EMERGENCY/ROAD/TOWING SERVICE

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L

LCP

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Joined
Apr 6, 2005
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13
I have just purchased a new camping trailer and would like to know about EMERGENCY/ROAD/TOWING SERVICES and which ones are suggested. Thanks for your help. LCP
 
LCP said:
I have just purchased a new camping trailer and would like to know about EMERGENCY/ROAD/TOWING SERVICES and which ones are suggested. Thanks for your help. LCP
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Welcome to the RV Forum Framily.

The road service service provider we use and recommend  is Coachnet.  Good Sam offers one too but in our case we had the servcie through Good Sam and switched to Coachnet.

Please join in any of the ongoing discussions or start a new discussion.  Ask any questions and we wll try to answer them for you.

What part of the country are you from?
Thanks for joining us.
 
Hi and welcome to the RV Forum.  We'ree happy to see you here.

As far as emergency road service for RV's the two most popular are Coachnet and Good Sam.  Both are good and both have adherents here on the forum.  Some auto insurance policies offer RV road service but most require you to pay for the service when rendered and then submit the bill to them for payment to you.  Both Coachnet ane Good Sam pay the service provider direct - you merely sign a form acknowledging that the service was provided and that's the end of it.  We use the Good Sam service.  Oh yes, I almost forgot.  Your car is also covered by these policies.

Hope this helps.  Stick aound and participate here on the forum.  You will find that we have a great group of knowledgeable RVers here who are willing to share their knowledge and experience so if you have any questions, feel free to ask away and also feel free to start a new discussion if you wish.
 
I agree with the others who recommend Coachnet.  The number is (800) 273-1110  I believe they offer a special two year introductory rate.  They specialize in RV emergency road service and offer technical assistance as well.    I use them but have not had first hand experience with Good Sam.

Check with your RV insurer, as sometimes your insurance company may offer RV emergency assistance.  Another source is AAA.
 
Thanx Ron, we where wondering this ourselves, my admiral agrees with you and of course so do I (Yes Dear) :)

The admiral asks, what type of emergency services do one use for RV situations? Is AAA really all that?
 
I was a member back when I first got in RV'ing and since I didn't have any info to start with, I found the information they offered at that time to be valuable. After I purchased my motorhome, I ?dropped my membership and have just kept my ears (and eyes) open and absorbed information from forums such as this one.

Most members of the Framily are not bashfull and will offer their opinions and experiences openly. Just ask away on any question you have!

David Derway
 
My favorite road service for RVers is CoachNet, which offers telephone tech assistance with ANY RV related problem (e.g. water heater quit) as well as roadside service.  Many RV manufacturers clubs and the FMCA endorse or provide Coach Net as a service to their members.  But the Good Sam & Camping World ERS - Emergency Roadside Service - (same outfit does both) are also OK and have many satisified subscribers.  I'm not impressed with AAA for RV roadside services because you rely on other state's AAA clubs to provide services when you travel outside your home area and some state AAA's do not cover towing or even tire changes for large vehicles.

RV Consumers Group would like you to think they are the Consumer's Reports of the RV world, but they are not.  Their intentions are good, but they do not have the expertise or staff to actually test RVs for handling, safety, etc. What you get from them are opinions, and at least some of those opinions are unsubstanbtiated by any known  evidence or knowledgeable source.  On the other hand, if you know nothing they can point out a lot of concerns for you.
 
For road side service we use Coahnet which We think is the best and highly recommend them.  We had used the Good Sam road side service until we actually need them.  Spent eight hours alongside the road, $60+ on cell phone calls to and from the GS road service provider, some of which they would be calling me and after identifing themselves would say please hold a minute, and lots of frustration.  When it came time to renew we changed to Coachnet.

Gary's opinion of RV Consumers Group is right in line with mine.

 
>>The admiral asks, what type of emergency services do one use for RV situations?<<

I recommend Coach Net, they not only cover your motorhome but your cars too. They sometimes can diagnose the problems over the phone & send a repairman out to fix it, saving you from being towed.


Terry
At Yuma, AZ
 
blueblood said:
I've had and used both Good Sam and CoachNet. CoachNet wins hands down. Good Sam provided improper tow/service trucks on two oocasions I used them. In both cases I discussed with them at length what was needed and they agreed and then sent out wrong equipment and in addition had a hard time finding any one to come out. Coach Net technicians understood the problem and gave guidance to their staff as to the equipment needed and on three occassions I needed help they provided right stuff and had them there in less than an hour each time.
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Interesting!  We have used Good Sam RV Emergency service with both of our coaches since 1993.  Our first coach was a 36 Ft HMC Hawk diesel pusher and our current coach is a 40 Ft. Monaco Dynasty Regent.  We have had to use the Good Sam towing service on both coaches and have had nothing but good results.  When I made it clear that they needed to send a big-rig tow truck that's what we got.  Service was usually prompt.  Once we needed a tow with the Monaco when we were on CA-20 half way between I-5 and US-101.  They sent a big rig tow truck from Santa Rosa, nearly 100 miles away, and then towed us to the nearest Cummiins  warranty shop 100 miles back to I-5 and then north on I-5 to the Cummins dealer's.  By the time we were finished it was 11PM and the tow diriver had over 200 miles to get back to his base.  It was late so we offered to buy hiim dinner.  He turned us down as he had to get back to base ASAP.  Personally, I'd call this kind of service above and beyond the norm  ;D ;D.  There was no extra charge for the long distance tow or the overtime hours for the driver.  We just signed the paperwork and never heard any more about it.  That one tow alone more than paid the cost of GS Emergency service for several years!!

