To Buy a U-Haul

We received our work permits on Wednesday and sometime after midnight that night we suddenly came to the conclusion that renting a U-Haul would not work and we should buy an old box truck. We saw that the U-Haul store in Horsham, less than an hour away, was selling multiple retired trucks that sounded like they fit our bill. So on Saturday the boys were at Jeff's parents and Jeff and I headed for Horsham. When we walked in, Tom, the man at the counter looked a little harried and said, "I hope you have a reservation." We assured him that we were looking to buy, not rent and were not too surprised that he needed to go ask his boss what to do with us. We were a bit surprised when he came back and said that there had been considerable turnover at that store ("they fired everybody"); he and the manager had just been transferred from other stores to take over, and they had no idea. At all.

They knew the trucks were somewhere at the warehouse down the street. The boss knew there was an office in that building. They did not know how to sell a truck or where they might find the keys for the trucks. Tom tried to call several places ("doesn't anybody over there work weekends?"), finding amusement in a less-than-ideal situation. We stood in the background chuckling too. Someone he called told him to call maintenance. After a few rings he remembered that maintenance is not open on weekends. "They just sent me on a dumby call!"

Mike, the manager, said he would finish with a customer and come look around the warehouse for us, while Tom told someone who had called from another store that he had the hitch they needed but no one to install it today so they'd have to figure it out themselves. Our Honda Fit (da-do da-do-da-do) survived the left turn out of the parking lot onto 611, following Mike in his Mustang GT to an old warehouse just down the road. We parked beside a large, deep puddle at the bottom of the ramp into the warehouse while Mike pulled right inside. He printed out the info on a couple of trucks we had liked and a truck driver arrived with a few U-Box containers on a trailer. While Mike went to talk to him ("he taught me how to run the forklift, but I really need him to finish my certification") we wandered the warehouse a bit. To the right was a U-Haul truck from the 70's ("we keep that for shooting movies") and a 26 foot truck missing a large portion of the top of the box ("somebody didn't pay attention to a low bridge sign"). The driver gave Mike a good suggestion for where the keys might be, and we walked towards an office section of the warehouse while Mike wondered aloud if they kept the door locked. Fortunately, it wasn't--because who knew where THAT key would be?

Inside we started looking in desks and rooms, including the one with a handwritten sign, "Do not enter." The drop ceiling was falling down and it had some old junk in it. One of the bathrooms had a similar sign that warned us away from using it and we did follow those instructions. Inside a wall box we found a pile of a few dozen keys but none with the numbers from the trucks we wanted to look at, but at least one with just a question mark. So we wandered out back where the trucks were parked.

I won't bore you with a blow by blow description of the next half hour, but suffice it to say there was maybe three dozen trucks of various sizes, with and without boxes parked four across and maybe ten deep, bumper to bumper. Most had the keys in the door, but one had a broken lock and a key stuck in the mirror. Of the seven or eight that were the size we were looking for, one had the catalytic converter stolen, one started but had "no acceleration" written on the windshield and, sure enough, when Jeff pressed the gas pedal to the floor the engine didn't even rev. One had a key but no ignition, just a hole in the steering column.

The one that looked promising by way of running and not lacking parts was literally parked in the back corner. At least a dozen trucks that probably wouldn't start, and might not even have keys, would have to get through the gate before we could get that one out (see the "no acceleration" note above for more info on the truck at the front of the row). Mike admitted that he'd worry about getting the truck out first and then how to do the paperwork to sell it to us. As far as we know, he still hasn't learned how to do a sale; we were convinced that wasn't the truck for us.

Thanks to Mike and Tom for making this experience enjoyable, despite the inconvenience. We wish you the best managing your new store and think you'll do great!

Stay tuned to find out how we get a box truck. (We still don't have one.)