​​​​​​​9 Moving Tips with Your Pickup Truck

Want to be ready for a smooth experience the next time a friend or family member needs help moving? The McCarthy JRCD team gathered in a conference room and came up with 9 ideas to ensure your moving day is fun and safe for all.

Rent (or Borrow) a Utility Trailer

Even a Ram 2500 with an 8-foot-long bed may not be enough for your cargo-moving needs, so you may want to consider adding a flatbed utility trailer to your pre-move agenda. These trailers come in many sizes, but you’ll want a powerful truck to pull just about anything beyond a 4’x8’ lightweight trailer.

Imagine the relief on your friends’ faces when you show up on move day in a shiny Ram pulling a 10, 14, or even 20-foot-long utility trailer. You’ve just made everyone’s lives ridiculously easier. You’ll be even more popular if your trailer happens to be a slick enclosed unit, and the weather turns south on you.

We also suggest seeing if you can get a trailer with built-in ramps. Anything to ease the aches and pains of a move will be appreciated by all.

As an aside - the 2024 Ram 3500 can tow a maximum of 37,090 pounds when properly equipped. Hopefully you’re hiring a moving company if you have that much stuff to move, because that would be a LOT of trips up and down the stairs carrying Rubbermaid containers.

Seal All Your Moving Boxes Before Loading

You don’t want to be the person behind the wheel of a Jeep Gladiator with a bed full of hastily packed moving items that sporadically spew garments, towels, and other items over the road, but there are easy steps to avoid that situation.

First – seal all your boxes. That might involve doing that trick where you fold the flaps of a cardboard box together or being more deliberate by using packing tape to more securely seal the boxes or just ensuring the lids are solidly clicked into place on all your heavy-duty storage containers.

Second – consult your friend who’s good at Dr. Mario, Blokus, or Tetris when it comes to managing the arrangement of your boxes in the cabin and bed of your Ram. Some forethought will go a long way into maximizing your space and minimizing the number of trips you need to make to complete the move.

Third – slow down just a bit. Moving can be stressful, sure, but doing things at a pace that’s manageable for everyone will help ensure as few tears are shed as possible.

Load Your Items for Stability and Safety

This tip for moving in a Ram truck applies whether you’re only putting things in the cabin and bed or your truck or adding a trailer into the mix for more hauling capacity.

Be thoughtful with where you put the heaviest items as you take advantage of your truck’s payload capacity. You’ll want to put the heaviest items in the bed first and get them as snug against the cab as possible. Make sure to use heavy-duty moving blankets to protect both your truck and the items you’re moving.

Don’t allow yourself to be in a situation where the first boxes you load in your truck bed are full of stuffed animals, but you’ve got Aunt Edna’s solid oak chest of drawers leaning precariously against the tailgate. This is unstable and unsafe and could cause some major concerns for you and the people sharing the roadway with you.

Apply the same focus on weight distribution if you’re adding a household worth of items to a trailer, you’ll be pulling behind your Ram pickup. Heavy things go on first, and you should aim for a 60/40 distribution.

That means making sure you have 60% of the weight in front of the trailer’s axle closer to the truck and 40% behind the axle to ensure you’re properly distributing the tongue weight to your pickup truck and avoid trailer sway.

Bring the Ratchet Straps and Tie-Downs

Every moving truck’s standard loadout should include an array of ratchet straps and other tie-downs. These flexible tools come in handy when you’re trying to move a massive bedroom set, a motorcycle, a swing set you just don’t want to disassemble, that second refrigerator you keep in the garage, or any other large items.

Consider purchasing ratchet straps in various lengths and be sure to buy good quality straps. You may need to experiment a bit to make sure the straps stay in place, but higher-quality straps will generally last longer and certainly offer this blogger greater peace of mind when throwing cargo in the bed of a Jeep Gladiator.

Overtightening ratchet straps can be more secure but can also damage the items you’re moving, so be careful as you adjust them. Consider using moving blankets to protect your furniture.

Consider Adding Ramps to Your Truck

Climbing in and out of the bed of your Ram during a long moving day can be hard on the joints, and a ramp can help ease your discomfort and make moving more pleasant for all. Most big box trucks have ramps to get in and out – why can’t your pickup truck?

