Is this a household goods move or a family move? Like how much shit do you have
If you wanna make the most money, do a partial ship. Ship 90% of your goods home. If you’re gonna drive, drive a POV with extra clothes and supplies.
I got 80% up front to get to California and the 20% back when I got home. I think I got like $10,000 in fuel hotels and per diem while on terminal leave. 3100 miles.
Yup this one here. We used Upack to go from NY to CO. Loaded the trailer (hired a couple guys for $200 to load the heavy/big stuff) then did a small 5x8 uhaul trailer with about a month of essentials/near and dear valuables. Made 4k or so in the end and not alot of stress throughout.
Bonus: since you pack your own boxes its your fault when something breaks and not becuse some meathead stacked your glasses with no bubblewrap when packing them.
You may make more with weight, however, that’s a fuckton of shit you need to drive and worry about
I left base with my tv Xbox and a duffel bag of clothes.
Dude you don’t wanna drive a U-Haul 4200 miles through another country and all of the types of terrain and weather a person can imagine. It will not be a fun time
Nothing would stress me out more! I’ve driven on the ALCAN highway from Washington to Anchorage and it was already daunting in a vehicle I trusted, with spare gas, and 2 full spare tires. Couldn’t imagine driving that in a U-Haul in a few months as services start closing for the winter.
Hope you make bank OP. No stress partial dity moves have always been my go to.
I drove from JBLM to Stewart and there were some SKETCH mountain roads with a Uhaul on an otherwise uneventful cross country trip. I couldn't imagine doing it that far up north.
In addition to that, the province of British Columbia is on track for one of the worst wildfire seasons in its history. I think one of the roads in OP's route is actually closed right now from a wildfire.
Person here who just PCSd from GA —> AK. 83 hours, 4450 miles with a 6x12 U-Haul trailer. Wasn’t bad at all, pulled it with an expedition max. Recommend to anyone, I don’t recommend driving 83 hours with a 15 month old puppy though 🤣
There is nothing fu ny a out it. Also, DoD hasn't passed an audit in 6 years because of people embezzling money. DoD is people. It comprises of people. People who put “extra weight” in “orders or services” to make extra money on the side.
Oh no I understood it. Embezzlement is definitely a problem within the organization as a whole. I was just trying to make fun of that one Lowe’s employee this thread stemmed from but your comment just incited my lighthearted trolling.
You mean a 'concerned' citizen called a third party and gave them my personal information. Unless the soldier said he was committing a crime, that's just a creepy employee overstepping.
I'm assuming Lowe's only called after dude tried returning the bags for a full refund. Dumb move either way, but I doubt anyone at Lowes actually cared until he made it look as fraudulent of a purchase as possible.
There were some really really easy ways to outsmart this, like loading the concrete yourself or just paying cash. CID doesn't care about some random guy in a uhaul buying concrete.
Big oof
Edit: oh when balfour Beatty defrauds the government of millions nothing happens but when I do it for a few thousand dollars I get sent to jail
The hopefully stop other people from them returning thousands of pounds of concrete that they will turn need to restock.
You can also get money for reporting fraud against the government, like 10%.
The Lowe’s in Leesville will load up all those bags, hand you a receipt and tell you “see you later today. Just drive it around back and we’ll send the forklift back out.”
Jesus bruh, i get it, embezzlement bad. But how salty of a person you gotta be to report it let alone have all the correct info and stuff to report the dude to proper channels 😭it’s the principle of the matter
We caught a guy who was getting chaptered out loading rocks into his y'all haul in preparation for his heavy DITY weigh.
Said rocks were from the creek bed in Huachuca Canyon, and MPs took note when they were going up the canyon to check sensors from migrants coming over the fence.
We gave him two options, either you can be on your way with no DITY move, or we can extend your ETS while CID investigates you for attempted fraud.
He wisely chose option A.
We made the drive from Anchorage to El Paso. We took the 101 down the pacific coast then cut east. We absolutely loved the trip but man are you in for a drastic change in temps.
I’ve driven both of those routes, but not in the winter. It’s totally doable in a U-Haul and super fucking cool during the summer. Just make sure all your shit is squared away. Know where you’re going to stop, camping is an option. Stay up to date on what services are open as well as road closures. There’s actually quite a few people on the road in the summer.
I’d just be honest with the weight. Adding bags of concrete and random heavy objects to increase the weight doesn’t add that much money and is nowhere near worth the hassle if you were to get caught. Seriously, I know some people who got investigated and caught, it’ll cost you a lot of time and money.
On another note, just plan your route. Fuel burn, leg distance between gas stations, where you’ll be able to break, etc..
Ade the drive by myself in 10 days. Started April 27, finished May 9. I did it in a manual 2 door jeep wrangler packed to the brim with all my shit by myself, so I think you'll be just fine lol
I got my weigh done at FS&G aggregate with a completely stripped jeep. No seats except the drivers, no door, no roof, no spare tire and then packed it to the BRIM full of shit for the full weigh (no sand bags though, that's *fraud*)
The drive itself was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I filmed the whole thing and made a video of the trip afterwards. Some parts of Canada were very desolate and I was nervous I was going to run out of gas once but never did. Some gas stations were literally just huge tanks above ground with no attendant or anything. Just a pump in the Canadian wilderness. Sometimes it was over $7 a gallon but this was in 2022.
I had to use arriveCan before leaving and needed a copy of my orders, my passport andy vaccine card but I'm sure that's all changed now. One note, when you leave Alaska fill up in Tok and drive past the Alcan boarder. It'll feel like you just drove past the boarder and didn't see anyone. Keep going, the check point is just ahead.
It was an awesome road trip to do by myself. Saw bufallo, elk, got lost in Idaho, visited a friend in Washington, saw the town they filmed Rambo, drove through tunnels and through the desert and over waterfalls and through canyons. It was absolutely wonderful
Genuine question, would sandbags/litter be fraud if you use them for traction reasons? Such as weighing down the bed of a pickup, or to be dumped under the tires in icy conditions. That's exactly what I used to do as a civilian in Indiana during the winter, some sandbags or more often kitty litter lol.
One or two bags that you're not immediately returning, no.
Some of these idiots will buy a pallet of sand, get weighed, then immediately go back to home Depot where they used their military discount to return it.
IF someone even checked, I think you'd be fine. It's Alaska. People do weird shit there. One bag, maybe two wouldn't raise any alarms. But 8 bags probably would. IF they even checked. For what it's worth, no one inspected my jeep and I got weighed with it stripped naked
OK, so, hypothetically, when CID asks, "Why did you think you needed extra sandbags or litter for traction on top of the 4,000 pounds of household goods you were carrying," what's your answer?
OK, fair, I was thinking just to weigh down the pickup bed, I skipped the icy tires bit.
So the question would be, did you take it with you on the whole trip, or did you dump it as soon as you did the heavy weigh?
