Self move using a hire van

Hi Ya`ll, dont know if this has been coivered in a previous thread but we`re looking to move to Southern Spain early February 2017 possibly using a rental van to move all our "stuff".

I`ve been on a particular removal company website and pulled up dire warnings about people doing the same and being overloaded, not even by much but the other end of the scale a van pictured on a ferry with the tyres rubbing the body work !!

The article goes on to state how the French Gendarmeire and Guardia Civil are clapming down heavily on overloaded vehicles, some quite obviously from the UK being emblazoned with UK flags etc etc and being stopped, wieghed using portable weigh stations and if/when found out to be overloaded the drivers being fined fairly heavily, being told to find another vehicle to offlaod the excess weight and in some cases, ie the guy on the ferry with wheeels touching the bodywork having the vehicle impounded and a massive fine imposed to add insult to injury.

Has anyone on the site done a self drive removal like this and had problems ?

We`d planned on driving from Essex to Portsmouth, taking the ferry to Bilbao and driving the 600 ish miles to southern spain, huercal overa region and then possibly helping the ex villa owners to do the same in reverse.

The overloading article did get me thinking yet all the other removal companies we`ve been in touch with havent given us the same warnings.

Any help obviously greatly apreciated.

Newbies, Ann/Jim

hi i hired a oneway rental luton van in southampton crossed over from plymouth to santander and drove down to costa blanca unloaded  and dropped the van of in the same area worked for me saved over £1500 van cost me £110 a day for four days back in 2008 plus oneway on ferry to spain and fuel roughly 500miles santander to costa blanca i believe the rental company still going seen recent adds uk/spain oneway rental prices gone up but not by much had no problems driving down ferry to spain so do not have to worry about french spanish police ok 

Good morning Martyr.

Thanks for the response.

Van hire isnt that much more expensive now than when you did your run but the minimum days rental has, in most cases its now a minimum of 6 days. Some as you quote do one ways but others need one to bring/take the van back to the UK.

Still unsure about the way the French and Spanish police are enforcing the weight limits as I`ve not found any other articles detailing anything similar to the article on the movers website,

To move ourselves we reckoned all in would cost approx` £910 including a pet friendly cabin on the "cruise" option with Brittany Ferries, the same for the people whose villa we are looking to buy who are coming back to the UK sharing the hire cost of the van plus £30 second driver charge and my ferry costs because I offered to help them load up, drive etc. Unless they want to do otherwise and I do a one way and fly back, g/f will be back in the UK and we`ll then drive back to Spain with her car and any other bits n bobs we forgot to put in the movers "box".

Best quote to be moved is approx` £2100 for a 22 cubic metre "box", two guys doing the loading here and an addirional 100 euros to hire a second guy to unload in Spain which we dont reckon is that bad.

Kind regards again for you taking time out, have a great day. We`ll post again when we decide.

Good morning Martyr.

Thanks for the response.

Van hire isnt that much more expensive now than when you did your run but the minimum days rental has, in most cases its now a minimum of 6 days. Some as you quote do one ways but others need one to bring/take the van back to the UK.

Still unsure about the way the French and Spanish police are enforcing the weight limits as I`ve not found any other articles detailing anything similar to the article on the movers website,

To move ourselves we reckoned all in would cost approx` £910 including a pet friendly cabin on the "cruise" option with Brittany Ferries, the same for the people whose villa we are looking to buy who are coming back to the UK sharing the hire cost of the van plus £30 second driver charge and my ferry costs because I offered to help them load up, drive etc. Unless they want to do otherwise and I do a one way and fly back, g/f will be back in the UK and we`ll then drive back to Spain with her car and any other bits n bobs we forgot to put in the movers "box".

Best quote to be moved is approx` £2100 for a 22 cubic metre "box", two guys doing the loading here and an addirional 100 euros to hire a second guy to unload in Spain which we dont reckon is that bad.

Kind regards again for you taking time out, have a great day. We`ll post again when we decide.

Have a look at the following link.  I know it does not refer to vans specifically, but I'm sure the guidlines with regard to maximum permitted weights would be the same for vans.

Here's the link: http://n332.es/2015/02/25/a-heavy-load/