The U-Haul full of guns vs the moving van

[LJP]

Several years ago I was on a dive trip with a buddy, and the organizer (Bernie Chowdhury, for any divers on here) had several thousand dollars worth of technical dive gear stolen out of a uhaul trailer in a hotel parking lot in FL. Fortunately, the thieves apparently didn’t really know what they were looking at, so it could have been a lot worse. But, still happened. On the cross country moves I’ve made, the guns stayed with me and my vehicle.

[Archimagirus]

When we moved from NM to OR, we took the few guns and ammunition I owned at the time with us in the car. When my dad passed away in 2020, we sold the bulk of his collection that I didn’t want to a local shop and the rest came with us in the car. Each trip, the guns came into the hotel with us at night. For our trips we stayed in nice hotels, so I felt safe with the car in the lot but not with the guns in the car. It was a pain to unpack the car and then repack it the next day, but that was what we paid for the piece of mind that they were safe.

If I had any advice for anyone traveling through NM, it would be to not stop anywhere in the state with a loaded Uhaul truck or a trailer attached to a vehicle. Albuquerque is particularly bad, when we lived there I remember one or two stories a month about vehicles and trailers getting broken into or stolen.

[Spartan1980]

The only time I moved guns across country I had so few I could unload and load each night.

A friend of mine asked me to keep his safe after he got divorced and moved to CA. Around a year later he was settled and ready to take them out to CA. I rented a Uhaul trailer for a one way trip, put his safe in that and drove from Oklahoma City to Gallop, NM on a weekend. He drove out and met me there. We had dinner that night and breakfast the next morning, then we just unhooked the trailer and hooked it to his truck. This was over 20 years ago and probably isn't a good idea now, especially the part about going into CA with guns.

[okie john]

I stayed at a WA state park on the Columbia R. with my RV a few years ago.

SNIP

Cool dude and geared up for a shoot out.

Not a bad plan for that neck of the woods. There is no shortage of desperadoes along the Columbia.


Okie John

[Glenn E. Meyer]

I got heavy serial-killer vibes from every motel in northern New Mexico so I didn't stop until I hit Cortez, Colorado, around midnight. I pulled the guns into my room, slept with a loaded Glock next to the bed, and got up every hour or so expecting to see the rented Durango surrounded by little blue chunks of broken glass.

Been there on a couple of motels. Glock 19 was by the bed. On our last trip, we planned on staying at Embassy Suites across the USA. Ate at Cracker Barrels. Tried to settle in before it got dark.

[Evil_Ed]

Last couple of times I had to move large quantities of arms across country, it was in the back of my SUV or pickup; blankets and/or rigid tonneau covers over everything. Overnight stops, the vehicle was parked out of the way, blocked in as much as possible. Spending an hour or so carting a ton of individual rifles in sleeves and hard cases into/out of a hotel room (usually on the 3rd floor) wasn't an option so it was a night of hoping and praying each time as everything was left in the truck overnight. Carting everything in/out would have drawn more attention than just parking the truck in an out of the way spot in the first place. If an out of the way spot wasn't a thing, then it was parked in direct visibility to me so I could at least look out the window and see.

Knock on wood, no problems each time. So long as nothing is visible and so long as the vehicle itself isn't a thief's target, you've got just as good a chance of making it through unscathed as if the car were empty in the first place.

It also helps to plan your overnight stop a bit...fortunately where I was moving to, I had driven to a bunch of times so I had a good idea of safe/reasonable areas to have an overnight stop. I also knew that absolute worst case there were plenty of rest stops with truck rest areas that I could crib a spot in and catch a powernap if needed, sleeping in the car.

[FNFAN]

I got heavy serial-killer vibes from every motel in northern New Mexico so I didn't stop until I hit Cortez, Colorado, around midnight.

Every time I hear of someone mentioning 'serial-killer vibes' it takes me back to Green River, Utah. We stopped for a meal there and it was like a scene from, "Race With The Devil" getting eyeballed by different sets of people in the diner. Strange folk.