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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Emergency Road Service

The inevitable things in life:  Death and Taxes.  The inevitable things in RV travel:  Flat tires and breakdowns.


There are Emergency Road Service providers where you can purchase plans to help get you off the side of the road and back rolling down the long lonesome highway.

The two 800 pound gorillas in the market are the Good Sam Emergency Road Service from the Good Sam Club,




And Coach Net Emergency Road Service.


Both plans, for a little bit over one hundred bucks a year will change a flat tire, bring you gas or tow you to a repair facility, along with some other services depending on the exact plan you use and what the fine print may say.

I have read many comments, both good and bad about both these services.  I currently have the Good Sam ERS and thankfully have never used it.  When I bought the Journey back in 2007, it came with a free year of Coach Net.  Because I already had a Good Sam ERS policy, I actually was covered with both plans at the same time for almost a year.

Based on what I've researched, I think I'm going to switch to Coach Net when my Good Sam ERS plan expires in May.  Coach Net seems to be more in tune with the special needs that RVers have than the Good Sam ERS. 

There are other road service providers like AAA and certain insurance companies that have towing available as part of their coverage.

I'd like to throw out a couple of questions:

Which emergency road service do you have?

Have you ever needed to use your service and for what?

Would you renew your service policy or change to another plan?

Would you recommend your policy to your friends?



Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

28 comments:

  1. I have only heard good things about coach net.

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  2. My late husband and I had RV Roadhelp through Allstate/KOA and had great service. It covered our motorhome (350 mile tow), cars (flat tire) and motorcycles (dead battery). Under all conditions they came through. This was the late 90's to early 2000's.

    My current husband has always had the Good Sam ERS and hasn't had any problems with them when needing service.

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  3. For us these are very easy answers: We have CoachNet, have had their service for 5 years going on 6. We have used their service 4 times, 3 for the coach, and 1 for our toad vehicle. Yes, they also cover your toad vehicle. As I mentioned above, the coach has been towed 3 times (high pressure diesel line cracked + 2 times for not starting), 1 time up on a flatbed trailer and 2 times behind a huge wrecker. Yes, we would renew and we have. Finally, yes, they have our recommendation. Linda and Bob

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  4. Thanks for asking the questions we need answer for!! It was like you are reading our minds ;o))

    Will be reading the replies!!

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  5. I have used Good Sam since 2004, and have, thankfully, only needed their help once. I was impressed when I called that their first question was "Are you safe?" I had hobbled into a Love's Truck Stop on a late Sunday afternoon. If I didn't feel safe staying there overnight, they were willing to tow me to a campground for the night, and then tow me the next morning to a repair facility 100 miles away. I chose to just have them come in the morning. I didn't have to even sign anything. The huge towtruck showed up in the early morning, and I was towed into Boise, ID from Oregon. I have no complaints with them and will renew again this spring. :)

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  6. P.S. They also cover my toad for everything including gas and tire.

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  7. Paul, you asked a good question about CCC and where we store things on my blog a bit ago, but I didn't have an email address to respond to you.

    (so anyone else can ignore this)

    While newer rigs have multiple slides, which are very weighty by themselves, they also have storage issues with the slide mechanisms taking up valuable space.

    We don’t have any slides, so we have more than enough storage area in the basement of our rig, and weight is not a problem.

    Even with all our tanks full, (propane, fuel, fresh water and waste water) we have around 6,000 pounds of additional CCC cargo carrying capacity above that.

    Being aluminum exterior construction instead of fiberglass makes a big difference in weight, plus wall and roof supports are all aluminum too.

    Empty we are about 18,600. UVW (Unloaded Vehicle Weight)

    We weigh in with full tanks and 2 people at 22,000 pounds without our gear when we first bought the rig.

    Our rating is GVWR- 28,000 (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating)
    GCWR-32,000 (Gross Combined Weight Rating)

    I did a blog post a while back on all the stuff we do carry in our compartments, door by door.
    Go to April 7, 2010 or:
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2010/04/exploring-our-basement-storage.html

    Hope that helps!

    Karen

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. I have coach net and have used it twice. Once for a tire issue and once for engine issue. Both times they performed as advertised and we continue to use them as our emergency provider.

