AAA changed their Towing Policy on “conversion Vans”!!!

[ucsundog]

Heads up for those who have Triple AAA towing service…,I found out the hard way earlier today when I requested a Tow for my Van and found out that they no longer provide Towing services for any “conversion vans” as apart of their new policy change since Jan 2021.


I really like Triple AAA and had used the towing services a couple of times already but now it’s useless since this was the reason I signed up.


Anyone know of any other company that can provide a similar towing insurance?

[86Scotty]

Whoa, thanks for sharing that! I have been with them for years for one reason, van trips.

[Twoxentrix]

Well that's a deal breaker for me as well, am definitely going to reach out to AAA.
Pretty sure I have towing with my Insurance carrier, but will have to confirm the details of that policy now.
Thanks for the heads up!

[Lilnuts2]

AAA does have an RV upgrade membership that costs hardly anything more then the standard auto membership. A few years ago we had our diesel pusher towed 40 miles and they covered it. I don't know the cost of the RV upgrade, but you might look into it.

[gcvt]

^ Yep. For motorcycles and RVs you have to go with Premiere...

[Wowbagger]

My insurance for the van (Foremost) comes with a similar towing option to AAA. I do think it's BS that AAA treats my van differently from my car, when my car is actually harder to tow being rear wheel drive.

[ShuttlePilot]

Interesting! My emotional response is, here we go again with #VanLife ruining everything. I know that isn't necessarily what's happening here and I will need to look into this to avoid my contempt before prior investigation response.

However this is yet again a discussion where we, in our house, will need to make on the insurance, membership, prepaid service VS just pay for the service when needed. Over the last 6-8 years it seems as businesses are moving towards this membership, insurance, prepaid arrangement I have come to the conclusion that it is vastly cheaper to just pay for the service when needed, even if that service is expensive at the time. This isn't a case where AAA has changed business modle as it is increased cost/reduction of services, AKA shrinkflation. I have dropped a lot of "stuff" that I used to gladly pay for recently. Example below, assume, the RV rider on the premium membership will allow for the SMB, including Mrs ShuttlePilot and our daughter that's north of 300$ per year according to AAA of Colorado. I could buy a 900$ tow every three years and break even. Cutting out the middle man. This also assumes I'm not using any of AAA's other services, which we have at times, but I could have easily received those services elsewhere. It's a discussion that keeps coming up as time goes by in our house.

Family and friends of mine that have used AAA over the last few years for full size pickups pulling toy trailers( XbX's, snow mobiles, motorcycles) and RVs have mentioned that it depends on who the AAA dispatcher is, what state your in, who the tow company is, where your trying to get towed to, that makes or breaks weather it will be easy or an all out fight to get towed.

Here is the screen shot of the prices from this morning when I logged into AAA Colorado. At this price point for RV coverage for a 4x4 SMB and it's possibly a fight over the phone on the side of the road, it is probably time to move to a different method. We'll see how this progresses after some phone calls on Monday.

- Eric

[TheLetterJ]

I went through this nearly 20 years ago when I needed a tow for my Dodge 3500 quad cab with a dead transmission. Tow truck showed up and said "Nope!" Turns out, they considered anything that was too big for their 1 ton with a hook on the back meant "RV" to them. I waited a couple more hours on the side of the road for the big flatbed and updated my policy to include RV/motorcycle the next day. Once AAA started handling OHV registration (we have 8 motorcycles and a few trailers) the additional cost was easy for me to justify just for use of DMV services.

[gcvt]

Originally Posted by TheLetterJ

I went through this nearly 20 years ago when I needed a tow for my Dodge 3500 quad cab with a dead transmission. Tow truck showed up and said "Nope!" Turns out, they considered anything that was too big for their 1 ton with a hook on the back meant "RV" to them. I waited a couple more hours on the side of the road for the big flatbed and updated my policy to include RV/motorcycle the next day. Once AAA started handling OHV registration (we have 8 motorcycles and a few trailers) the additional cost was easy for me to justify just for use of DMV services.

When my starter went out, even with Premiere and me telling them how much the van weighed, they still sent the wrong tow rig. Driver had to call in for a bigger rig to come get me. Didn't have to wait all that long but still annoying.

[ucsundog]

Hey Guys,


So i spent about 30 minutes discussing/arguing with another supervisor in Roadside-assistance on what is the clear definition of a “RV conversion”, and there seem’s to be a mis-understanding or to the very least a need for clarification on what they mean by the following statements on their Terms and Policy page…. Take note of the last sentence below in their Terms/conditions below…

“ Vehicle Eligibility for All Emergency Road Services

Commercial vehicles are not eligible for AAA Emergency Road Service including, but not limited to the following:

Vehicles registered to a partnership, corporation, company, commercial entity, or used for commercial purposes
Taxicabs, limousines, shuttles and vehicles used for fee-based car or ride sharing (excluding passenger vehicles being rented by a Member for the Member’s personal use) and other vehicles for hire
Box trucks, box vans, cube vans, van or truck cutaway
Commercially configured vehicles, flatbeds, landscaping vehicles, school buses (including RV conversions)”


Take Note of the words “(INCLUDING RV CONVERSIONS)”. It seems like the Supervisor and the tow dispatcher like in my case are making a judgement call as to what is an “RV conversion”, and hence making a mistake and denying my tow. Also, the sentence states “school buses(Including RV conversions)”, where the words in the parenthesis are just clarifying what kinds of school buses are NOT included, which in this case are the types that have been converted into an RV. The sentence DID NOT state, “school buses, RV conversions”.

In any case, I filed a complaint and the supervisor did also say that I can pay for the tow at my expense and then request for a review for re-imbursement, which is BS!