Ahhh.  U Haul

In the '90's I helped my Bro In Law move from NH to ID.

Yup, you guessed it.  That dumfuk rented a "U can't Haul with this POS truck"

Somewhere in Ohio, after 800 miles of torture, the thing finally broke down.  I honestly don't remember what the problem was, I only remember the fact that "I" had to repair this frigged up truck, at night, in the rain, on my back, in an undoubtedly urine soaked rest area parking lot.

Well, things only went down hill from there.

By the time we crossed the Mississippi River and started the long slow crawl to the Continental Divide, this POS was down to about 35 MPH.

With minor wrenching it FINALLY made it to the ID border and barely, and I MEAN BARELY made it up into the Sawtooths. Every morning would be a guessing game whether it would even start, letalone make it through the day.

After thankfully being able to unload his belongings from this pig, went out the next morning to return it.  It wouldn't start. (of course).

After wrenching on this bastage for too many miles, I initially refused to put a hand on it yet again.  He cried some BS about how he just HAD to return it, blah blah blah.

I relented and spent several more hours working on the DT466 yet again.

No Discount.  No apologies.  Never again.

I've bought several late model Penske trucks that were FAR better than the shit U H had in their fleet.

The only cool thing about U H is their ability to run ANTIQUE fucking license plates.



Edit to add that even though I don't really "own" page three, this is a milestone for me

I have dozens of UHAUL moving blankets.



Dozens.

at least enough to get to a station....lol

Do you have any trucks made in this decade?

7 months ago, rented a truck. Fucker sounded like a dying walrus. Interior lights didn't work, and every time I stopped, the seat would slide all the way forward.

U-Haul more than sucks and this thread only shines a spotlight on what we all already knew.

Fucking Vestal man those guys are usless

Trailer flip over on top of car.  I don't buy this though because Wrangler roll bars are stouter then a car roof.  

Let's see here, I've rented many U-Faults before.  I've had to move several times, and with 2 girls that went to College on the other side of the State, I figure I've got plenty of moving experience.



One ancient truck I got for the 300 mile school drive, wouldn't steer too precisely.  In fact, I could move the steering wheel a good 5 inches side to side before any steering action took place.  




Another one dropped it's exhaust about 70 miles short of the destination.  That was a loud ride.



One came with a permanently illuminated <Brakes> light on the dash.  I tried to get a different truck, but there were none to be had.  So, I drove it through the mountains of western VA.  



One had manure (I'm an old farm boy, I know manure) in the back when I went to pick it up.  The counter guys shrugged and said it had been checked out when the truck was turned in, and they had no idea how it got there.  




Not to mention the rough running engines, random and loud squeaks, rattles, bangs, odors, and shredded interiors.





Penske gets my business now.

Really liked the company founders "Dumb Shit" memo in part 3 of how to deal with lawyers suing the company. Sent my brother the link and told him never rent from u haul.

Because Arizona doesn't require any kind of inspection at all and the people in our country are being dumb and letting local businesses operate with fleets of foreign shitty poorly maintained trucks.

I saw a travel trailer being towed by a suburban and the driver was veering off of the interstate.  When he over corrected and went from left to right trying to correct the trailer decided to flip and yup, you guesses it.  It picked that Suburban up and smashed it right on the roof.  I was about 200 yards behind it.  Quite a sight let me tell you.





 

That's the kind of attitude I've received in Uhaul stores.

Doing the same move in August...

This will undoubtedly give me nightmares until then.  Thanks.  

Might go with Penske!  Even though it really is 300 extra miles to Spokane and back for drop-off!

My younger brother has rented several in the past 10 years, and I will admit they were all in good shape and dependable. Clean, ran good, no problems. Most looked less than 5 years old.

But I will never rent from that fucking joke of a company again. They screwed me royal and lost me as a customer FOREVER.

Rented trucks, trailers and an autohauler....everything always worked.
Had an issue with a trailer tire...had it replaced at a tire shop and Uhaul paid for it with no problem.
Nobody else rents trailers nationwide...used to be Jartran...but they went out years ago.

I have a CDL. The big boys rent from Penske. Uhaul is for women and children.

I've rented from Budget the last two times I've needed a truck.  The reserved truck was there when I needed it, folks working there were polite, and the trucks were new.
Good bye Uhaul.

Great thread!

I've got a few questions:

Why is it that a brand new truck (yes, I found one) with a fucking V-10 has less giddyup empty than my old 4-banger 4Runner with a half a ton of cement and mulch?  How does putting that monster of an engine into a uHaul make it inherently underpowered (although I noticed it still poured through the fuel nicely)?

