I am still completing my 3rd move in 6 years. MN-IN, IN-IL, IL-IN. I've used sunbelt trailers a few times and they're very nice. When you rent over the weekend like Mike said they are much cheaper than a uhaul (although I think uhaul is the only place that will rent trailers on a one-way trip).
I really wanted a drop deck trailer for my heavy machines. This last move, I took everything out of my shop prior to the move and stored it in the family barn since it was half way to my new house (big mistake*). However, the drop decks require a 7 pin connection and my old truck didn't have it and I didn't want to mess with installing it. I ended up and rented one of their 14' tilt decks and used a come along to pull the jointer on. That worked really well and the engine hoist was capable of setting everything on without an issue.
Below are a few shots of the trailers loaded and going to IL. In this case, we had movers paid for, so they moved all the hardware, some benches and other small shop stuff (although it was pretty amazing how much stuff was still left over).
This is my friend's trailer. When it came time to move the machines he drove over and took a truck and trailer load.
This was my truck and trailer load:
You can't see my trailer loaded very well in that shot, but it was tail heavy. I was swaying like I was driving on ice at 55 mph, at 50 I was fine. We had loaded my trailer with plans to put a heavy machine up front, but went to lunch before we put it on. When we got back we forgot all about the plan and went and loaded up the other trailer. At any rate, it was 14 hrs of loading trailers and about 4-5 hours of driving at 50 mph in the middle of the night. The truckers were none too happy to see me going slow on the road.
So after that move, I learned my lesson on loading the trailer and decided when I was moving back to IN to start early and often. My trailer loads were a little lighter and I was bringing house stuff too, but I figured I rented 2 12' uhaul trailers, a 12' uhaul box trailer, a sunbelt 14' trailer, and finally bought a trailer for myself and pulled that twice (although one load was basically the disassembled playset).
This was the last load coming back to IN:
FWIW, that is a Delta 20" bandsaw in the back of my truck. Makes it sit down a bit, but there was a lot of discussion about moving said bandsaw not to long ago.
From all the moving, I've learned a few things. 26' box trucks can haul a LOT of stuff IF they're stacked right from the start. I've had 1/2 plywood on hand both times and I've used that to cover furniture and make another deck in the trucks to set more stuff on top. Penske trucks are more expensive, but I think they're a much better truck and they guarantee they will have the truck there (learned this the hard way on the lastest move).
I've pretty much given up on 1" straps or anything light duty. In this last move I had two ratchets break (one is lost along highway 24 in IL) and they were just holding some boxes.
If something doesn't seem secure, it probably isn't. This goes for covers on starters, dust door covers, knobs, handles, etc. The last thing you want is something flying off your trailer at 70 mph going down and interstate and it is pretty amazing how the tightest of knobs will come loose. I almost prefer box trucks and trailers for this reason, but good luck loading heavy machines into those and strapping them down.
Wood deck trailers are nice because you can always screw some blocking into your deck or just lag a machine to the deck.
And if you're making a lot of trips or even one long trip, get a book on tape.
If anyone suggests storing machines in the basement of a barn during one of the wettest springs in history, do yourself a favor and just get a rental unit.
