Auto Transport Tips: How Weight Can Affect Your Transport
If you’ve been doing a bit of research on the car shipping industry prepping for your own auto transport experience, kudos to you – not enough people do it.
Chances are you’ve heard that you should make sure there’s only 1/4 of a tank of gas in your vehicle when it’s picked up, and you can only have up to 100 pounds of personal items in the trunk (despite the fact that auto shippers technically aren’t allowed to ship household goods).
But do you know the reason as to why you should do these things? Why it’s important to make sure that the weight of the vehicle you’re shipping should be as low as possible? Obviously not to the point where you’re chopping it up and taking the seats out or anything, but rather trying to minimize extra weight added to the vehicle – do you know why that’s important?
It’s okay if you don’t – unless you’ve been doing this for years chances are you’re not an expert, so you’re not expected to know. The reason why you should try to minimize how much extra weight you add to the vehicle you’re shipping is because the more weight a vehicle has, the more expensive it’ll likely be to ship.
This goes more for larger vehicles – pickup trucks as opposed to cars – but it’s still important. More weight causes more drag on the auto transport truck, which means a decrease in fuel economy; because of this, heavier vehicles have to cost more to ship in order to make up the difference in gas mileage. But the reason why you should only have a bit of gas in the tank and you shouldn’t pack it full of stuff is because it could theoretically push an auto transport truck literally overweight.
Auto transporters, like any other long-distance hauler, have to stop at weigh stations along the way, and if they’re overweight they have to take all the cars off their truck and then they’re searched – and anything that shouldn’t be there is going to be quite literally taken out of the vehicle and left at the weigh station. So do yourself a favor: try to minimize how much extra weight is added to your vehicle. It’ll make your shipment a lot easier in the long run.
You can get a free quote to ship your vehicle right away via our free online auto transport quote request form. If you fill out the form you will see your estimate right away and will get a quote within minutes. We work only with top-rated carriers who are fully licensed and insured. You can also call our toll-free number at 800-930-7417 and speak to one of our live representatives if you have questions, concerns, or just want a quote over the phone.
Since 2007 Dave has written all the content and blogs for American Auto Shipping and during this time added the duties of customer support and transport logistics.
He currently resides in Washington with his three kids and their mom and cat. A fan of Marvel movies and good stories, when not shipping cars Dave can be found working on his novel, enjoying a good book or playing some tournament HALO.
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