looking for large scale road atlas

CavemanCharlie wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

dewey02 wrote:
We are AAA members and always request the free maps and books for the states we plan to travel in. We also received a free AAA atlas from them this year. We use that for quick reference, but use the paper maps for more detailed info. We also have a Garmin 760LMT, but I am one of those folks that needs a big picture of where I'm headed, rather than just following commands.

The one (minor) complaint I have about AAA's atlas is that they have a listing of cities in each state on the same page as the map. This makes them shrink the map down in size so there is room for the cities list. For states that have many cities, this can make the map quite small. We had an older atlas that had this city information at the very back of the atlas, so if you were looking for the location of a specific city (we don't often do this) you simply look it up in the back, get the coordinates and then go to the map and find it. This allowed for the state map to take up the full page (or across a 2 page spread), which I prefer.

"AAA" maps are not "free" by any means, you PAID the membership dues in order to have the "privilege" of being to be able to get them which makes them extremely expensive if that is you main reason to have the membership..

I USED to have AAA membership, out of 25 yrs of membership I only used their towing "service" (if you can call it that) ONCE. Got a handful of Trip books which were pretty dated and a few maps which really did not have a lot of detail for full sized maps..

Once they boosted to basic member price to $70 for first driver and $50 for additional driver per yr we dropped it..

Walmart Rand Mcnally Atlas hands down beats any of the AAA maps and is one heck of a lot less expense than a AAA membership.

Perhaps. But, around here just towing your car 10 miles is going to cost you 400 bucks or more. I can't imagine how much it would cost to move a RV of any kinds. You don't have to use them often for it to pay off. I have older rigs that break down more frequently.

I have used there lock service once too. (I had a spare set of keys hidden under the car but, they had been there for some many years that the magnetic case they were in broke and the keys got lost.)

OOOOOKAY....

Just how many times do you plan to break down or need a tow?

AAA has three "tiers" of membership plus addon of two tiers of RV stuff..

Basic,

4 roadside calls/yr

TOWING 3 miles (YES THREE MILES)

Cost $75/yr primary, addon driver $40 EACH per yr

Plus,

4 roadside calls per yr

TOWING up to 100 miles

$104 per yr addon driver $60 per yr

Premier,

4 roadside calls per yr

TOWING 100 miles + 1 other tow up to 200 miles

$140 per yr and addon each driver $60 per yr

NONE of the above include RV towing coverage, for that you need to buy up to RV packages which those prices are secret and only available to members..

at basic plus one driver that is $110 per yr..

25 yrs that is $2750!!!!

I have only needed ONE tow in the last 35 yrs of driving..

I think I can easily afford to pay a $400 tow bill..

Not to mention, found out that AAA only covered the HOOK UP.. my insurance company covered the rest.

On edit,

forgot to mention the "RV coverage" requires at least a tier above basic or even Premier tier..

Throw some more math in there at Premier for me that would be $200 per yr or for 25 yrs that would be $5000!!! :E :S

So far, we have been well over ten yrs since we dropped AAA, don't miss it and the money we would have spent on it is money saved.. That saved money sits in the bank for just such oops moments in life..

As far as all those supposed AAA member savings "benefits", never found a campground that would accept AAA for discounts, only found ONE (yeah ONE) "amusement park" that would accept AAA discount..

I tried and tried but simply cannot justify the cost of being a "member"..

I don't miss getting tons of junk mail from AAA trying to sell me pet insurance, life insurance and pretty much any "Ronco" as seen on TV add on junk that they could think of to pitch to members weekly if not daily..

Although to this day I still get those stupid want you back packages with our membership cards preprinted all for a tidy sum of $115 :R ..

Those go straight to the shredder..

Yeah, they are the king of junk mail.