[Bill]

Since you didn't mention the rate for either towing or hauling, it is hard to judge whether either one is good. But I'm sure you have added the cost of delivery to the $9000 purchase price, to see if it is still a great deal, with "room to make repairs" if needed. It very well might be a good deal, since as you say, prices are substantially higher on the west coast than in the east, especially in the winter. But without considering the delivery charge, you don't have a complete picture.

As for towing vs hauling, you can't make a decision until you know what happens in the event that there is a problem on the road. If the trailer is being towed, and one of its wheel bearings smokes (for example), or it has a flat tire in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday afternoon, you can be assured that the towing company won't handle the issue for free. They won't let their tow vehicle hang around East Overshoe, South Dakota, for more than an hour or two unless you are paying an hourly rate. And in the worst case, they may simply drop your trailer beside the road, call a local towing company tp pick it up, and continue on their way. You need to know how this is handled. By the same token, if your trailer is being carried on a flatbed, and the flatbed dies for two or three days, do you have any recourse for the delay?

I am frankly surprised that it is less expensive to tow a trailer behind a hired pickup truck than to put it on a car hauler with 8 or 10 other vehicles. I would think that for a trailer the size of a TM (in other words, the size of a pickup truck), the hauler, either enclosed or open, would be a good deal less expensive, especially if final delivery for the entire load is to a single point (as opposed to your home address). I know that TMs are usually (though not always) delivered on a long car hauler with 4 TMs aboard, behind an F-350-size vehicle, rather than a single trailer behind a single truck. The comment that singletons are "how they are usually delivered" refers to big fifth wheels or big upright towables, rather than small trailers like the TM.

Have you contacted ABF U-Pack? I don't like them much, but you do get to rent space by the foot in one of their big semitrailers, and you don't rent more space than you need. Have you contacted one of the antique car haulers? They also rent space by the foot, and may be willing to fill out a load with your trailer if they don't have a full load of antique cars. When you talk to either, be sure to emphasize the low height of the TM - they load their semi-trailers on two levels, and will put another vehicle either above or below yours. This will cut your rate substantially.

Do any of the railroads do coast-to-coast hauling on a flatcar or boxcar? I know this is done in the east on the New York to Florida run, but I don't know if it is done between the coasts.

Finally, you mention that the TM passed the Maryland state inspection. Do you have any idea what that inspection includes? I'm not knowledgable, but I would bet that it centers around safety issues that would effect other dirvers - adequate tire tread, safety chains, breakaway switch, lack of hanging hunks of sheet metal, and so forth. Does it give you confidence that the trailer will actually tow successfully for a long distance? I don't know, but you might want to go to the Maryland DMV site online and see exactly what is inspected.

And for what it is worth, if you elect to have your trailer hauled, be sure to understand whether they will (or can) haul it as a triple with another trailer. At least one of our members has a horror story to tell about a triple haul that included his TM.

You need to be sure you do your homework in depth before you decide. The $500 difference you mention might not be the final arbiter.

Bill