AAA

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
I was a bit leary of that when I called them yesterday as the road was gravel, with a 4" layer of frozen snow. But I had nothing to lose. Nobody had been by in over an hour, both of the people I knew nearby were out of cell range, and I had already realized that I wasn't getting out on my own. I would prefer to have somebody winch me out anyways, vs someone who I don't know hooking onto me with a chain. Considering that the wrecker was dragged sideways while winching me, even though he was anchored; it was certainly better than someone trying to snap me out with a chain.

This is one reason why I try not to let my fuel tank drop below 1/2 full.

 

[jjeff]

Imo aaa RV premier is a good deal had them for about 13 yrs since I owned my old 1 ton dump truck not only did they tell me they'd tow the truck but the trailer I was towing with it which was an older 14k equipment trailer with my l2850 on it. Up to 200 miles. Being non commercial, and having worked for a towing company contracted to tow for AAA way before they started using ridiculous text messages before widespread smartphones heck I used to carry city map books in my roll back or wrecker lol Anyways
one medium duty 200 mile tow would pay for quite a few yrs of AAA coverage. Sold my dump truck a few yrs ago and never used AAA until recently, for a lockout. but today I have an RV, several trailers for equipment, boats, and snowmobiles so I'll keep it. As another poster mentioned my wife used her insurance roadside coverage a few yrs back and her premium went up.

 

[scootr]

We used to haul horses often and their RV deal guaranteed they would tow the truck and trailer full of horses home. My bosses wife ran out of gas regularly because they would bring her 5 gallons of gas. They eventually excluded the gas clause from his policy. lol

 

[Torvy]

Thought of another story. Was driving from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls in winter (always an adventure) and got to about St. James when the Highway Patrol pulls us over as the road was being closed. (Middle of a blizzard) We had to abandon the car and go with the officer into town. About 200 people were put up in the National Guard Armory for the night. My car, 1980 200SX, had been towed off of the highway. Since the wrecker was a AAA partner, it cost me nothing. Guy in same situation next to me had to pony up 50 or 75 dollars (big money in 1985) because he was not a member.

We got zero sleep because a bus load of middle school kids was stranded, too.

 

[jjeff]

I remember a pickup truck and trailer were in the ditch. got the call, had basic AAA coverage meaning technically I was only supposed to pull the truck out either pay extra to pull trailer or unhook it and leave it in the snow bank. he kind of resisted and starting giving me a hard time when I told him your trailer isn't covered
#1 it would have been more difficult to try and unhook his trailer in 2' of snow if he didn't want to pay to get trailer out
#2 it was a pretty simple easy pull to get him out.
Got truck and trailer out didn't charge him told him to upgrade AAA if he used a trailer a lot in winter. 20+ calls on a long shift during a snowstorm takes the will to argue out of you over 20 or so bucks.

 

[Cub 7275]

Wife and I both had AAA coverage. Then one day she had a flat tire while driving on a good wide gravel road on the outskirts of town. AAA refused to come out, stating their policy did not allow them to respond to anything off pavement. So we dropped AAA coverage. That was some years ago yet I'm still getting solicitations to join again. I'm not the only one whose has been refused service because the affected vehicle was not on pavement. Here's a screen shot of someone else complaining:

View attachment 781925

Interesting. I'll be checking on that no unpaved roads clause in the morning. I wonder if that clause differs by state or by AAA location. I could see a restriction for roads not open to public travel, but not a blanket restriction for all unpaved roads. There are tons of unpaved public roads around here and the road we live on is unpaved. AAA has towed my vehicles back to the house three times over the years with no mention of that restriction.

 

[Jstpssng]

Sold my dump truck a few yrs ago and never used AAA until recently, for a lockout.

I had one of those this summer also, but didn't want to go through the hassle of calling them. (plus my phone and wallet were probably in the cab.) I walked down to the nearby hardware store and asked "What do you have for burglar tools?"
I bought a piece of 3/16 inch steel rod, a tree felling wedge, and in a few minutes was back into my truck.

here are tons of unpaved public roads around here and the road we live on is unpaved

I drive a lot of private gravel roads, so was lucky I did this on a public way.

 

[jjeff]

Never heard of unpaved road clause?
Back in the day we only didn't take a call if you were off on a two track or worse and there was a good chance of the wrecker getting stuck.

 

[jjeff]

One final kind of humorous memory of AAA related towing. Casino parking garage on a Sunday morning. Had to get one of those newer fangled AWD crossover vehicles out with a wrecker. I had to block both lanes in parking garage. Owner of car was unhappy AAA sent a wrecker I assured him when I put it on tow dollies none of your wheels will be on the ground and my employer would be upset if I returned with a convertible roll back (due to low overhead) problem resolved there. Until one of the churches probably got out and the line of unruly elderly folks looking for parking grew. I only probably took 15-20 mins start to finish. The looks, middle fingers, horns blaring, and 4 letter words were startling to me anyway, I was starting to imagine a posse of little rascals coming up the ramp and I was going to be bludgeoned to death with cains and walkers. I've towed vehicles from some pretty bad areas in a metro area but that was the most upset I've seen that many folks at one time. Got a new respect for folks doing lower wage jobs dealing with people.

 

[WM75Guy]

Back in the 1970s I worked at my stepfather's gas station and garage. We were the local AAA provider. We were paid $3 for a service call and $7 for a basic wrecker call. Made our money off of extra services, new batteries, new tires, repairs, etc. I kept getting calls to go to DFW Airport to jump off a VW for an AA flight attendant. It would be dead when she came in from her flights. Said it was her security system to prevent it from being stolen. It cost us a $3 parking fee to enter the airport. We were finally able to convince AAA it was abuse of service.