Shipping a wheelset in the US in 2022?
 

Actually I'm just trying to ship a pair of rims in a wheelset box from Phoenix to New England. Fed Ex wants $99 for the 29x27x7 box at 7.5 lbs. HOLY COW!!!

Online quotes at USPS and UPS were similar.

Anyone know of any shipping deals these days?

Look up and understand the concept of "dimensional weight". It sucks.
The dimensional weight math probably says they expect that size box to weigh 50 lbs or more. They're billing you based on the dimensional weight.
Did I say it sucks?
Plus, it's effectively a cross-country ship, and that's never cheap.

You'll probably get a bit of price break using shipbikes.com. They're just a middleman using FedEx, but it's usually a bit cheaper.

You can try taking it to a UPS store, Mailboxes ETC, or similar place, they often ship for much less than the online shipping calculators.

Try ShipBikes.com, as mentioned above. It uses FedEx. Second choice would be bikeflights,com, but it switched to UPS a few years ago. Prices went up and service declined.

Thanks y'all, I'll see what shipbikes will do.

We use bikelfights at the shop, maybe not the cheapest but not terrible. Shipping stuff sucks, but is the nature of the game.

56 bones is what they'll do. Much better!

Are you shipping wheels or are you shipping rims? Rims can be shipped in a much smaller box than wheels

They are 45mm rims 29+ so the wheel box worked out well, probably 3" wider than necessary.

Another oddity, choosing a cardboard box 29x26x7" 7.5 lbs on shipbikes cost much more than choosing their wheel box size: eWheel Shipper (for 2 wheels only, 42" x 7" x 27"), weight limit 15 lbs. I wonder if I needed to order my dimensions like they did? Seems like I tried that but I tried a lot of things :)

I recently shipped a set of carbon wheels from Florida to New England. I got two wheel boxes from my LBS for free, I cut one box to about 75% of it size and was able to slide it into the other box, wrapped it with shipping tape. Worked perfect. . I used bubble wrap and some cardboard to make sure the wheels were safe. It was about $45 to ship using Ship bikes.

I shipped a wheelset from new Hampshire to Niagara Falls a week ago for $25 using BikeFlights. Seller removed the QRs and taped them on box as it made the wheels narrower and QRs might poke through side of box.

Was willing to ship a groupset with wheels from Atlanta to Niagara Falls and quote was $67. That was high but I expect that was due to total weight and fact that previous owner didn't know how to remove a cassette which I didn't need and was simply extra weight.

I just recalculated your numbers using a box that was 27 x 6 x 29 and weighing a more realistic 5 pounds for carbon rims (and packing) and from Phoenix to Niagara Falls, NY and I got $31.95. True you'd have to cut the box down but I start with a TV box and it takes about 10 minutes to cut one down, wrap and pack the rims and seal up. I wrap the rims in foam and stick a piece of cardboard between them. Thinner box and they don't rattle. One-Way  1 Box/Case 

BOX/CASE #1 - CUSTOM

SHIP YOUR BIKE

In / Lbs 

Ship From
PHOENIX, AZ 85021, US



Ship To
Niagara Falls, NY 14301, CA



Length Width Height Weight
27 in 6 in 29 in 5 lbs



Contents

Bicycle Wheel(s)



Market Value
$ 199 USD

Premium Protection

$200 Coverage (+$0) Normal Handling - No Signature Required



Purpose

Buy/Sell/Gift



Shipping
$35.95
Protection ($200)
$0.00
Subtotal (USD)
$35.95
Ship bikes was $32.88 with same dimensions

I don't ship a ton a large bike stuff but when I do I use bike flights. They are good, reliable. Never had an issue. shipping anything is so costly these days. Insane really.

Another vote for ShipBikes. Should be able to do it for somewhere around $40-50.