I've been in charge of relocating several data centres.

We tore everything down, servers out of racks etc.

All servers, fabric switches drive arrays etc were individually wrapped in bubble wrap then the heavy removalists cloth then into the large metal moving boxes (1500mmx1500mmx1500mm roughly) before being stacked so they couldn't move around, followed by ratchet straps securing groups of kit together.

All this was done by professional removalists - no reason you can't do it though.

Basically the principle is flexible padding (bubble wrap) to allow for movement close to the device without impacting it, heavy shock absorbing material (the felt), then put into a robust container (metal box) so limiting impact risk.

I'd strongly recommend NOT to leave them in the rack - a couple of screws vibrate loose and then that device drops onto the one below it, bounces up and down through the journey and wrecks them both.

If it's a mile up the road, sure, you'll probably be fine and get away with it, multiple hours on the road ? It's not surviving it.

Take out any spinning rust and pack those in a foam HDD case. Number them as you pull them for easy reinstall.

Put a bit of plywood under the rack, ratchet strap it, and now you can put it on a dolly without the lip hitting the equipment as you try and lift it. For avoiding it falling off the dolly, use a 2nd ratchet strap and wrap it around the chassis / dolly.

Put a 2nd piece of plywood on top once its in the uhaul so you can load more boxes on top... Maybe even do that at first so the initial strap is securing it as well.

As for the bottom plywood, if you add some felt pads, then it will help you shimmy the chassis into / out of its position once its unloaded. I have my rack vhb taped to ply with felt under it and recommend it to people IRL a fair bit.

I would just not dismantle the rack. Ensure that everything inside its securely strapped down and nothing can move freely, not even cables. Ensure that all plugs are safely screwed in the socket or tape them for non screwable ones to prevent to come loose and bang around.

Then fill voids and gaps with bubble wrap or anything light and non scratchy. Wrap everything from the outside with bubble wrap layer to prevent damage from hit or scratch.

Then find or build a big enough cardboard box to fit the rack and call it a day.

Edit: if you use mechanical HDDs you might consider unplug them and carry with you instead of on the movers vans. Wouldn't bother for nvme and ssds.

I'm fine with keeping equipment in the rack if its secured, but I always remove the cabling. I personally don't think people pay much attention to that part.

I'd also put packing between devices. Since its all going in the uhaul, I wouldn't personally feel the need to separate anything out of the rack, I'd probably leave it in and just check all my mounts are secure. I'd also make sure the rack is secured well in the uhaul, strapped in with a blanket between it and the wall.

I just moved across states.

I took everything apart, packed the equipment in boxes using tons of padding. Any extra space in the boxes was filled with extra cables and more padding. Rack mounts that I have come completely apart.

My main servers have hard drives, so I used a lot of foam all around the server and added trackers (air tags) to the servers and my camera stuff.

I’m now off grid so not really in a hurry to setup all this stuff, but happy it seems to have made it here in great condition. Eventually I will setup the rack mounts just to hold the equipment and maybe I will power on things here and there as I feel like playing with them again.