Roadside Assistance

[RVER]

WHO HAVE YOU USED AND BEEN VERY SATISFIED WITH HAVING A CLASS A and needing a tow or need a tire due to a flat and we do not carry a spare. Esp with maybe locked up rear wheel since usually they would tow by lifting front end and tow with rear wheels on the ground. So looking for the best at difficult situations. AND I am looking for best at best dispatching since I once had a situation with the Class A, told dispatch, exactly what the problem was and that it was a Class A motorhome 36ft long and she sent a pickup truck. SO want a good Roadside Assistance company to go with and what it cost you for a year of service. Thanks.

[Yankee_Clipper]

We had a flat in Wewahitchka, FL a few years back and called Good Sam. They took the call, and said the best they could do was sent a unit from Mennomini Falls. I pointed out that we were not in Minnesota. They said their computer put Mennomini Falls as close as they could get to Wewahichtka.
My son and I changed the flat.

[olfarmer]

We had Good Sam towing for years. They towed us from Bad lands S.D. to Rapid City about 70 miles with no charge (31' Class A MH). The dealer they towed us to thought they had fixed the problem. Two days later the problem re-occurred near Kalispell, Mt. and they towed us to a camp ground on Sunday evening, then the next day they towed us to a Dealer who fixed the problem. But, when I called for for help that second time they said they would arrange the tow but I would have to pay as it was a pre-existing condition. I pointed out that they had towed us to a dealer who failed to fix the problem. They said I would have to pay but that I could appeal that decision. I did so when I got home an they paid in full! I have been very happy with Good Sam ERS, unfortunately because of age and health we can no longer use the Motor Home so I let let it expire but if we could still travel I would not leave home without it.

[wa8yxm]

Flute Man wrote:
Coach-Net. I’m very happy with them.

Started with Coach Net.. NOW. understand that most roadside companies use contract towers in the area you are stuck in ... The one time I called coach net the contractor (NOT COACH NET) sent about half enough truck.. We still got the job done but.. Well. I had to slightly re-write the tow truck operator's instruction book (I won't go into details but it was a winch out and the way I had him do it more than doubled the "Pull" of the truck. I could have easily re-doubled it had there been need).

After that I just used road service from my insurance.. I made sure I had a spare kilobuck on my credit card and the regular Insurance swiftly paid the claim. Of course one of the adjusters did apologize for laughing as he approved another stuck in sand... (Well I was rather careful, and inventive, in how I worded the claim... I thanked him for laughing. I was going for a laugh. and 200 dollars, got both)

[Dutch_12078]

Our Progressive insurance ERS plan sent a very suitable tow truck to get us off the road for service a couple of years ago. The driver was knowledgeable and since it was raining and a muddy location, he pulled the axles rather than dropping the drive shaft.

[Sandia_Man]

We use USAA for all our insurance needs over the last 3 decades including all our towable RVs, but when we called to cover our 40' class A they connected us to Progressive. We had call to use their roadside assistance and they were very responsive having our rig towed nearly 40 miles to our home where I was able to do repairs myself.

Progressive consistently stayed in contact throughout the entire process, being stranded along I-40 with so many other commercial diesel trucks having issues they were able to send the appropriate sized tow truck to handle our rig, tow company sent driver and assistant to help quickly disengage driveshaft and get rig down the road.

[JoeH]

... as a follow-up to my post about my experience with unknowledgeable tow truck drivers and poor service from my road side assistance provider, I wanted to show you what might happen if you don't know how your RV is supposed to be towed and you leave it up to the tow truck driver. Before you have your RV towed, call the manufacturer and get their recommended procedure/technique.... I'm glad I did, otherwise I would have been in the same situation as the people in this story.
Couple stranded after tow truck rips off front end of Motorhome

[JoeH]

This is a post I made several weeks ago......
---------------------------------------------------------------
I have been a coachnet subscriber for over 20 years and had to use them in early December. What a horrible experience. After I got home, I wrote the CEO and never got a response. Then I wrote the VP of marketing who had a staff member call me. I got lip service and a commitment to follow-up with me in a few days. Well, more than a few days passed and no follow-up. Just what I expected.... below is my letter to the CEO outlining the poor service we received. Make your decision on your provider carefully.... your safety depends on it !