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  10. I have coach net and have used it twice. Once for a tire issue and once for engine issue. Both times they performed as advertised and we continue to use them as our emergency provider.

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  11. We have Progressive Insurance and they cover towing. The only time we used it was to have our Miata towed out of our garage to the repair shop. No charge even though we haven't used that as a toad in several years.
    Syl

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  12. Us Canucks have a CAA, same as AAA and although we have only used it once for the coach we had to be towed 250 miles that time and it was all free of charge, so far so good.

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  13. We have both accident and roadside assistance towing in our American Family policy. Our agent assures us there is no limit to the towing or even multiple tows till we get to a place that can actually fix the problem. I hope so.

    But I am kinda leaning towards hedging my bets and getting CoachNet too before our upcoming trip.

    If you are an FMCA member, you can get a discount on the first year of Coach Net, so I am told.


    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/

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  14. We use Good Sam's and we called hem when our ruck had ha ransmission problem. Super nice and eas!!!

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  15. good question today Paul..going to read all the comments and see what everyone else has.!!

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  16. We use CoachNet and couldn't be happier. Just one week ago we had a tire that decided to shed it's tread on an interstate highway. CoachNet had our spare tire on in no time. Zero complaints, and one good experience.

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  17. We had Good Sam ERS for the first few years and used them once to change a tire in a remote area with good results. Then we found out we have it with our insurance company (GMAC with Good Sam) and dropped it, why pay double for it. We have not had an incident where we needed to use this current one so we are not sure how it is and we really do hope we never have to find out.

    Is that little guy a "Happy Camper"? We had his buddy "Race Happy" for a few years before he got really sick and we had to let him go...

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  18. Good Post! As you know, we have first hand experience with this subject, less than a week ago. Our service is called Camping World Roadcare, came with our motorhome deal. Anyway, when we talked to them multiple times during our recent breakdown, the people who answer the phone appeared to be from “Good Sam”. Regardless of who they were, we were very happy with their service. Also of note, we were towed probably less than 40 miles and the bill was almost $500.00. With our plan, we didn’t pay 1 cent. Thankfully and surprisingly, our experience was a very positive one (with the exception of the actual brake issue).


    John
    relaxedrush.blogspot.com

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  19. We would not use Good Sam if they were the only purveyor there was. CoachNet is better. Believe it or not, we now have GEICO and although not as experienced as CoachNet, they give a damn for their customers and we were very impressed with the service. They even know how to call you back instead of keeping you on hold forever And they answer the initial call way faster than the aforementioned-either of them.

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  20. We've had Good Sam since 2004 (full-timers). We have a Teton 36' 5th wheel towed by a Ford 550. We've used the service multiple times, always with great results. Once we didn't really know where we were & we just gave them or GPS coordinates...We just used them 2 weeks ago. We are parked in rural VA at my Mom's house & the truck wouldn't start. She doesn't even have a mailbox but they found us. Once in CA they sent a regular towtruck to pick us up...to small. We called them & they sent a flatbed trailer with a gigantic truck. Flat tires on the trailer we've gotten so we change them ourselves - at least while we are still able. We've never had a flat on the truck but it has just stopped running more than once for various reasons.

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  21. We have had Coach Net since 2002 and have used it on an annual basis (unfortunately) for flat tires on the 5er and our Ford F450. The staff is friendly, helpful and was only unable to find us assistance one time when we were WAY out in the boonies, but they told us if we found our own assistance they would reimburse us. They find help, they call back to tell you when the help should be arriving and then they will call back (occasionally) to see if the tow actually showed up. Wouldn't change for the world.

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  22. Well, the Emergency Roadside Assistance service plays a very vital role in every one's life. Being a car owner, you must have Roadside assistance, towing service for help with unusual conditions.
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    Thanks for sharing this with us.......nice post

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  23. It is definitely a huge concern to have an emergency vehicle situation! I know that I have had to get roadside service before because of various car troubles. It can be such a difficult situation, especially when you are somewhere new and you don't know who to call for help. http://www.tiretownnorth.net/services.html

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