C

Cam Hartman

Member
G'day again Ladies and Gents,

My mate, his dad and I have two RV8s and one RV7A under construction are about to order wing and fuselage kits and we need some advice from anyone who has shared a shipping container to transport their goodies from the States to Australia.

The type of info we're after is as follows:-

1. container size,
2. packing method,
3. weather sealing,
4. shipping company,
and finally
5. any "gotchas" or "pitfalls" that we should be made aware of to mimimise the pain.

The RV Community never ceases to amaze me with it's preparedness to share advice and information so thanks in advance for the avalanche for info that will no doubt soon arrive.

Happy building and safe flying,
 
First off, have you checked out the air-freight cost.
I've had my wing and fuselage kits delivered by Bax-Global/Schenken to the UK at a cost of about ?300 (US$600) for eack kit, plus local taxes. About 7-10 days from leaving Van's to arriving at my front door.

A lot of the UK QB builders share containers (20' or 40'), organised in the UK by 'Big Misters' and coordinated by Barbara at Van's. I think it costs about ?2000 to get the 20' container from Van's to a UK port, and it has to be road hauled from Oregon to the St Lawrence to reach the Atlantic.

Barbara can probably tell you how many kits you can get in a container.
 
Cam - I am in the UK also.

It is not the answer to your question but I would ask Barb at VANS to get you sea AND AIR quotes for you for shipping to Oz. She can usually get great prices because of the volume they ship.

I would not discard air freight if it is not QB stuff. The cost can be very little differet, and the chance of damage is much reduced.

Either way, make sure it is insured properly!
 
Hi Cam.
Im in Brisbane, I had mine sent over via Sea freight with
chfreight. I had two damaged parts, they are being replaced.
you could try Flymore, they bring a container in about each 3 months. lastly ask on the Australian yahoo group - Rv's in Australia. You should also point out to us where you live, as someone else might like to add/share costs with you.
 
I have shipped a few kits from Vans to Australia. Also a YAK 52. We have another two shipments in the pipeline. Barbara and Anne are easy to work with and provide all the information and paperwork required.

Vans is local to us and picking up and packing/shipping them is no problem.

We approached them about taking care of their shipments as we can save up to 50% over the price they quoted one of my clients but they were not interested, they said they used the same company for years and that they were in the kit building business and what happens beyond that is the clients concern.

Anyway don't want to come on here flogging something, just putting up an option for you. You can see the status online: www.USAtoAUS.com

Cheers,

Phil
 
recent importing charges

I have recently imported my RV-8 wing and fuse kit to Melbourne. It came sea-freight in a container organized by the shipping co. I presume - Van's organised the whole shipping thing. The kit was shipped early December '07and arrived second week of Jan this year.

For a price comparison data point, the kit was around $US12880 + shipping and GST charges etc. The shipping, AQIS, customs fees etc. worked out to be a bill of just over $A2600, plus I paid another $A175 for import agency fees.

Since then, I have since been stung another surprise bill of $US450 from Van's in forwarding charges for shipment to port, I presume. I should have forseen this, but many of the entries in the myriad of forms you will get are hard to decipher - even the import customs agent took some time to clarify a couple of them.

All through the ordering and shipping process, Barbara and Anne at Van's provided absolutely sterling service. It was much more painless than I imagined it would be. I would do it this way again. If you're shipping 3x fuse and wing kits, a single container may be cheaper, but bear in mind the GST charges make up a large proportion of the total charges (circa $A1500), so I can't see the savings being huge.

Packing was the optional sea-freight plastic wrapping inside the standard Van's crates. Everything arrived undamaged and in perfect order.

I hope this info is useful. Where are you building Cam?

A
 
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Subkits shipping to Oz

Hi guys, just wanted to ask you if anybody has been quoting subkits shipping to Oz.
I would want to start building with as little initial investment as possible, so I was thinking about ordering the tail kit and tools first. In your experience, would it cause for shipping, handling and customs costs to increase too much? Is there any special customs duty to be paid in case of parts instead of a complete kit is imported to Australia? What about duties for importing the engine?
Thanks!
 
mikevictor - wow you dug up an old thread on this subject!

Happy to provide quotes and aim at being the cheapest. We have shipped a lot of VAN's kits over the years.

The cost to pick the goods up would be duplicated with each purchase as opposed to making on trip. The shipping costs provided by us would not matter as it is cubic.

No duty just GST on goods made in the USA.
 
AussieCarImports said:
mikevictor - wow you dug up an old thread on this subject!

Happy to provide quotes and aim at being the cheapest. We have shipped a lot of VAN's kits over the years.

The cost to pick the goods up would be duplicated with each purchase as opposed to making on trip. The shipping costs provided by us would not matter as it is cubic.

No duty just GST on goods made in the USA.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your prompt reply!
Could you provide me with your contact information, so that I can add you to my address book? I am not quite ready to start my project yet, but I will definitely give you a call when I am.

Cheers!
 
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