Alternative to Shipping - and it can be a lot of Fun!

[pjdavis]

This is an option - saves lots of money and of course it is one more adventure to the whole process. 2 things are required - a vehicle to tow - truck or large SUV or a step van sized truck.

How far do you want to drive?

I would guess that 20-30% of the country is within a twelve hour drive from FFR.

My story:

I ordered my car at the factory on 7/14/2011. I had schedule for it to be ready in the 3rd week of November (needed time to raise the money). When I flew home that night - I was thinking the end of August I was going to turn 55 - what nice gift to myself. So I arranged for the kit to be ready in the 3 rd week of August. I live in Maryland. That week I was taking my last son to Syracuse University to start the 4 best years of his life. I checked the map and figure it was a 6 hour drive from Syracuse to Wareham MA. I looked up U-Haul and checked out their car haulers. THEY HAVE A LOCATION 1/4 OF A MILE FROM FFR! I arranged for a one way trailer - to MD - for 3 days the total cost was $141.00. I went to the nearest U-Haul location and measure the trailer. I built 2 dollies with casters to cross the open space of the trailer.

My older son wanted to go to Syracuse when we dropped his brother off - as he graduated from there last May.

The trip began - we left Syracuse and drove to Framingham to pick up the rear end from Mike Forte (great guy!). Checked into a hotel - Mike is 1 hour north of FFR. The next morning we picked up the trailer went to FFR loaded the kit. I have a Tahoe - with the seats down - I could load 60% of the boxes. 2 or 3 went inside the Cobra and the other 4 Mounted on the roof.

We made an adventure out of it! Left FFR at 11:00 - back home by 7:00 PM.

With the dollies - he and I just rolled the car of the trailer and into the reptile house (garage). Total cost - $100.00 for the hotel, junk food on the highway, 2 tanks of gas (1 way) and $141.00 for the trailer!

As I was writing - I was thinking - if you do not have the room for all the boxes but can tow the trailer - I would imagine it cannot cost that much to have the shipped to your location via UPS of Fedex.

I met another person who is building FFR MKIV - who lives close to me. He had a friend who has a Box truck - 18 to 20 ft interior length - so they just drove that up to FFR.

You can also rent them from Budget, U-Haul, Penske, etc. You can do it one-way. Flights into Providence, RI are cheap via Southwest. FFR is 1 hour from the airport. So you find the truck in Providence and drive to FFR.

Make it and adventure - it is part of the build process!

Warning - I learned the hard way! If you are heading south on I 95 - stay away from G.W. Bridge - go around! 4 miles in 2 hours - never again!

PJ

[BLTFRDTUF]

Hey PJ, great story, I'm in Middle River and made the trip also. I actually drove up alone just to order it. Then when it was ready, me and my sons drove up, that was October 29, 2010 so its comming up on a year. I have a F150 and a car trailer that I bought. Left here at 2am Friday and got up there unloaded the trailer in FFR's lot then got a room in Plymouth. The next morning we were the first to load and were home in 6 hours and 40 minuets. It was a great experiance, and I cant wait to do it again. I didnt even try going through New York thought, I took the Tappen Zee Bridge and missed all of that mess. Maybe we will run into each other since we are close.
Good luck with your build.

[Russ Thompson]

PJ, thanks for adding to the title, I love your trip story. Hang in there and see these guys are just trying to help.

[skullandbones]

Good move! Nice story and I hope you have as much fun with your build as you did the start of the adventure. See you later, WEK.

[pjdavis]

So how is your build going?

[R. Button]

PJ

Sounds like you had a great trip. I never see it as the cost of the trip but the time taken and enjoyed! And a trip up through the edge of the Finger Lakes area of NY and out through Mass. would have been great this time of year as the leaves start changing.
You chose well - time of year and car to build! http://www.ffcars.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Jacob McCrea]

PJ, thanks for sharing your story. I also picked up my Coupe and it was a lot of fun. I was fortunate to have the time and equipment handy, so my girlfriend and I made the trip from Pittsburgh and made a mini-vacation out of it. Here are some of my observations, in no particular order:

1. It was really cool to see the factory. When we arrived Jason was giving a tour to a street rod club and we tagged along. We were treated with great hospitality and patience by everyone, and never felt rushed to get loaded up.

2. Do whatever you can to avoid the George Washington Bridge in New York City, and even if you head north and go across the Tappan Zee Bridge, there is still the potential for massive traffic in Connecticut. We knew to avoid the G.W. but passed into Connecticut around 5:00 p.m. on a Friday, at which point we sat in stop and go traffic for 40 miles. It may be different at other times, but it was a mess for us.

3. Be sure that you have enough room in your vehicle and/or in the trailer for all the boxes. Many good tow vehicles would still not have enough room for the boxes. I've attached photos of the pallet of boxes on the FFR forklift and how they fit into my truck. With our 2 bicycles and a milk crate for tools in the 8' bed, it was a really tight fit. We had to stuff 2 boxes in the Coupe's interior area and 2 more in the trunk area, and this was a base kit (with IRS). I recall that we put the windshield and the doors in the truck's extended cab. I was uncomfortable just taping the windshield onto the body with duct tape, so it went in the cab. The rear glass was back-ordered, but it would have had to go somewhere. I could easily see someone filling up their vehicle and still having 6 boxes and a windshield sitting on the ground.

5449 5450

4. After 20 years of hauling motocross bikes I have a good idea of what will stay put in a truck bed, but I was still surprised by the high winds on the coast and had to stop once to re-tighten the straps on the boxes and tape some boxes together.

5. I brought and used every tie down I owned, which is a lot, to secure both the boxes and the Coupe. You really need to make sure that you have a fail-safe way of securing the hood/nose on the Coupe. I imagine the same can be said of the other kits. I was told that it is not uncommon for customers to show up with insufficient tie downs.

6. Cape Cod is just up the road and is a great place to visit. We stayed at an unbelievably cool bed and breakfast in Sandwich called The Belfry. It is an old church converted to a B&B and restaurant. The food was easily on par with Pittsburgh's best restaurants. There is a huge parking lot around back and the innkeeper was very nice. He let us drop the trailer after we picked up the kit so we could explore Cape Cod without dragging it around. I highly recommend the place.

7. We took our road racing bikes and had a great ride around Cape Cod. The roads on either side of the main road (Rt. 25?) through Cape Cod are perfect for bicycles, and there is also a good rail-trail that ends, at the north end, at a French bakery.

8. If it is practical and economical to do so (admittedly a big "if"), I would not hesitate to pick up the kit.