Good Sam or AAA

UsualSuspect wrote:
The reason why you need to read what AAA offers for your area. I looked and Washington AAA site and the coverage is different. Premier RV covers a tow up to 200 miles for your RV, the Plus is only 100 miles. According to your ERS they would not send anyone to change my DP tire as I have no spare. The member benefits state they only respond if I have a serviceable spare, My DP has none, so I would be left to fend on my own. AAA in Washington does not provide a mobile mechanic option either, so if I need a new fanbelt installed, an airline fixed, or a radiator hose replaced on a Saturday Night, I will have to find a service on my own, or be towed somewhere and wait for them to open, which on 3 day weekend could be a few days. The terms of your Roadside can be found here: Washington State AAA I would read up if I had a travel trailer or 5th wheel, your TT or 5'er is only towed to the nearest secure area, which may or may not be a campground if your tow vehicle breaks down.
It pays to read up on what is or is not covered, you have to compare apples to apples.

Are you talking to me?

If so:

We just did this exercise, and since we had overlapping coverage we asked both Good Sam and AAA for the terms of a tow to Vancouver, Washington. Distance was 205 miles.

Good Sam's response was that they'd pay for the first ten miles since that's how close an "authorized repair facility" is. We'd have to pick up the tab for the "excess" 195 miles.

AAA, on the other hand, said the first 200 was/is covered, but that we'd owe so-much-a-mile for anything over that.

Bet you can guess which one we went for...

The reason why you need to read what AAA offers for your area. I looked and Washington AAA site and the coverage is different. Premier RV covers a tow up to 200 miles for your RV, the Plus is only 100 miles. According to your ERS they would not send anyone to change my DP tire as I have no spare. The member benefits state they only respond if I have a serviceable spare, My DP has none, so I would be left to fend on my own. AAA in Washington does not provide a mobile mechanic option either, so if I need a new fanbelt installed, an airline fixed, or a radiator hose replaced on a Saturday Night, I will have to find a service on my own, or be towed somewhere and wait for them to open, which on 3 day weekend could be a few days. The terms of your Roadside can be found here: Washington State AAA I would read up if I had a travel trailer or 5th wheel, your TT or 5'er is only towed to the nearest secure area, which may or may not be a campground if your tow vehicle breaks down.
It pays to read up on what is or is not covered, you have to compare apples to apples.

UsualSuspect wrote:

Francesca Knowles wrote:
We've never experienced that "at the mercy of the local Club" phenomenon mentioned earlier, so I can't comment on that. I will say that all of our roadside assistance calls have been confined to Washington/Oregon/California- maybe there are regional or other differences in coverage-?

It is my understanding that not all AAA's offer RV Coverage. From reading various forums if you break down in an area where AAA does not offer RV Coverage you may end up paying out of pocket, then submitting for reimbursement. You may also want to check the towing distance covered, as well as the number of service calls. In California you get 200 miles of auto of pickup towing on your first tow, then you are limited to 100 miles, and you get unlimited service calls. It is different for RV's and trailers. For RV's and trailers you get up to 4 additional service calls per household for RV, motorcycle or recreational trailer, and RV Tire change and RV and Motorcycle Towing up to 100 driving miles. If you own a DP with no spare, you get to negotiate with the tire service when they get there, and there is no mobile service option for a breakdown, it is towing only.

My AAAplusRV doesn't mention any such limitations at all, nor have I ever encountered any difficulties like those you relate. I wonder if coverage depends on where it's purchased (mine bought in Washington)???

I will say, though, that over the years I've had the coverage I've only had four calls in California, only one of which necessitated a tow to any destination. Maybe I've just been lucky!

Francesca Knowles wrote:
We've never experienced that "at the mercy of the local Club" phenomenon mentioned earlier, so I can't comment on that. I will say that all of our roadside assistance calls have been confined to Washington/Oregon/California- maybe there are regional or other differences in coverage-?

