roadside assistance plans

[hhoenig]

now that we are new TM owners, we have received much mail with offers to join Good Sam, camping catalogs, etc. Among these offers, are emergency road repairs for RVs and any catastrophe that could occur while travelling. We never much thought about these plans, but was wondering what seasoned campers think of them. Are they just hype, or is it something to consider?

[RockyMtnRay]

now that we are new TM owners, we have received much mail with offers to join Good Sam, camping catalogs, etc. Among these offers, are emergency road repairs for RVs and any catastrophe that could occur while travelling. We never much thought about these plans, but was wondering what seasoned campers think of them. Are they just hype, or is it something to consider?


It all depends on how much of a gambler you are. Me...I consider the $79 I pay for Good Sam coverage to be pretty low cost insurance against the slight possibility that I could have to leave a $25,000 trailer and/or $33,000 truck alongside the road. Bad things do happen to good people and if you should have a mechanical breakdown of your tow vehicle (e.g. transmission failure because it overheated while towing), then you've got a real nightmare on your hands if you don't have some way to get both the tow vehicle and the trailer to a safe place.

To clarify the plethora of offers a bit, IMO there really are only two national, serious providers of RV emergency services in the US: AAA and Affinity. Affinity markets through both Good Sam and Camping World, hence the plans offered by those two organizations are essentially identical in features/coverage as well as in price.

I've been a AAA member since '87, so when I bought my TM I just upgraded my AAA coverage to their RV Plus level. Later I discovered from searching RV emergency services on the RV.NET forums that AAA wasn't the best RV service provider. It seems that AAA is really not a national provider per se but rather an association of state/regional auto clubs. And it's those regional clubs that actually determine precisely what AAA services will be offered in their region and write the contracts with the towing companies. Furthermore, not all the regional clubs even offer RV services...or they have just a few towing companies on contract that can tow a heavy truck and trailer combo. It dawned on me that if I traveled outside the AAA Colorado region, I may or may not have RV emergency service....and even if it was theoretically available, I could wait hours for a truck to be summoned from some towing company a couple of hundred miles away.

Furthermore, AAA puts limits on how far they will tow on the RV Plus plan (IIRC 100 miles) and generally will only send one truck to bring in both a disabled tow vehicle and the trailer.

So last year I switched over to Affinity via Good Sam. No towing distance limits (they will tow to an actual RV service facility), two trucks will be sent (one for tow vehicle, one for trailer), and several other things that were better than AAA's plan.

This may seem a bit odd, but I didn't drop AAA when I signed on with Good Sam...just downgraded my AAA membership back to regular levels. Reason: AAA has a nearby office which makes getting their no-additional-cost maps (especially since they've got great city maps) & tour books very attractive. And I save more than enough with AAA's partner companies (in particular Lenscrafters and Choice Hotels) to more than pay for my annual membership.

Bottom line: AAA is great for auto stuff and travel agency services but they really aren't the best for RV roadside service. Affinity (Good Sam, Camping World) specializes in and really knows RV roadside/emergency service.

Hope this helps

[Paul_Heuvelhorst]

Our experience is similar to RockyMtnRay, with the exception that in 1998 AAA Plus did not include towing the trailer if the truck became disabled. I wasn't going to leave my trailer parked along side the road while the truck was towed to a repair shop.

We signed on with Good Sam and have never had to use them for any thing more than sending us information. All the things I've read on the bulletin boards indicate they provide excellent service, although somewhat pricey compared to some other coverages. I've never read how good the "other" services perform compared to Good Sam, and I'm not about to switch to save $20-$30/year to find out they fall short.

Let me tell you that if you have to change one blown tire on the TM by yourself, it will convince you that the road service is good insurance! We had to do that on a return trip from Arizona before we had the road service... so I am speaking from experience.

[arknoah]

We took our "first three days here, four days here" vacation with the TM last summer, and I was concerned about being stuck somewhere in South Dakota without adequate road service. My research of AAA Plus and Good Sam led me to Good Sam, because they seemed to cover more in termsof how we use RVs versus automobiles, and the cost. The RV type experience of Good Sam is also the reason we use Foremost Insurance (or whatever the sub-carrier is called nowadays) because of the way they value the trailer at replacement or cash outlay value versus curent market value. We think that's worth the additional cost per year.

[Carol]

Hi!

We recently signed up for the AAA RV Plus in Wisconsin. We didn't have any RV towing coverage previously, so decided to try this service for $38 more than the cost of the regular AAA.

Apparently from the previous posts, coverage varies by state.

Here, in WI, the following benefits apply:

- Up to 100 Miles towing in any direction, not just to the nearest place.
- 2 drivers and 2 tow trucks if needed
- free fuel
- $100 locksmith services
- $300,000 travel accident insurance
- $1,000 Catr travel interruption service
- Up to $1,500 legal fee reimbursement

So, if you have AAA RV plus and travel in Wisconsin, you should be OK. I thought that these same benefits applied nationwide, just like the regular plan, but some of you say it's not so. We'll have to comparison shop more before we renew though to make sure we really have a good plan after reading the prior posts.

If we have more than 5 service calls in one year, we will be dropped back to regular AAA membership.

Carol