The Official 356Talk Forum

What's a cheap way to ship a gas tank from Colorado to California? The seller just got a quote of $600 from UPS. That's ridiculous.

I have heard that Greyhound is reasonable, but have never used them myself. Also, there may be restrictions to shipping a fuel tank if it ever had fuel in it before.

is it to big for USPS ?

I have great success looking at bike shippers. They get good rates for shipping bikes and you can usually also ship "parts" in different shapes at low rates. There are several to choose from online. Then you ship through Fedex or UPS with their discounts.

$600 is crazy. Stoddard ships new gas tanks quite often, I'm sure. We have bought several from them and I don't remember paying more than $100. UPS Stores will charge more than UPS online rates, and sometimes really jack the prices up. Possibly the price included packaging the tank? Maybe there is a UPS or FedEx facility nearby to get a reasonable rate?

I recently got a new 911 gas tank from one of my suppliers and the shipping was much less than $100 UPS ground from Atlanta to Alexandria, Virginia. They do discount shipping based on what you spend on the order, but.....

When you ship auto parts, if the carrier asks for a description, tell them "auto parts". If they ask to be more specific, repeat and add "just auto parts, no liquids or hazmat" assuming that is truly the case....

I just called a friend in the shipping business. He said a used gas tank even if dry and clean is classified as HAZMAT. It would be up to your shipper to disclose or not. I cannot advise you from here.......