ROAD SERVICE

[belfert]

If you kept your equipment in proper order yu would not need to call anyone for the dumb things that seem to plague some folks.  Breaking thru the road way is beyond normal I agree, but broken/rusted/defective parts, then needing rexcued?  Seems like 99% could be  eliminated with a lil PM / care & feedingof your toys.

The first time I needed help was for a flat tire.  It had a screw in it.  I didn't have the tools to change a tire then, but I do now.  I know a lot of folks don't carry the tools to change a tire in part because not everyone has to strength to handle a huge bus wheel and tire.

The second time I needed help was for a failed wheel bearing on my tag axle.  All of my wheel bearings had been completely replaced by a well known bus shop around 30,000 miles previous.  The next required repack of the bearings was supposed to be at 100,000 miles per my service manual.  I know from this experience they should probably be repacked every 4 or 5 years because 100,000 miles would be over 10 years at my yearly mileage.

[belfert]

Belfert, I 'suspect' that normal people work in daylight hours and if you call them after hours they could care less about going out on a road call.  Road service is not the fire department.

Okay, so I just pulled out my old fashioned Yellow Pages and looking up towing.  Almost every single advertisement for towing states "24 hour service".  I'm fairly certain both Coach-Net and Good Sam advertise their services as 24 hour.  My incident happened just as it was getting dark.  I did not think it unreasonable to expect to at least have service on the way within a few hours since I know that towing services are generally 24 hour.

Now, I wasn't really too upset about not getting service until morning.  We had been able to limp off to the next exit and parked on the exit ramp.  The bus has all the comforts of home so we just went to bed.  The tow company called me before they headed out in the morning.  I described the issue and they decided to send a service truck instead of a tow truck, but the service truck had to come from three hours away.  The tow company said that they would have needed to chain up the tag axle to tow the bus.  There would have been no need to tow the bus once the tag axle was chained up.  I could have driven it to a shop once the axle was chained up.  I just didn't have the tools or a chain to remove the wheel and chain up the axle.  (Coach-Net paid the six hours of round trip travel time for the service truck.)

[ruthi]

We have used Allstate RV roadhelp. Have had it ever since we got a bus. We have used them several times with no issues. Had to be towed 2 times, and they paid up. Had to fix a flat once in the middle of no where, and they came out and brought a tire too. Things happen, no matter how good of care is taken. To say that it is because of not keeping on top of things is just not right.

[bevans6]

Just to add my experience, I've been extremely satisfied with Coach-net, I've used them twice but never for the bus.  In both cases the situation was quite odd - one, I was near my home in Tatamagouche Nova Scotia, which is covered since it's in Canada but Coach-net had no idea where it was - I coached the lady on the phone through finding it on google-maps, in fact.  I knew that there is only one tow service within 50 miles, I gave her that name and number, and he showed up about 20 minutes later even though he had never done business with Coach-net before.  He parked my MGB in my garage for me, and we wave at each other when we pass on the road.  The other situation was with my truck, we lost an injector at 4 pm on a Friday in rural Quebec, only to find that every single Ford dealership in Quebec closes at 5 pm on Friday and doesn't open till Monday.  Again, we were able to find out that there was one tow service in town that could flat-bed the truck, gave that number to Coach-net and told them they had to find someone who could speak French, they did so and the service showed up at 8:00 AM Monday morning, dead on time, and we went 50 miles to the nearest Ford store (for lousy service, but that is another story...)

So two odd situations, I took a lot of responsibility for making the situations come out right, but Coach-net backed me up and made my play turn out right.

Brian

[Boomer]

I have the Coach Net premium level which allows me to cover all three of my buses plus personal autos.  Have only had two minor call outs on the personal autos so far and they were professional and johnny on the spot.  Hope I don't have to ever use them on the buses but so far so good for a little over 100 bucks a year.

[wg4t50]

Have the same insurance as Boomer, one time I called to find the nearest truck garage, they gave me name & ph #, they were half mile away from the Flying J, I drove over, they fixed the air leak.  Only other issue ever had in 25 years and over 100 k rv miles was a brass fitting breaking off the D4 Gov sense line, lucky I had an easy out and a fitting to replace it.
Just call me LUCKY I guess, but I did all my own work, never trusted anyone, it seems to have paid off for me. Now no longer do much of it, why the Foretravel, but miss the ole bus alot, it was a one of a kind about like me.
Merry Christmas
Dave M

[akroyaleagle]

I have had Good Sam since we finished the bus in 96.

I have only used them once. In the middle of British Columbia. Snow turned to rain and I couldn't pull the hill out of the RV park because of the mud.

I told them I needed a BIG wrecker. It took less than an hour to get one to me. Very easy experience.

I have all my vehicles covered but have never needed them again.

I can get USAA towing insurance (add-on to current policy) for a lot less but I tend to dance with the one that brung me!

I agree with the comment that towing insurance is not a substitute for a maintance program, nor is it for not managing fuel.

From posts that I see, I fear the time is near when we will not be able to get this insurance on our Coaches.

[Scott & Heather]

Another vote for good Sam. We have them.


Sent from iPhone via Tapatalk

[Lin]

I had a negative experience with Good Sam.  I explained it was a bus with Dayton wheels (my last coach, not this one) and requested a unit big enough and with the right skills.  They sent someone
in a minivan that was totally inadequate, and I had to wait an hour for that.  Then he did not have a socket big enough, so he went out and bought one.  He had a little hand pull compressor that was barely more than a toy, and a half inch impact wrench.  If it had been my 5a instead of the other bus, he would not have been able to get the tire off.  I walked him through the process and got the wheel changed, but I figured that I was done with that road service. Did I mention he had his kid in the minivan with him? 

Anyway, I now have Coach.net.  I used them once for a tire change that required mounting also.  The guy that came knew what he was doing.  That was over a year ago.  Who knows what has changed in that time.

[jjrbus]

After listiening to all the complaints about the "Premium" professional towing services I opted to get the ERS rider on my State Farm policy.  Thankfully never had to use it.   JIm

[belfert]

Remember that none of the roadside assistance programs (with the exception of some AAA clubs) have their own tow trucks or roadside service personnel.  They all contract with 1000s of different service providers across the USA and Canada.  You might have gotten the same service provider regardless of who was doing the dispatch and payment.  Does any roadside assistance program personally visit each provider to check them out?

The time I had a flat tire on my bus they sent a small tow truck to help out.  I'm not sure he had the right tools to change a bus tire.  My air compressor was broken at the time (and no connection on the bus either) so we used his air compressor to inflate the tire.  I went straight to a tire shop that removed the screw and patched the tire.  I know have a working air compressor and the tools to do my own tire change.

[white-eagle]

Remember that none of the roadside assistance programs (with the exception of some AAA clubs) have their own tow trucks or roadside service personnel.  They all contract with 1000s of different service providers across the USA and Canada.  You might have gotten the same service provider regardless of who was doing the dispatch and payment.

I agree with the above.  All of them have a possible bad operator who didn't know enough to get the right service.  someone else mentioned coaching them to call the service you knew was right.  Our starter died in a Walmart in Bartow.  Coach-net wanted to send a hook out to tow me somewhere.  i told them about Florida Bus, they made a deal with John, and Andy showed up with a starter.  I don't believe triple a or good sam could or would have done that.

we'll stay with Coach-net.

[Lin]

Brian, my complaint with Good Sam was that I told them what I needed, and they ignored it.  I'm sure the same could happen with any of them, but rather than use that as my operating assumption, I changed to another service that got good reviews at the time.  Unfortunately, these things can change quickly.   A restaurant you love can hire a new cook one day, and now you think the place sucks.