big pig rig U Haul
Called one day ahead, short notice I know, but just the way things worked out. The male voice on the other end of the
phone sounded as though he thought he was doing me a favor by speaking with me on the telephone. This should
have been the moment when I took my business elsewhere but as I said I didn’t have a lot of time, and I was unable to
contact the other local truck rental agencies.
9:00 this morning arrived to pick up the truck. Made eye contact with the agent as he casually strolled into his mini
storage farm all the time walking further and further away until…didn’t see him again for another 15 minutes. The
registration process was unpleasant at best and then mounting my big pig rig with its funky noises, squeaks, and
smells, and the temperature gauge that reads 280 f all the time, but we’re only getting started.
Set out to load my stuff, no real problems but I’m being gentle with the truck. It’s sounds are making me less
confident about driving it (It’s not like I drive 26 foot box trucks with “mom’s attic” everyday). The battery died while
we were loading the truck. Oh, and I did notice the sticker that says to run the truck every 20 minutes but what do
you do if the battery is dead after less than twenty minutes? What more could go wrong?
3:20 pm set out to the unload point, 3:50 stopped and put 23 gallons into the tank (at todays prices (: ^ ()} !!). This
truck is just drinking gas and I needed to return it with the 1/4 full of gas (and what the hell is this? Give me a truck
with a full tank and I’ll return it full. It’s the only way it can be fair.) 4:00 I’m on the side of the highway in a truck
that just stopped running. I mean it just completely died while I’m puttering along at 50 mph. Called the roadside
assistance # and was told someone would call me in half an hour to tell me what they could do. Screw that! Get me
assistance in half an hour! Not being the type to just sit and wait, I started poking around. Opened the fuse panel
and out falls a 12 volt 15 amp fuse! plugged it into the fuse panel and bingo! Back in business. 4:30 back on the
road again, time to call roadside asses and tell them not to bother. roll up the windows to use the phone and whew!
it’s getting hot in here! 4:40 turn on the A.C. I’m pretty sure this is when the fan belt broke. 4:50 pulled into my
yard and got out of the pig. What’s the strange hissing noise coming from the engine compartment? It’s the coolant
boiling in the engine!
Man, a functional temp gauge would have nice!
5:00 call roadside asses again and get the same “call you back in half an hour” unload the truck 5:45 still no call
back, call again, said I would be contacted by someone. 7:00 Finished unloading, call from a tow truck driver to get
our location information. 7:35 Tow truck shows up. We ride back with him and we know some of the same people
so we have a good time chatting on the long ride home. Got my wife to come pick us up at the uhaul rental place. get
home at 10:00 p.m.
This is a general outline of my 13 hour experience with U-haul and is by no means complete. The myriad of
problems were beyond what can be summed up in a quick review. I feel that moving the stuff should have been the
hard part of my day but instead the truck was the focal point of my attention for most of the day.
The Lesson however, is easy. Even the tow truck driver (and he would probably know) says ryder, penske, budget;
yes : U-Haul; NO!
You must be logged in to post a comment.