Mr. Ostlund,

Yes, we were on the side of the road for 29 hours and this was no rural country road. It was US 1 in Maimi-Dade county Florida with cars and trucks whizzing by at 60-80 mph literally a few feet from the side of our motorhome. To say I'm disappointed in the service and response from Coach-Net would be an understatement.

On Friday December 3rd we left our home in Apollo Beach, Fl to spend a few nights at Key Largo before going to Key West. At about 14:00 my coolant temperature rapidly rose and the alarm went off. I moved to the side of the road. This was at Mile Marker 122 on US1 south of Homestead, FL. The infamous 18 mile stretch. The road here is a narrow 2 lane highway with the lanes separated by Jersey barriers. The shoulder is very narrow and in many places not even wide enough for a car, fortunately I was able to find a spot that we could actually get out of the travel lane by about 5 feet without sinking into the mud .

After assessing the situation and finding a catastrophic water pump failure, I call Coach-Net at 14:30 for assistance.
The first person I spoke to asked a few questions and then passed me to a technical staff member. We discussed the situation and he said he would get a tow truck to the scene. I was told it would be about an hour before the truck would arrive. Well, that wasn't even close. At 19:30, a full 5 hours later, a truck shows up, the driver looks at the situation and says he isn't able to tow a motorhome due to the configuration of his truck.

I call back Coach-Net and after some discussion they start to try to find another tow truck. After a few more hours, they decide that it would be good to inform the Florida Highway Patrol of our situation. A trooper comes by and provides visibility to the oncoming traffic with his emergency lights. Another tow company was finally dispatched and when they got to the scene the driver said he could not tow from the front, but would tow from the rear by raising the coach by the trailer hitch. I told him and pointed out the label on the hitch, that the hitch was rated at 1000 lbs tongue weight capacity and that the coach weighs 42000 lbs and that there was no way I was going to allow him to even attempt to do that. If I hadn't stopped him, I'm sure there would have been tens of thousands of dollars damage. He left and soon afterwards, the trooper had to leave . It was now after 03:00 Saturday...over 12 hours since I called in the issue.

I called Coach-Net again. They decided there was nothing to do at this late hour and would resume their (feeble) efforts in the morning. I was told I'd be contacted at 07:00 .

07:00 comes and goes and a little after 08:00 I get a call and they are going to resume trying to find a wrecker. I was promised call backs on status, but never received them. I had to call back myself to find out what was going on. Finally at 16:30 Saturday a couple of guys show up and said they had it under control. These guys were super professional, efficient and demonstrated outstanding team work. After a short period of time, during which they showed me what they were doing, they had us all hooked up and ready to go. But, as we were staring to pull out, one of their airbags on the rear axle failed and in interest of safety, they decided to unhook and drive back to the shop to get another truck.

They returned with a different truck and reattached the motorhome and we were finally off the side of the road at 19:30 Saturday. A full 29 hours after the time I called in for assistance.

When we got to the repair shop they backed us into position and unhooked. As I was thanking them for their outstanding service , I asked why they hadn't been called earlier. They told me that they were not on Coach-Net's vendor list and were called in only in dire situations. These guys were by far the best. You should have them at the top of the list for towing large RV's. They are Edwin and Kevin from American Eagle Towing. The other companies that showed up should be removed from your vendor list.


The reason I am sending this letter to you is to make sure you are aware of how poorly this call for emergency assistance was handled and that hopefully you will take corrective actions to prevent this from happening to someone else.

Some thoughts to consider :

- make sure the vendor you dispatch understands what is being towed and make sure they have the equipment to do so.