Also, has anybody ever noticed that I just replaced the zip tie on the hand truck with my own zip tie after I was done using it?  I mean, it's not like they've got serial numbers on them or anything.

Oh yeah, and those little "fuel efficiency" gauges on the dash are hilarious!  What the fuck does the needle even indicate?  There's no information on the face of the gauge (beyond a "green" area and a "red" area) to tell you what the hell is going on.

During the lawsuits a few years back with firestone tires and ford explorers I think u-haul got dragged into the mess and that is why they will not rent to folks with ford explorers.  I can't believe they stick a 1 inch hitch on ford explorers these days.  



I used to work as a mechanic a decade or so ago and we often got in u-haul trucks to inspect and recomend repairs on.  I got really annoyed when I could find a dozen or more things needing fixed in the suspension, brakes, tires, and related areas and u-haul would only authorize fixing 4 or 5 things.  That taught me to really look over a u-haul I was renting.  I started picking up u-hauls during the week when there would be several to examine and pick from.



I had a tendancy to always do local moves and that gets you the older truck.  Had one ford diesel u-haul lose 1st and reverse and then driving it back it lost 3rd gear, it had its little overspeed light on regardless.  The manager gave me a darn new new chevy gasser version that was for one way trips and it was excellant since it had so few miles on it.



Last time I moved my sister I rented a big penske with a nice liftgate on back, amazing what those things can do.  



I have not had to rent a u-haul or penske or anything else in a long while and I hope to keep it that way.



I also am out of the game where I help everyone move because when I wanted to move no one felt like showing up to help me out.

I rented a truck from U-Haul and when I went to pick it up it wasn't there.  They rented it out to someone else and told me to keep checking back.  I was ready to choke them out.   I had to move that day and since the truck I reserved was not there I had to rent from someone who actually held trucks you reserved (Penske).  I hate U-Haul and will never rent anything from there even if they are the only game in town.  I have never been more pissed than I was that day.

I have rented a few Uhauls recently for a move across town.

This is the way I went the last time.  Good equipment and great service.

Their trucks remind me of some bad late-80's movie...

Last time I had to rent a Fail-Haul, I am glad I was carrying.

That was the shittiest store I have ever been in.

I swear there were drug deals going down before I walked through the door.

I got the same reason for not letting me tow with a K5 blazer.



 

I tried them and wont go back.

7 tires went out in route 4 on the trailer.

2 tires were the wrong ones for that load(p rather than trailer)

2 tires the inside shoulder had steel belting showing

3 were just not much rubber (back of truck)



 

That's there to tell the guy at the rental place how much head space he has on the gas tank.  The space you end up filling up so you don't pay their prices to "fill it".





The definition of "full" is different when you leave the lot to when you get back to the lot.





Also, I find the assertion that the "national fleet" is "new" to be an outright lie.*





Unless "national fleet" is the name of that one truck they bought to shoot video for advertisements or something.  Every truck I see, hear or use around here is a rattle claptrap pile of junk.



* Which is exactly what I would expect from someone working for them and asserting "just earning for my family."  That's one baby step up from "my baby din do nuffin!"
 

I'm not talking about the fuel gauge.  Newer uhauls have (no shit) a little add-on gauge tacked up to the dash that "tells" you what your current fuel-efficiency is.  If you're just idling or cruising down the highway (at a stately 37 mph) the needle is in the green.  If you're accelerating from a stop it gets buried in the red.  We made it a game to see how high we could get it every time we pulled away from a stoplight.

Last truck I rented from them had that.

 

With the level of OP-acknowledged hate for the brand, and the OP's hostile attitude in spite of that, he might be well served to request a lock and trashing of this thread before someone with a grudge takes it to the next level.

ARF data mining > UHaul website > Contact Us > link to thread > career FAIL

haha that didnt take long

you have a moron in Conway AR who told me i couldnt ship my POS Olympic upper back to Olympic for warranty b/c it is a "rifle" and it's "illegal"

+1, they pulled the same crap on me. Uhaul can go to hell.

The one time I used a Uhaul, the cab was infested with ticks.
Is this part of an upgrade package or something?

Why does every trailer you rent leak and have crappy re-tread tires...?

Thats just a manifold vacuum guage.  The higher the vacuum (like with throttle nearly closed) the better the mileage.

Several years ago I rented a U-Haul dolly to haul my sons car from Illinois to Denver.  Picked it up and did a check over.  Found loose bolts and low tires, which I corrected, along with greasing all the grease fittings myself.  Cost me $250-ish and was one way.  Had no problems with it.