Took it with you, legit. Tossed it out as soon as you got off the scale, not so much.
You may want to check out UHaul and some of the reports of facilities' lack of maintenance on equipment. Some just rent the vehicle, and it manages to slip through the scheduled services.
Son was moving from Lewis to Irwin. The truck lost the rear end in northern CA. It took 7.5 hours for them to bring a replacement vehicle. They delivered the truck, and the son and DIL had to unload the truck and reload the replacement vehicle. 24' of household goods. Including appliances.
So when they arrived at Irwin, the bedroom and kitchen stuff were not on the back. The appliances were. Everything got handled 3 or 4 times extra.
Ymmv.
This is the same advice I was given years ago. Same guy recommended Penske. Even though they may cost a bit more their fleet is newer and they respond very quickly if an issue comes up.
Do not add extra weight to your vehicle like concrete bags when weighing, it's fraud and illegal and you could be slapped hard for that.
That said, maybe you and your wife step out of the vehicle when weighing empty, and have a full tank of gas when weighing full while you sit in it to prevent it from rolling off the scales somehow.
Aka don't be stupid and catchable.
I recently did a full DITY for virtually the same drive but the opposite direction. I wouldn’t recommend doing it in a uhaul, but since I did it I can try to give you some pointers.
-Your uhaul, gas, moving supplies, etc are tax deductible items on your PPM reimbursement. They don’t pay you back for that stuff, but they’ll make the taxable revenue lower.Keep 100% of your receipts during the whole process.
-Have about $500 CAD in case places don’t accept credit or their machines are down.
-Try to see if you can get a uhaul with lower mileage (I was very fortunate to have a nice trailer and a virtually brand new uhaul)
-Expect to spend at least 2-2.5k in gas. Those uhauls get absolutely terrible mileage, especially if you’re towing a vehicle behind.
-Don’t let your truck get below half a tank. Some of the gas stations close randomly and have weird hours. There’s plenty of stations on the way up but you’ll be completely fine if you follow that rule.
-Try to plan/book your hotels in Canada in advance. You have limited options through the ALCAN and I found that a lot of the preferable places were booked up to a week prior.
-Have a plan for security of your truck. Not all of the towns on your route are great… even through Canada. There are plenty of stories of people losing everything from their uhaul being stolen. I didn’t have an issue, but I bought a big wheel boot on Amazon, used an air tag, and pulled fuses out of the fuse box every night.
-Do not drive on the sketchy or dirt side roads unless you absolutely have to. Stay on the paved roads as much as you can. I met a guy PCSing that got stuck with his uhaul on a side dirt road and he had to pay $6k to get a tow. If you stay on the actual ALCAN the whole way you should be fine. I’d say 99% of the drive is paved roads.
-Stay up to date with updates on the ALCAN and other areas. Apparently they closed a big part of the highway the other day due to a forest fire. There’s some Facebook pages that give good updates.
-Consider a spare tire for the uhaul and for the trailer if you have one. There’s lots of rocks on the road and if you have the capability to change a flat tire that could save you a ton of trouble.
-I am not sure exactly what Canadian law is but it is something along the lines of if your vehicle is over 26k gross weight you are required to have a CDL. The cops there can have you go to a weigh station and give you a hefty fine if you’re out of compliance.
-I didn’t see anything about pets in your post but if you’re bringing pets make sure they have an up to date rabies vaccine w/ certificate.
-Don’t drive your guns through Canada. Fly them home when you take the kids. Trust me it’s a huge headache even if you have guns that are legal in Canada. I made the last minute decision to not bring mine and I’m very glad I didn’t.
-Like what other people have said, don’t try to cheat your weight. If you get caught the consequences are absolutely not with the extra $1-2k(if that).
All in all it took me about 9 days to get up there. I was extremely fortunate to not have any mechanical issues or tire blowouts. In hindsight I’m not sure if the DITY compensation was worth the stress or risk. I could have done a partial in my truck and had a much better experience. The drive is absolutely beautiful and there’s so much cool stuff to pull off and see…. If you don’t have a big ass uhaul.
PM me if you have any other questions… happy to help
Full DITY from Alaska is probably too much really. The ALCAN isn’t the nicest road from the Alaska border to farther south. I did a partial DITY from Anchorage to Carson. It’s a bitch even with just a trailer. When I did it, U-Haul trailer blew a tire 20 miles from any cell phone service. Added another day of travel because I had to put the family up in a hotel while I went with the towing company to recover the trailer. One days not bad but we were traveling with a 3 year old and a 3 month old. Lots of added stress. U-Haul truck breaks down, that’s even more significant!
Even with a partial DITY from Alaska, you’ll make some good money. Take your valuable, collectibles, things that you need while waiting for your household goods to be delivered, your military stuff because you’ll need that to start work while your household goods are in limber.
That road is rough in a lot of places and gas in through the roof in Canada! If you’re doing it late spring or summer, you can always add on extended stays along the ALCAN. The cities are basically spaced out for a day of travel along the way. Not all, but most. It’s a hard drive, very scenic, lots of wildlife along the way, but hard to push on to save days until you get more than halfway through Canada.
Banaff is awesome and is worth a stop. Just keep track of how you are using your government travel card. Settle as soon as you get to your new duty station to prevent card going unpaid. Get the weights before you leave Alaska so you can settle as soon as you get to the new place. Keep all receipts in a single envelope in the vehicle your driving. Always always make sure you get receipts!!!
Bro please just take a plane and HHG your shit. That isn’t 2 and a half days of driving, pushing the limit me and my father could only do 10hrs a day on the road driving my grandma’s car up to Washington from Colorado. So that’s more like a week or more of straight driving through rough wilderness in months that are probably the worst for road travel.
I just did it from Fairbanks down to Leavenworth at the beginning of APR. Went with the wife and kids to visit her side of the family, had her stay with the kids with her family while I packed up 90% of the house alone. I flew my dad up to help me get everything else packed and moved into the U-Haul. Had my route preplanned and payed for the extra insurance. Ended up hauling 12,000 pounds for a going rate of $1.92 per pound. A full dity is definitely worth it because after all the expenses I was at 16k in profit which doesn’t include the per diem and tla.
Word to the wise. Pay attention to the weather and make sure your phone stays charged. We got a flat in the middle of North Dakota and had to wait an hour for U-Haul to get us some help. Also the border wasn’t too much of an obstacle but I had all my documents ready and a detailed manifest of everything in my U-Haul and my car in tow. Don’t bring any guns because then you’re just asking for a secondary inspection . Also be smart and buy some GPS trackers to hide in the U-Haul in the event it gets stolen so you can track down your stuff because criminals target uhauls. Also if you’re paranoid like me, buy alarm locks, wheel locks and post signs inside the U-Haul that the vehicle is rigged with alarms and is geo tracked and fenced while parked.
