U-Haul Denial

[The Welsh Griffin]

So I went home and sent my buddy down to rent it for me .....

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[ZoMojave]

Mmmmm. Topless.

 

[chorky]

That came about because of the Explorer/Firestone problems in the late 90’s-early 00’s.
As late as 2015 they still wouldn’t rent a trailer to an Explorer.

Kevin

Yeah I know.. But still towed plenty of things with the explorer over the years. Never had a single problem

 

[dslfreak]

I went to rent a U-Haul car dolly today from an actual U-Haul facility (not from the back of a car repair shop). The counter person told me that I was not able to rent any trailerable item there because my Gladiator has a soft top. I must have made a face or something because the manager walked right over and said that "they do not rent to Jeeps with soft tops because the occupants will die in a roll-over, U-Haul policy." I asked if that was corporate policy and he said yes. I figured I wasn't going to get anywhere with either of them so I left. Does this make any sense? Did anyone hear of this before?

Thank God I don't ever have to tow with this thing - certain death is imminent.

I heard this 20 years ago or so when I was renting with my TJ. Luckily a different guy let me take it and I was able to move my crap cross country

 

[Terry]

I went to rent a U-Haul car dolly today from an actual U-Haul facility (not from the back of a car repair shop). The counter person told me that I was not able to rent any trailerable item there because my Gladiator has a soft top. I must have made a face or something because the manager walked right over and said that "they do not rent to Jeeps with soft tops because the occupants will die in a roll-over, U-Haul policy." I asked if that was corporate policy and he said yes. I figured I wasn't going to get anywhere with either of them so I left. Does this make any sense? Did anyone hear of this before?

Thank God I don't ever have to tow with this thing - certain death is imminent.

Sounds like someone's Fruit of The Loom's were cinched up a little tight.

I rented a car transport from Uhaul in San Diego as well as cargo trailers in Washington state. I would go to another U-haul dealer.

Sounds like someone's Fruit of the Looms were cinched up a little tight. Guess they didn't notice the full roll cage........

 

[Orange01z28]

I went to rent a U-Haul car dolly today from an actual U-Haul facility (not from the back of a car repair shop). The counter person told me that I was not able to rent any trailerable item there because my Gladiator has a soft top. I must have made a face or something because the manager walked right over and said that "they do not rent to Jeeps with soft tops because the occupants will die in a roll-over, U-Haul policy." I asked if that was corporate policy and he said yes. I figured I wasn't going to get anywhere with either of them so I left. Does this make any sense? Did anyone hear of this before?

Thank God I don't ever have to tow with this thing - certain death is imminent.

This is indeed corporate policy

I had to go hook up a trailer for my buddy in a soft top JK with my hardtop JT in order for them to rent to us

 

[BearFootSam]

Here's the policy. https://www.uhaul.com/Tips/Towing/Trailer-User-Instructions-122/#:~:text=No open or soft-top,less collision and ejection protection.

I was denied at my local U-Haul - then got home and looked further into the policy and the website. If you rent w/ a Wrangler - it asks you soft top or hard top (and denies automatically if soft top), If you switch to Gladiator, that option goes away. That - paired with the verbiage "No open or soft-top sport utility vehicle is allowed to tow a U-Haul trailer" (not truck/pickup truck) seemed like a deliberate choice NOT to prohibit the Gladiator. Either way - I called back, talked to the guy and asked him to look further into the policy details - and he found that in their systems it RECOMMENDS not to tow with the soft top, but it was different than the Wranglers where it strictly prohibited it. He apologized, said the policy has always been no soft tops and he assumed it was that clear cut.

It's worth asking them to look at whether their system has different recommendations for Wrangler w/ soft top and the Gladiator, and point out the "SUV" verbiage and that the website doesn't ask about the top when booking the trailer. There simply hasn't been a mass market soft top pickup truck so all the employees' know is decades of Wranglers. I was able to rent in the end.

I noticed this as well, that the choice of Gladiator bypasses the top question and brings you to a page with a variety of trailers. Certainly there is a vast difference in the towing stability of a 2 door Wrangler and a Gladiator which benefits (in this use case) from a much longer wheel base and 900lbs of mass. Other than a foreign object penetrating the top you are no worse off than a conventional pickup. In one sense, the FD will have an easier time extricating you from a soft top so one could argue this is a benefit. Not to say that is rational but regardless, the integrity of the roll cage should be at least equivalent to a tacoma for example.

