UHaul towing with Ford Explorer NOT ALLOWED!!?!?!?!!????

[thereisnospoon]

So, my wife and I were planning to go to her hometown to haul a piano she learned to play on...family heirloom. So, we just thought we'd make a good ol' reservation through Nazi Uhaul, Inc who has a very strange monopoly in the rental market, and we were told tonight "NEIN!!!!!!!"

I was told the same canned response by several customer service drones..."We do not rent tow behind trailers to Ford Explorer owners due to the excessive costs of defending lawsuits with the Ford Explorer."

Has anyone else heard this?

 

[Mounty 09]

Yep I have herd of it many times. Tell them your drive a mountaineer or us a buddies truck to pick it up.

 

[FROADER]

There are many more, but here you go.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96237&highlight=u-haul

 

[Gator Jeff]

And some reasons to avoid U-Haul at all costs even if they did allow you...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/uhaul/la-na-uhaul24jun24-sp,0,77395.special

 

[dogfriend]

I'll just add my obilgatory U-haul is stupid comment.

See the multi page U-haul thread for all the supporting evidence.

 

[calisoundmix]

just gonna add my u-haul rant, don't give any of your money to these *******s, they have POS barely running trucks and for just a little bit more you can get a nice Penske, now THAT is the real moving company that the pros use.

 

[jimbo74]

since uhual is a franchise company, you can go to the little mom and pop places and they will usually rent them out

 

[mawrazen]

OMG! I just saw a Honda Accord towing a 5 x 8 Uhaul trailer. OMG!

I have tried to rent a trailer at 3 different uhauls. No luck. :fire:

They happily rented me a truck for 4x the price.

Apparently I can tow a 19' ski boat but not a 5 x 8 stupid uhaul trailer.



Those *******s.

 

[celly]

Use Penske or another rental place. I wouldn't rent a UHaul even if I didn't have an Explorer. I remember seeing a 60 Minutes type piece on how poorly UHaul maintains their fleet. Ticking time bombs. It's pretty rich that they single out Explorers when their equipment is inherently unsafe.

 

[pumpkin]

they have POS barely running trucks

LOL, yeah I rented one of those 4 years ago. Those are the local trucks that you can take off in the second gear with no load.
The trucks used for one way are newer.

 

[charlieb]

I had the same problem when moving back from Tennessee. I told the U-Haul people I was actully gong to pull it with my Ford Pick-up and gave them the year and tag number of it. Funny thing, U-Haul OK's the Mercury Mountaneer.

 

[Thelt]

It is a PR thing going back to the second gen problems with firestone tires. It is stupid that they keep that ban even though the Explorer has been redone twice since then.

 

[jimbo74]

It is a PR thing going back to the second gen problems with firestone tires. It is stupid that they keep that ban even though the Explorer has been redone twice since then.

it was the first gen explorer with rollover problems, and some 2nd gens.... they redesigned hte suspension of hte explorer in 95 to be safer than the previous ttb suspension

the tag on the door of both my 94 and 96 say 26 psi

 

[dogfriend]

It is stupid

You are correct, sir. Its U-haul.

 

[CDW6212R]

it was the first gen explorer with rollover problems, and some 2nd gens.... they redesigned hte suspension of hte explorer in 95 to be safer than the previous ttb suspension

the tag on the door of both my 94 and 96 say 26 psi

The door tags with tire pressures is greatly to blame for most of the roll overs. Those pressures are too low for all tires now, given current maximum pressures, and these 4400 pound trucks. With the recommended pressures being too low, those people with the failures could or did not notice their pressures being much lower than that. It is very hard to tell the difference between 26psi and 15psi visually, which is how most people "check" their tires.

We are all supposed to make an accurate pressure test of our tires regularly, but of course very few people do.

U-haul is obviously nuts/biased, for who knows what reason. All they needed to do was to make their own requirements for tire pressures, and actually make the pressure test themselves. They should discuss the tire pressures with their customers, all of them, not just for the Explorers. Ignorance kills, it's a shame but true.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Wow - I had no idea. I'm a rather new Explorer owner. Never really thought that I would own one. But, when our rental in Tennessee in December 2004 was a brand new 4x4 2005 with AdvanceTrac and it got us up the mountain when no other car was able to make it to the cabins, it was a logical choice for next vehicle when we got home.

 

[E.B. Cornburner]

That is just beyond dumb. I can see protecting themselves on the Gen II, but a blanket statement that bans all Explorers??!?

I suppose that's just the uneducated masses though...I had a customer that wanted a Pontiac Montana minivan the other day, and while I didn't have a Montana on the lot, I had a real nice Chevy Venture. They wouldn't even look at it because one of their friends had a Venture and had to replace the engine. So they won't look at one...In their minds all Chevy Ventures are junk. But the thing that baffled me, was the fact that they wanted the Venture's identical twin! Even when I explained that they were the exact same vehicle with only a nameplate change, they still wouldn't look at it.
I guess I should be thankful, even though I didn't get to sell them something...People like that tend to be the worst customers. They typically don't know anything about cars, and just drive one till it stops, then it's either the dealer's fault, or the car is a POS, but it's never the fact that they neglected it.

 

[CDW6212R]

Ditto Mike, that's what I see when anyone condemns any vehicle. 99% of the time the maintenance is at fault, the mechanic or owner is responsible. The owner has much more responsibility for problems than any manufacturer, or tire.

Keep your tire pressures up, the extra air saves your life and saves your fuel. Regards,

 

[Raven Lockwood]

had the same problem with u-heil in late august. Moving from New Haven, CT, to Syracuse, NY. Luckily my Boyfriend's dad has a homemade 12x8 snowmobile trailer he was willing to let me haul (excellent craftsmanship I might add, this thing pulled like a bell on a tail.I could lift it by hand to position it easily.) After reading that article I'm grateful that I didn't get uhaul after all, I had to go 1300 miles total with the darn thing, through the green mountains to New Hampshire first(we both had stuff out there to grab), THEN to new haven, then back to Syracuse, through the Birkshires (yes, griz was a champ for it and barely broke a sweat in the mountains. I <3 my truck) but sheesh, it took teeth pulling to find out WHY they wouldn't rent to me, even though my truck is perfectly capable of towing whatever they care to hitch onto it....sorry..still kinda bitter about the whole thing. they are the ONLY ones who rent towbehind to passenger vehicles. :fire:

 

[Curtis]

I had this problem when trying to rent a car dolly about5 years ago and they-re still at it..
I just went to their site and after trying to reserve a trailer, I had to enter my tow vehicle.

"This vehicle is not authorized to tow U-Haul equipment. U-Haul does not rent behind this tow vehicle. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Is there a different vehicle that you can use for towing?"

It said this for my 1996 and my 2004!
There was no Mercury Mountaineer in the list to "test"

SOB's