seattle951

I am currently living in Bogota, Colombia and will be moving to Seattle, WA in January. My 951 and other cars are in Washington DC. I am planning on renting a trailer or tow dolly and pulling my 951 behind my Suburban. My Suburban is a 1999, K2500 with a 454 ci big block and is rated with a 10,000 lb towing capacity.

I can rent an uncovered trailer for $1,000 or a tow dolly for $500. Any recommendations? I am guessing that with the tow dolly I would get better gas mileage.

I will be shipping my other two cars by covered trailer.

Once in Seattle, I will be staying in an apartment until I can buy a house. I will have parking for one car and will need to store the Suburban, Porsche plus one other car. Can someone recommend a reasonably priced storage facility within 50 miles of Seattle? I plan to purchase a house with a 3 car garage by July.

Thanks, Bill

Grandpa#3

Hi Bill, I would not use a tow dolly for the 2,800 mile distance you will be travailing. It is OK for around town or local (100 mile). The trailer will have brakes where most tow dollies do not. U-Haul most likely will not rent a tow dolly if you tell them you are towing a Porsche. You must have factored in how crazy the weather has been and it only get worse in Jan.. I do not envy you that long a trip crossing the upper states. I'm sure someone from the Seattle area will chime in on storage and costs. Best of luck in your travels.

Cheers,
Larry

nathan1

Unless you just want the adventure of driving cross country I would just have all 4 vehicles shipped. You should be able to get a pretty good rate if one carrier takes all 4 as that is 1/2 a load, much easier for the trucker not to have to load/unload a bunch of times going across the country. The math for the drive is $1,000 in fuel for your burb, $1000 to rent the trailer, 4 nights in a motel and food, so minimum another $500. You should be able to ship all 4 even via enclosed for less than $6k. In January this could be a miserable trip due to potential weather... Never mind the potential of a mechanical issue on a 15 year old suburban towing a load for 3,000 miles or the potential for a trailer issue, etc..

Welcome to Seattle though, great town with a great Porsche community. PM me if you need any local help. In terms of storage just look around when you arrive, basic rule the father north or south of Town the cheaper it will be.

seattle951

Thanks, Larry. I was doing a little research after my post and came to the same conclusion about a two dolly. My plan would be to use highway 80 instead of 90 to avoid the worst weather.

seattle951

The Suburban is near mint condition. After I bought it, I had the dealership redo everything. The repairs were twice the purchase price. The K2500 is relatively rare Suburban and nearly indestructible. The low revving big block is especially durable. I have driven it across country twice now. It has never had a hiccup fully loaded with roof carrier.

I would use highway 80 instead of 90 to avoid the worst of the bad weather. The best quote for the Suburban uncovered was $2,700 alone. To ship all four in a covered trailer would probably be upwards of $9,000.

At 12 mpg highway, the fuel would be $820 according to Streets and trips. The trailer would be about $900 and expenses would be about $600. The cost of the drive would be less than shipping the Suburban without the Porsche.

I lived in Seattle for 10 years while working for Microsoft. My Porsche was built by a shop in Redmond and I have logged many hours at Pacific Raceways. I am looking forward to returning the Pacific Northwest after being away for 5 years in Africa and South America.

Thanks for the input. Bill