All that said, maybe it's the ground clearance or my bed topper, but driving through south dakota with 50mph crosswind gusts and a trailer was harrowing for a bit. Cross winds aside however I felt the truck handles a trailer very well whether on the freeway or climbing narrow snow covered mountain passes.

And, if anyone is curious to know, my softopper hasn't had a hiccup through driving rain, snow, winds. The Gladiator also tows very well in 4-5" of fresh Wyoming powder.

 

[Terminus33]

It is slightly odd that in uhaul's rules they state " No open or soft-top sport utility vehicle is allowed to tow a U-Haul trailer, because in the event of a crash, these vehicles offer less collision and ejection protection."

Yet they wont rent to a convertible mid size pickup truck...

 

[Jeepforfun]

I had a friend of mine that wouldn't let me rent a U-haul due to the soft top policy many years ago and he owns a 4WD shop too. I guess whoever wrote that policy would have fainted if they had ever seen me tow my 22 ft Chris Craft with a lifted TJ and the top down.....( the wife was gone with the truck and I wanted to go to the lake.) I didn't say it was the smartest thing I ever did.

 

[Cape taco12]

Frankly having seen a few of Jeeps with hardtops be involved in rollovers I am very surprised with how well they hold up. I assume that a soft top would immediately come unlatched when the frame bent but the cloth might not tear apart. . it would probably subject the occupants to lot of debris entering the passenger compartment.


As far as hardtops… 2 did full rollovers and the freedom panels stayed in place and hard tops were destroyed with stress fractures/tears but retained shape and kept interior debris contained and exterior debris out.

one was a high speed driver side flop with no full roll over same story.

One was a friends JKU slow speed flop off-road onto a pointy rock I saw occur in person on a club run. Failed Revlimiter assault of a boulder wall. Amazing after being winched upright it had a soda can sized puncture in the passenger rear 1/4 Pilar of the hardtop just missing the rear glass. It was later patched with (six-ten, tiger hair and some black paint), you cant tell at all.

never have seen a soft top roll over…Probably just odds related as there are
more hardtops in the world.

 

[Jtclayton612]

U-haul is such a joke. They have insane restrictions, but the last time I had a trailer and van from them it was a complete POS. Brakes hardly worked, tires were all cracked and well past replacement time, steering linkage had as much play as a 80's buss.... terrible. I would rather invest in my own trailer in the future than use them again.

they also said no to my dad getting a small cargo trailer years ago in his 2002 Ford Explorer with the v8 and 7K towing rating. But they had no problem letting a old Ranger with a 3500 pound rating renting the same trailer.

fun fact about that, they for some reason have a problem with the explorers going back years and years. I assume due to the Firestone tire debacle on first gens. However the mercury mariner which was the same frame iirc for a long time was A-ok.

 

[cafecito]

... How could me driving and rolling my vehicle blow back on the company that rented me the trailer I'm towing? If I didn't hook up thebtrailer correctly, load the trailer correctly, or drove like an idiot, that's my problem.

 

[Dakotaz]

... How could me driving and rolling my vehicle blow back on the company that rented me the trailer I'm towing? If I didn't hook up thebtrailer correctly, load the trailer correctly, or drove like an idiot, that's my problem.

When a Lawyer takes them to court and says the trailer caused the accident. No one is responsible for their own actions anymore.

 

[Hootbro]

Is what it is. I have towed with my JK, JL and JT all with Hard Tops and rented from Uhaul. The Uhaul counter person has a computer generated checklist they have to ask questions and input the particulars of your vehicle. Things like the soft top, transmission and tow packages have even come up. Only had one rental event where the counter person actually came out to verify everything.

 

[sharpsicle]

So I went home and sent my buddy down to rent it for me .....

I've definitely done this before. Reserved the trailer, had my work buddy drive his car to go pick it up, then we moved it over to my Gladiator in the parking lot next door to the UHaul place. Even though his car has no right pulling a trailer like this, they do it anyway. I dropped it back off after hours, done.

The cameras at pickup and drop off can clearly see what we've done. They don't care. It's stupid we have to play this game, but play it we will.

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