| Author | Message | ||
| Justin Dortignac (3of14)
Rating: N/A |
Hello all, Thinking of subscribing to an Emergency Road Service but would like to get your opinions. How many road services will handle a bus? How many of you carry emergency road service? What service do you use? How much does it cost? Thanks, Justin | ||
| Tony & Kim Rian (Rianrts)
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We use AAA rv plus. The nice part is it tows you 100 miles any direction you choose. The problems you encounter are: availibility of tow trucks in the area that have the ablity to tow you. When we broke down in Gallup, NM, AAA was making all of the calls to find a tow truck big enough to tow us. I haven't had to use the flat tire service as of yet. I foresee there to be a possible problem because most Co's don't have the ablity to do big rig tires. So you have to call your own and hope that the club will reimburse you. | ||
| gillig-dan Rating: N/A |
Justin, Here is a previous thread on this... www.busnut.com/bbs/messages/11/7291.html Gillig-Dan | ||
| gillig-dan Rating: N/A |
Justin, Here is a previous thread on this... www.busnut.com/bbs/messages/11/7291.html Gillig-Dan | ||
| TWODOGS (Twodogs)
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I had AAA for nine years...called once & tow truck showed up 12 hours later (in winter) second call 6 months later..110 degrees...took them 4 hours to get 10 miles out of the yard..all groceries were destroyed...150 degrees inside)..they reimbersed me 10.00 for 60.00 worth of groceries..did not fix the flat,due to a friend that came by & helped...I canceled service..notified bank..no more automatic draw from them..they continue to TRY to debit my account..once they have your credit card number,they will draw the money wheather you want their service or not.... | ||
| Justin Dortignac (3of14)
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Thanks! I am considering Good Sams. Are ther any stories, good or bad, about them? | ||
| Al
Rating: N/A |
Been using Good Sam for a number of years...both car and coach. Had the coach towed twice (before I rebuilt engine and tranny) with no hassle. I highly recommend them. Al | ||
| Dan F Rating: N/A |
the best thing to do is put together a good kit of things that you might need if you break down, if its something like a a flat tire you can change that yourself on the side of the road i have a small on board air compressor and a lug gun if your flat is on either your steer or tag axle you can use your spare to change one out if its on the drive drive axle you can still change it as long as you have a spare drive tire, believe it or not you can sucessfully get a tire off and on a drive rim with out any heavy equipment. you must remember if you are going own a vehicle like a bus or large rv you must learn to work on it in case of emergency, sometimes you just cant count on anyone but yourself to get out of a bind. | ||
| Dan F Rating: N/A |
other good items to carry in your kit should be spare belts, filters,bulbs,starting fluid,throttle springs, coolant, and a good 5 gallon can of diesel fuel also you will need a hand priming pump to prime you fuel lines just in case you run out of fuel cause all it takes is a bad fuel sending unit to leave you high and dry. | ||
| Sean Welsh (Sean)
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We have Coach Net, through FMCA (though they also sell direct). We have had to use them three times and we are very happy with them. They have no problems with our heavy coach. We tell them how big we are, and they dispatch a roadside heavy truck repair, tire service truck, or a big-rig tow truck, as appropriate. AAA for RV's is only available in a couple of states. Most states, AAA will only cover cars. Even if it is available to you, you might find they don't really understand buses and don't have a lot of resources to dispatch for heavy vehicles. -Sean | ||
| Sean Welsh (Sean)
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Dan, After re-reading your recommendations, I have to add this: We don't carry a spare tire or wheel. We don't even carry a wrench or impact gun big enough to remove a wheel. We do carry plenty of water, food, a bed, a shower, and, of course, wine. We figure it doesn't matter how far away we are from the road service truck -- we can wait for them! -Sean | ||
| niles steckbauer (Niles500)
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After enough wine, some viagra and a little music you might not want them to show up too soon ....... but having a "big impact gun" can't be all bad ......... | ||
| Earl-8-Ky Rating: N/A |
By all means use the Road Service from FMCA. I have had to use it two times and the service was very good. I would not be without it. Works for me. | ||
| H3 (Ace)
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Wine? Isn't that a little weak, even for you? LOL | ||
| Rob King Rating: N/A |
