towing heads up

[white-eagle]

hey, a friend just blew the rear end on his flex.  He called triple AAA and told them he needed a tow for his motorhome under his RV Plus plan.  he also told them "make sure you send a real tow truck.  this is a 30,000lb bus."  Oops, the AAA declined to pay the tow, even tho he's been towed before.  Different area, around Chicago, and the supervisor said no way, we don't do buses.

I called my AAA office, got an official who said we would be covered.  I asked for an assurance, sent them a copy of the title showing "Motorhome" and pictures of the bus.  I now have a verified ok that they will always cover us as a motorhome, in our record, should we need to have it towed.

I would suggest you all might want to do the same.  I've heard comments about others saying just don't tell them it's a bus, and to me, that's a good way to get a surprise at the wrong time.

Yes we also have coach net, just in case.  3 weeks ago, i called because i locked a wheel bearing up on the van and needed towed in.  Coach Net said they could get a tow for us next morning???  AAA got us towed within 40 min.  i've since called coach net and asked why we are paying them and asked them to review and explain.  5 business days and still no answer.

[technomadia]

As a counterpoint - we just had a fabulous experience with Coach Net here in Montana.

They knew enough to send the only low-boy flatbed in the state to tow us, and they had no objection at all to towing us all the way to Billings (120+ miles) since that was the nearest two stroke shop. The wreckers spent the better part of a day with us, and they were fabulous.

We never even saw the bill - which I'm sure wasn't cheap.

Friends of ours with Good Sam RV coverage recently broke down, and Good Sam only covered the first three hours of their tow - and it took the wrecker longer than that to get them unstuck and hooked up.

A Prevost with another RV towing plan (forget which) got towed here while we've been here, and the plan made them pay cash upfront to the wrecker to eventually hopefully get partially reimbursed.

So at the moment, we are loving Coach Net - and couldn't imagine ever begin without it.

   - Chris

[challenger440]

I'm thinking of switching from aaa to coach net.  My renewal just arrived from aaa and with the premier package you get one 200 mile tow.  RV are NOT ELEGIBLE for the 200 mile tow.   Travel trailers are specifically covered.  Kinda looks to me like buses are not going to get towed.  So buyer beware.  John M.

[luvrbus]

AAA has always has had better response time on smaller vehicles IMO than Coachnet the AAA network setup has been in place for years Coachnet is the new kid on the block  

We dropped AAA after 35 years and only have Coachnet now because our daughter was on our AAA she used it when she would lock her keys in the car or run out of gas which was often.

I ask for a tow on the van a few years back and AAA said no the lockouts where charged as tows it's a wash AAA is better I think for smaller vehicles and Coachnet for buses and RV 

CoachNet does get touchy about service on a trailer if you don't have the right plan I found that out in Tucson

The guy in Lake Havasu that started Coachnet was a big time AAA operator and thought a service for bigger rigs was needed seems to have worked he since has sold Coachnet  

[harleyman_1000]

 Does it matter what state your in with CoachNet?

[belfert]

AAA is actually a number of regional organizations under a national brand.  I've read that some regions don't like to deal with RVs.

I have had issues with service at night.  I had an issue last year were I was stuck all night and didn't get service until morning.  I was told a particular tow company would be coming in the morning and when I called them directly in the morning for an ETA they said they had been contacted late evening, but were busy at the time and no arrangements had been made for service in the morning.  I suppose if I wasn't in a safe location off the highway I might have gotten faster service.  I had an issue another time late in the evening in a major metro area and was told I couldn't get tire help until morning, which was fine in that case.