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I just shipped a targa top from Arizona to florida and it arrived in safely via UPS ($150) which is cheaper than I would have expected and included $1500 insurance. I used pool noodles to protect the corners and gorilla tape (much stronger than duct tape) to reinforce the corners. Hopefully this can help someone out or those skeptical about shipping these.
Not a bad idea, thanks for sharing! I'll be shipping one here in the next week, hoping for the best. I intended to use a TV box as recommended by people who've used them before. Pool noodles would be a nice peace of mind addition!
I actually built a wooden crate when I shipped mine and it arrived fine, the problem is mainly who handles it, unfortunately most of the time they get thrown around
Woo, great packing job. Too many people drop a item in a box and expect it to be handled without damage. They don't realize it's mostly handled by automated equipment that doesn't care.
You can also get a box made for shipping art work from Home Depot. The pool noodles are a great idea. I've shipped a couple through UPS without any problem, even had them do all the packing once. They balked at first thinking the lens was glass, but once I explained what it was, they had no reservations wrapping it all up.
I'm trying to ship one today from CA to FL and the cheapest estimate I can find is $280 :/ I even tried to shrink down the packaging to the minimum dimensions that would make sense and it knocked all of $10 off.
My current dimensions are 53x42x8 and 35 lbs. The box itself is over 10 lbs, not much I can do to shrink the whole package down unless I take 6 in off the height and that only makes it $10 cheaper.
OP do you know what dimensions and weight yours was? Any tips? I looked at this a few months ago and was getting estimates of 100-150... Now all of a sudden it's almost twice the cost :/
Just an update for any future shippers. I narrowed it down to box height. Once you go just an inch over the criteria, you're paying "oversized" rates. At 53x31x8, it was still $250. At 53x30x8....it was $76.
For $80, UPS picked it up from my office and the top made it from CA to FL safely using Parcel Monkey. For some reason, Parcel Monkey doesn't offer insurance on "car components", even though the actual carriers are UPS or FedEx. I've used them several times without issue. The same shipment was $150 through UPS, same as OP. I honestly didn't care about insurance since this top was a member of the flying roof club already, but most people will want to pay the extra through UPS directly and be insured
Shipping a targa top
