Emergency Road Service Membership Buys Peace of Mind and Saves Towing Expense

Emergency road service - some say never go RVing without it, while others say it is a waste of money. Can you change your RV tires? Can you do minor RV repairs? What does a tow cost?



Quite honestly, every time our roadside assistance policy comes up for renewal I wonder if it is worth it. In twenty or so years of RVing, much of it full-time RVing, we've used our ERS twice.

Bob keeps our vehicles well maintained, so we seldom have breakdowns. He can do minor repairs, even when parked along the edge of the highway. When we have a flat or blow a tire, he changes it. We've never run out of gas. We've never locked ourselves out and needed the ERS folks to let us back into our vehicle. So, it bothers me to pay an for an emergency road service membership.

The one service we've used is the towing. Once, we were down south, I think in New Mexico. The other time was in Alaska. We know that if we had not had the coverage that it would have cost us a lot to have our truck and travel trailer towed.

We have Good Sam Emergency Road Service, through the Good Sam Club. We've also had the Camping World ERS. I think at one time, we had the one offered through Coast to Coast. All of those roadside assistance programs are run by the Affinity Road & Travel Club, Inc. I don't think there is much, if any difference from one to the other. They are all designed for RVers and cover recreational vehicles.

Now, if you look outside those, you will find differences. Some have limits as to how far they will tow your vehicle without charging you for extra mileage. When I was checking on them, it seems there was one that limited it to 12 miles, obviously not far enough to do much good for the kind of RV traveling that we do. Some of the roadside assistance programs don't cover RVs at all.

Some automobile insurance policies do include roadside assistance. This may work if you have everything insured with one company. However, if you have your truck insured with one company and your trailer or fifth-wheel covered by another, your truck insurance provider may cover to tow your truck to a repair facility, but not your trailer. Likewise, if you have a motorhome and pull a toad, boat, or utility trailer behind it, they may only tow the motorhome.Even with the programs designed for RVers, they have different levels of coverage. They may include all vehicles the member owns -- except that they only cover one recreational vehicle. Good Sam's Platinum service covers more than one RV.

The bigger your RV and the less capable you are, the more important it is to have an ERS membership. If you can change the tire on your RV, that's one thing -- but if you don't know how, aren't physically able, or if you have a large motorhome, then roadside assistance is more important.



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