Thread: RACV TOTAL (UN)CARE - BE AWARE!

Here's one for the books...

I'd been a member of the RAA for decades and had their premium level cover.

D1 had a massive failure and needed recovery - they wouldn't listen, flat trucked it to Bangor Garage and then offered to accomodate me and my son until repaired (policy states if over 4 days to repair its recovery to home).
When pointed out it would take longer and cost was prohibitive to repair in time frame they rejected assisting.

Cost me $3k to keep the truck driving the remaining distance to Adelaide.

Then there was Tombies adventure back in 2009 ish... where the D2 hit the Roo and suffered cooling system failure shortly after..

Seems the policy specifies height/length/weight of vehicles to be recovered.. the D2 exceeded all 3...

So $2800 later it was towed to Adelaide (not Whyalla as that was going to be another $1500)...

Needless to say, my membership was cancelled immediately.

Originally Posted by alien

I suspect it comes down to local knowledge of the service provider.
In my case the tow operater got my number from RACV and after explaining where I was be said I won't enter the track but will come to the main dirt road intersection.
We towed it out with a Falcon for the 300mtr so the tow truck could grab it

You did well. We were camped at King River hut early last year - the Mansfield side of the river & a mate broke off his ignition key in his 80 series Toyota. We had a satphone & called RACV (Total care) & they knew exactly where we were & refused to despatch a tow truck as we "were not accessible by 2WD". They wanted to send a truck @ an hourly rate - I think $100? per hour from Mansfield, only if we could tow it to the ring road. Bit hard with the steering locked...
Fortunately my mate was sufficiently ****ed off to work well into the night to drop the dash, butcher the ignition & fire it up with hotwiring..

One of my sons friends got 2 punctures. It was a result of trying to avoid hitting another car and he hit the gutter and did both tyres.
Cars only have one spare. He called the RACV, they sent their road side assist. The operator changed one tyre, and left him.
When asked for a tow they refused, they told him to claim it on his insurance.
So 1 puncture seems to be covered by road side assist, but 2 is not.
In this case it was an accident, he tried to avoid a collision and had "an Accident" technically, so an insurance claim.
But what if he had been driving and there was some nails on the road and it punctured his tyres what happens then?

Most single punctures are cause by a foreign object piercing the tyre, but what about it happening to 2?

Originally Posted by Tombie

On a map?

I believe it is on the map, and off a track off of Sardine Creek Road. Can't remember the name of the track we were on though,, even though I had to move the sign post which had fallen over.

Even with all the limitations, we discovered that Total Care is still good value. On our last lap we received full service with 2 breakdowns. This included towing ( both times happened to be less than 100 km from towns ), 2 days car hire and 3 nights accommodation. Didn't pay a cent for any of this. Was just luck we didn't need service in some quite remote locations though!

Originally Posted by Roverlord off road spares

One of my sons friends got 2 punctures. It was a result of trying to avoid hitting another car and he hit the gutter and did both tyres.
Cars only have one spare. He called the RACV, they sent their road side assist. The operator changed one tyre, and left him.
When asked for a tow they refused, they told him to claim it on his insurance.
So 1 puncture seems to be covered by road side assist, but 2 is not.
In this case it was an accident, he tried to avoid a collision and had "an Accident" technically, so an insurance claim.
But what if he had been driving and there was some nails on the road and it punctured his tyres what happens then?

Most single punctures are cause by a foreign object piercing the tyre, but what about it happening to 2?

Sadly, mechanics nowadays generally have zero abilities outside of "parts exchange" situations. If he had two spares they would probably change them, but unless they've got the parts, no go.
Would be a timely hint for someone to teach the young man how to change a tyre. My dear old Dad wouldn't let me learn to drive until I could check oil and water, and change a tyre. Plus, being back in the dark ages (thanks Mr Lucas) change a fuse.

I have to heap praise on the NRMA. In July my T4 VW Van suffered catastrophic engine failure.. broken valve stem and the motor was irreparable. I had taken out their premium care policy. Not only did they pick up all costs in getting my wife and me back to Sydney, they had the vehicle flat trayed down from Qld. Admittedly the vehicle broke down on the Bruce highway Sunshine coast. One phone call was all I needed to make and they organised everything. Thank you NRMA.

I reckon it's simply a matter of assessing the service and the terms and conditions, and deciding whether it suits you.

If that means 2WD accessible only and you're offroad, perhaps it's still worthwhile - you find alternative methods to get it back to the 2WD road, then give them a call?