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Hi. We are going to WA June/July from Victoria. We are limited to a couple of weeks so thought we’d drive over, fly back and have the car sent back on a transport. I’m struggling to find someone who will take a car full of camping gear and with things on the roof (tent etc). Has anyone ever done this with something other than an empty car with no roof racks? Any suggestion would be appreciated.
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why are you limited for a few weeks. Did something happen or something? -
It's surprising that you're having trouble arranging car transport West-to-East. There are far more cars being transported East-to-West, so there should be heaps of empty transport capacity on the return trip.Comment
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why are you limited for a few weeks. Did something happen or something?
I got a job Nasgfer.Comment
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It's surprising that you're having trouble arranging car transport West-to-East. There are far more cars being transported East-to-West, so there should be heaps of empty transport capacity on the return trip.
There is capacity GeeWhizz, its just that they want the car to be empty- not filled with camping stuff and things on the roof. They won’t even let me bring the gas bottle for the stove home because it is so dangerous.Comment
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The gas bottle issue is understandable.
Surely you can pack the offending camping gear etc. and have that couriered home. My son recently transferred Canberra to Perth for his work, so there are ways to do it.Comment
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That would be an option, although more difficult and expensive. After more emailing the one company I have found is considering whether they’d take it with everything but the gas bottle. I know its been done before as my brother arranged transport form NT to QLD- only condition there was you couldn’t load the car up higher than window level- no doubt so the person driving it can see out.Comment
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Rolaw - did you make any progress with this? I have a nephew who is considering doing something like this, so as to spend as much of his limited leave as possible in the west rather than on the return journey. Can you share the name of the one company who was considering taking everything but the gas bottle? PM if you'd prefer. I guess there's also the question of things hanging of the side of the vehicle, like awnings etc. Was this discussed with them?Comment
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Hi Gunda,
I had some success. I found a site which gave me quotes from a number of transporters and they had a FAQ page that said some transporters would let you put things on the back seat as long as it was below the window line and didn’t stop the drivers seat from being pushed back. I think they all have the no gas bottle policy. My brother has done it a number of times to Brisbane- from NT or North QLD and has always had stuff in the car and has never been challenged. Could be that its a ‘policy’ but when you are actually dropping it off to some yard they don’t actually care.Comment
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Thanks Rolaw. I think my nephew will have issues as he drives a Jimny packed to the gills with things on the outside as well. Sounds like he'd need to separately ship back a lot of its contents, which would add to the cost.Comment
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I think there are some limits to what you can pack on/in a car when it's being transported, because of increased risk of damage, liability, etc. I'm no expert, but my understanding is that most shippers will allow a few things in the trunk, but not so much with anything that can shift or rattle around during transport, which probably rules out anything outside or on top of the vehicle. FWIW I've used this company A-1 Auto Transport before and would again - had zero problems and they were easy to work with.Comment
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Has anyone else had experience with shipping cars that are packed with camping gear and roof racks? Would love to hear what the community has to say on this.Comment
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I totally get the struggle of wanting to keep all your camping gear intact while shipping the car — you obviously want to make the most out of your limited time without worrying about unpacking and repacking. I had a similar experience and, after doing some research, I found a company that could help you.
You might want to check out a1autotransport.com. They've got a variety of options and are pretty flexible when it comes to special requests. They can usually accommodate a car full of camping gear or additional things on the roof.Last edited by DylanmMackayv; 10-10-2023, 08:31 AM.Comment
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Hi All. I should have posted something when we returned from the trip. My experience was that despite there being so many ‘rules’ when you are booking, such as only 80kgs of stuff in the car, no this and that etc, when you actually drop it off it is just you and a couple of guys in a transport yard. They don’t care and they don’t check. The only thing the guy I dropped it off to was worried about was the exterior dimensions of the car- whether it would fit on the transporter and where on the transporter it would fit. We had the cargo area full, a tent sitting across the back seat and things jammed behind the front seats and it was all fine. There was no looking through our stuff to see if we had forbidden items. The actual transporting took a while but that was because the truck broke down somewhere along the way and they had to arrange another truck to go and get the trailer. Car arrived exactly the same as when we dropped it off. The cost was about $500 more than we would have spent on fuel and saved us three days driving- although I guess you have to factor in the flight too.Comment
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