Emergency Road Service

[LACamper]

Just curious: How many people carry emergency road service on your camper? Do you have it through your insurance or through Good Sam or a road club (AAA, etc)? Have you ever had to have your camper towed? What did it cost you?

[BirdMan]

I have insurance through Farmers and they cover anything I tow behind my truck for liability only.  You bring up a point that most may have not thought of and that is even if you have towing on your policy this usually does not cover what you are towing.

If you think you do have this coverage you best get it in writing and not just take your agents word or the 800 number you call into.

A friend of mine was towing his 24' speed boat and his truck had to be towed off the interstate.  It cost him about $250 to have the boat towed as he did not want to leave it on the interstate.  His agent told him in a previous conservation that his boat would be towed in this situation, but since he did not have it in writing the insurance company would not pay for it.

You got me thinking what I would do if I have a problem so I am sending my Farmers agent an email right now on the cost to add my trailer(s) to have towing.

[curryp]

Good question. I do have AAA coverage, but have no idea if it covers the pop-up as well as the vehicle.

[austinado16]

This is a good question.  I've got State Farm and have emergency road service on the Suburban, but never thought about what that would mean if I was towing something when it grenaded.  Guess I too will be calling my agent and see what tales he tells.

[GeneF]

Good question. I do have AAA coverage, but have no idea if it covers the pop-up as well as the vehicle.

Not unless you have their RV one.

Good Sam Emergency Road Service will cover both.  Cost is about $100.

Big difference between AAA and some other clubs is:

AAA will cover the member no matter if it is his own car or he is riding in a friends car that breaks down.

Example:  DD was driving a friends truck and it broke down.  AAA provided part of the cost of the tow due to the mileage.

Good Sam and some other services will only tow the covered vehicle.

[brainpause]

Good Sam and some other services will only tow the covered vehicle.

Gene, they may have changed this. I think our Good Sam ERS will cover any vehicle we are riding in.

I'll check...

Larry

On edit:

Q:    Who is protected under the emergency breakdown service program?

A:    The ERS member, the associate (family) member [the member's spouse or domestic partner (i.e. two adults residing in the same household), and any dependant children 25 or younger living at home or attending college].

Seems like I have read where people have been out with friends and had to call Good Sam ERS on a vehicle they were riding in (but not their own). But can't find a concrete answer.

Larry

[flyfisherman]

I've had AAA for some years now. Use to be on the road when I was working and really cannot give a talley of all the times I've used their services. And, like already posted, have even used it when I was riding with someone else.

Plus, I have their "RV Plus" services so that the PU is covered, too. I really like the AAA road maps and have had then outline a cross country travel route for me in times past.




Fly

[GeneF]

Gene, they may have changed this. I think our Good Sam ERS will cover any vehicle we are riding in.

I'll check...

Larry

On edit:

Q:    Who is protected under the emergency breakdown service program?

A:    The ERS member, the associate (family) member [the member's spouse or domestic partner (i.e. two adults residing in the same household), and any dependant children 25 or younger living at home or attending college].

Seems like I have read where people have been out with friends and had to call Good Sam ERS on a vehicle they were riding in (but not their own). But can't find a concrete answer.

Larry

Larry, I'll be interested in what you find out.

Right now, I have AAA for each of us plus I get a year's free membership in the Jayco ER service on the new trailer.

We had been carrying Good Sam but a freebie is a freebie.

DW won't let me cancel the AAA, she enjoys the maps, tour books and trip tickets too much.  One long trip and the cost of membership is more than covered by the free services you get from them.

[Kelly]

Just curious: How many people carry emergency road service on your camper? Do you have it through your insurance or through Good Sam or a road club (AAA, etc)? Have you ever had to have your camper towed? What did it cost you?

I have towing insurance through Farmers.  I've had the popup towed twice.  Once when the PU broke down (burned up axle bearings) ... they sent a flatbed and we followed in the TV.  (gee ~ that sounds odd  The second time was when the TV broke down.  This time the truck rode on the flatbed and they towed the PU behind.  Both instances were covered under the insurance and I didn't pay anything (out of pocket) for either tow.

