Which RV Insurance and Roadside Assistance Is Best for Full-Time RV Living

Posted in Full Time RV Living, Our Forest River Wildwood, Reviews on July 27, 2017 Last Updated on February 9, 2022

We see it asked pretty often – which RV insurance is best and which RV roadside assistance should you get?

When we did our research, we looked for the insurance companies that had “full timer packages”, and insured RVs for full time travel. Of those, it seemed to come down to Good Sam/National General and Progressive. For our RV roadside assistance package, Progressive, Good Sam, and Coachnet were the big players to try.

While many people may love their insurance company, the real test comes down to having to file a claim and that’s where we can pick our winners. Here’s our claims experiences, with two similar issues.

Progressive

One day while giving the RV a checking over, we noticed a soft spot on the edge of our roof, cased by a tiny slit in the rubber.

We called Progressive, who had a adjuster out to us in less than 24 hours. That adjuster took lots of photos of our RV, spent some time on the phone, told us ‘you can’t even patch that, it’s too close to the edge, and a patch will not hold up’, and wrote us a check on the spot for a full rubber roof replacement. It was a super easy process, and our full timer package covered a motel/hotel stay and meals while our RV was in the shop overnight.

Progressive’s roadside assistance, however, is outsourced to another company and Progressive’s roadside left us stranded for three days on the side of the road. That was not fun, made us pretty angry, and we decided to switch to Good Sam/National General.

Good Sam/National General

While in California, we were leaving a day at the beach, pulled out of the street parking, and heard a terrible cracking and popping sound. Upon investigation, we saw there was a branch we didn’t notice that lined up with the edge of the parking spot, and it single handedly destroyed our awning and made several punctures in our roof membrane.

We called National General, who directed us to a website, where we would have to take our own pictures and upload them. No adjuster was sent out.

National General agreed to pay for a new awning, then stated that our roof would be repaired “as good as new” by having a patch placed on it. No matter how much we disagreed that a patch was not pre-accident condition, and that a patch would not hold up to our full time useage like a replacement roof would, they still insisted that a patch was all we needed and all they had to cover.

We had the awning repaired, to make our camper road worthy again, and made our way back to Florida, where we would arrange to have our roof evaluated. Our National General rep proved to be often hard to communicate with, receiving no response for long periods of time. Finally, with a shop working with us, National General agreed to cover the roof replacement.

We’ve since switched back to Progressive for our insurance.

What About All The Rest?

We’ve looked in to several of the other larger insurance carriers and, while several are recommended in the Facebook RV groups, they do not cover full timers. No matter who you choose for your RV insurance, make sure they know you will be full time, and have full time coverage. Basic auto insurance and basic RV insurance will not cover everything you will need as a full timer.

What About Roadside Assistance?

While we feel having Progressive insurance is our best bet, as we said, their roadside left us stranded for three days.

When we switched to Good Sam/National General for insurance, we also decided to give Good Sam’s Roadside Assistance a try. We had a minor issue or two with them but, from what we have seen, most people are happy with their service, which is very reasonably priced. In the end, although it’s a little more pricey, we tried and stayed with Coachnet, who has been great. Several of their services are unlimited – which is something that at the time is/was lacking with both Good Sam and Progressive’s roadside services. Their customer service is great, and the providers they have sent out to help us seem to have been far superior to that of Progressive and Good Sam’s solutions.

There you have it. In our experience, the best combination is Progressive Insurance with Coachnet Roadside. Have you had different experiences? Let us know in the comments!