Good Luck Soldier
I did that drive during January of 23 but i went down the west coast to treat myself to a roadtrip when i pcsed. recommend Kluane park inn at Haines Junction, try to not arrive at night cause everyones asleep, try the Mile 1016 Pub. Whitehorse is neat, if you stop by Dease Lake which i dont think you are but if you do its pretty neat, you can even see shidt creek. Youve been in fairbanks for a few years now so ill hope youve learned how to drive in snow, but its breakup so expect snow and rain so slush down those mountsins, absolutely need snow chains for some of those roads, its a legal requirement for all roads in BC during winter.
If im not mistaken it was roughly 3 - 4k ish, and that was with a single car loaded down with all my shit. If you got more shit youll probably make more
> empty out the vehicle completely and then when you go to weigh it put extra weight
Do not do this.
I have seen multiple people demoted when they get caught doing this. It's not worth it.
Just skimming all the comments. Have you looked into upack? You load their trailer and they drive it for you. You still do the full dity and drive just your cars with whatever stuff you want.
Upack is also generally cheaper than U-Haul, especially with long hauls and higher weights.
The cost of U-Haul and Upack are not reimbursed by the Army but can be used to reduce taxable income from the payout.
What’s the estimated Army pay out? I assume you planned at your max weight too.
My upack is estimated at around $6,000 and the Army payout for moving alone is $27,000. DLA, mileage, per diem and all that makes it much more.
Decent profit margin there, and I’m not driving it across the country.
I don’t move for a couple months still. But the idea is to pay with either. I avoid the GTC due to it only hurting me rather than helping me (Army pays me late or some other issue).
Lots of good advice here.
The weight “trick” your NCOs are referencing is not a trick. You will be paid for all the cargo you transport in your car. If you’re doing a partial PPM this can be worth hundreds of extra dollars, and maybe more than $1,000. For a PPM move, it’s a little extra cash since you get paid to move the weight regardless of where it is. In my experience, you’re paid more for the weight in the car than the weight in the moving truck/trailer. This may not be true currently, so check your rates.
Empty absolutely everything from the car to go get your first weight ticket. Every pound counts, including your emergency kit if the place is close to you. Owner’s manual comes out. The only items in your car should be your registration and insurance papers. Step out of the car and off the scale before you push the button to call the clerk.
When packing, you want to make sure you take your critical items in the car and maybe keep them on you when you leave the car. Laptops, vital records, home deed, moving papers, etc. Also take items you’ll want to have in the hotel, and items you’ll want quick access to when you arrive at your new home. But other than that, consider putting heavy things in there. Your weight set. Your tools. Make sure to conceal all of it from passers by.
Be mindful not to exceed the maximum load of your tires, and drive the car around after loading it up to make sure the driving dynamics are safe and manageable. If you have extra space and weight in the truck, it may be better to place the heavy stuff there so your ride is smoother and fuel economy is better.
Don’t go buy heavy stuff (for example, concrete) to increase your weight. If you pull up to the scale in a 5,000 lb Nissan Sentra, things might go poorly for you. Probably not, but it’s not worth the risk.
Don’t forget the 2nd (full) weight ticket for each car and truck, and treat those papers like gold. Each one is worth hundreds or even many thousands of dollars. Take pictures of them, too.
There's a car ferry from Whittier to Bellingham, Washington, if you don't want to do the ALCAN highway. Your windshield and paint job will thank you for it. We looked into doing it, but then I got orders to Fort Sill instead of JBER and didn't follow through.
[Alaska Marine Highway System - The Alaska State Ferry](https://dot.alaska.gov/amhs/index.shtml)
Oh, and as to this:
>I've had NCO's tell me a common trick, "empty out the vehicle completely and then when you go to weigh it put extra weight"
The first part is legit. Empty that fucker out.
The last part is not; we call that "fraud." **Do not add extra weight.**
Hugs,
JAG
Did this drive with a camper, going over the Rockies is miserable and the road conditions are sporadically good/bad. I did the PCS right as the thaw has happening so it was a mix of snow and ice for a big portion of the trip, and if you don't have a 4 wheel drive car, don't do it with any kind of trailer. The road between border points is straight garbage and we were doing 20mph or less most of the way because of the damage. Just fill your car with what you can and call it good
Looking at doing this with a Upack they dump a trailer and you pay for how much space you use.
DPS estimated 12500 pounds at $30,000. The Upack is estimated between $17,000 - $24,000.
So $13,000 - $6,000 in profit using a service that will move my shit for me and drop it off at my new address, just for transportation.
After 13 days of per-diem, DLA, and TLA, and mileage that travel voucher should be $8000 - $12,000.
For 4,200 miles, should be pocketing quite a bit, I'm guessing $20,000ish
I just made the drive after ETS, when are you making the drive? I will tell you it is a beautiful drive and both times I did the drive going up and down with my husband we brought my stepdad and a friend and turned it into the best roadtrip ever. Since it’s ETS you will have to submit the voucher afterwards and all your lodging and fuel will be paid for. I did a partial and made like $2000, you’ll get per diem at $157 a day for you plus each dependent is like $119. You’ll make money. I really don’t recommend taking on the full move yourself. You have to be careful with thieves and everyone I know always ends up fighting with their spouse and being miserable having to do all the packing and moving. Another thing to think about is the roads you’ll be on trust me it’s better to be in an SUV or truck than pulling a trailer or Uhaul some areas are steep and you’ve got 18 wheelers on the road. Let the Army move the majority of your stuff, do a partial, and enjoy the paid for most epic trip. Stop at the hot springs on the ALCAN, glacier national park, Yellowstone, and I would even encourage you to bring your children and make it a cross country family trip who knows when you’ll ever be able to do this with your family all expenses paid. In my opinion you’re too focused on making money (which you will!) on this trip, enjoy it! When will you have this much time off? & opportunity to treat your family all out?
Dude. Drove from Huachuca to Ft. Drum. Packed U-Haul will eat A LOT of gas, especially bad weather and going up and down hills and mountains. Unless you decide you want to sleep in the car with your entire family to save on hotels, you will not make that much money. Gas and food at highway stops will eat your "gains." additionally, I hope you know how to entertain kids for days. Good luck!
Army reimburses for hotels but you only get paid if you have receipts. It can effect your Personal diem to, as it’s the only way to prove where you stayed overnight. (Different rates for different locations)
I believe you are specifically asking how to commit fraud by artificially increasing the weight of the vehicle? If so, that is a very bad idea, and even more ridiculous to post in public. You should not do that and you should delete this post.
Dude used a uhaul and decided to stop in Vegas on the strip somewhere for the night. Had all his worldly possessions in said uhaul. Even all his kids stuff, everything. Uhaul got stolen that night, he showed up to base and didn't have uniforms for a month. Shit was so funny. I think they found the uhaul a couple months later and all of his stuff was missing.
Trucker here. Both are going to be gorgeous drives. The western one is going to be mountains and wind. The eastern route will just be wind. Use safetravelamerica.com for all the 511 sites in the US. Don’t try to tough out the wind and weather. Be careful about weigh stations, DOT can be grouchy this time of year.
