Packaging service recommendations?

Ummm... lessee... You're in San Jose; the Box is in Portland. Having some small experience shipping Big (and Medium) Iron all over the world, and having gone thru exactly what you're facing , I have a small suggestion. Not knowing anything about your situation/schedules/resources.. would you consider renting a nice Budget Cargo Van or Ryder lift-gate truck, and making a weekend drive of it? I personally have driven from Seattle to Los Angeles with a vanload of PDP Stuff (Thanks again, Bruce!) in about 16 hours... because it was Sunday and I had to work the next day. San Jose to Portland is about 400? 500? miles right up the 5.. make a pleasant roadtrip of it, and only pay for the rental and gas. The big expense I have found in shipping via LTL and package services is that; if it isn't packed right, you get parts and junk at the other end... a legacy system is not generally insurable, and if it's heavy, you will have to deal with offloading it on your end.. if it shows up on the back of a bobtail, on a pallet, and you've got no forklift or loading dock... d'oh! Most of the time the driver won't want to do much lifting, and if your stop is scheduled in the beginning or middle of the run, he or she isn't going to be much inclined to wait while you try and figure out the logistics. Just my 2 bits -> 11 Cheers John