Partial Build Shipping Questions

[AMK53]

I am potentially looking to purchase a partial build from someone and wanted to get everyone's thoughts on the best way to ship it across the country (Alaska to Arizona). Are there particular companies that are more suited to this task? Is there anything that I need to keep in mind before I take the leap? Roughly how much can I expect to pay? Any help is appreciated!

[Jerrytex]

I just used uship to have an elevator shipped from Idaho to Texas. I had good luck and it was reasonable as far as cost. The shipper was able to package it very nicely for transport. However, I think if I was buying a kit or a partial kit, I would transport it myself. It’s pretty cheap to rent a Uhaul.

[GuppyWN]

Not from Alaska. I looked at an airplane last year in Alaska and considered driving up and Uhauling it to Idaho. Would have cost about 5 grand all tolled.

[Jerrytex]

Wow! That’s pretty high. Yeah maybe uship would be an option then. Once you set up an account, you get bids from drivers. Like I said, it worked smoothly for me but I know others have had some issues. There is feedback and reviews on the drivers so you can pick and choose.

[AMK53]

Picking it up from Alaska personally would be way too difficult for me as it is hard to take that many days off. Do these shipping generally know how to pack airplanes? Or is that something I would need to supervise?

[mike92104]

I had mine moved from Seattle to San Diego. I had to pay extra to have it "crated", but it was done well. Only issue was that it rode on an open trailer so it was potentially exposed to the elements. Luckily it didn't get rained on on the way down. I found the transporter on Barnstormers. Just searched "transport" or something similar. The transporters availability depends on where they are in the country at any particular time. It might take a month or so for someone to become available, and I'm not sure any would be in Alaska. I didn't trust any of the U-Ship quotes I got. Seemed like they all just wanted the work, and were willing to say whatever you wanted to hear.

The best option, in my opinion, would be to have a local aviation familiar person crate the kit for you so that's it's ready to load onto a truck. That will give you a lot more options on who you use to actually ship it.

I believe I spent 2k on shipping my kit.

[GuppyWN]

Picking it up from Alaska personally would be way too difficult for me as it is hard to take that many days off. Do these shipping generally know how to pack airplanes? Or is that something I would need to supervise?

I’d call Kitfox. They sent it there. I’d bet your best bet would be to put it on a ship.

[Greg79]

I used a shipper off Uship. He picked it up in Dallas and dropped in California for $1200. They guy did a good job and only took about a week. The trick I did was to post the ad on Uship and once I talked to someone I liked and sounded competent I figured out who he was and contacted him outside Uship. Dropped the price by about $500