Motorhome breakdown assistance

[Lynn]

Hi, would anyone happen to know if breakdown assistance both in UK and Europe is included on a base unit Renault master 2.5 DCi? The motorhome in question is a Lunar X-Star. I've looked at the Renault web site which suggests that all its vans have AA breakdown cover for 3 years - but only in the UK - I fear it will be expensive to add cover in the EU. If it is not included, I'll need to look elsewhere - any ideas? Thanks Lynn

[David Dwight]

Hi Lynn, We have Insurance cover with Safeguard. They provide Full european cover for breakdowns with the AA. This is included in the Insurance premium. It works as well, we had to use it a couple of years back and found them very good. Is your Renault still under warrenty? if so surely it should still be covered with the Renault/AA . David

[david lloyd]

Hi Lynn We too use Safeguard insurance with full UK and European breakdown cover. Have tried others with breakdown cover supplied by other means but the Safeguard one has always beaten them hands down on price and cover. I'm not sure about the Renault cover (am waiting to take delivery of a Renault M/H myself) but it is likely to be just UK if it is covered. Regards, david

[caradoc]

Is Safeguards AA assistance as good as, or even better than, the Green Flag Mayday product that the Caravan Club promote heavily for their motorhome members?? I went with Safeguard for insurance from the outset, but was just wondering if other breakdown products were better or more comprehensive. Hope we never have to test it, mind you! Laurie

[David Dwight]

The interesting thing is with all these breakdown organisatios they nearly all use the same recovery people. The caravan club uses green flag, why not go direct to green flag. I use green flag Citreon assist for my cars. They work out cheaper than CC may day. Why do people use CC recovery and red pennant. We get cheaper medical cover etc on our household insrance than with red pennant. David

[Copperknob]

We used to be members of the AA but they will not recover any vehicle over 18 ft in length. As our latest MH is 18' 2" long we changed to the CC's Mayday & also found it cheaper than the AA to have cover for three vehicles. Assistance is provided by Greenflag but , as I understand it, joining Greenflag direct will not provide cover for longer vehicles. Their service was put to the test when our daughter's throttle cable snapped on her car. They attended very promptly &, as it occurred in the evening, Greenmeadow, who recovered the car, took it to their compound for the night & then on to her chosen garage at the appointed time the next morning. Can find no fault with that. I believe Mayday can provide European cover on a short term basis ( no idea of cost) or for yearly cover it needs to be Red Pennant. Hope this helps.

[David Dwight]

Hi Copperknob, You say that the AA will not recover a vehicle over 18ft ours was over 21ft and that was recovered with lots of room to spare on the truck. If you take out your vehicle insurance with Safeguard you are automaticaly covered for recovery with the AA. But them Safeguard our specialist H/home insurers. David

[Yorkshire Tyke]

We have RAC Arrival through the Campining & caravanning Club No length, weight or height restrictions For oerseas we take out a personal & mototring with the Caravan club - This worked out at a lower cost than either the RAC or AA own DONT use Green Flag They let us down twice First time my starter battery was flat & the "?mechanic?" had to send for a garage to SHOW him how to jump start the van Second time was after some vandalism - we sent for the police (who took 30 mins to arrive after being on another RTA call) Green flag arrived after 1hr 30 min (police wewre still with us taking pictures) First he claimed to be within the hour Then he could not fit the spares that I normally carried - I had to fit them myself Got my £10 back and left for the AA

[Mel E]

We have a Renault Master LWB van conversion. The van was purchased new in the UK (over £2K cheaper than in France) and came with 3 years' full Euopean warranty, breakdown and recovery service. It covers only work by Renault and approved garages, as you would expect, but any other maintenance can be carried out also at Vauxhall, Opel and Nissan garages, as their versions of the Master are built on the same Lyons production line (Vauxhall/Opel Movano, Nissan Interstar) and, I believe, use exactly the same parts and engines (certainly so for Nissan).

[colin]

Have been with the RAC for 26years after having to change the headgasket on my dutton on side of road in cornwall. You get good one's and bad one's. One time was traveling back from cornwall in astra when lights started playing up, relised it was earth fault so went looking for garage, pulled up in garage surrounded by RAC breakdown trucks, went to front desk and was told it was RAC regeanal breakdown headquaters for south west of england but they could not do anything till I phoned up and they where given job number. Phoned up emergency line was asked where i was, said in your regeanal headquaters (okehamton?), what road is that? don't know i say, can you see anything so patrolman can find you? yes i'm parked in middle of about 20 RAC trucks. Anyway this went on for several minutes till operator says ' you seem to be near our regeanel headquaters' 1 hr 15 mins later mechanic comes to car, whats wrong? earth fault mate can you put a temp wire from rear light to body. 45 mins later he tells me its a earth fault and he will put in temp wire!

[Pat P]

We too are with the RAC through the Camping and Caravan Club. Though it seems you have a newish vehicle we chose them because they are the only ones who do not put an age restriction on the vehicle (ours is very old). In fact they cover the person not the vehicle. If you are a passenger in another car or MH they will assist you. Fortunately (touching wood) we have not had cause to test their efficiency. My daughter has called them out several times for her car and was very happy with the service. good luck Pat

[Keith T]

We insure our motorhome through Comfort which includes for a resaonable cost a pan Euro/UK breakdown cover, via RAC. For medical insurance we have an annual joint cover through Insure & Go which gives up to 90 days per trip and as many trips within Europe per annum as you want.Just renewed for another 12 months at cost of £80 for the year....so this gives us full personal cover , and far better if going for more than a short period, or more than 1 holiday per year than caravan Club policy. Also covers any holiday within Europe not just with teh Motorhome.

[Clive]

For many years since about 1972 we had used the AA travel insurance for various motorhomes and sometimes this was suspended for a year or three when we purchased a new vehicle which included an insurance package. However around 12 years back we had need to call on the AA while in Avignon when our converted bus had a problem. After 24 hours of telephone calls and no attendance by anybody I cobled together a temporary cure for the fuel air leak problem and we got her home with three stops to purge air out of the fuel system. Since then we changed to the RAC. I also sold the bus. But as you probably know even the RAC changed the terms of their cover to exclude heavy / long / old vehicles unless its booked via the Camping and Caravan club as "RAC Arrival". So far we have never needed to test the effectiveness of the cover. I remain even more sceptical of the recovery schemes offered by the smaller organisations for mechanical breakdowns. A comprehensive tool box and a thinking head remain the most speedy remedy for the majority of potential problems. Plus a big bowl of warm water, a can of Fairy liquid, an old towel and a change of clothes before one is allowed back into the van! If its major though (like a cam belt failure) then you will test the system and your wallet rather well. Keep taking the pills! C.