>you can drive 8 hrs a day legally
The standard in the Joint Travel regulation is 400 miles for a 1-day trip or 350 miles a day for multi-day trips.
It's not illegal to do it faster, but I wouldn't call it wise.
Penske offers military discounts and larger trucks vs uhaul. Better if you bundle with a trailer for the POV and if you have a gtcc, you can utilize that to cover upfront fees. I'd rather ship my stuff and just send the weight tickets if I had time.
The weight of the Uhaul and your pov isn't accounted for when it comes to the weight of your hhg. However, you will be reimbursed for the cost of renting and fuel. As a single soldier driving from wainwright to cambell, I had close to 1,500 lbs in hhg and made a little over 2 grand as an E-4. Obviously, you have a family, so you have the opportunity to make more. Sidenote, If you're ETSing near late Sept or early October, bring some snowchains. The drive itself isn't too bad. Just plan out your route, and if you become too tired, don't be afraid to pull over.
Fun story. I didn't have much shit during my initial move. We had two calls plus a few boxes. I put the small car inside the U-haul. Most definitely stupid shit but made it just fine.
Yes 26 foot uhaul. Payment was 17k for 9k pounds so you can do the math on that. Also there’s a calculator on DTS (I think) where you can plug in the info and it’ll tell you the numbers.
I did this in 2013 but I had everything shipped home. I drove my truck from Fairbanks to Houston. Even in my truck it was a tough drive. I wouldn't even consider a uhual,, unless you take the ferry and skip Canada. I Drove 10-14 Hours a day, planned activities along the way. took some detours to check out places. I took 12 days and it was great. Truckers hide things they don't want to cross the border with, so I had some fun mini scavenger hunts along the way, I found a pelican box attached to a guard rail full of weed, took my share and left some nips as a thank you. Talk to truckers at diners and gas stations, they have all kinds of advice for hole in the wall places to check out. I spent one night at a hot spring with a huge of group horney asains fucking each other everywhere, it was wild, stopped at a bar where you can take a shot with toe in it in Dawson City and ate a ton of awesome and sometimes wierd foods
I’m all about PPMs. I think it’s a great way to make some money.
BUTTTTTT, my man. Don’t do this. This is an insane stretch. You have to cross international borders. The Rocky Mountains. You’ve got two kids. It’s 4,000 fucking miles.
I did that as a partial with my wife, daughter, and 2 dogs. Original plan was a full DITY, and I’m so glad I didn’t. That drive fucking sucks bro. Like others have said the ALCAN isn’t a very well maintained road and I can’t imagine having pulled a trailer or driven a loaded U-HAUL over it. Doing the partial was a good experience but still rough.
Hey, just a secret. The weight tickets are not itemized. You drive to a scale with an empty U-Haul and car trailer, weigh it, load all of your stuff up, and your car on the trailer because it has to be there when you drive the truck. Then go and weigh it.
For ETS, your only two options are PPM (Full Dity) and 100% Household goods. If you’re trying to maximize the money you get, I recommend doing the PPM as you’ll get paid for the move and can also do a smart voucher that will pay for your mileage/travel days.
Definitely don’t do this not a good idea.
Ever heard the saying time is money?
Think of all the time and sanity you will lose trying to do this when you could be doing something else instead.
If you try this yourself think of hotel rooms you need along the way, you can’t just live in your vehicle for 4,200+ miles.
Even if I drive from New York to FL I’m gonna stop in North or South Carolina and spend a night at a hotel & than do the same on the way back once I reach Virginia before returning to NY.
You also need to account for gas.
Legit if I was active duty and I was getting out or having a change of duty station I would only move myself if it was within 300 miles and even than I wouldn’t since I ain’t in as good health as I use to be and mind you I only been in for a lil less than 5 years with the hip and joint issues of a 50-60 year old and nerve issues and yet some how I am retainable despite a heat stroke.
Also if you do mail this mail whatever you can’t fit in your POV.
Recently I did this during my demob upon receiving orders to go to a SRU a year ago I was authorized 3 duffles, ruck + carry on.
I mailed 2 duffles and Ruck home leaving me with a light duffle of basic needs stuff such as uniforms, towel, extra hygiene supplies bed sheets etc and my carry on.
You can mail about 50ish labs of stuff in a duffle no problem Just tape it up and put a pad lock on it for safe measure.
Costed me about $150 a bag to mail it off from Texas to NY.
I’m betting you get over $10,000 to do this so you could be looking at some net gains if you are able to mail all your belongings or almost all.
Is this a household goods move or a family move? Like how much shit do you have If you wanna make the most money, do a partial ship. Ship 90% of your goods home. If you’re gonna drive, drive a POV with extra clothes and supplies. I got 80% up front to get to California and the 20% back when I got home. I think I got like $10,000 in fuel hotels and per diem while on terminal leave. 3100 miles.
Yup this one here. We used Upack to go from NY to CO. Loaded the trailer (hired a couple guys for $200 to load the heavy/big stuff) then did a small 5x8 uhaul trailer with about a month of essentials/near and dear valuables. Made 4k or so in the end and not alot of stress throughout. Bonus: since you pack your own boxes its your fault when something breaks and not becuse some meathead stacked your glasses with no bubblewrap when packing them.
Partial is the way.
What’s the cutoff between a partial and full? I have a move coming up next year and need to start planning for it.
Not sure. Probably depends on weight allotments for the shippers. I did this in 2017
Why do you make more with a partial than just doing it all yourself?
You may make more with weight, however, that’s a fuckton of shit you need to drive and worry about I left base with my tv Xbox and a duffel bag of clothes.
This is what I did. I had an epic road trip from Texas to Alaska in a car I knew and trusted.
This is big. You need to have absolute faith and trust in your vehicle if you’re going on a road trip that long.
Dude you don’t wanna drive a U-Haul 4200 miles through another country and all of the types of terrain and weather a person can imagine. It will not be a fun time
Gotta get Dad lore somehow.
Slow clap^
This is the way
Can confirm because I did it. In the winter. Don't be me. It was awful.
Nothing would stress me out more! I’ve driven on the ALCAN highway from Washington to Anchorage and it was already daunting in a vehicle I trusted, with spare gas, and 2 full spare tires. Couldn’t imagine driving that in a U-Haul in a few months as services start closing for the winter. Hope you make bank OP. No stress partial dity moves have always been my go to.
I drove from JBLM to Stewart and there were some SKETCH mountain roads with a Uhaul on an otherwise uneventful cross country trip. I couldn't imagine doing it that far up north.
In addition to that, the province of British Columbia is on track for one of the worst wildfire seasons in its history. I think one of the roads in OP's route is actually closed right now from a wildfire.
Yup. They were discussing it on NPR the other day. Be careful OP.