It is my understanding that not all AAA's offer RV Coverage. From reading various forums if you break down in an area where AAA does not offer RV Coverage you may end up paying out of pocket, then submitting for reimbursement. You may also want to check the towing distance covered, as well as the number of service calls. In California you get 200 miles of auto of pickup towing on your first tow, then you are limited to 100 miles, and you get unlimited service calls. It is different for RV's and trailers. For RV's and trailers you get up to 4 additional service calls per household for RV, motorcycle or recreational trailer, and RV Tire change and RV and Motorcycle Towing up to 100 driving miles. If you own a DP with no spare, you get to negotiate with the tire service when they get there, and there is no mobile service option for a breakdown, it is towing only.

AAA is NOT a national company, but is 54 different companies operating under the AAA name umbrella. You are NOT guaranteed national RV coverage and are at the mercy of the local company, of which many REFUSE to provide any RV services or very limited RV services. AAA is NOT the RVers friend.

We had AAA for years and had no complaints at all. Recently, though, we decided to do a year of Good Sam because we were attracted by the "no limit on calls" thing. (With AAA, there's a place where nominal fees will start kicking in. We never reached that point, but you never know, right?)

We did decide to switch back this year, though, and for one reason: Our coverage with AAA allows for up to 200 mile tow to a destination of our choosing, no questions asked. Good Sam, on the other hand, limits one to "the closest place repairs can be accomplished". Since sometimes we want to do repairs ourselves, we want to keep the option of being towed home, so as said, we went back to AAA.

Side note:

We've never experienced that "at the mercy of the local Club" phenomenon mentioned earlier, so I can't comment on that. I will say that all of our roadside assistance calls have been confined to Washington/Oregon/California- maybe there are regional or other differences in coverage-?

I have AAA and GSERS, and in the past I had Coach-Net. I tried to use CN once, was left high and dry. I ended up spending a few hours and found someone who came out. Coach-Net would not reimburse me, stated their service said they showed up and made sure I was back under way, problem is they did not show, and I had to pay someone else to take care of it. Problem with CN is, there is no forum where folks can post and get a CSR to take a look, so you are on your own. I have GSERS and used it this past week, it worked, problem was fixed and I was on my way. I am considering dropping the RV coverage for AAA, and keeping the basic coverage as I have insurance through them. I don't think any ERS is going to perform 100%, unfortunately the providers have to find someone willing to do the work, and some of them are not exactly top notch, and I doubt you could expect every facility and truck be inspected every year, just not possible.

I used to have AAA, starting from my 16th birthday...many years ago. Recent experiences included being towed to a safe location and left for 3 hours and then re-towed to a town on Saturday evening, where help was not available until Monday. And then having my son stranded on the freeway because he did not have RV coverage for his boat...they would not even connect for a tow at his expense. Yes, it is partially his fault, but at that point I changed to CoachNet. I was not satisfied with my one call to CoachNet while on vacation, so I now have Good Sam. My two service calls to Good Sam over the last 2 years were satisfactory...not great...but gee whiz, it was emergency roadside service..so OK is all I expect. As a side note: FMCA is no longer contracting with CoachNet...don't know why, but I does give cause for pause.
So now you have three choices again for RV coverage...Good Sam, CoachNet, and FMCA (whom ever they have contracted).
Happy Trails.

Good Sam is better for RVs than AAA. By far.

darsben wrote:
The problem with AAA is you at the mercy of the local club. In my case I had AAA RV through AAA of Western and Central New York for about 10 years. Unfortunately I had 2 claims in 2 years on of which was a long expensive tow. The local club told me they would no longer give me RV coverage.
Haven't had that problem with Good SAM

I have Good Sam Towing and have tried to use it twice. The first time, two years ago, they sent the guy who was going to change my tire to the wrong state. This summer they would only tow my truck and camper to a Pep Boys for repair, which was almost 50 mile away. I declined and opted to pay a local tow company to tow us to a dedicated diesel truck repair garage, which was just five miles up the road.

I don't know about AAA. Never have used them.