Moving your scooter with your house

I'm a huge fan of Penske trucks when I make a move and I used one each time my family and I moved from coast to coast. On our move back West we rented a 26 ft truck (largest available) and a trailer for a car. We had to put all of our belongings in the truck, including three fully assembled scooters and my Lambretta in boxes. We had to leave a lot behind, some of value, but the scoots were priority. While I felt safer having the scooters in a covered truck for the 2,800 mile drive my big concern was the fact that there are NO tie down straps in these trucks. You are not allowed to change the truck in any way without it co$ting you.
Above, we're unloading the scooters in San Francisco. My original thought was to use three skids and strap the scooters to them and then strap them in place, but my father-in-law had a far superior idea.
He suggested that we buy a star wrench (like an allen wrench) and remove the screws from the floor and replace them with eye hooks, washers, a lock washer, and a nut -- all of which is a hair smaller than the threaded hole in the frame of the truck. It was so easy.

My father-in-law also built rear wheel chucks out of the scrap 2x4s from Home Depot. The idea being that there would be no forward/side movement of the rear end. We strapped down the scooters using Canyon Dancers around all three handle bars (my preferred method). This method worked very well.

Being anal, I kept the cowls and glove box of the SS180 wrapped up the cab of the truck with me for added safety.

This truck was the Vespa's home for nearly a week. Sadly, I forgot the camera to take a picture of the scooter our 10x25 ft storage unit as that was her temporary home for a few months.

Congrats to the blog . . . over 26,000 visits in one years ten months.

Moving Tomorrow

Not able to respond to comments or write posts for a little while. My family and I are moving to San Francisco (my home) tomorrow.

I will be back up and running on this blog once I am settled in.

Here's a quick moving tip . . . inside your truck remove the screws that hold the floor in (and save to put back in once you are done with the truck) and replace with eye-hooks. I used eight eye-hooks for three scooters. Worked great with NO modifications to my rented truck.

It''l be a trip from Harrisburg, PA to S.F., CA in the 26 foot truck towing a car, while my wife drives the other car with the dog in it. Big move.

Keep your fingers crossed all goes smoothly.

By the way, the paint touch-up looks amazing as does the bike of course.