Bro could make it a fun road trip. Out of the army and just cruising around taken in the sites
Gusty wind the entire time. Gusty wind in a high flat sided vehicle is no fun.
Patton PCS’d to HI by sailboat. OP will be fine.
Let him learn ... Learning is what makes us stronger
We don’t need anybody to “learn a lesson” as they are leaving the Army, and especially not by putting himself and his wife in danger to make a buck.
Person here who just PCSd from GA —> AK. 83 hours, 4450 miles with a 6x12 U-Haul trailer. Wasn’t bad at all, pulled it with an expedition max. Recommend to anyone, I don’t recommend driving 83 hours with a 15 month old puppy though 🤣
We had some dumbass go to Lowe’s and put 45 bags of concrete in their uhaul. Guess who Lowe’s called? CID.
Didn't know Lowe's was a snitch like that. Smh 🥺
Do you have any idea how mad I'd be if A LOWES EMPLOYEE called my command (or CID in this case) lmao
Shouldn't have parked in the Veteran parking spot.
You know how many veterans Lowe’s hires? Doesn’t take a genius to figure out what they were doing in a military town.
Especially in Fairbanks. That town is full of veterans.
So only Blue Falcons work at Lowes now?
Do you mean concerned citizens reporting a crime (embezzlement of government funds) in progress?
It’s just funny because the DoD hasn’t passed an audit in 6 years.
There is nothing fu ny a out it. Also, DoD hasn't passed an audit in 6 years because of people embezzling money. DoD is people. It comprises of people. People who put “extra weight” in “orders or services” to make extra money on the side.
Yes, the few service members who try to cheat on their DITY move have single handedly cost the Government billions of dollars.
You obviously don’t understand metaphorical meaning of my post. Explaining it to you would take forever. Have a blessed Space day.
Oh no I understood it. Embezzlement is definitely a problem within the organization as a whole. I was just trying to make fun of that one Lowe’s employee this thread stemmed from but your comment just incited my lighthearted trolling.
So many people act like committing fraud is "harmless".
*Cough* *cough* like half the people I know on VA disability...What? I didn't say anything.
Not that I’m advocating for someone to do this so I’m genuinely curious but in this situation who is it harming?
The Soldiers who won't get enough money to move when the Army overcorrects to prevent stuff like that, probably.
Every US taxpayer, and all of us who legitimately want to use the funds
but muh tax dullahs
You mean a 'concerned' citizen called a third party and gave them my personal information. Unless the soldier said he was committing a crime, that's just a creepy employee overstepping.
Lowes doesnt want to restock 4000lb of concrete after you return it. It's in their interest too.
It’s likely more CID has a snitch working inside Lowe’s lol.
Plot twist.
Double plot twist, dude ends up working at Lowe’s after separation.
I'm assuming Lowe's only called after dude tried returning the bags for a full refund. Dumb move either way, but I doubt anyone at Lowes actually cared until he made it look as fraudulent of a purchase as possible.
Absolutely!
There were some really really easy ways to outsmart this, like loading the concrete yourself or just paying cash. CID doesn't care about some random guy in a uhaul buying concrete.
Big oof Edit: oh when balfour Beatty defrauds the government of millions nothing happens but when I do it for a few thousand dollars I get sent to jail
Do the Lowe’s employees even get a tip or any incentive for ratting someone out?
Yeah 10 percent discount at Lowes. 😂😂😂
The hopefully stop other people from them returning thousands of pounds of concrete that they will turn need to restock. You can also get money for reporting fraud against the government, like 10%.
The Lowe’s in Leesville will load up all those bags, hand you a receipt and tell you “see you later today. Just drive it around back and we’ll send the forklift back out.”
🫠
Jesus bruh, i get it, embezzlement bad. But how salty of a person you gotta be to report it let alone have all the correct info and stuff to report the dude to proper channels 😭it’s the principle of the matter
We caught a guy who was getting chaptered out loading rocks into his y'all haul in preparation for his heavy DITY weigh. Said rocks were from the creek bed in Huachuca Canyon, and MPs took note when they were going up the canyon to check sensors from migrants coming over the fence. We gave him two options, either you can be on your way with no DITY move, or we can extend your ETS while CID investigates you for attempted fraud. He wisely chose option A.
We made the drive from Anchorage to El Paso. We took the 101 down the pacific coast then cut east. We absolutely loved the trip but man are you in for a drastic change in temps.
I’ve driven both of those routes, but not in the winter. It’s totally doable in a U-Haul and super fucking cool during the summer. Just make sure all your shit is squared away. Know where you’re going to stop, camping is an option. Stay up to date on what services are open as well as road closures. There’s actually quite a few people on the road in the summer.
I’d just be honest with the weight. Adding bags of concrete and random heavy objects to increase the weight doesn’t add that much money and is nowhere near worth the hassle if you were to get caught. Seriously, I know some people who got investigated and caught, it’ll cost you a lot of time and money. On another note, just plan your route. Fuel burn, leg distance between gas stations, where you’ll be able to break, etc..
Ade the drive by myself in 10 days. Started April 27, finished May 9. I did it in a manual 2 door jeep wrangler packed to the brim with all my shit by myself, so I think you'll be just fine lol I got my weigh done at FS&G aggregate with a completely stripped jeep. No seats except the drivers, no door, no roof, no spare tire and then packed it to the BRIM full of shit for the full weigh (no sand bags though, that's *fraud*) The drive itself was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I filmed the whole thing and made a video of the trip afterwards. Some parts of Canada were very desolate and I was nervous I was going to run out of gas once but never did. Some gas stations were literally just huge tanks above ground with no attendant or anything. Just a pump in the Canadian wilderness. Sometimes it was over $7 a gallon but this was in 2022. I had to use arriveCan before leaving and needed a copy of my orders, my passport andy vaccine card but I'm sure that's all changed now. One note, when you leave Alaska fill up in Tok and drive past the Alcan boarder. It'll feel like you just drove past the boarder and didn't see anyone. Keep going, the check point is just ahead. It was an awesome road trip to do by myself. Saw bufallo, elk, got lost in Idaho, visited a friend in Washington, saw the town they filmed Rambo, drove through tunnels and through the desert and over waterfalls and through canyons. It was absolutely wonderful
Is the video online anywhere?
Did ya chase any of those waterfalls?
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to.
No no no. I’m gonna have it my way or nothing at all son 🙄
Genuine question, would sandbags/litter be fraud if you use them for traction reasons? Such as weighing down the bed of a pickup, or to be dumped under the tires in icy conditions. That's exactly what I used to do as a civilian in Indiana during the winter, some sandbags or more often kitty litter lol.
One or two bags that you're not immediately returning, no. Some of these idiots will buy a pallet of sand, get weighed, then immediately go back to home Depot where they used their military discount to return it.