- the second tow operator obviously had no experience in towing a motorhome and if he had tried to tow from the trailer hitch as he had wanted to do, he would have caused extensive damage. It is likely that if it had been another person in my situation they might have taken him for his word and their motorhome would have been destroyed. You need to thoroughly vet your vendors to help prevent unnecessary damage.

- we were in a potentially very dangerous situation on a heavily traveled road. Police notification by your team should not have taken over 10 hours.

- When your staff says they are going to call back in a certain period of time, they need to do so. Other than a couple times when they did call back as promised, in general, I had to call back and wait on hold to get status.

- Scrub your vendor list. You obviously have incompetent service providers that are wasting your time, my time and their time and at the same time destroying your reputation as a quality service provider.

- A 29 hour wait to get EMERGENCY service is not acceptable under any circumstances.

Try to put yourself in the situation that we were in and see what your reactions would have been.


I look forward to your response.

[2manytoyz]

I've had AAA, and State Farm. Now we have Progressive, and they were excellent when our motorhome got stuck next to our house. Response time was about 45 minutes to send a large tow truck to drag it out. There was no fee, no increase in the policy price the next year.

Details and a short video is located here: http://2manytoyz.com/stuck-motorhome.html

[LouLawrence]

Since FMCA decided to no longer be Family MOTOR COACH Assn., having to pay all that money to be a member of another Good Sam Club forced me to drop my membership after 20+ years. I don't need info on trailers, 5th wheels or anything other than a Class A/C and I sure am not going to pay someone to force that "stuff" into a magazine when I already get that from my Good Sam membership. I also get a discount at nearly every campground with Good Sam but only a few that offer an FMCA discount. FMCA no longer has any value "to me" so signing up for FMCA road service would just be wasting money on the FMCA membership to get the FMCA road service and I have never heard anyone praise the FMCA road service over Good Sam or Coachnet.
CoachNet has gone up how much? Is $199 vs. $250 per year really going to make you change your mind about having good service or being stranded?

[RVER]

COACH-NET was 269 dollars for first year and then drops to $169 afterward. Family Motorcoach now called Family RV I think was $159 for the same thing so went with that, I do have Progressive roadside coverage but did not trust it will cover what these others cover and it only costs about $18. I will report if I have to use it and how they did. THANKS so much, looks like you all like CoachNet and I used to when I used them but they have really gone up in price. Last year I went without anything except the Progressive without realizing it. I thought I had committed to CoachNet but had not, YIKES. THANKS again for all your opinions, appreciate it.

[wallynm]

We have had both and COACH NETwins hands down without question.

RVER wrote:
WHO HAVE YOU USED AND BEEN VERY SATISFIED WITH HAVING A CLASS A and needing a tow or need a tire due to a flat and we do not carry a spare. Esp with maybe locked up rear wheel since usually they would tow by lifting front end and tow with rear wheels on the ground. So looking for the best at difficult situations. AND I am looking for best at best dispatching since I once had a situation with the Class A, told dispatch, exactly what the problem was and that it was a Class A motorhome 36ft long and she sent a pickup truck. SO want a good Roadside Assistance company to go with and what it cost you for a year of service. Thanks.

[ferndaleflyer]

What hasn't gone up in the past 5 months or so?

[RVER]

THANKS I am surprised no one yet has mentioned the roadside assistance from Family Motorcoach that now is Family RVing. I have used Coach-Net before and found them good but they all have gone up in price. USED Good Sam and was not satisfied with them as I mentioned. GOT to call tomorrow.

[Dutch_12078]

I've had good service from Coach-Net over the years, and recently tried the service that Progressive Insurance provides, also with good results. When a previous Class A blew a rear wheel bearing, the tow operator had no problem hooking up from the rear and strapping the steering wheel down to tow it to the service shop.

Good Sam contracts out their roadside service plan, currently to Allstate Motor Club as I recall. Some of their previous contractors haven't been very well rated, but Allstate gets pretty good marks from the towing industry.