sfie281674

What's the best way to ship one of these big gas boats? I bought a boat from a guy in Florida and he's having trouble finding a shipping company to package it & ship it. It's a magnum 57 by warehouse hobbies. Trying to help him, so it dosent get destroyed! Thanks for your help....Scott

Dreamin Hemi

Good luck with that. Around here we have the UPS Store that has to custom make a large box out of 2 to fit large hulls. I had a company design and build me custom boxes for the hulls I build for shipping to my customers. The hulls sit in a 1" cardboard "cradle" glued to the bottom of the box and packed tightly with foam peanuts.

Any reputable shipper can do it, just takes some creativity!

sfie281674

Thanks, The UPS store quoted 262.00 to pack & ship. I guess I'm going that route. I never realized what a pain in the ass it was to ship something this big and fragil was.

stevo7896

That sounds high,maybe the seller could at least find a box and wrap with bubble wrap and paenuts.If the seller is near wharehouse hobbies maybe they can help him with a box as they ship hulls for 75$. Maybe if you order some parts for the boat if needed ,you could get tony to ship it with his shipping methods for whatever his cost would be.Im assuming its cheaper than 262$ .Just a thought.

Dreamin Hemi

That is WAY too much! Seriously....

I pay about $70 to $80 total for each bare hull shipped that I build. That is my actual cost for materials AND shipping costs with insurance. The boxes are about $12 each from custommadeboxes.com/ not including shipping costs for the folded box...about $6 per box. Peanuts gets to be very expensive as well, so Imay suggest paper. Not writing paper, but underlayment paper you can find at Home Depot for about $8 for a HUGE 4' wide roll. Wrinke that stuff up and stuff it all around the hull. Holds very tight and is very cheap, one roll usually will pack 12 boats or so. You may have lots extra, but you wont have to pay $30 or more for all the peanuts you'll need to buy.

That website above will send you one box or as many as you need. Fast to ship, takes 3 business days from my phoned in order to my shop.

Dreamin Hemi

One option for inexpensive shipping costs would be GreyHound. Used them once for a double hull order for a customer a few years ago. Was less than HALF what UPS usuall charges and that was a double size box!

dicko

Be warned Fedex don't insure model boats, they will take your money, but if you claim, they won't pay out. It is written into their policy.

Justaddwata

My Feedback: (3)

Going to depend on how much care the seller is going to take packing the boat. If they are not going to do anything then your going to pay a lot to have it packaged by any freight company. I paid $100 for UPS to package a 5hp outboard motor (not an easy item to package I will admit). I am sure a model boat is going to be similar.

I recently paid $200 for shipping for a 7ft box from Florida to Connecticut. Weighed about 55 pounds. I thought it was a lot for shipping but it included insurance etc. It shipped Fedex.



I have heard of others having issue with Fedex. But personally I rate USPS best, Fedex 2nd best, and UPS near the bottom in terms of delivering a package in good order. I would rather pay a little more and get a box in good shape.

cheesewizz69

I would suggest that you PM Robert Nieto or email him at [email protected]. He has shipped countless number of boats accross the country and has only had two issues that I know of and both were resolved with the shipping company.

Leo

team esp

I have shipped many in the US and Internationally. I'd go with the custom box option above and USPS. If not, have him assemble a box out of smaller ones. Either way, I can never get a lower price than USPS and the outcome has always been great for me. The roll of paper from Depot or Lowes works good too. Much cheaper than peanuts from Office Max or the like. All the extra paper works great to mask off your boat while painting. Too bad he'll have the remainder of the roll. 57" is a pain b/c of the extreme length but that quote you got is insane.

Just an FYI on some boats I've shipped to compare:

AM Cyclone Cat RTR, NY>CA $72 (too bad DHL is International only now!)

USPS-
60" Expresscraft Cat, Midwest>NY $65 (hull only)
AM Avenger Cat, FL>NY $35 (hull only)
50" Bandit Boats Racing Mono, TX>NY $37 (Hull only)
Fiberglass Crackerbox RTR, NY>France $138
Venom KOS Cat (The large gas one) RTR, FL>NY $90

Sometimes Internationally I toss the motor in its' own box to meet length/width/weight requirements. You may want to have him drop the motor in a box and ship it for $10-15 and see if it helps drop the cost of the hull/hardware. Also, pulling the drive/tabs/rudder off the stern makes for a shorther overall package and usually incursless damage. Just have him secure those parts inside the hull wrapped in paper.

rcguy1411

a great place to get large boxes is U Haul they have huge wardrobe boxes that will fit the largest boats they cost about $ 10.00 or so then use lots of paper you can also try wharehouses to get foam peanuts as the recive them all the time and just through them out

sfie281674

Thanks for the imput guys! I'll be making some phone calls today.

The problem is I'm dealing with an older gentlemen that is selling this boat for his jailed son in law. He doesnt feel comfortable packing it himself. So he's looking for companies that will take care of the whole deal. The boat is coming from Florida to Chicago. I may have to ship him an empty container, and walk him through the packaging process. Lucky me...... Thanks again! Scott

stevo7896

Ask him if hes near Wharehouse hobbies in florida.if by chance he is ,maybe you could work a deal with tony ,to ship out that boat . It sounds like a risk if you let the guy pack it and you get a damaged boat.

avconslt

My Feedback: (22)

I just bought a Pro Boat Blackjack 55 Catamaran from a guy in MA and he shipped it by Greyhound for about $50.00, to me here in Houston! It took 5-days and arrive in perfect shape! I was very impressed with their service! The only catch is that you have to go down to your local Greyhound office and pick it up!

Richard