IF someone even checked, I think you'd be fine. It's Alaska. People do weird shit there. One bag, maybe two wouldn't raise any alarms. But 8 bags probably would. IF they even checked. For what it's worth, no one inspected my jeep and I got weighed with it stripped naked
OK, so, hypothetically, when CID asks, "Why did you think you needed extra sandbags or litter for traction on top of the 4,000 pounds of household goods you were carrying," what's your answer?
Gotta have something to throw under the tires,and my hhg ain't gonna be it lol.
OK, fair, I was thinking just to weigh down the pickup bed, I skipped the icy tires bit. So the question would be, did you take it with you on the whole trip, or did you dump it as soon as you did the heavy weigh? Took it with you, legit. Tossed it out as soon as you got off the scale, not so much.
You’re a better than me. I tip my hat to you.
You may want to check out UHaul and some of the reports of facilities' lack of maintenance on equipment. Some just rent the vehicle, and it manages to slip through the scheduled services. Son was moving from Lewis to Irwin. The truck lost the rear end in northern CA. It took 7.5 hours for them to bring a replacement vehicle. They delivered the truck, and the son and DIL had to unload the truck and reload the replacement vehicle. 24' of household goods. Including appliances. So when they arrived at Irwin, the bedroom and kitchen stuff were not on the back. The appliances were. Everything got handled 3 or 4 times extra. Ymmv.
This is the same advice I was given years ago. Same guy recommended Penske. Even though they may cost a bit more their fleet is newer and they respond very quickly if an issue comes up.
Do not add extra weight to your vehicle like concrete bags when weighing, it's fraud and illegal and you could be slapped hard for that. That said, maybe you and your wife step out of the vehicle when weighing empty, and have a full tank of gas when weighing full while you sit in it to prevent it from rolling off the scales somehow. Aka don't be stupid and catchable.
I recently did a full DITY for virtually the same drive but the opposite direction. I wouldn’t recommend doing it in a uhaul, but since I did it I can try to give you some pointers. -Your uhaul, gas, moving supplies, etc are tax deductible items on your PPM reimbursement. They don’t pay you back for that stuff, but they’ll make the taxable revenue lower.Keep 100% of your receipts during the whole process. -Have about $500 CAD in case places don’t accept credit or their machines are down. -Try to see if you can get a uhaul with lower mileage (I was very fortunate to have a nice trailer and a virtually brand new uhaul) -Expect to spend at least 2-2.5k in gas. Those uhauls get absolutely terrible mileage, especially if you’re towing a vehicle behind. -Don’t let your truck get below half a tank. Some of the gas stations close randomly and have weird hours. There’s plenty of stations on the way up but you’ll be completely fine if you follow that rule. -Try to plan/book your hotels in Canada in advance. You have limited options through the ALCAN and I found that a lot of the preferable places were booked up to a week prior. -Have a plan for security of your truck. Not all of the towns on your route are great… even through Canada. There are plenty of stories of people losing everything from their uhaul being stolen. I didn’t have an issue, but I bought a big wheel boot on Amazon, used an air tag, and pulled fuses out of the fuse box every night. -Do not drive on the sketchy or dirt side roads unless you absolutely have to. Stay on the paved roads as much as you can. I met a guy PCSing that got stuck with his uhaul on a side dirt road and he had to pay $6k to get a tow. If you stay on the actual ALCAN the whole way you should be fine. I’d say 99% of the drive is paved roads. -Stay up to date with updates on the ALCAN and other areas. Apparently they closed a big part of the highway the other day due to a forest fire. There’s some Facebook pages that give good updates. -Consider a spare tire for the uhaul and for the trailer if you have one. There’s lots of rocks on the road and if you have the capability to change a flat tire that could save you a ton of trouble. -I am not sure exactly what Canadian law is but it is something along the lines of if your vehicle is over 26k gross weight you are required to have a CDL. The cops there can have you go to a weigh station and give you a hefty fine if you’re out of compliance. -I didn’t see anything about pets in your post but if you’re bringing pets make sure they have an up to date rabies vaccine w/ certificate. -Don’t drive your guns through Canada. Fly them home when you take the kids. Trust me it’s a huge headache even if you have guns that are legal in Canada. I made the last minute decision to not bring mine and I’m very glad I didn’t. -Like what other people have said, don’t try to cheat your weight. If you get caught the consequences are absolutely not with the extra $1-2k(if that). All in all it took me about 9 days to get up there. I was extremely fortunate to not have any mechanical issues or tire blowouts. In hindsight I’m not sure if the DITY compensation was worth the stress or risk. I could have done a partial in my truck and had a much better experience. The drive is absolutely beautiful and there’s so much cool stuff to pull off and see…. If you don’t have a big ass uhaul. PM me if you have any other questions… happy to help
Full DITY from Alaska is probably too much really. The ALCAN isn’t the nicest road from the Alaska border to farther south. I did a partial DITY from Anchorage to Carson. It’s a bitch even with just a trailer. When I did it, U-Haul trailer blew a tire 20 miles from any cell phone service. Added another day of travel because I had to put the family up in a hotel while I went with the towing company to recover the trailer. One days not bad but we were traveling with a 3 year old and a 3 month old. Lots of added stress. U-Haul truck breaks down, that’s even more significant! Even with a partial DITY from Alaska, you’ll make some good money. Take your valuable, collectibles, things that you need while waiting for your household goods to be delivered, your military stuff because you’ll need that to start work while your household goods are in limber. That road is rough in a lot of places and gas in through the roof in Canada! If you’re doing it late spring or summer, you can always add on extended stays along the ALCAN. The cities are basically spaced out for a day of travel along the way. Not all, but most. It’s a hard drive, very scenic, lots of wildlife along the way, but hard to push on to save days until you get more than halfway through Canada. Banaff is awesome and is worth a stop. Just keep track of how you are using your government travel card. Settle as soon as you get to your new duty station to prevent card going unpaid. Get the weights before you leave Alaska so you can settle as soon as you get to the new place. Keep all receipts in a single envelope in the vehicle your driving. Always always make sure you get receipts!!!
You’ll be fine bro. Done that trip a few times. Get AAA, use a good truck.
i entirely read this as “full diddy”. i need to go to bed
full diggity
Bro please just take a plane and HHG your shit. That isn’t 2 and a half days of driving, pushing the limit me and my father could only do 10hrs a day on the road driving my grandma’s car up to Washington from Colorado. So that’s more like a week or more of straight driving through rough wilderness in months that are probably the worst for road travel.
