truck? I'm moving from Illinois to Texas.”source ↗
“Renting a truck sounds simple until you actually book one and the final price doesn't match what the website showed you.”source ↗
“That's just the base daily rate. Mileage, fuel, and (for one-way moves) the rental days you're assigned on top of that usually double or triple the number you first see.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Any companies offer rental discounts?
- 7Why are even old used cars so expensive now?
- 8What to do when your rental car logistics and shuttle go wrong
- 9Where to find cheap parts for an older car
- 7How do I find a place to stay that doesn't have hidden review issues?
- 4Companies that ship heavy equipment and farm tools long distance