[volzjr]

Last month my tranny burned up as we reached Rapid City, SD, on our way to a CG near Mt. Rushmore. The tow guy loaded my TV on the flatbed and took it into a shop in town. Once there he helped us load and secure all the luggage and coolers onto the flatbed. We then went back and hooked up the PUP, and took it about 30 miles into the Black Hills, and he even took his time and got the PUP situated on our site where we wanted. The driver, Irv, was patient and professional throughout. All this for only $160. Back home, it cost me $150 just to winch my van back on the road from a snowdrift.  :yikes:  Needless to say Irv got a very nice tip from me for his efforts.

[Recumbentman]

This is a timely posting, since we just had to have my TV towed this past weekend coming home from a camp out. I was lucky enough to be able to pull into a parking lot and unhook my PU, before getting towed home. I have progressive RV insurance which includes RV towing but is only good for 15 miles. I looked into AAA RV towing this past week since I also have AAA plus which is good for 100 miles of towing. First customer service person says by adding the RV addition everything is covered just like the car, sounds great. But I then look at there web site and it mentions something about a $200.00 limit. So I call AAA back and get a very informed agent. this one tells me that AAA is really not into RV towing and that there RV addition only covers up to $200.00 of towing charges. This means that the towing company will give us a cost per mile to tow the RV to where we want and we have to pay upfront for these charges. then AAA Will reimburse us up to and only up to $200.00 for the tow. I still do not know which way to go on towing insurance.
Does anyone else have any good recommendations ??

[BirdMan]

As I suspected and mentioned in my earlier posting, most insurance companies do not automatically cover towed vehicles unless you add them.  I called my Farmers agent and added my Coleman/Fleetwood Fairview Popup today for not only towning, but for comp & colision also.  It cost me $13.23 every six months and that is with a $500 decuctable and with a declared trailer value of $3500.  

Also keep in mind that this does not include contents.  If you destroy the trailer in an accident, in my case, I would get back $3000, after my deductable, with a claim to my insurance company.  If you had a trailer with lots of valuable stuff inside you might consider adding contents coverage as well.

[AustinBoston]

We have AAA Plus RV (that's three different products).  Good Sam is probably cheaper for roadside assistance, if you don't mind mountains of junk mail.  We quit with Good Sam more than 5 years ago and have since moved halfway across the country, and we still get at least 5-6 mailings a year begging us to come back.

I've walked into a local AAA office, plopped down my card, and walked out with as much as $40 worth of maps at a time, all for free.  As paper maps fo, these are the best maps I have ever used.

I have also used their on-line Tripticks (the site leaves a bit to be desired).  But just one instance of avoiding construction because AAA told us about it saved us about two hours.  If time is money, then that was about half the cost of membership that one time.

Austin

[Russinator]

We have AAA basic, for maps, short tows, DMV, etc.

I'm wondering how much AAA plus and RV coverage is?

I'm wondering how much a tow would cost without RV coverage?

I'm wondering how often we'd need a tow [if ever]?

I'm wondering how many annual premiums I'd pay to AAA before I'd be money ahead with my "free" tow?

I've been driving for 49 years. In all those years I've needed a tow 3 times.

Have I just been lucky?

Russ

[austinado16]

Just talked to my State Farm agent today.

1) The PUP is covered under my TV's liability policy, so if it hits and damages something, that something is covered.

2) The PUP is not included in my Emergency Road Service Plan...   That plan would only get my TV towed to the nearest dealership, and would also reimburse me up to $400 for hotel and food bills.  The plan does not "force" me to only be towed to the nearest garage or shop, which I thought was good.

4) If I get a policy on the PUP, I can add ERS to the PUP.

3) It's only a couple bucks a year for the coverage, so I'll keep it on the TV.