CAA/AAA Emergency Roadside Assistance

[Mike]

I was wondering what sort of coverage most people carry for problems on the road. I have CAA Plus and was assured that it would cover my 4 wheeled RV.
Anyone have any anecdotal experience of being refused or hassled over service for their vehicle?

Mike.

[markopolo]

Ron has looked into this extensively:

Here are a couple of threads to take a look at:

http://classbforum.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=68

http://classbforum.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=823

My Chevy roadside assistance expired last month and I decided to go with Good Sam ERS.

I have not researched it much nor have I ever had to use it. I just figure that Good Sam would know what to do with an RV.

[renrut]

We get CAA RV coverage but we need to. We have a 20' Class "C" and we need the extra coverage. It only covers us for a tow of 160km but at least it's something. I wouldn't want to have to pay for towing my RV. With a family of 5, having the security of road-side assistance makes us feel a little safer going on trips. Our RV is a 1977 Dodge and has well over 100,000 miles on it now.

I am curious about "B" Class. Does most road-side assistance companies cover a "B" under a regular plan or do you need to upgrade the coverage to something like the CAA RV?

[Mike]

Hmmmmmm. I may have to wander back over to my local CAA office and ask again. As I said, I was assured CAA Plus would cover me.
Will post up any new info, when available, for my area (Ontario, Canada).

Thanks guys,
Mike.

[Mike]

Well, here's the update. I visited my local CAA office and asked the coverage question again, to a different counter person. She was intrigued enough to contact their dispatch folks, and after a 3 way discussion with dispatch staffer/dispatch manager/CAA staffer, they suggested that for an additional $60, I should probably upgrade to CAA Plus RV coverage. They kicked around the definition of RV as it related to my RT van conversion and decided the added weight of the vehicle was going to be the issue. So, effectively they said "better safe than sorry". Now, that would drive my annual membership fee to around C$160, so I'm now looking into Good Sam ERS.
I see, and recall, a few people have switched to GS ERS, but has anyone had to use it yet? Is it all it's cracked up to be? Do they have any brick and mortar locations anywhere (I can't find any reference to store locators, etc.), or is it all cyber-towing?
A bit of searching turned up a relationship with Road America, and Affinity Road and Travel Club, for the ERS part. Here's a link I found to another forum, with some discussion on GS ERS performance. Seems they do a reasonable job, and like mail/email.
http://escapees.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a ... 6881082313

Cheers,
Mike.

I had to call CAA when I got stuck in a driveway at the cottage of a friend. It had rained heavily in the night and I was parked on soft ground and when I went to leave in the morning the back wheels just dug in deep in the mud. The CAA tow truck arrived and hooked up a pull cable from about 200 feet away and he just slowly pulled me out to the gravel portion of the road. Not a problem at all with the Roadtrek as he told me it was just a Chevy extended van and he had pulled out heavier ones in the past.

Jimmy

[julievojo]

We have AAA and have only called once, when we had a dead battery out in the middle of Nowhere New Mexico. They sent aguy in a flat bed truck to jump us, just in case they couldn't get it started and had to haul is back to town. We have AAA Plus RV.

[Mike]

I went with AAA (CAA in Canada) RV coverage.

Mike.

[Hallibagger]

I have CAA RVPlus and I have been with them for some 26/27 years.

I also had a discussion with them as to what constituted an RV versus an extended van and decided that I should go with the RVPlus, having an argument with a tow truck driver when you are stuck on the side of the road is not fun!

Due to the CAA cost I do look at the GS service from time to time, it certainly is cheaper.

[Mike]

Yeah that's what I went with, RV Plus. I got into the discussion about what defines an RV, and then decided to add the extra coverage. If my annual goes up any more, I'll think again about GS or something else (if it exists). I don't know how widespread or useful GS would be in Canada. I'm not sure they exist up here, but CAA/AAA has been around forever, so I decided to stick with what I knew. I've used them maybe half a dozen times since 1990 and haven't had problems. But that was on cars for flats and boosts and a few tows. On the tows alone, I probably used up close what I paid in fees for a couple of years worth. No idea what will happen on my first RV call!!!

Mike.

[Hallibagger]

I think that GS Road Service exists only in cyberspace. They do not seem to have any local offices.

I suspect that they have contracts with Road service companies throughout North America and when you call in they just dispatch the service in your area and tell them to send the bill to them. Alternatively they might require that you pay the bill and then present it to them for payment.

Is there anyone out there with the GS service who has had to use it?

I seem to recollect some earlier discussions on another forum - perhaps it was RVnet?

[Davydd]

We have AAA. Our first year we had a flat tire and they came out and changed it. I was going to do it myself but for the life of me I could not break the new lugnuts. I've heard there might be problems with AAA but I doubt so with normal road service like tire changing and battery jumping. They might have towing problems in that they might not tow you to a place where you can get proper service, especially for Sprinters, I suspect. We may get Good Sam for backup for full RV service and for other things they offer in the package.

Historically for our cars we have been very happy with AAA. We have a driveway with a 200 ft. 12% slope up to the street and many of our guests over the years would not make it up and slide off into the plowed embankment and get stuck. Our local AAA guy knew us. I could call him and would come right out and wench the cars up. That doesn't happen as much now. We have AWD vehicles, paved the drive with asphalt and keep it cleared better now. The underlying south facing blacktop does a good job of warming up and melting the ice and snow even in very cold temperatures.

[leslane]

I had an in-tank fuel pump failure on my 37 foot class A rig in the Sierra foothills, got on my cell phone and called AAA road service. They dispatched a large wrecker out of Auburn and towed me all the way to Reno, Nevada. My out of pocket expenses for the towing were about $400. It would have been about $700 had I not had my roadside insurance. I installed an inline fuel pump in Reno and finished my trip up and drove it home, dropped the fuel tank and replaced the defective pump with a higher volume pump and have put 5000 miles on the rig since then with no problems. I highly recommend the AAA roadside service though as the driver was prompt, efficient and very careful not to damage my rig with the removal of the driveline and the tow-harness attachments that it took to tow my beast over the Sierras.

[Chester T]

I bought the Good Sam package. It seemed to be ok when I talked to the Rep. Hope its good if I need it.

[Mike]

We also switched to GS ERS last month, after the CAA renewal came in and was around $170/yr.
I thought about it and while I haven't had any reason to switch other than the price, I think the
CAA/AAA prices are so high to pay for all the "extras" that they are hooked into, that we never
use like the trip packages, and the cruises, and all the discounted passes and repair services and
so on. I think being affiliated with all that extra stuff must cost them a fortune in discounts, so
they have to increase their membership prices. I think all GS ERS does is the basics of emergency
road service, and that's why their prices are lower. They concentrate on what I need, not what I
might use or want, if I had a larger family (kids) and liked Disney and other theme park stuff.
GS was about $90C/yr exchange rate included.