SHIPPING MY CAR?

The mattresses are about 4 years old and I got them for a GREAT price. 🙂 70% off of the retail price.

The other furniture, I can definitely see somethings that will not make the trip.

Thank you for ALL of the great advice.

I drive an Expedition and a Yukon and a 15-passenger van on STX all the time and don't have trouble with the streets being too narrow. Your Expedition will handle all the unpaved roads on the island quite well, much better than a little sedan would.

You can ship household goods in smaller quantities than a full container by contacting a shipping company in your area and asking for their "LTL" rates. "LTL" means "Less than Load" or less than a fully loaded container. They will put your things on a pallet and shrink wrap them to make them secure for shipping. The pallets are loaded into a semi truck and other "LTL" loads are loaded as well. Each pallet has a Bill of Lading for its destination. You can arrange to ship your pallets of belongings to any of the cargo ships in Florida who deliver to the USVI. Tropical and Flemmings and VI Cargo are examples. The truck will deliver the pallets to them and then they will put them into containers on board the ship, again with other "LTL" pallets for other people. The cargo carrier will arrange to clear your belongings through customs and then you can pick them up at this end. They usually have guys here with trucks who can deliver them to your home in the islands if you don't have a vehicle large enough here to haul them yourself.

The "LTL" trucking is usually billed at a rate per pound. The cargo ships usually bill at a rate per cubic foot of space your cargo requires. This is a good way to ship all kinds of heavy or bulky items that you can't send via USPS in the mail or fit into your luggage on the airplane.

I shipped 4 pallets of things when I moved here in addition to what my sons and I brought as luggage over several trips and then I recently shipped 3 more pallets of things that had been in storage and I kept wishing were here. The first time I used Tropical as the barge company and the last time I used VI Cargo. VI Cargo was cheaper, but both got my things here mostly OK. There were a few items broken in the first shipment as one pallet had fallen over at some point in the delivery.

This was the best way to get things here like SCUBA tanks and a bunk bed and a fire safe and my sons' pellet guns. We also shipped some electronics and assorted bulky items plus boxes and boxes of books. You can use UHaul type boxes or Rubbermaid bins. Try to pack things in boxes that will stack together into a solid cube as much as possible.

Plan on a couple of weeks for the items to arrive from when you ship them. Each portion of the process takes about a week.

To find a shipping company near you, you can Google "LTL Shipping" and options come up. Include your state or city location and you will get more precise results. Some will provide online bids on their websites or via email if you know the size and approximate weight of the total shipment. uShip.com has a bidding process for independent truckers and others who are trying to fill up a load along their route.

there are lots of options available, you just have to do some research. Ugh!

We are planning to arrive in St. Croix within the next month. Right now we are just waiting for our closing date on our apartment and trying to get everything organized. I guess we will store all our books, winter clothes, and the majority of our kitchen stuff. We are trying to travel a little bit lightly as we will probably be renting shortterm when we first arrive. This shipping discussion was really helpful to me and I will look into finding a shipping company in New York City who will do the LTL rates. I guess I will try to ship our dishes, and maybe my son's crib? He is 1 and a half, and I really don't want to move him out of it yet (when we moved my daughter into the "big girl bed", that was the end of her nap).

If we ship ~4 boxes of kitchen stuff and linens, a crib, and several boxes of toys, does the LTL make sense for us? I doubt there is a cheaper way, but just wanted to check. Also, does anyone have experience with sending down boxes of clothes ahead of time? I don't know where I could address them that they could sit and wait for the couple of weeks until we arrive. But it would be nice to free up some room in our suitcases for heavier things (more toys probably).

Also, does anyone have advice about shipping valuable, fragile things like electronics? We will not bring our TV, I am thinking of things like DVD player, Nintendo video game player, and computer equipment (not computers themselves, but Airport, etc.)

I'm sure I will be posting again soon with my next batch of questions. Thanks for reading!

My suggestion is to call Tropical shipping they worked in St thomas, st croix and they have terminals in Miami, Jacksonville, New York they will handle everything they are a serious company and the biggest to the islands. Also there is a very cheap service from Sea Star from Jacksonville and Ft Lauderdale this ship docks in Puerto rico transfer your car to a barge that arrives one's a week in St Croix?????/ Is Slower but the Cheapest????

Most the stuff you use stateside you can find down here. I only brought stuff that I REALLY had to have & it all had to fit in boxes. No sense in spending the $$ to bring down a $10 toaster or a $30 picture frame.