how do towing services work?

What towing coverage do you have now?
Good Sam and Coach-Net are probably the most popular/best plans.

gbopp wrote:
What towing coverage do you have now?
Good Sam and Coach-Net are probably the most popular/best plans.

Right now the towing coverage we have is part of our lifetime warranty we got when we bought the RV. It is a great plan for the RV part, but not so much for the roadside assistance. They pay 100.00 for someone change a flat tire, and 150.00 towards the towing if needed. But my real question is if all big rig towing companies charge by the hour, or the mile

I don't know if they charge by the mile or hour. I do know they are not cheap.

I do think a Roadside Service policy would be a wise move.

Call whoever insures your RV and get towing added, $150.00 will barely get you hooked up to the truck.

abc40kids wrote:
Call whoever insures your RV and get towing added, $150.00 will barely get you hooked up to the truck.

I do have roadside assistance on my RV insurance policy also, I will call and find out how that works too. Yay can never be too rich, good looking, and prepared...lol

Emergency Road Side Service is absolutely a "must have". The 2 most popular are Coach Net and Good Sam. Other Emergency Road Service plans have limited coverage and various restrictions i.e. AAA.
Most important features are: 1. unlimited towing milage 2. guarantee that you will only be towed to a shop that can actually repair your RV, not the nearest local gas station or shop that is not equipped. 3. There is no cash payed out of your pocket for the ERS service at the time of the incident. I have had Good Sam ERS for 20 yrs. and am happy with the service. Are ERS plans perfect 100% of the time, no. Occasionally there is a problem when you 1st make contact with a service representative. Not all service representatives are 100% RV knowledgeable which can create some miscommunication issues but usually the issue is resolved satisfactorily within a few minutes and your towing service gets taken care of. All my personal vehicles are covered as well.
On 1 ERS incident, the springs broke on my trailer and could not be driven, a long flat bed truck was dispatched and my trailer was wrenched onto the flat bed. The nearest service center that could replace the spring was 30 miles away. I just showed my GS ERS card and no cash was paid. The driver told me that the cost of the tow would have been $1250 out of my pocket without GS ERS service:):)

suprz wrote:
I only ask because my towing coverage only covers up to 150.00. We take the hit for anything over that. I called Aaaaah local big rig towing place nearby and was told they bill 150.00 per hour and not per mile and there a 2 hour minimum charge. So I'm contemplating coach net coverage

Sounds like you just answered your own question. What are you asking?????

suprz wrote:
I only ask because my towing coverage only covers up to 150.00. We take the hit for anything over that. I called Aaaaah local big rig towing place nearby and was told they bill 150.00 per hour and not per mile and there a 2 hour minimum charge. So I'm contemplating coach net coverage

We have AAA Plus with RV Coverage. In the last 10 years, we've only camped along the east coast with one trip to Houston. We've never had a problem getting service. We are covered by AAA South, but we've never actually used it in the AAA South region. The last couple times we needed it to tow our camper and tow vehicle, we were in PA.

We like AAA Plus because it tows up to 100 miles for free. If I am 90 miles from the shop I want to use, AAA will cover it. With CoachNet, if there is a shop closer to where I am broken down, that is where they tow, not the shop I want. CoachNet told us that we could not pay the difference to go where we wanted to. We had AAA at the same time and AAA towed us where we wanted to go.

In other parts of the country AAA may not have great coverage, but along the East Coast, AAA works well. Plus lots of hotels, campgrounds, restaurants and other retail outlets offer discounts to AAA members. Usually the discounts we get for being AAA members covers the cost of membership.

-Michael

Personally, I am sticking with the tow service I have with USAA. Been towed once and mileage was not an issue.

The only logical way to select a Emergency Road Side Service is to do a side by side comparison of the various ERSS of each service provided, limitations and exceptions. Then decide what services best meet your needs, then choose one. No ERSS program is 100% perfect 100% of the time!!! Any thing that has people and machines involved is subject to less than 100% service perfection all the time. "s_ _t happens":):):)