Traveling by Amtrak

[jonthelam]

Has anybody in the US travel with their EUC on the Amtrak? Did you have to check it in? Can it come onboard with you?

I have been daydreaming about possibly traveling from city to city with my wheel and a backpack and thought the best way to do it is by train. Just curious if anybody has tried this.

[Cranium]

Good question.  Amtrak has a strict 50 lb weight limit.  If you are traveling with an EUC that is <50 lbs, there is no problem.  It can be a carry-on item.   There are no restrictions for lithium batteries.  

If your EUC is >50 lbs (Kingsong 16x is over), you will not be able to carry it on or check it in.  But you could work around that if they do give you a hard time about <2 lbs over (more with mods).  You could remove the battery pack and carry the pack in your backpack to get it under 50 lbs.  A bit of a pain to do but it would be possible.  Your best bet is to hope they don't give you a hard time about being over weight just a little though since they won't have to handle the wheel at all.  

There is one other possibility but would require a lot more effort.  That would be get your EUC declared as a medical device.  That would eliminate the weight restrictions but you would have to purchase a mobility impaired fare.

I got the information from here:  https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/baggage-policy.html

Edited July 22, 2020 by Cranium

[jonthelam]

1 hour ago, Cranium said:

Good question.  Amtrak has a strict 50 lb weight limit.  If you are traveling with an EUC that is <50 lbs, there is no problem.  It can be a carry-on item.   There are no restrictions for lithium batteries.  

If your EUC is >50 lbs (Kingsong 16x is over), you will not be able to carry it on or check it in.  But you could work around that if they do give you a hard time about <2 lbs over (more with mods).  You could remove the battery pack and carry the pack in your backpack to get it under 50 lbs.  A bit of a pain to do but it would be possible.  Your best bet is to hope they don't give you a hard time about being over weight just a little though since they won't have to handle the wheel at all.  

There is one other possibility but would require a lot more effort.  That would be get your EUC declared as a medical device.  That would eliminate the weight restrictions but you would have to purchase a mobility impaired fare.

I got the information from here:  https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/baggage-policy.html

My other option is to find a suitcase and pad it appropriately and check it in.

The medical device exemption seems more trouble than it's worth.

Edited July 22, 2020 by jonthelam

[Cranium]

18 hours ago, jonthelam said:

My other option is to find a suitcase and pad it appropriately and check it in.

Even with check-in, you still have the 50 lb weight limit. 

[PLEASE_DELETE]

Deleted

Edited March 18 by PLEASE_DELETE

[jonthelam]

9 hours ago, Cranium said:

Even with check-in, you still have the 50 lb weight limit. 

You just have to pay an overweight fee. There's a Pelican case that would work nicely for this purpose.

Excess/Oversize Baggage Fees

Effective October 1, 2015, a $20 excess baggage fee will be charged for each carry-on and personal item above the quantity and size allowances. The fee will be collected at the station or, if unstaffed, onboard the train.

21 minutes ago, /Dev/Null said:

  Hm, this sounds to me maybe I could take my V10, but not my nik+?  Yet another reason to keep more than 1 wheel handy..
Edit:  WHat is the biggest battery wheel that can cruise @ 30km/h that you can bring on Amtrak?  Teslav2 maybe?

Maybe the MCM5?

[Cranium]

1 hour ago, jonthelam said:

You just have to pay an overweight fee. There's a Pelican case that would work nicely for this purpose.

Excess/Oversize Baggage Fees

Effective October 1, 2015, a $20 excess baggage fee will be charged for each carry-on and personal item above the quantity and size allowances. The fee will be collected at the station or, if unstaffed, onboard the train.

 

Maybe the MCM5?

The oversize baggage fee only addresses bags that are too large or too many bags.  There is nothing I saw that allows bags too heavy.  In fact they state that if a bag is too heavy, you have to redistribute the contents to other bags to get it below 50 lbs.  Best to call to be sure though.  

I look forward to seeing some trip photos in the forum. 

 

[PLEASE_DELETE]

Deleted.

Edited March 18 by PLEASE_DELETE

[jonthelam]

On 7/23/2020 at 8:25 PM, Cranium said:

The oversize baggage fee only addresses bags that are too large or too many bags.  There is nothing I saw that allows bags too heavy.  In fact they state that if a bag is too heavy, you have to redistribute the contents to other bags to get it below 50 lbs.  Best to call to be sure though.  

I look forward to seeing some trip photos in the forum. 

 

Just went back and read the overweight notice on the link and you're right. If I do end up trying this, I'll definitely post it up here.

[jonthelam]

On 7/23/2020 at 10:40 PM, /Dev/Null said:

I think MCM5 is 800wh and Tesla v2 is a little > 1kwh...?

I don't know if I want to get another wheel for this purpose. That would probably be a worse-case scenario type of thing.