Hi Justin We have used a company called ACA for 4 years. Have had very good service and results from them. Some things I like is this covers cars in the family, RVs and toads. We have actually used it more for getting cars to mechanics/ body shops more than RV but recently when I couldn't get my bus to start, they dispached a large tow truck to "jump start" it. They failed to get it jumped, so they then dispached a larger tow truck to tow it where I needed to get it. One other time in Jackson Mississippi they sent a large tow truck to tow us to a service center that was 60 miles away. It was closed when we got there so they then towed us to their tow center, paid the tow company to plug us into landline overnite and then tow us to the service center the next morning. No hassles. I like the range of coverage(RV and car) for unlimited vehicles and only $49.95 per year. Membership inquires at 1-800-411-2007. Good luck Rob | ||
| Dan F Rating: N/A |
Sean, thats the difference between boys and men, boys, sit back with the women and sip wine and let someone else wait on them, and men take responsabilty for for what they have built and do the work themselves and then go and have a beer. | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
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And keep a $100 dollar bill in a safe place for bribes. I recently stopped at an emergency truckstop to get a new tire as mine had a 8" bubble on the side. They screwed me around with outright lies for 8 hours and never got to me. Then I accidently dropped the 100 at the feet of the guy in charge and asked "how long now".. I was on the road in 35 minutes... For what it's worth, I always carry a bill now. G | ||
| John Jewett (Jayjay)
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After poor performance by AAA and Allstate I switched to Good Sam's (Affinity Roadcare and Travel) and I have nothing but praise. When called the dispatcher double checked on the vehicle size and weight, and they tow to a shop that takes the type vehicle you have. So Sam's Gas Station, at the corner of 2nd and Main isn't necessarily where you will end up. More than likely a truck stop with repair facilities. Due to fuel theft (and no guage) I ran out and had to have fuel delivered on I-10. Normally they bring 5 gals, but I told the dispatcher that the owners manual said that a minimum of 10 was required, so the tow operator showed up with 10 gal. and no extra charge for it. He even helped me get it primed and going again. I believe it is $89.00 per year, but watch magazines or RV shows for discounts. There are other services also available under this policy, and I recommend it highly. Cheers...JJ | ||
| TomNPat
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Good Sam. Yesssss!!!!!!!!! TomNPat | ||
| gillig-dan Rating: N/A |
While I agree it's important to carry a good selection of tools. I don't agree that it is 'most important'. The first thing you need is the stuff to keep you alive, like the wine and Viagra. Next is the roadside assistance insurance. Tools come after that. Unless you have a toad, the chances of being able to have the right part available on the side of the road is slim. The big tow trucks are big bucks. Plan to spend about $300 for the first mile if you need a tow. That would have paid about three years worth of RV and auto coverage. FWIW Gillig-Dan | ||
| ChuckMC9 (Chucks)
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I also have Coach-Net, even for the few miles I travel for monthly exercise runs. Came highly recommended, and I did lots of research. Coach-Net 900 N. Lake Havasu Ave Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403 800.863.6740 - toll free http://www.coach-net.com/ Somewhat cheaper if you do it thru an association like FMCA, which I did. CoachNet is the only service plan that requires RV Service Qualification of telephone personnel. There are Certified RV Techs who are on staff 24 hours a day. They've been the plan of choice for many RV/manufacturer clubs. | ||
| mel 4104 Rating: N/A |
i had BCAA which is part of theAAA system and the first time i used it 6 hours later and still now going ; to small of a tow truck' the second time when i blow a tire on I-5 in Stockton Cal at 10 in the morning after 4 calls to AAA the tire truck showed up at 6;30 pmand i asked how come so slow and he said the he got a call to change the tire on a truck at the local land fill and unload a shipment of tires. then i had to pay $100 up front as he said that the work was done on overtime. it the took 8 months to get my money back. and yes i use good sam now. | ||
| Chuck Newman (Chuck_newman)