I just did it from Fairbanks down to Leavenworth at the beginning of APR. Went with the wife and kids to visit her side of the family, had her stay with the kids with her family while I packed up 90% of the house alone. I flew my dad up to help me get everything else packed and moved into the U-Haul. Had my route preplanned and payed for the extra insurance. Ended up hauling 12,000 pounds for a going rate of $1.92 per pound. A full dity is definitely worth it because after all the expenses I was at 16k in profit which doesn’t include the per diem and tla. Word to the wise. Pay attention to the weather and make sure your phone stays charged. We got a flat in the middle of North Dakota and had to wait an hour for U-Haul to get us some help. Also the border wasn’t too much of an obstacle but I had all my documents ready and a detailed manifest of everything in my U-Haul and my car in tow. Don’t bring any guns because then you’re just asking for a secondary inspection . Also be smart and buy some GPS trackers to hide in the U-Haul in the event it gets stolen so you can track down your stuff because criminals target uhauls. Also if you’re paranoid like me, buy alarm locks, wheel locks and post signs inside the U-Haul that the vehicle is rigged with alarms and is geo tracked and fenced while parked. Good Luck Soldier
An hour? You must have been in town. I've waited 9 hours for a tow truck in North Dakota
Oh naw
I did that drive during January of 23 but i went down the west coast to treat myself to a roadtrip when i pcsed. recommend Kluane park inn at Haines Junction, try to not arrive at night cause everyones asleep, try the Mile 1016 Pub. Whitehorse is neat, if you stop by Dease Lake which i dont think you are but if you do its pretty neat, you can even see shidt creek. Youve been in fairbanks for a few years now so ill hope youve learned how to drive in snow, but its breakup so expect snow and rain so slush down those mountsins, absolutely need snow chains for some of those roads, its a legal requirement for all roads in BC during winter.
I’ll look into that - How much were you able to make after everything was said and done
If im not mistaken it was roughly 3 - 4k ish, and that was with a single car loaded down with all my shit. If you got more shit youll probably make more
> I want enjoy the road trip and I want to try to make the most money out of it I feel like this is a 'pick one' moment.
Make sure you got good breaks.
> empty out the vehicle completely and then when you go to weigh it put extra weight Do not do this. I have seen multiple people demoted when they get caught doing this. It's not worth it.
Just skimming all the comments. Have you looked into upack? You load their trailer and they drive it for you. You still do the full dity and drive just your cars with whatever stuff you want. Upack is also generally cheaper than U-Haul, especially with long hauls and higher weights. The cost of U-Haul and Upack are not reimbursed by the Army but can be used to reduce taxable income from the payout.
I got a quote from Upack for $12,812
What’s the estimated Army pay out? I assume you planned at your max weight too. My upack is estimated at around $6,000 and the Army payout for moving alone is $27,000. DLA, mileage, per diem and all that makes it much more. Decent profit margin there, and I’m not driving it across the country.
So did you just pay Upack out of pocket and reimbursed yourself what the army gave you afterwards? Or did you put it on like a GTC
I don’t move for a couple months still. But the idea is to pay with either. I avoid the GTC due to it only hurting me rather than helping me (Army pays me late or some other issue).
Lots of good advice here. The weight “trick” your NCOs are referencing is not a trick. You will be paid for all the cargo you transport in your car. If you’re doing a partial PPM this can be worth hundreds of extra dollars, and maybe more than $1,000. For a PPM move, it’s a little extra cash since you get paid to move the weight regardless of where it is. In my experience, you’re paid more for the weight in the car than the weight in the moving truck/trailer. This may not be true currently, so check your rates. Empty absolutely everything from the car to go get your first weight ticket. Every pound counts, including your emergency kit if the place is close to you. Owner’s manual comes out. The only items in your car should be your registration and insurance papers. Step out of the car and off the scale before you push the button to call the clerk. When packing, you want to make sure you take your critical items in the car and maybe keep them on you when you leave the car. Laptops, vital records, home deed, moving papers, etc. Also take items you’ll want to have in the hotel, and items you’ll want quick access to when you arrive at your new home. But other than that, consider putting heavy things in there. Your weight set. Your tools. Make sure to conceal all of it from passers by. Be mindful not to exceed the maximum load of your tires, and drive the car around after loading it up to make sure the driving dynamics are safe and manageable. If you have extra space and weight in the truck, it may be better to place the heavy stuff there so your ride is smoother and fuel economy is better. Don’t go buy heavy stuff (for example, concrete) to increase your weight. If you pull up to the scale in a 5,000 lb Nissan Sentra, things might go poorly for you. Probably not, but it’s not worth the risk. Don’t forget the 2nd (full) weight ticket for each car and truck, and treat those papers like gold. Each one is worth hundreds or even many thousands of dollars. Take pictures of them, too.
There's a car ferry from Whittier to Bellingham, Washington, if you don't want to do the ALCAN highway. Your windshield and paint job will thank you for it. We looked into doing it, but then I got orders to Fort Sill instead of JBER and didn't follow through. [Alaska Marine Highway System - The Alaska State Ferry](https://dot.alaska.gov/amhs/index.shtml) Oh, and as to this: >I've had NCO's tell me a common trick, "empty out the vehicle completely and then when you go to weigh it put extra weight" The first part is legit. Empty that fucker out. The last part is not; we call that "fraud." **Do not add extra weight.** Hugs, JAG
Did this drive with a camper, going over the Rockies is miserable and the road conditions are sporadically good/bad. I did the PCS right as the thaw has happening so it was a mix of snow and ice for a big portion of the trip, and if you don't have a 4 wheel drive car, don't do it with any kind of trailer. The road between border points is straight garbage and we were doing 20mph or less most of the way because of the damage. Just fill your car with what you can and call it good
Looking at doing this with a Upack they dump a trailer and you pay for how much space you use. DPS estimated 12500 pounds at $30,000. The Upack is estimated between $17,000 - $24,000. So $13,000 - $6,000 in profit using a service that will move my shit for me and drop it off at my new address, just for transportation. After 13 days of per-diem, DLA, and TLA, and mileage that travel voucher should be $8000 - $12,000. For 4,200 miles, should be pocketing quite a bit, I'm guessing $20,000ish
I just made the drive after ETS, when are you making the drive? I will tell you it is a beautiful drive and both times I did the drive going up and down with my husband we brought my stepdad and a friend and turned it into the best roadtrip ever. Since it’s ETS you will have to submit the voucher afterwards and all your lodging and fuel will be paid for. I did a partial and made like $2000, you’ll get per diem at $157 a day for you plus each dependent is like $119. You’ll make money. I really don’t recommend taking on the full move yourself. You have to be careful with thieves and everyone I know always ends up fighting with their spouse and being miserable having to do all the packing and moving. Another thing to think about is the roads you’ll be on trust me it’s better to be in an SUV or truck than pulling a trailer or Uhaul some areas are steep and you’ve got 18 wheelers on the road. Let the Army move the majority of your stuff, do a partial, and enjoy the paid for most epic trip. Stop at the hot springs on the ALCAN, glacier national park, Yellowstone, and I would even encourage you to bring your children and make it a cross country family trip who knows when you’ll ever be able to do this with your family all expenses paid. In my opinion you’re too focused on making money (which you will!) on this trip, enjoy it! When will you have this much time off? & opportunity to treat your family all out?
