Hire van with towbar

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nathanlee

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Hi all,

I've just got a quote for moving a 21ft bilge keeler from Lancashire to Essex at £475. This is too expensive, so I'm looking into alternatives. Does anybody know of a rental place that hires out either a discovery or a large van with a towbar? I can't seem to find any that come with towbars on them. Failing that, can anybody offer any more suggestions for doing it cheaper. £475 seems remarkably expensive since I can't imagine fuel costing more than £200 even on a flatbed, and £275 per day in labour is a bit too dear for simply driving.

Does this sound right or was it a silly quote?
 
07850 911 816

Nick Lancaster
(Owner Driver with 30 years HGV experience)

Towing Service - Any Distance
Maximum permissible load 3.5 tonnes/30 feet in length

Boats - Any Hull Configuration
(Bilge/Fin/Triple/Long Keel & Deep V/Round/Flat Bottom

Give Nick a call. He may be cheaper and is based in Preston marina . He may be able to fit it in with another job. Always done me a good job for me.
 
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Simply for driving

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To be fair until you have had the stress of towing something that size and the responsibility, insurance etc involved I would not dismiss it as just driving. Also if he is on a Tacho then you are probably looking at 2 days for that distance.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Hi all,

I've just got a quote for moving a 21ft bilge keeler from Lancashire to Essex at £475. This is too expensive, so I'm looking into alternatives. Does anybody know of a rental place that hires out either a discovery or a large van with a towbar? I can't seem to find any that come with towbars on them. Failing that, can anybody offer any more suggestions for doing it cheaper. £475 seems remarkably expensive since I can't imagine fuel costing more than £200 even on a flatbed, and £275 per day in labour is a bit too dear for simply driving.

Does this sound right or was it a silly quote?

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Probably about right for the distance, remeber the driver has his working hours strictly controlled so you will be paying for two days of his time plus expenses, and when you remeber a garage will charge you £75 an hour for the apprentice to change your oil and up to £100 for a time served mechanic.
 
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£275 per day in labour is a bit too dear for simply driving.

Does this sound right or was it a silly quote?

[/ QUOTE ] Nathan.
Have you ever been self-employed, or involved in running a small business?

That £275 has to cover financing on vehicles, insurance (3rd party liability as well), testing, phone, advertising, office rent (perhaps), repairs and maintenance, National Insurance, income tax, the list goes on and on. That's before there's any for drawings or wages.

You may find someone to do it for less, but probably not someone who is going to stay in business for too long. (....or who may be cutting corners)


On a more positive note, when I sold my Mini to a guy on Anglesy he hired a big Ford pick-up with a car trailer to collect it. Proper job.
 
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Nathan.
Have you ever been self-employed, or involved in running a small business?

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I have actually.

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That £275 has to cover financing on vehicles, insurance (3rd party liability as well), testing, phone, advertising, office rent (perhaps), repairs and maintenance, National Insurance, income tax, the list goes on and on. That's before there's any for drawings or wages.


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Ok, perhaps you're right, but £275 a day is 48k a year. That's an awful lot for a relatively unskilled job. Even if we presume he's not working 5 days a week, and deduct 65 days then that's still £30,000 a year. That's £30,000 with things like lunch with tax allowance and other fringe benefits of being self employed. I appreciate expenses have to come out of that but I was being a bit overly pessimistic with the fuel use, it's probably going to be a bit under £200 in reality.

I'm all for people earning a fair wage, but.. well, not when it comes out of my pocket /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

If I was getting a 27 footer towed with specialist gear then I could totally understand, but not when all I want is essentially somebody to pull something the size of a caravan 200 miles.
Still, if that is the price then so be it. I'll just have to be content with grumbling about it and moving on. I will be shopping around though. On top of the yard fee's to get it launched I'm on over £800 so far. That's a 1/3 of the value of the boat.
 
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On top of the yard fee's to get it launched I'm on over £800 so far. That's a 1/3 of the value of the boat.

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If you are going to trailer/tow it, you will not want to launch it?

