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hayesfamily

Ditched my Towing and Roadside Assistance

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Hate to take this thread off-course, but we are ALL dating ourselves.  Today's sailors only use GPS/chart plotters.

Yes, I have chart kits from the TX/Mexican border all the way to NY-- probably $1,500 worth. 

And, WAY back in the day, used to use vellum overlays and make plots every 2 hours on offshore passages.

Charts for TX to FL and the Bahamas still on the boat, but have not been opened on this trip in case of GPS/chart plotter/electrical failure-- chart plotters RULE!

Now, back to roadside assistance!

 

 

 

 

 

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Keon, when is the last time your MH was towed.

Last time for us was 40 miles and GS paid for it. I asked the driver what it would have cost me and he quoted, "About $750!"

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1 hour ago, wayne77590 said:

Keon, when is the last time your MH was towed.

Last time for us was 40 miles and GS paid for it. I asked the driver what it would have cost me and he quoted, "About $750!"

Never been towed. The one time I had a problem, I pulled over and fixed it. Hopped back on the road. 

 

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Wayne,

Was that in the old coach?  In your "new" coach or mine, due to weight and length, just any tow truck, will not do!  I'm covered for, up to 100 mile tow, for my coach, by State Farm, on my policy!  I asked if that was by Heavy Duty tow truck & can I have that in writing?  I got it. 

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That was my old MH, 40'er.

We were 22 miles from home, Alvin, TX, intersection of Hwy 6 and Tovrea Rd (Walmart entrance) and it was around 3:30 p.m.  That is about 1000 ft from Hwy 35 bypass. Can you think traffic that time of day?  Stop engine light came on and as soon as I noticed it the engine shut off.  I had the right lane blocked for about 1-1/2 hours. At that time tried starting it and it did start but the Stop Engine light came back on. I was just able to pull into that bank parking lot on the corner and park and it shut off again. Of course it was a Sunday.  Tow truck arrived next morning around 9 a.m.

Keon, I don't think you would trouble shoot a broken wire in the engine harness. The wire was the "low coolant" sensor but there was no way to know that with the indication "low coolant." The coolant was full. Cummins found it and repaired it otherwise it would have been 6 weeks before Winnebago could re-manufacture the engine harness. Then packaging and shipment time would add to that. I'm very satisfied with Cummins' service in Houston TX.

I'm extremely happy that I had GS Road Side Assistance.

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South Plains Cummings, off Loop 610 East Houston is great. :wub:

Wayne, I know that area well...you picked a fun time/place to park! :lol:  I lost my low coolant sensor in Ruidoso, NM and drove it to Dolores, CO., then to Perry, GA., I disconnected it in CO.  REV sent a new one and I connected it in Perry....there's a Post on it here, between me and Brett mostly! :P 

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Yep, I knew you would recognize it.  I had an off duty firefighter helping me as much as he could and a patrol car came up behind me and turned the lights on so people could detour around me.  Earlene sent a nice letter to the PD/FD thanking them for the great help they were and how nice they were.

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On ‎2‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 5:25 PM, HAYESFAMILY said:

Never been towed. The one time I had a problem, I pulled over and fixed it. Hopped back on the road. 

I broke down in a busy intersection, I was at the back door about to open the door and look for the problem, Police pulled up behind me with blue light on, ordered me to get into the coach, he couldn't take a chance on me getting hit, (he was directly behind the back door of the coach) I told him that it only take a few minutes to get going again, his words were, I told you to get into the coach and I mean now, he called a wrecker for me and the driver was there in about 30 minutes. Wrecker towed me to nearest truck stop, two miles and dropped me off. I had to pay the dude cash money $578.00. I then opened the back door found broken wire to the fuel solenoid, spliced it back together and was back on the road in fifteen minutes. I then called AAA and told what had happened, they sent me a reimbursement form, 12 days later I received a check for the entire wrecker bill. My insurance carrier was also informed, maximum with them $50.00, they then upped that to their maximum $200.00. I want be without RA, it has saved me several times and paid much more than I paid them so far. Hope you never block a busy intersection. Incidentily, I called the police chief of that town to complain about the officer, his reply, he did in exactly as instructed by the laws of the state.

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7 minutes ago, manholt said:

Kay.

What State?  I'll try to go around it...

:lol:, that response is priceless..wait.. “THAT AINT RIGHT” :lol::ph34r:

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11 hours ago, manholt said:

What State?  I'll try to go around it...

It was in Dothan Alabama, police are not the same everywhere here, but I think it is at the officers discretion, I've seen others doing the same thing in many places that I was doing but there is always that one officer in many places. Most are very helpful thank goodness.

 

21 minutes ago, jleamont said:

Kay, what does that cost per year

Joe, $109.00 for the gold plan is what I pay.

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Whether or not a LEO takes over and arranges a tow for you is very dependent on the situation. When we had our collision in Iowa, our coach wasn't blocking the state highway, but the wrecker would when it did the recovery. I was going to try and arrange a tow through my policy, but in the end I accepted the officer's offer to find someone local. It was the best idea really - we were in a small town far from anywhere, and he knew which wrecker services had the equipment needed to pull our coach from the ditch and to his tow yard. The insurance company's 800-number operator was still asking me stupid questions when the wrecker called by the trooper arrived. Took them about an hour to recover and load up our coach - had to pull axles, drag out of the ditch, and then properly lift the front of the coach. Insurance company ended up eating the cost in the final settlement.

All that said, we still have tow coverage from our insurance company. God willing, we won't need to use it and if we do the next time we need to use it the reason will be far more benign.

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Oh well, going to Perry...it would be a PIA to circumvent AL! :o  We'll be leaving from Galveston, TX. and take I-10 to I-75 ! 

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I have only had to be towed 1 time. However we were fortunate enough to be home at the time. Coachnet, who we had at that time, (different story), was very helpful and got a very good wrecker that did a great job.

The tow cost 5 times as l had in total premiums. 

Herman 

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In a previous post hermanmullins mentioned the $69 annual fee for roadside service. That is a great price. However, I am very disappointed with the service I am receiving today through the FMCA Roadside Assistance service and received about a year ago with a flat tire. So maybe the low cost means poor service??  I hope there is someone to speak with about my experiences at Peachy in Perry. 

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HealthyGranddad.  Welcome to the Forum! :)

Call FMCA Customer Service and ask for Don!  Also, FMCA RA service rep will be in Perry.

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I just checked my Hartford RV insurance policy, and it does include roadside assistance coverage included in the premium.  So I'm cancelling my redundant Goodsam Platinum Complete roadside assistance policy, and thus saving ourselves more than a couple of hundred bucks each year. 

I also carry a spare tire with us in the basement.  It is not on a rim, so I would have the roadside assistance guy change it using tire irons.  (That's how they did it in the tire shop when I bought new tires, as the machines don't handle the big 22.5" rims nor the big 265/75R22.5 truck tires used on the big class A diesel pushers like ours.)

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lonnemays,

Welcome to the FMCA Forum.

Suggest strongly that you get a copy of the actual roadside assistance part of your insurance policy.  Many have some "fine print" that leaves you out in the cold/or side of the road as the case may be.

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In the initial post, the OP said it cost $150 a year.  I bought a three year contract from GS for less than that.  I've needed them twice, once was  a RF blow out...they brought a new tire and changed it; the other was last January where, when following the directions given us by the CG, we got stuck...they pulled us out.  I'm well ahead....financially.

 

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