Can I Barrow a Van?

Off Topic
#1

So I was greeted with the pleasure of being cut off on my way home this evening ending up in my rear ending a truck. The truck wasn’t damaged, but his hitch messed up the front end of my beloved Express van. The van still runs and drives, but the headlights were damaged as well as the bumper.

IMG_2873.JPG3264×2448 1.05 MB

Now I am without a hauling vehicle for the PAT event I’ve been working towards for the last 3 months. I’d drive my van, but i’ll have to drive at night and not having headlights makes that pretty difficult.

Do any of our makers happen to have an auxiliary van they might be willing to loan me Thursday to Sunday? I’d be willing to compensate $150 or help with equivalent projects that may suit my talents.

I’m trying not to rent a van as it seems a comparable vehicle to mine will cost me well over $500 for the 4 days. I need a vehicle big enough to carry 12 saw horses, 3 - 1.8 ft x 6 ft table tops, a 4 ft x 2 ft x 2 ft rocket stand, a 4.5 ft hydraulic rocket press, a bundle of 4 ft rocket sticks, 2 - 2 ft x 2 ft x 4 ft rubber maid container, a 50 gallon trash bag full of paper tubes for rockets and salutes, a tool box and a few other boxes of odds and ends for the event. Kind of a lot of stuff.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Nick

#2

Just out of curiosity…
Uhaul 9’ cargo van is $100.75 (plus $0.59/mile).

image.png307×691 5.6 KB

Is this van not comparable, or for some other reason working out to your estimate of $500 for the 4 days?
I doubt I can be helpful anyway, but I am curious about “comparable” and how you got to the figures you have.
Seems to me like you could rent the uhaul for 5 days, and have 100 miles in for your $150 offer…

EDIT: This might even BE a Chevy Express van, making me scratch my head even more about differences. Could also have the 10’ box truck for the same $$.

EDIT2: Enterprise also rents cargo vans out of their truck rental centers. Here’s the big, bad MF Chevy Express E35C XL for $311.00, with 600 miles free, $0.29 per mile thereafter, pickup tomorrow, drop off Monday. Other, smaller, lesser vans also available…

image.png1006×694 60.6 KB

#3

oh shit, that sucks hard. We can rent something if needed.

#4

Capps rents vans as well. Stay away from the airports though to get the charges down. Also my CC had protection on rentals against LDW so I don’t have to buy their insurance. That may be something to look into.

IMG_0195.PNG640×1136 385 KB

2 Likes
Anyone want to help gather quotes for a tourbus/rental bus/party bus
#5

Would a full sized pickup with an 8’ bed work? 1997 Dodge RAM 2500?

2 Likes
#6

Thanks everyone,

@jast
Uhaul was the first place I checked, the catch is you have to make sure they actually have the vehicle you are trying to rent. I called the two places next to me and both didn’t actually have a van. We will have some rain and I need to be able to drive lightly off road, add a large box truck to that and I expect to get stuck in the field. As for the $500 charge, many of the quotes I found earlier were in the $129 to $229 per day range which felt exorbitant.

@TBJK
Thanks for the find, I’m going to grab that guy up. I didn’t realize when I was searching capps that I was getting the gouge pricing from the airports.

@dejswa
Thanks for the offer David. You are awesome. If we hadn’t found the cost effective van I would definitely of taken you up on the offer.

Thanks DMS for all the help. Got me through the frustration and into a solution that will workout!

3 Likes
#7

Generally, Enterprise is a better deal than UHaul unless you are doing a short haul event.

#8

Capps Van reserved for pick up today!!!

The Fireworks Shall Commence!

5 Likes
#9

Ha, I just looked up the same thing at Capps and came here to post it. There is a location in Garland too!

You really want the damage waiver! :wink: just saying

2 Likes
#10

5 Likes
#11

Needs more magnesium! And water.

2 Likes
#12

And more barrow. :imp:

1 Like
#13

Thankful nobody was hurt.
Sorry Nick

1 Like
#14

@Raymond
I meant Burro you Ass. :smile: Get it? Get it? :smile:

2 Likes
#15
#16

and there was an earth shattering kaboom!

CYCLONE_2002_023.jpg1536×1024 194 KB

2 Likes
#17

So…
3 questions:
How’s the Nickmobile?
Describe the rental experience (How happy were you with this solution?).
Where are the rest of the pics of the event?

#18

So the Van is being repaired by Magic Touch in Lewisville. It would be done right now had the insurance not dragged it’s feet trying to total out the vehicle. Luckily, my Van is special and still worth a considerable amount even though it is a 2003 with nearly 200K on it. Should have it repaired by Wednesday or Thursday next week if all goes well.

As for rental, it went well Capps was easy to deal with. They put me in a brand new light duty express van. Only 300 miles on it. We loaded it up and introduced it to the boom! In the end PAT offered to pay for the rental because I only rented it to haul things for the event. Thanks @Lampy for that, it helped on the financial side as I’m currently using all my insurances, Medical surgery with hospital stay, hail damage to house, and vehicle deductible. What a mess, but just saved $1400 on the first hospital, make sure you negotiate when dealing with the hospitals.

As for pictures, I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, didn’t take many pictures. But, I’m trying to gather footage to make a sizzle real from the event.

Here are a few videos I took:



2 Likes
#19

“Like” doesn’t quite cut it. Thank you for the share.
Awesome videos! I was gettin’ nervous about all those washing machine parts flying… :fearful:

#20

The washing machine was disassembled rapidly by a Styrofoam cup of liquid oxygen and an adult diaper. We were far enough away to be safe, but it was crazy seeing how far some of the pieces went upward. The funniest part was the base plate looked unharmed.

If you watch to the end of the gas mine you can see a mud clot go through the frame. That ended up bouncing off the ground and bumped my knee. I think you can hear Rex calling it out. :smile:

These events are a truly rare opportunity to do somethings that you legally can’t and shouldn’t do anywhere else. Ask @MrsMoose, when she volunteered to help, she thought we were going to be a group of adult children hanging out in a parking lot lighting black cats. :wink: This year we got to learn about High Explosives. We made a 100 ft wall of flames using Det Cord and compared Flash based explosive to Dynamite. Good luck doing that legally anywhere else.

3 Likes