Guy that bought my '08 30 Outlaw used them. Guy shows up with a F350 dually...good start...grabs his Harbor Freight drawbar with the 8 different balls hanging off it (ok that's exaggeration) but bar is at least 8 inches lower than it should be, he has no 5 pin adapter and tries to convince me you can't back up a boat trailer because the brakes weren't made to back up...
I told him where to buy a 10k adjustable drawbar, 7 to 5 pin adapter and explained to him why there's a solenoid hanging off the surge cylinder. Took multiple pics of the setup and the second he pulled out I called the buyer so he could call hauler and make sure he went where I told him to get the right gear for towing. Boat was going from Buffalo to California and the front axle of the triples was really squatting. Buyer was happy in the end but I would have talked to hauler and asked a few basic questions to avoid risk.

Any ideas for transporting a 21' shockwave from Arizona to Illinois?
$1,600 is the cheapest I have seen from transporters. I am hesitant, heard to many uneasy stories from transporters.
Plane ticket $300. Truck rental a little over $1,000 plus fuel and a motel or two. (1,800 miles) any ideas much appreciated.

You answered your own question! (no offense but) you want the lowest price but are uneasy about transporters? There are a lot of respectful transporters out there. They work hard long weeks AWAY from home for little money hauling broke down crappy trailers with worn out wheel bearings and bald tires.

Spend a few min looking for a quality transporter and pay a fair price, no different then looking for a good quality steak dinner.

Here is an example of a quality hauler, not sure if they are availible to haul your load for a low enough price currently. But they might recommend someone. www.seawisehauling.com

There are good haulers on U-Ship, you just have to search for them.

you could try centraldispatch.com , we use them to book about 200 vehicles a year . got everything from a rolled airstream to lawnmowers moved too. i believe you can get a free trial membership.

central is not for private, only dealers and brokers. You need a 10,000 bond, DOT number, insurance, etc etc

I used uship with no problems, Just have to use one that has had a lot of positive reviews, a lot of the time you can get it done real cheap because you will find one that has another load also or someone just trying to pay their expenses on a back haul.

How do you verify the reviews? There are companies calling me all the time to offer reviews for everything from soup to nuts. There are programmers who can give you any number of reviews in milliseconds. Not trying to start a peeing contest

When a load is booked and completed, there is a prompt for feedback and score, much like ebay. Only booked loads can leave feedback.
There is notation beside the transporter nic with number of feedbacks and rating.

Also each transporter is encouraged to fill out a profile where prospective shippers can view info and pictures about the transporter.

I understand the system completely. If you like go to getafreelancer.com and search there. You can get as many reviews and or posts or followers anywhere on the internet for a price. Uship is selling you and the transporter a product. They are receiving revenue from every booking. They say they de list the bad ones. But at that point its too late.

I'm a little late responding but thanks for the recommendations guys