Date:         Thu, 3 Mar 2005 10:36:36 -0700
Reply-To:     jbrush@AROS.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Anonymous Digest <jbrush@AROS.NET>
Subject:      AAA road service, FYI

Hi all,

A few months ago, we heard from a bus owner who had difficulties getting
her bus towed to the place where she wanted it to go, as the tow truck
driver said he could only take it to a residence or a service garage. The
details are not relevant, other than her report and experience motivated
me to contact AAA and get some straight answers.

For those who already knew this for certain, its redundant, but I, like
many others, just assumed and had no positive knowledge of the coverage
details.

I  wrote to the main CSAA office, which is the AAA club in the southwest,
and asked about options as to where I could be towed. The scenario was
being on the side of a freeway, stressed out, and being forced to have the
van taken to a strange garage that I know could not fix my vanagon, thus
wasting a tow, and a lot of time.

The answer I finally got (a whole nuther story there) was that I can have
the van towed to a campground, to a hotel, a shopping center parking lot
or gas station (permission assumed) or any other place of my choosing. I
always thought that was so, but the posted report inferred that the tow
truck driver told the bus owner that he could only drop the bus at a
repair shop, or a residence, severely limiting the options.

The exact details of that bus owner's experience may not matter much, but
it did make me go and get an answer, as well as a name and number to call,
that satisfied me  as to my options. He did a good job of assuring me that
it was the same policy throughout the US, for all AAA clubs. If anyone is
not sure, he recommended a letter or a phone call to the local office.

He also voluntarily verified the fact that AAA will tow you 100 miles, and
you can be dropped off pretty much anywhere, and request another 100 mile
tow, up to your limit. CSAA+ RV is four tows a year, so that is a good
deal, assuming everything goes well.

Just wanted to pass that along, as it has come up before, and this is what
I learned. I can imagine a situation where we might want to be towed to a
campground or hotel to repair it ourselves, or maybe just solicit help
from the list as to where we ought to have the van taken for repairs, so
its just information you can keep, or ignore :-)

Hope we never need it, but I guess you never know.

John