barny

I would never trust a moving co. to take my important machines. We had everything we loved ruined in moves. Several moves. I would take them in my car if I had to leave something else. LOL.

Lady Diana

Since you have an SUV, why don't you rent a small UHaul trailer? Small trailers are easy to pull.

coopah

We have moved two FWs from FL to CA to WA to FL. From WA to FL we added a Pfaff. We let the movers take them. Silver, jewelry, guns and some irreplaceable items take up car space. Never had any problem about the machines.

klswift

I am very sorry about the lady who had the bad experience with UPS. The rule is that it needs to have 2" in all directions. So the best thing is to put the boxed machine inside another box with some padding (a blanket wrapped around it would work). You shouldn't have any problem with the professional movers, but I would box it myself and put it in another box. You could stop by a fabric/sewing machine shop and probably get a box to fit. Or try an appliance store. When we make our 'big' moves, we mark our boxes with a number and have a small notebook that says what is in the box (not details, just generic example - clothing, kitchen stuff, etc). And take pictures of the stuff while it is in the house just in case. As for personal shipping, in 28 years of shipping, the only claims that UPS did not honor where those that had not been packaged correctly. They even honored ones that did not have the original receipt but had a picture and could show the item in a catalog or other store info. The thing you want to do is package it yourself so that you know it is done right - whether you ship it with professional BONDED movers or with UPS.

SuzzyQ

Could you watch them pack your machines?
And for goodness sake insure your machines! No matter what...

oldtisme

My 1st husband was in the military, they have movers come in and pack up your house for you (everything), over 3 moves I had several boxes disappear along with the packing lists for each box. They "lost" rare collectables which were lost with the packing lists. I also had a console TV (shows how long ago this was) that I guess stuck out too far for the shipping crate so the just shoved the crate shut against the back of the TV putting the backing through the front screen of the TV. I learned to watch everything they packed and get my own copy of every packing list. Most of all to not leave the moving up to my ex husband. I guess you can tell why he's an EX now lol. Thankfully I wasn't learning to quilt back then.
Jeri

SunQuilts

Thanks for all the suggestions. Still trying to make up my mind. I have been reading reviews of moving companies and while I realize it is mostly unhappy customers who take the time to write, there are some real horror stories about bad moves out there! The one exception seems to be American Van Lines which got a lot of good reviews. Anyone have any experience with them? And BTW, oldtisme, my late husband was career military and we moved around frequently. It was nice to let the AF handle all the details. Mostly everything went well except for the time the RR car with all our belongings was disconnected and left on a RR siding somewhere in Arizona and wasn't found until two months later. That was fun!

SunQuilts

Oh, I forgot to add. In the middle of all this moving turmoil, I just learned that, thanks to the hail storms we have had recently, the roof needs to be replaced. Fortunately, no inside water damage but the roof took a major hit! One more thing to deal with.

Flowergurl

We moved from CA to Ks when DH retired and we rented a small uhaul trailer and towed it behind our SUV.
It worked great to haul all the things i didn't trust the movers to take.