Date:         Thu, 3 Mar 2005 13:04:45 -0500
Reply-To:     Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
Subject:      Re: AAA road service, FYI
In-Reply-To:  <200503031749.j23Hn3C3000731@ceres.aros.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

To confirm what John said. This past December my wife, son and I were
driving from Massachusetts to Key West for a bit of a "road trip". We made
it as far as Jupiter, FL when the transmission locked us out of 1st, 2nd
and reverse. Fortunately it happened while we were getting off the FL
Turnpike to get some gas.

As we sat by the side of the road, an other Vanagon owner stopped to see if
he could help. Once I explained the problem, he gave me the name of a local
garage that worked on his Vanagon. We made arrangements for that garage to
work on my Westy, and then I called AAA. Told them were I was, where I
wanted to be towed to, and within an hour of the problem occurring, I was
being dropped off with the Westy at the garage. No questions asked...


Ric




At 12:36 PM 3/3/2005, Anonymous Digest wrote:
>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