Moving Farm Equipment CrossCountry-advice?

[mountainhorse]

Hi all,
Looking for some 1st-hand information please. Anyone else made a move cross-country and moved their farm equipment, along with ‘everything else’?!

We have a sub-compact JD tractor with about 6 attachments, 2 large trailers, a 4 wheeler, and other misc. farm things that need to be moved, across the US. We can move them, but it will take several 2,000+ mile trips that really isn’t feasible for us to justify the mileage and cost on our vehicles.
I am looking into moving companies that move large items, but with so many scams out there, I need firsthand info here.

So, anyone with experience having done this before, or know of a reputable company they’ve used, I’d love to get some advice or names, please.

(no ‘googled answers’ please, just reply if you’ve done this. I have google, thanks! :lol:)

[NancyM]

Well we moved our farm equipment only 5 hours away, so not across the continent, but we used a hay hauling guy, as a back hauling load for him. Big flat deck hay trailer, that was coming up empty to pick up hay if he didn’t have our load. He was a family friend, which helped in our case. So you could look into that.

[Jim_in_PA]

Likely need a freight company to load it all on a flat bed for cross-country moving. A normal “moving” company probably isn’t a good choice for these items.

[Pennywell_Bay]

I moved from PA to Indiana. There were a few car companies who said they would move the JD.

I’ll be honest, the price of moving everything was HEFTY. I ended up selling some to local farmers and only taking what I needed. A regular frieght company is the way to go, but it is going to cost a lot. I just made this move last year.

[cowboymom]

It’s a long shot but sometimes the train is a good option for things like this too.

We’re just enlisting the help of everyone we know with a flatbed trailer! Not easy…

[hey101]

I looked into this myself in the past 6 months and found that the cost wasn’t worth it (thousands of dollars). It is a little bit more of a hassle, but I ended up coming to the conclusion that it was better to locally sell the stuff on the front end and locally rebuy it on the back end.

[cowboymom]

Doesn’t all of it except the tractor fit IN the trailers?

[JanM]

Depending on the tractor size, it might fit inside a semi trailer also. I would also call a local farm equipment dealer, and see who ships their stuff. It might be possible to have an independent hauler do an entire load cheaper than a regular hauling company.

[Ambitious_Kate]

Yeah, or find a driver [whom you know] and rent a tractor trailer for the move. I would expect it would be cheaper to sell alot of it and rebuy on the other end than spend all that money shipping though.

[Jim_in_PA]

Do a Google search on Truck Freight Rates to see what you can find from point A to point B. You may need to contact shippers directly to get actual costs and don’t forget insuring for at least ACV, if not replacement cost. Don’t take just the “by the pound” coverage…just the same as you shouldn’t do that for your household goods.

[Tom_King]

http://www.getloaded.com/

[candyappy]

When we moved the last time we had 2 tractors, a hay baler, brush hog, 12 horse round pen panels and some other things that we had to get 14 hours South. We used to live here years ago and still have family here so we were somewhat knowledgable of reputable businesses.

We hired a trucking company from where we were moving TO. They were able to pick our stuff up after delivering something close to where we were currently living( hope it makes sense). They got all that on one truck and it wasn’t terribly expensive since they were already up our way.

[Simkie]

Old thread, but…

The horse shippers–Holly Hill–took our tractor and various attachments, including the manure spreader and the bush hog. We hired the whole van. The stuff was loaded first, then then four horses. They went door to door straight through.

It was very reasonably priced for what all was involved.

[moving_to_dc]

We have moved the entire “farm” from Oklahoma to Maryland. We have a 36’ deckover flatbed gooseneck that we loaded to it’s max gross weight. Had all sorts of implements stacked on there like a tetris game, with the FEL resting on some.

We also rented a 26’ Penske truck pulling a trailer, and I singlehandedly filled it with all the corral panels, cattle panels, gates, posts, rolls of field fencing, and even 2 chest freezers (had to empty them to roll them up the ramp and then re-fill them in the truck!). The only thing we left behind was the perimeter fence and perimeter gates. All interior fencing/gates went with us.

All of our “household goods” were packed and shipped by the military, and filled a semi and half of a 2nd semi. We only moved the “farm” stuff.

Yes. It took multiple trips. We hired our Oklahoma neighbor who was a professional truck driver to drive the flatbed back, as I was pulling the horse trailer and my husband drove the Penske. We didn’t have a 3rd driver in the family to drive the flatbed. We left it parked at the neighbor’s house and he hit the road when we said we were ready for it. We paid him well for his time, and bought his airfare home.

Total cost of fuel, lodging, and paying the neighbor was less than $5k. It absolutely made sense financially for us to bring it all with us. Value of everything we brought was well over $50k, and I have no desire to shop for and replace those items, especially since most of them were bought used, off Craigslist, for an absolute STEAL.