The next year I had to rent a U-Haul one way dolly from Denver to Illinois for the same car.  Picked it up at some fly by night used car dealer who did not even know how to hook it up (fortunately I did) and during the pre-check he ran off to go try to sell a junk 30 yr old beater car to some ghetto dude.  And he wore Crocs.  After hooking up and pulling out I went straight to a gas station with air to check the tires.  Sure enough, one tire had about 10 lbs in it and the other was also low, just not that much.  I am a nut about tire inflation so I pumped them fuckers up like they were basketballs.  On the way back to Illinois one of the tailights went out.  And to top it all off, this dolly, one year later, now cost me $350-ish.  In one year a shit dolly had gone up $100.

"That's just the attitude we're looking for here at U-HAUL...You're hired"

GD hates almost everything.  

U-Haul is into shipping now?

Somebodies getting their feelings hurt.



You know how GD operates. You asked for it.

what the fuck did I just read ?  

The local U-Haul place has newer GMC cutaway trucks(shrug) but every Uhaul I've seen on the road is an old Ford(shrug)

Found a raccoon in a Uhaul one time, the animal couldn't wait to get the hell away from the brand.



Goes to show even animals think they are The Suck!

This is serious, what is the top speed of a unloaded uhaul truck? Does the company have limiters on the top speed?

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Every single one I have gotten stuck behind on a two lane hwy has had a hard time doing 65. I am not sure if the truck had a speed limiter, the truck was incapable of going faster or the driver was afraid the truck would come apart on them. My money is on the last one based on my experience driving the damn things.



 

had one that was diesel guy at the counter told me to put gas in it (first time renting anything like that and not familiar) so I put in 1/4 tank gas and it ran better than before???

not to mention one that just caught fire on my buddy (newer truck 30 + footer)

Hooo boy OP sure got butthurt in this thread.





 

People state on forums all the time - "spewed coffee on keyboard," "I laughed out loud," etc. I've never understood that. I have literally LMAO in this thread. The above quote is so spot on. I will have to take breaks while typing this.

I've never hated on U-Haul really. Moved a bunch from college on. To and from school each spring and fall, one apartment after graduation and on my third house as a big boy. I do usually use Penske though.

I got real giddy and hired some movers when I was going from house #1 to house #2. Told me not to worry about boxes or anything, they'd handle it all. They don't show up, find out they went under. I was in a huge bind and no one had any trucks available. Found a U-Haul listing in the phone book. It was in an area of town I never went to. My wife and I show up and it's in a ROUGH part of town. They're in a little bitty like two room trailer that was OLD and smelled like cat urine. Didn't see any cats though. It was also some kind of bus station, but I don't know what bus line. They had one truck on the lot and it had a '78 Ford front end on it, and I think diesel. This was in 2001. They told me I could have it 'til 2PM someone else had reserved it. LOL!

Wife gets back in her car and I get into old death trap. I'm cranking trying to get that thing to start and it finally starts with a huge BANG. Black smoke poured over the front end. Can't get it to idle so after a few restarts it warms up. I pull straight out onto the road and get going. Coming to my first stop sign, I intend to turn left onto an actual highway. I start turning the wheel like normal and I keep turning. The thing had to have a 100:1 turning ratio. I see I'm not gonna make the turn and in a panic try to stop. Not doing that either. Crossed the road went onto someone's property and rolled to a stop.

The U-Haul place sent a tow truck to pull me back on the road and disconnected and sent me on my way. The house I was moving from and to were both corner lots so I had ditch on both sides of my driveway. I knew I couldn't even pull in without turning over. I was sitting on the side of the road with the steering wheel in the passenger seat. I now knew why they had vice grips duct taped to the dash. On the flip side of the sun visor was a piece of old duct tape with the words, "Brakes - think ahead"

I called the place and told them where they could pick it up and I cancelled the charge on my credit card. That was rediculous.

Now since then I helped my MIL move and a new nice U-Haul place came into the area. We moved her stuff into storage when she sold her house until her new house was ready. We used U-Haul to move into storage and Penske when it came time to move into the new house. Didn't have a problem with either one and they were comparably priced. I don't think she was brand loyal just taking whichever was available when she needed it.

U-Haul could probably do a WHOLE lot for their reputation if they quit letting these little side of the road bungalows have a franchise or whatever and just stuck with the big corporate ones.

Why won't U Haul bring you a different truck when one of theirs breaks down? "we will dispatch a mechanic to you" then you have to wait while it is repaired.
Wow, not only did I wait 3 hours on the mechanic. I waited 4 hours on the repair that couldn't be done their and now he has to go get more parts and I'm out more time! Should have brought me a differnt truck, let me reload it and be on my way and you can haul in your truck and repair on your dime.

DITTO...saved over $400, too.  The nice lady on the phone discounted my rate since I have to drive a bit further for drop-off.