Just bought a 4bt stepvan on Dovebid...questions about getting it home

[jcramsey]

I just won a 95 Chevy p30 stepvan on Dovebid and am working on how to get it home. Only about 100 miles from my house to where it is. The auction states must be towed off the lot..but I've seen a lot of folks saying they have driven theirs right off the lot. I've been looking for quotes to ship on uship.com, but I'm not opposed to driving it home. Anybody on the forum have a dovebid experience? How'd you get it home? What's a reasonable cost to get it hauled 110 miles at the most?

[HemiChallenger71]

Take a buddy and some tools and go get it man.

[JonnyC10]

Get a temp plate at dmv. Or if you have AAA put a plate on it and give them a call and tell em you broke down. The drivers don't care because they get paid. Ive done it and others I know have done it.

[jcramsey]

Originally Posted by HemiChallenger71

Take a buddy and some tools and go get it man.

Leaning towards this....

[Vintage Windmills]

Just get it yourself or get bids directly from towing companies. I recently got screwed over by Uship, don't think I'll ever try to use them again. Still fighting with them and my credit card company to get my money back after the shipper backed out of the deal! Since then I've contacted the trucking companies directly with excellent results.

[jcramsey]

Originally Posted by Vintage Windmills

Just get it yourself or get bids directly from towing companies. I recently got screwed over by Uship, don't think I'll ever try to use them again. Still fighting with them and my credit card company to get my money back after the shipper backed out of the deal! Since then I've contacted the trucking companies directly with excellent results.

Thanks for the info. I will look into local companies instead of going through Uship. I wouldnt mind paying for someone else to do it and save the hassle of driving an unregistered, uninsured vehicle 100+ miles.

[jcramsey]

Never got a bid to haul in my budget, so I'm going with my father in law to pick it up tomorrow and drive it home. Local towing company wanted $175 just to tow it 2 miles from the storage facility to a gas station. No thanks. I'm taking a chain and we're gonna tow it through the front gate off the property and I'm gonna drive it from there.

Fingers crossed!

[jcramsey]

Made it home in one piece! The fleet mechanic was awesome and stayed around for a couple hours to help us get it running. Been sitting for three months and he said more than likely someone had been stealing fuel out of it. Freakishly cold for this area at about 22* this morning. He got it to fire up and idle after a while but wouldn't rev at all. Was sucking air in the fuel line. He had other work to do so we went and got a 6 gallon jug and some 3/8" gas line and strapped it in the passenger seat. Fired up and ran like a top after that....until I ran out of the 6 gallon jug in less than fifteen minutes Forgot about the return line going back to the tank My father in law went to fill up the can again and and I got the return line loose and in the jug too. All good after that. 80 miles and just one small hiccup. Pretty good day!

[dieseldude4bt]

What are you putting the 4bt in?

[slotard]

Glad you got it home without too much of a problem. Is the 4BT going in your 66?

[jcramsey]

Originally Posted by dieseldude4bt

What are you putting the 4bt in?

Originally Posted by slotard

Glad you got it home without too much of a problem. Is the 4BT going in your 66?

Good question! I would love to put it in the 66...but am on the fence about that. I like the inline 6 with the three on the tree originality of the truck and don't want to hack it up too much. I may end up just holding onto it until I can find another truck that I don't mind extensively modifying. Or I might sell it.

It all comes down to $ too.

[Dieselwrencher]

Glad to hear you got it home safely!

[jcramsey]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Glad to hear you got it home safely!

Thanks!

[jcramsey]

Looks like it is a P-pump motor with aftercooler/intercooler. 93,000 miles.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice score on that!

[jcramsey]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Nice score on that!

Thanks Dieselwrencher.... It looks like my 4bt dreams are gonna be short-lived, though. I put the van on craigslist last week for silly money and had a deposit on it the next day. It's going to live its new life as a food truck. I'll probably never find another one for the deal I got on that one though.