IAMICHABOD wrote:
So far the information and opinions on the extended insurance have been straightforward and honest.
So I will add this,of the more than 130 members here on this thread there have been no reports of any CA units that have had an engine,transmission or generator failure.
I did find on 2 occasions that El Monte RV did honor their warranty This One and Here
They both happened in the Warranty period that was given to them when they bought the unit,not an extended warranty.
FWIW, my sales contact at El Monte told me, when I asked about drive train extended warranties, that they used to offer them, through the same company that CA uses. The reason they stopped, and just went with offering their own 12/12 power train warranty, is that he wasn't aware of any case in which the extended warranty company actually paid on a claim - which, of course, made for unhappy customers.
I have two 28a Majestics from Cruise America. I use them a lot and will likely put 100,000 miles on them over the next 5 years. When I bought the first one, they offered me a 5-year 100,000 mile warranty on the Powertrain (engine, transmission, drive axle, water pump). It cost $1700 (or $1800, I can't remember). My thinking was, "Well, the unit already has 120,000 miles on it...I'm betting that over the next 100,000 miles *something* is going to happen that will be covered and it will cost MORE than $1700". Another important thing....with how I'm using the RVs, there is a good chance that in 5 year's time I will actually put on 100,000 miles. That last part I think is KEY. If you are like most RV owners, you will probably put only 2000-5000 miles per year on your RV. Then, maybe the warranty isn't as worthwhile because the chances of failure definitely goes down. But in my case, I felt it was worthwhile for the above reasons AND the peace of mind.
Now.......with all that being said, I did learn something. On this CA RV with the warranty my exhaust manifold started leaking after about 15000 miles. If you've had that happen before, you know the familiar and LOUD rumble sound... It is common for BOLTS to rust/corrode and break off (there are 10 bolts that hold the manifold together). When I read the fine print, and called the warranty company, and asked my mechanic to investigate, I noticed in the warranty it specifically says it doesn't cover anything related to bolts breaking! Ugh. That meant this repair wasn't covered. In order to do the repair, my mechanic had to pull the engine so they could get at all the bolts to tap them and get them all out (several had broken off). As long as he was doing all that, I had him change out EVERYTHING that made sense as long as he had the engine pulled. A long list of things, that hopefully now I won't have to worry about for years to come. The total bill was over $8000. I took it in stride and don't let these things get me down. But it was unfortunate that it wasn't covered under the warranty.
And all that being said....I still am glad I have the warranty that I bought. I've got another 4 years and ~80000 miles and I'm betting there will be something else that ends up breaking and hopefully when it does it will be covered.
-Chris
