Breakdown

nmorgan2009 wrote:
QUESTION RVers. If I get several hundred miles away from home and my vehicle is unrepairable. How do I get my vehicle and camp trailer back home. We feel we take this risk every time we get far from home.
Advice is greatly appreciated.

I purchased a Roadside assistance package (Coachnet) because I wanted access to a person on the phone to help resolve breakdown issues. It happens that I needed this last fall while traveling in Canada. Here is a pic.


It certainly was reassuring to pick up the cell phone and call for a tow. Coachnet brought us to the nearest facility and the mechanic said he was not able to fix it there so we continued on for another 100 miles to a Cummins facility. Not a dime out of pocket.

Thank you for your post. I was disappointed to learn that you had a negative experience regarding a tow destination. On Monday I will review the details of your membership, I will contact you then. As you know, the Platinum+ membership has the 100 mile benefit, the Platinum does not. If you wish to send me a private message with your contact information in the interim, I will be pleased to chat with you over this weekend. Thank you for your membership. Frank

GSRoadsideAssistance wrote:
Regarding choosing the location for roadside assistance towing destinations for your RV or household vehicle, please note the following from the Good Sam Platinum+ Roadside Assistance Member Benefits Brochure:
“When a Member, Associate, or Extended Family Member calls for service, Good Sam Platinum+ Roadside Assistance pays 100% of the towing fees for the delivery of the vehicle to the nearest professional service center capable and willing to repair the vehicle OR we’ll pay for the towing fees for the delivery of your vehicle to any other destination of choice within 100 miles of the disablement location.”
.........snip.......
Frank

I think the above is at least in part with reference to my reported experience in the below posts.

Francesca Knowles wrote:
My roadside assistance allows up to 200 miles tow to the location of my choice . Beyond that distance, I'm on my own to pay so-much-a-mile.

Francesca Knowles wrote:

I'm back with AAA after having tried Good Sam for a year; and this is the only reason I switched back. (I'd had AAA for years and there were a few things that looked better with Good Sam, so I thought I'd give it a try.) No complaints about Good Sam's service, as far as it went; but I didn't realize at the time I made the first switch that there was this for me important difference between the two coverages.
I want to pick the destination, and AAA's the only provider that offers me that option.
........snip.....

I'd like to say that "100 miles to destination of choice" is NOT the experience we had with Good Sam's Platinum coverage. We needed a tow to a distant location, and were informed by the operator that since there was an "authorized repair facility" about three miles from our house, that is the total mileage we were covered for. We would have been responsible for everything over that at a rate of, as I remember, more than $3.50 a mile. (Which additional mileage rate is also higher than AAA's; with which, in any case, we'd have been responsible to pay only those miles over 200.)

What gives?

(Former) Platinum Membership number 802696534, in case anyone's interested.

:B

trb46 wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
What would you do if traveling in a car and it broke down and was unrepairable?

Cut the OP some slack. New to the forums; just joined today. Maybe a new RVer. Legitimate question. Sarcasm not necessary.

I agree. It was a totally useless remark. But some habits are hard to break I guess.:S

Been there and done that several times, well sorta. The vehicle was never unrepairable - it all depends on how much you are willing to spend.

Our first long distance trip towing our trailer, the radiator in the tow vehicle started leaking on a Saturday. Was able to make it to a nearby Chevy dealer and they replaced the radiator, made that half of the trip $600 more expensive and about 4 hours longer. That same trip, on the way home, the tranny died. Was able to make it to the nearest campground and then had the tow vehicle towed to a GM dealer. Two days later and $1600 more and we were back on our way home.

We've had several other problems with our tow vehicles. You just have to roll with the punches. Stuff happens, just be as prepared as possible. In every instance (except the leaky radiator since we didn't need their help) AAA was able to bail us out. Whether it was towing trailer and tow vehicle to the campground then dropping the tow vehicle off for repair or just towing both to the house.

We've had AAA for many years in three different states we've lived. Right now we have AAA Plus with RV. We've used it more outside our region and have never had an issue. Sometimes it may delay things because our local region has to connect with the current region we are in.