Your ramp might be as simple as two or three 2x10 boards, or a sheet of plywood reinforced with a 2x4 frame, or some other DIY solution, but we urge you to consider some commercially available ramps for your truck.

A quick bit of online research will point you to aluminum truck ramp solutions that are often described as best used for loading ATVs into a truck. You’ll find fixed options that work great if you’d like a very long ramp, folding units that may not be quite as long but that readily stow away, and even tri-fold units that can provide a more stable path for getting in and out of your truck bed. If you’re looking for a more traditional ramp, you should explore your options for a traverse walk ramp. These will be more expensive, but worth the money if you’re in and out of your bed for work or just really enjoy helping people move on the weekends.

Come test drive a Ram pickup truck at our dealership near Kansas City and decide which ramps will best help you take full advantage of your truck.

Take Off Your Tonneau Cover Before the Move

A tonneau cover provides an easy way to securely seal off your truck bed from the elements and the curious, but they can get in the way when you’re trying to load large items in your bed. It doesn’t matter if you have a fancy painted-to-match fiberglass unit, an electronic roll-up tonneau, a tri-fold cover, a vinyl snapping cover, or some other solution: you’re going to have to adjust them at least a little to move something like a refrigerator for your dear aunt or a lawn mower you’re taking in for service.

Our advice to you is to save everyone some frustration on moving day and invest a little time in removing your tonneau cover the day before. If you have a heavy fiberglass unit, you can enlist the help of the person you’re helping move the next day.

We recommend adjusting ahead of time, even if your adjustment is as simple as moving the rails that support a snapping vinyl cover. There’s always the opportunity to hit a snag or break something, and why introduce more stress to an already long and tiring day?

Ready for a new truck so you can have a tonneau cover to take off on a moving day? Call the team at McCarthy JRCD.

Clear Out The Interior and Truck Bed the Night Before

Ram trucks are amazing for hauling everything you need for your busy lifestyle, but make sure to (temporarily) clean out those items before you show up to help with a move. You don’t want to have your child seats in the back, a truck bed full of tools and gas cans, or a floor covered in gym and hunting gear. All of those items increase load time, the chances of damage to someone’s stuff, and possibly increase the number of trips you need to make.

Your stuff will be more secure at home than sitting in your friend’s driveway, the stress of the move will be lower overall, and you won’t have to make another trip back to the old house to pick up your gear.

Be Willing to Say “No”

There’s an old thought that owning a truck means you’ve just eagerly said “Yes!” to every friend and family member’s request to move big items, but having a super capable Ram pickup doesn’t mean you’re an on-call moving company. (Unless you want to be!)

You have the power to say “No” instead – you could always be out in your Ram hunting, pulling a boat, hauling your 4-wheeler around, or getting ready for a camping trip.

If you’re the type to say “Yes” every time, make sure to get pizza, a few adult beverages, or gasoline in exchange for your time. Or operate on a strictly enforced IOU system.

The decision to help is, of course, up to you, but having a Ram pickup truck is going to result in those requests for moving help coming your way. Be ready for your inevitable “Yes” with the perfect Ram truck from McCarthy JRCD.

(Heads up to our neighbor Gerald. We’re not helping you move next weekend. Maybe you should stop talking about buying a new truck and visit McCarthy JRCD to finally pick up that Jeep Gladiator you’ve been drooling over. That’ll pull your utility trailer!) 

Pick the Right Truck

A pickup truck’s utility extends far beyond moving day, and the McCarthy JRCD team will be happy to show off how a Ram 1500, Ram 2500, Ram 3500, or Jeep Gladiator can greatly enhance your hobbies, family adventures, work, household chores, and far more. They’re the perfect trucks regardless of what you’re carrying.

Our team can also help you configure a Ram Chassis Cab or ProMaster Cargo van if you’re looking for extra capabilities from your commercial vehicle.

McCarthy Lee’s Summit Jeep Ram Chrysler Dodge is your source for new Ram pickup trucks, and you can reach our sales team at (816) 312-4584. You can also come to see our significant New vehicle inventory in person by visiting us at 1051 SE Oldham Parkway here in Lee’s Summit, MO 64081.

What are you moving in your Ram truck this weekend?