U Haul Mixed Experience: 2/3 Positive U Haul

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My first experience with U-Haul was renting a 24-foot truck to move my grandmother’s furniture from Amarillo, TX to Houston, TX so she could live with us in Houston. Nothing went wrong with the reservation process. There was a truck waiting for us where it was supposed to be, at a gas station in Amarillo.

The truck was a ‘93 GMC TopKick with a gasoline engine. While still in Amarillo, the “BRAKE” light on the dashboard lit up and there was a buzzing sound from under the cab. This happened for a couple of minutes, then quit. We were concerned because we had a long trip, so we called the station where we picked up the truck. The owner was understanding and asked us to take the truck to a U-Haul center in Amarillo to ask to have the truck looked at by a mechanic or exchanged for another 24′ truck.

To make the story short, the technician at the U-Haul center could not replicate the problem we had described after driving the truck around a few minutes. Hey, if you can’t duplicate a problem, you can’t fix it. Intermittent issues are very difficult. Not a big deal. However, the manager of the center was one of the rudest people I have ever seen in a business. I don’t understand how he sleeps at night. The rudeness seemed to be unprovoked, as well, which is what puzzled me. I honestly can’t think of what we might have done that set him off.

Anyway, we loaded up the truck and it drove fine for a long time. The “BRAKE” light did not come on and there were no strange noises under the cab. This part of the Texas Panhandle is rather hilly, and the truck did not climb hills like a sports car, but it held its own. This is a large truck with a relatively small gasoline engine (which is more powerful than a Diesel engine of the same engine size, a fact people tend to forget). It did fine…

until a little bit outside of Ft. Worth. All of a sudden, the “PARKING BRAKE” light came on, the noise under the cab happened again, and the truck started slowing down. FAST. I looked out the window and smoke was pouring out from under the truck, and it smelled bad. It was burnt brake lining. I’ve smelled it before.

Trucks this size have a driveshaft parking brake. It is a drum brake mounted to the back of the . Apparently, on this series of GMC TopKick, it is applied by an electrical motor. For whatever reason, the circuit had closed to the motor and it applied the parking brake while driving at 60 mph! I had no idea a truck like that could stop that fast. My father, who was driving, never even touched the brake pedal.

This was on a Saturday, so I don’t know if this is typical or not, but it took two hours to get someone on the 800-number. They finally sent someone, and got the technician who was coming to call us directly. He did, and gave us his cell number, and said he was having to come from the east side of Ft. Worth (we were on the west side). It took him about an hour to get to us. Again, you can’t help that. He can’t just teleport to where we are.

The technician was very professional. He slid under the truck with a flashlight, got back out, and said “The shoes on the parking brake are melted into the drum.” We had kind of guessed that might be the case, so we asked what could be done. One option was to get another truck out there and move everything into it. This was a bad idea, because we were on a very busy part of U.S. 287 and it was now nighttime. The other option was to see if he could free up the parking brake so we could keep driving.

He ended up cutting the cable from the parking brake actuator motor to the mechanism, then using a very large hammer to pound the shoes away from the drum. He then gave us a wheel chock to use when we parked. The did not seem to be damaged, so we got moving and the technician stayed behind us in his truck until we got up to highway speed.

We made it the rest of the way to Houston without incident. We just had to chock a back wheel when we parked. Since my father and I were in the cab of the truck, this was not a big deal. We returned the truck to a U-Haul center in Houston and told them that the truck needed to have the parking brake fixed before being rented out again.

My second experience with U-Haul was very pleasant. I rented a 5′x8′ open trailer in Pasadena, TX, to tow locally behind my Chevrolet El Camino. Everything about it was easy. The trailer hitched easily and securely to my class II hitch, and they didn’t even charge me for the four-flat adapter (that every unbraked trailer on the planet uses) to the four-separate-wire system that U-Haul use. We twisted the wires on the adapter to those on the trailer, then securely taped them. The trailer lights worked perfectly, and did no damage to my vehicle lighting system.

To my surprise, the relatively heavy U-Haul trailer was very easy to tow with my relatively light vehicle (3500 lb. curb weight). This was my first time towing, and it really was very easy to drive. I was able to go highway speed with no problem and there wasn’t a hint of sway. (I had loaded the front of the trailer intentionally heavy and used the El Camino’s air shocks to bring the rear of the truck back up, making it sit perfectly level.)

My third experience with U-Haul was mixed, but more positive than negative. I picked up a 24′ truck (again, a ‘93 GMC TopKick with gasoline engine) in League City, TX, to move furniture to Corpus Christi, TX. This was on a Friday, and it was busy, but the staff was friendly and did their best to help everyone in a timely manner.

This truck was in better shape overall than the first 24′ I mentioned. The cab was very clean, and it looked like the windshield had just been cleaned (and it had no cracks). The A/C and radio worked fine. The water temperature gauge showed the engine running at thermostat temperature, except stopped at red lights, but it never came close to overheating and I never shut off the A/C. However, and this is very strange, every great now and then the “PARKING BRAKE” light on the dashboard would flicker on, just for an instant. It was as if the truck was teasing me! I tried to ignore it, and just kept on driving. The parking brake never did activate accidentally (and it did apply when I actually wanted to park). The truck drove very well, I thought, at about 65 mph the whole way.

The “PARKING BRAKE” issue leads me to believe there is a flaw in the system that GMC built, not anything U-Haul caused. It is very strange.

This truck looked like it had new tires, and the were excellent. This class of truck uses a brake system called HydroBoost. It uses power steering fluid for brake assist. The result is a little different pedal feel from most cars. Once you apply the , the pedal will try to come back up at you. This is normal. There is also a hissing sound when the are applied. This is also normal. It is power steering fluid running through a valve in the brake booster.

So overall, I would have to say that I would rent from U-Haul again, if I had to. I have never met anyone personally who has had a problem with one of their . However, a trailer has far fewer systems to maintain than a truck. The most common problems on a trailer are a flat tire or a worn-out wheel bearing. The trucks, on the other hand, are a mixed bag. The ‘93 GH 24′ models need to be retired. Both of these that I drove had almost 200,000 miles. A TopKick is not a light pickup truck, but that is enough miles that important parts are going to show some wear.

I am encouraged, though, that I have seen a LOT of the new JH (26′) models on the road. These are on the new GMC TopKick platform. This line of truck has an 8.1L gasoline V-8, vs. the 6.0L the ‘93 models have. This should give the truck a lot more “Ooomph!” on the hills. Also, technology has improved, so not only will the new trucks be more reliable, but they should stay reliable for longer than the ‘93 models have.

On the first move with a 24′ truck, we filled up every bit of the box. The door barely closed. On the second move with a 24′ truck, there was a lot of empty space, and we really could have used just a 17′ truck. However, the extra room is very helpful. It lets you be selective when you unload the truck. You can take stuff out according to where it needs to go in the house, not because it’s the next thing that needs to come off the truck.

In both cases of renting a truck, they were reserved via the 800 number, and both were waiting at the designated place when we needed them. In the case of the trailer, I reserved it at the center the day before I needed it.

I am not a U-Haul employee, and I never have been. I am just a mechanically minded, analytical thinker who observes a lot. I can’t say that everything about U-Haul is good, but I do not see a need to spew venom in their direction and put a curse on their house. Just be cautious and know what you are getting into, and you can have a good experience. A truck is going to drive like a truck, and driving a car or a pickup with a trailer is very, very different from driving solo.

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Tags: brakes, trailers, transmission

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