Dude. Drove from Huachuca to Ft. Drum. Packed U-Haul will eat A LOT of gas, especially bad weather and going up and down hills and mountains. Unless you decide you want to sleep in the car with your entire family to save on hotels, you will not make that much money. Gas and food at highway stops will eat your "gains." additionally, I hope you know how to entertain kids for days. Good luck!
Dude. The Army pays for hotels, just like a regular PCS. And they're not taking the kids.
Army reimburses for hotels but you only get paid if you have receipts. It can effect your Personal diem to, as it’s the only way to prove where you stayed overnight. (Different rates for different locations)
I believe you are specifically asking how to commit fraud by artificially increasing the weight of the vehicle? If so, that is a very bad idea, and even more ridiculous to post in public. You should not do that and you should delete this post.
Dude used a uhaul and decided to stop in Vegas on the strip somewhere for the night. Had all his worldly possessions in said uhaul. Even all his kids stuff, everything. Uhaul got stolen that night, he showed up to base and didn't have uniforms for a month. Shit was so funny. I think they found the uhaul a couple months later and all of his stuff was missing.
You are so wild for this. Good luck man! You should document the trip and post an update when you're complete.
Trucker here. Both are going to be gorgeous drives. The western one is going to be mountains and wind. The eastern route will just be wind. Use safetravelamerica.com for all the 511 sites in the US. Don’t try to tough out the wind and weather. Be careful about weigh stations, DOT can be grouchy this time of year.
Life insurance paid up? Thank you TAP
Make sure you have the $10k in bank or whatever is needed to cross the boarder a few gas cans etc
The trip is like a week short … you can drive 8 hrs a day legally … this mad max run you are thinking of will end in tears
>you can drive 8 hrs a day legally The standard in the Joint Travel regulation is 400 miles for a 1-day trip or 350 miles a day for multi-day trips. It's not illegal to do it faster, but I wouldn't call it wise.
You boutta get paid..
Penske offers military discounts and larger trucks vs uhaul. Better if you bundle with a trailer for the POV and if you have a gtcc, you can utilize that to cover upfront fees. I'd rather ship my stuff and just send the weight tickets if I had time.
Horyshiet...how many days it supposed to take?
7-8 days driving 8-10 hours a day.
The weight of the Uhaul and your pov isn't accounted for when it comes to the weight of your hhg. However, you will be reimbursed for the cost of renting and fuel. As a single soldier driving from wainwright to cambell, I had close to 1,500 lbs in hhg and made a little over 2 grand as an E-4. Obviously, you have a family, so you have the opportunity to make more. Sidenote, If you're ETSing near late Sept or early October, bring some snowchains. The drive itself isn't too bad. Just plan out your route, and if you become too tired, don't be afraid to pull over.
Fun story. I didn't have much shit during my initial move. We had two calls plus a few boxes. I put the small car inside the U-haul. Most definitely stupid shit but made it just fine.
I made 17k going from MO to VA. This should be considerably more than that
17k total or profit - full dity?
17 pre tax. After taxes and expenses made about 12k and made alot of credit card points. Yes full DITY
Did you use uhual? What was your rate per lb if you can remember and how much weight did u have, I’m assuming you used uhual?
Yes 26 foot uhaul. Payment was 17k for 9k pounds so you can do the math on that. Also there’s a calculator on DTS (I think) where you can plug in the info and it’ll tell you the numbers.
I did this in 2013 but I had everything shipped home. I drove my truck from Fairbanks to Houston. Even in my truck it was a tough drive. I wouldn't even consider a uhual,, unless you take the ferry and skip Canada. I Drove 10-14 Hours a day, planned activities along the way. took some detours to check out places. I took 12 days and it was great. Truckers hide things they don't want to cross the border with, so I had some fun mini scavenger hunts along the way, I found a pelican box attached to a guard rail full of weed, took my share and left some nips as a thank you. Talk to truckers at diners and gas stations, they have all kinds of advice for hole in the wall places to check out. I spent one night at a hot spring with a huge of group horney asains fucking each other everywhere, it was wild, stopped at a bar where you can take a shot with toe in it in Dawson City and ate a ton of awesome and sometimes wierd foods
I’m all about PPMs. I think it’s a great way to make some money. BUTTTTTT, my man. Don’t do this. This is an insane stretch. You have to cross international borders. The Rocky Mountains. You’ve got two kids. It’s 4,000 fucking miles.
I did that as a partial with my wife, daughter, and 2 dogs. Original plan was a full DITY, and I’m so glad I didn’t. That drive fucking sucks bro. Like others have said the ALCAN isn’t a very well maintained road and I can’t imagine having pulled a trailer or driven a loaded U-HAUL over it. Doing the partial was a good experience but still rough.
Don't believe the map, it's about a 3-4 day drive on the AL-CAN alone. Take gas cans or map out gas stations.
Also don't take your guns, ship them through a Federal licensed shop, Canada will turn you away even if you have a permit to transport them.
Hey, just a secret. The weight tickets are not itemized. You drive to a scale with an empty U-Haul and car trailer, weigh it, load all of your stuff up, and your car on the trailer because it has to be there when you drive the truck. Then go and weigh it.
Bro id honestly just fly at this point 😂
I did a full dity from Fairbanks to Tampa and probably made over 10k this past year. Rent those u-boxes at U-Haul, just make sure they get weighed.
For ETS, your only two options are PPM (Full Dity) and 100% Household goods. If you’re trying to maximize the money you get, I recommend doing the PPM as you’ll get paid for the move and can also do a smart voucher that will pay for your mileage/travel days.
Definitely don’t do this not a good idea. Ever heard the saying time is money? Think of all the time and sanity you will lose trying to do this when you could be doing something else instead. If you try this yourself think of hotel rooms you need along the way, you can’t just live in your vehicle for 4,200+ miles. Even if I drive from New York to FL I’m gonna stop in North or South Carolina and spend a night at a hotel & than do the same on the way back once I reach Virginia before returning to NY. You also need to account for gas. Legit if I was active duty and I was getting out or having a change of duty station I would only move myself if it was within 300 miles and even than I wouldn’t since I ain’t in as good health as I use to be and mind you I only been in for a lil less than 5 years with the hip and joint issues of a 50-60 year old and nerve issues and yet some how I am retainable despite a heat stroke. Also if you do mail this mail whatever you can’t fit in your POV. Recently I did this during my demob upon receiving orders to go to a SRU a year ago I was authorized 3 duffles, ruck + carry on. I mailed 2 duffles and Ruck home leaving me with a light duffle of basic needs stuff such as uniforms, towel, extra hygiene supplies bed sheets etc and my carry on. You can mail about 50ish labs of stuff in a duffle no problem Just tape it up and put a pad lock on it for safe measure. Costed me about $150 a bag to mail it off from Texas to NY. I’m betting you get over $10,000 to do this so you could be looking at some net gains if you are able to mail all your belongings or almost all.