-Michael

wny_pat wrote:
And now to tell the OP our latest story. MTPockets1 said "If it's not repairable leave it there." We very recently considered that!!! We broke down in Valentine Tx, and Coach-Net towed 125 miles to Cummins Coach Care in El Paso, Tx. My tow would have cost over $1200 had I had to pay the bill. We spent the night hooked up at Coach Care's RV parking area and they got us in the shop the next day. It was determined that our diesel had dropped a valve, doing catastrophic damage to #3 cylinder. Our options were to find a used engine or get a Cummins re-manufactured long block for our 1994 Foretravel Unihome U225. I knew we were looking at a very large bill no matter what route we went. My very first thought was to abandon the coach there with the signed title. Who is going to buy a 1994 DP with a DOA engine and how are we going to handle it when we are over 2000 miles from home??? Rather than jumping into this, we decided to sleep on it. The next day we came to our senses and decided to go with the Cummins long block. A "long block" is a whole engine, minus the turbo, exhaust manifold, air compressor and other items, which are transferred from the old engine. The long block carries a Cummins warranty. I have read that many of todays Cummins re-manufactured 5.9 long blocks are actually brand new engines. Well one was ordered and we moved into La Quinta Inn and Suites with our two traveling cats to wait it out.

A week later and with the long block was no where in site...!! Seems it got held up in adverse snowy weather somewhere along the way and was still several hundred miles away. We had seen all the El Paso sites and visited all their many excellent restaurants, including Cattlemans Steakhouse and Carlsbad Caverns, and were very tired of motel living. So we decided to make the 2000+ mile trip home and wait it out there. We loaded the cats and our clothes into the toad and made the 4 day trip home. Anyway the story is not over yet. The engine is in and almost buttoned up, and we are ready to make the return trip to pick up our Foretravel.

Now I know that some will question putting a new diesel engine in a 1994 Foretravel. Well, I know the condition of the coach is still solid and has excellent bones, having been built by Foretravel. Has brand new tires and many new parts, like a new air dryer. Basically, we have it the way we like it!!! And it is paid for! So question all you want, cause we are going to continue enjoying it for many more years.

Now we are looking forward to making the return trip to El Paso to pick up our 1994 Foretravel with a brand new re-manufactured, warrantied, Cummins 6BT 5.9 mechanical diesel engine. My only regret it that the new engine did not increase the book value of the coach. But it would have had no value if we had walked away from it. Also, I have to thank Coach-Net, Duran Towing, El Paso division of Rocky Mountain Cummins Coach Care, La Quinta Inn and Suites, and Foretravel Motorcoach for all putting up with us and making our trip more pleasant!!! Yes, I can be difficult at times and they deserve that.

That is how we dealt with what the OP is worried about. "When life gives you Lemons, make Lemonade" - those are not my words, but we try to live by them. It makes life more fun, even if the saving account is much lighter!

Soooo... how much was the new engine?!?

2oldman wrote:
If this post is legit, I really don't know what unrepairable means.

Something my DW fixed

Johnny_H wrote:
If it unrepairable, then it most definitely is replaceable.

Yes, but again at what cost. I have a 2004 pickup. I bought it privately from a local man that was going into the nursing home. His son was a auto mechanic. So, I know what I've got and have kept up all the maintenance on it. If it gets wrecked, lets say a tree falls on it, and I'm 100's of miles from home where would I find another vehicle that I'm sure has had this kind of care? I couldn't. I would be at the mercy of buying some overpriced, possible poorly taken care of, vehicle at a dealer. Then stuck with it when I got back home and spend years trying to keep it running or sell it at a loss and end up poorer. So, yes things can be replaced but, in my experience more then half the time you get something that's worse then what you have now. That's why I take since good care of my stuff. You never know what you'll get if you change.

Francesca Knowles wrote:

Caveman Charlie wrote:

2oldman wrote:
If this post is legit, I really don't know what unrepairable means.

I do see that my spell check says there is no such word.

There was a day when spellcheck wasn't the last word on whether a word's a word..."unrepairable" is in the dictionary.

Since when did spell check become a authority? Associated Press Stylebook and Webster's New World Online come close and and they still, depending on the user, make mistakes! And according to Websters, unrepairable is not correct. You would say his loss is irreplaceable. Losses are not repaired, they are replaced. The damage to my car was irreparable. Perfectly acceptable. But other sources allow use of "unrepairable"