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Forget Good Sam. Needed a two from them twice. Both times they sent the wrong truck, even though I told them exactly what I needed. The first time it took three trucks to get it right. All the tow operators told me they bring the truck Goober Sam tells them to bring. I'm talking to some kid in New Jersey while I'm broke down on the Ashland grade. This guy dosen't even know where Oregon is located. Then he wants to tow my rig to an impound lot instead of the local CAT dealer. The second time was a little better. Only had to go through two trucks to get it right. You pays your money and you takes your chances. I'm going to try FMCA service. Forget Good Sam. Also my mechanic shop/tow operator friend gave me a tip: He said "tell them you have a Greyhound bus. They will understand that". Chuck Newman Oroville, CA | ||
| gillig-dan Rating: N/A |
I have had good service from RV Roadhelp (Alstate). I've also heard some bad stories.... 'bout a $100 a year to cover the cars and RV (bus). I've used them about five times in as many years; no complaints yet. Gillig-Dan | ||
| Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj)
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Hey Sean...having adequate wine on board to fortify your spirits while waiting hours (days?) for a rescue is great. But what about the beer supply? Could one carry enough? Kinda begs the question of having a gen set that is independent of the main mill for cooling the interior of the coach while fortifing your spirits waiting days for a rescue.  | ||
| Sean Welsh (Sean)
Rating: N/A |
"...the question of having a gen set that is independent of the main mill..." I know, Henry, that you're being tongue-in-cheek, but we actually considered this. By which I mean we looked at the possibility, for example, of cooling the genny through the main engine radiator, or eliminating a separate starting battery for the genny. We decided against this principally so that, if a main engine failure stranded us someplace, we could still make electricity for however long it took to get help. We do carry many tools and spares to make common repairs ourselves, but we drew the line at carrying spare tires and wheels, 1" impact guns, and cribbing. We simply could not afford the space for such big items that are readily available virtually anywhere. Interestingly, I do carry a 1" drive 30mm socket, which is the size of my lug nuts, because many service trucks do not carry this size. When I change lug nuts to 33mm, a more common size, I can do away with this. -Sean | ||
| TWODOGS (Twodogs)
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I know we butt heads sean,,but how would you cool the gen. with the bus radiator if the bus radiator fan wasn't moveing...or...maybe I don't understand the theory... | ||
| Sean Welsh (Sean)
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2D, As I said, we chose not to do this, so it became a non-issue. (We did not want the possibility that a coolant leak, for example, could take out both our power sources at once.) That being said, if we had chosen to go that route, we would have installed an auxilliary electric fan to move air over part of the main radiator for cooling while the main engine was not running. Not a big deal, since we are using an electric fan to move air over the dedicated genny radiator anyway. We pulled the shaft-driven fan off the genny motor, and moved the radiator into a sound box for noise control. Great care must be taken, if going the combined route, to engineer the coolant flows correctly. Otherwise, it is possible for the water pumps on the two engines to be trying to work against each other when both are running at the same time. This is another reason we decided against combining them. There has been a great deal of discussion on this subject in the past -- you might search the archive for more information. -Sean | ||
| Richard Bowyer (Drivingmisslazy)
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My genny was plumbed into the top and the bottom of the main engine radiator. The two waterpumps never saw each other. They were completely independent. I had two 16 inch, 12 volt electric fans installed on the main radiator, thermostatically controlled at 190 degrees. These fans served two purposes. Helping cool the main radiator during mountain driving (and yes, they really helped) and they would also come on occasionally while boondocking and running the genset. Generally about five minutes every thirty minutes or so. It was a great system and I loved it. The hot water created by the genset while boondocking in cold weather provided enough heat the keep the bus warm. The Webasto was tied into the same system and it would supplement the genset heat if needed. One big cooling system and no problems during 15 years of use. I really suspect that many converters worry so much about any of the possible things that can potentially go wrong that they end up with so much redundancy that they never get finished. Richard Richard | ||
| Sean Welsh (Sean)
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Richard, 2D, et. al., Rather than continue this here, where it is OT, I have started another thread on the topic of sharing a radiator. I've posted a response there to Richard's comments. -Sean | ||
| TWODOGS (Twodogs)
Rating: N/A |
it musy be very lonely up there |