 
DonJordan said:
blueblood said:
I've had and used both Good Sam and CoachNet. CoachNet wins hands down. Good Sam provided improper tow/service trucks on two oocasions I used them. In both cases I discussed with them at length what was needed and they agreed and then sent out wrong equipment and in addition had a hard time finding any one to come out. Coach Net technicians understood the problem and gave guidance to their staff as to the equipment needed and on three occassions I needed help they provided right stuff and had them there in less than an hour each time.
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Interesting!  We have used Good Sam RV Emergency service with both of our coaches since 1993.  Our first coach was a 36 Ft HMC Hawk diesel pusher and our current coach is a 40 Ft. Monaco Dynasty Regent.  We have had to use the Good Sam towing service on both coaches and have had nothing but good results.  When I made it clear that they needed to send a big-rig tow truck that's what we got.  Service was usually prompt.  Once we needed a tow with the Monaco when we were on CA-20 half way between I-5 and US-101.  They sent a big rig tow truck from Santa Rosa, nearly 100 miles away, and then towed us to the nearest Cummiins  warranty shop 100 miles back to I-5 and then north on I-5 to the Cummins dealer's.  By the time we were finished it was 11PM and the tow diriver had over 200 miles to get back to his base.  It was late so we offered to buy hiim dinner.  He turned us down as he had to get back to base ASAP.  Personally, I'd call this kind of service above and beyond the norm  ;D ;D.  There was no extra charge for the long distance tow or the overtime hours for the driver.  We just signed the paperwork and never heard any more about it.  That one tow alone more than paid the cost of GS Emergency service for several years!!
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I've removed my comments since in retrospect I'm not 100% sure it was GS. I did have both services for several years until just a couple of months ago but unless I go back into my archives I can't be sure I'm being fairand accurate. I have used Coach Net for last three occassions including one here in SC two weeks ago with excellent results.
 
From what I have seen and read, both GS and Coachnet can give good service.  I believe Coachnet is a bit less expensive than GS and if I were starting now, I'd probably go that way.  However, as I said in my other message we got started with GS way back in 1993 and considering the good service we have had, I haven't felt the need to change over a difference in price of $10 or $20 per year  ;D.
 
This thread was moved here from the "Introduce yourself" area and combined with the part of the "Memberships" thread here that had to do with ERS so that all of the discussion of towing services is in one thread.
 
I had one occasion to call GS last summer and waited 61/2 hours. Fortunately we shut down and couldn't start up on the registration area of a park where we were having an FMCA chapter rally. Called GS and went to crab feed/happy hour.By the time the tow truck arrived to tow us to our site my wife was asleep in the m/h still in driveway and I was the only one left around the picnic table one bottle of wine later. :p :p

We are signing up for Coachnet next month when GS expires.
 
We are signing up for Coachnet next month when GS expires.

Gee you only had to wait 6 1/2 hours ??? ??? You are lucky we waited along side the road 8 hours. :(
Finally after tha right size tow truck came it was about a 30 minute tow to the dealer.  Took them less time to fix the problem plus fix the drive shaft universal joint the tow truck driver lost all the needle bearing out of.  Coachnet is a lot better company.
 
I forgot to mention that we use Roadcare Emergency Road Service by the Affinity Road & Travel Club. It originally was known as RRR and now is Camping World's Roadcare. We have used it 3 times, and each time we got the equipment needed to either tow us correctly or take care of the problem at the site. Maybe we were just fortunate.

Since our renewal is coming up, I think I'll check out Coachnet, just for grins. :)

David Derway
 
We also had the RRR ERS (Emergency Road Service)  back before Affinity bought them up. Got good service from them, but we felt CoachNet offered more for the same money.  Nowadays both outfits have excellent geographic coverage and handle the family cars as well as RVs. Prices were the same last I looked too.

Every once in awhile we hear a horror story,e.g.  long waits, shoddy service, etc. It does not seem to be any particularERS  provider, so I think it is a matter of luck, e.g. where you are when the breakdown occurs, who is working the tow or tire truck that day, how many other calls are ahead of you, etc.  Remember, the ERS company is just dispatching local services to come help you - they can't make the local tow operator more prompt or more courteous. And if th eproblem is caused by the only big rig tow or tire operator in the Podunk Falls area, they can't even threaten to take their business elsewhere.
 
In our case that I mentioned where we sat along side of the road for over 8 hours the time was taken up with calls back and forth asking such questions are you sure you need a truck capable of towing a 36ft MH?  The tow truck driver had indicated that we were lucky since he had received the call about 15-20 minutes before his arrival and just before he arrived he had another call that would have taken him in the opposite direction.

 
Let me add that we've only had CoachNet's ERS (we signed up through the Winnebago Itasca Travelers Club) and we've made good use of it :) :) :).

We've found them helpful, persistent (as in don't hang up your phone until tow truck arrives after the first effort couldn't locate us on the I-5); arranging for the receiving service station to know we're coming and being ready to take us on as soon as we arrive.

One example.  We were stuck in Manning Park, BC, about an hour's drive from either Hope or Princeton, the nearest towns, with a seized power steering pump.  The tow truck (capable of towing us) arrived in about 1.5 hours and we were towed to Chilliwack, 30 minutes further on than Hope, to a Ford dealership that did work on motorhomes--just because I asked for a Ford service-- rather than only to Hope where the work could have been done.

Of course, all this for the cost of the CoachNet membership.

Ciao,

Doug
 
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