If you mean lift it, because it is still in the water, it might be cheaper to sail it round. Much more fun too. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
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Give Nick a call. He may be cheaper and is based in Preston marina . He may be able to fit it in with another job. Always done me a good job for me.

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Done. Much more realistic price. I have a big smile of my face now. Thanks for that suggestion.
 
How much does your 21 footer and it's trailer weigh, probably not a lot shy of 1.5 tons. That is a lot more than most caravans and will need a serious tow vehicle, typically for the sort of journey you want capable of towing a minimum of 2 tons. You are in the Land/range rover or medium comercial vehicle category.

Equally remeber that self employed or not the driving time regulations apply, and it is not just cash in his pocket, but also for the job, but all the time waiting for jobs returning home etc etc that you are paying.

I dislike paying out money as much as the next man but at the end of the day if you want the job done you need to pay a fair price, and for a commercial organisation the prices are probably OK, if it is some one doing a homer then it should be less, but then I would want to be very sure about insurance.

If you want to do it yourself there are companies who will hire the right sort of vehicle, remeber the vehicle must be rated to tow the total weight of your trailer with the boat on. Mind you hiring a L/R for a couple of days will set you back a few hundred pounds, though you may get a transit or something similar for less. Unless the trailer is pretty modern your max speed (safely) will probably be little more than 40, and your MPG around 20 if you are lucky. My mates Disco does about 20 MPG and even with a modern trailer finds 50 his max on a motorway.
 
I think that is actually a very good price - its 500 miles round trip. I would have thought that 1.50 per mile was good value. Fuel, driver, insurance etc. especially with current fuel prices.

As mentioned if he is on a tacho you should be paying more, and if he is not on a tacho, you need to ask yourself whether your really trust this person with your boat - since the law now requires all vehicles towing trailers to have tachos I believe.
 
Glad Nick is able to help you. He has done 3 delivers for me and in each case i was only present at the destination. He has organised masts to come down, got an engine going when necessary and organised craning. He has also launched my boats on arrival but this is into fresh water in the Lakes. He may be reluctant to do so into salt water. Still, dont be afraid to ask him to do anything because he is very helpful. It might save you another trip up to lancs (assuming you are in essex)
 
[quote On top of the yard fee's to get it launched I'm on over £800 so far.

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That means you are paying well over £300 to have a 21footer dropped in the water.

You should be looking for some real savings there; it's a rip off.
 
I picked up my 22ft, 2.2 tonne boat myself

Hired an automatic Mitsubishi Shogun from Mitsubishi dealer/hire centre - cost £60 per day (+ £40 for delivery and pick up - I live 40 miles from the garage). Very good service

Hired a modified flat bed trailer for Bilge keelers from Southampton Trailer Centre(£40/day) - again, very good service.

Fuel consumption was about top 20s (miles per gallon) with empty trailer and the round trip was 500 miles.

I managed it all in a very long day 8 am start back at 1 am.

Watch out for hire car insurance. One company I tried would only insure up to a load maxiumum of 2 tonnes behind theit Discovery 3 - seemed a bit of a waste of a good tow car to me!

My total load was 3.2 tonnes inc trailer so just within the 3.5 tonne capacity of the Shogun. The shogun was brilliant - very easy to tow the load but, of course, fuel consumption went up to about 20 miles per gallon

For non commercial towing a tacho is not required for that total weight of car and load (I think the limit is seven or eight tonnes total.

Total cost was around £300 plus boat yard lift on/lift off fees but I would have had to pay those if I had used somebody else to tow it. Althought it is possible to jack the boat off the trailer yourself - just fiddly and time consuming.

I hope that helps

Shorn
 
Salford Van Hire do vehicles with towbars, I know because I was in the same boat /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif last april.
I had a mate who did the honours in the end, but Salford Leeds depot def had one available for short term hire..
Most hire fleets I phoned were only interested in supplying one with towbar on contract hire.

I believe Leeds Commercial also do them.
 
I bought a Volvo 240 estate with a years MOT for £195 to tow my boat, if I cash the tax in before the end of the month it only costs £15 for the tax. Works for me.
Stan
 
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