Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I'm researching vehicle breakdown recovery options. At the moment it seems RACV Total Care at $160pa is about the only option with respect to free towing if more than 100klms from home.

What does everyone have?

Mates. I hope .

No doubt grimbo will chime in with his total care story.

Total care is the way to go, I've always had it on all my modified cars & 4b's

Total care is the way to go. Don't even bother with extra care, i had this for a while thinking that it would suffice, but when it came time to rely on it, i was better off hiring a trailer and towing the car myself.
BTW, I've learnt that its always worthwhile putting a decent book or something to kill the time if you have to wait for the RACV.

Once at Toolangi i called them and said i needed a flat bed truck to get my car (busted front end). Two hours later they send someone out in a ute who goes "yeah, you need a flatbed truck". Two hours after that, a truck finally arrives. I was not happy!

TuffRR wrote:Total care is the way to go. Don't even bother with extra care, i had this for a while thinking that it would suffice, but when it came time to rely on it, i was better off hiring a trailer and towing the car myself.
BTW, I've learnt that its always worthwhile putting a decent book or something to kill the time if you have to wait for the RACV.

Once at Toolangi i called them and said i needed a flat bed truck to get my car (busted front end). Two hours later they send someone out in a ute who goes "yeah, you need a flatbed truck". Two hours after that, a truck finally arrives. I was not happy!

bugger. that would annoy me too. when i busted my rear end i waited nearly 3 hours for someone to get a trailer to put my car onto. in the end it didnt cost anything for the trailer as the trailer stuffed up. (just after taking my car off it )

Our story -

We blew up the clutch bearing about 150kms out of broken hill. RACV gavce us the option of a tow truck but that was at least 4 hrs off, so we decided to drive back to Broken hill. We key started the car in 3rd gear and then jammed to 5th all the way back to the land rover dealer in Broken hill.

We arranged parts to be freighted form melbourne and RACV arranged acccomodation for the 4 people fp about 4 days (of which we did not pay a cent!)

Highly recommed it. We got our moneys worth - and are still using total care.

Dave.

TuffRR wrote:Once at Toolangi i called them and said i needed a flat bed truck to get my car (busted front end). Two hours later they send someone out in a ute who goes "yeah, you need a flatbed truck". Two hours after that, a truck finally arrives. I was not happy!

Was this on a made road or a 4wd track

Cheers Dazz

It was on Rocky track, got the front a little airborn trying to get over the steps in the tricky section (it was tricky back then with 33's). Just got it back to the highway at the bottom of the track, nice and convenient (although the chick on the phone still had NFI where i was).

TuffRR said it. Anything less than Total care is useless when you need a tow. When I blew the rear diff and front axle up in Mansfield, they wouldn't tow it back to Melbourne, as I'd already got it to their depot, which is all that the basic and extra care provide which i had at the time. $400 later and the car was home!

I've had at least 7 tows with total care, even from home to mechanics, all free! Well sorta, $160 a year...

Davidh wrote:TuffRR said it. Anything less than Total care is useless when you need a tow. When I blew the rear diff and front axle up in Mansfield, they wouldn't tow it back to Melbourne, as I'd already got it to their depot, which is all that the basic and extra care provide which i had at the time. $400 later and the car was home!

I've had at least 7 tows with total care, even from home to mechanics, all free! Well sorta, $160 a year...

still very worthwhile.

Davidh wrote:TuffRR said it. Anything less than Total care is useless when you need a tow. When I blew the rear diff and front axle up in Mansfield, they wouldn't tow it back to Melbourne, as I'd already got it to their depot, which is all that the basic and extra care provide which i had at the time. $400 later and the car was home!

I've had at least 7 tows with total care, even from home to mechanics, all free! Well sorta, $160 a year...

Hey dude, were you driving down Nepean Hwy yesterday afternoon towards Mordialloc?

Davidh wrote:TuffRR said it. Anything less than Total care is useless when you need a tow.

Agree.

Bloke in club blew up his gearbox in GQ on the easter long weekend... He called them, next morning the tray top was at the club property about 1hr+ from heyfield on dirt roads near bulldog junction, down the hill into club property, and loaded up... took him back to Mt Martha to his house. Thats what you want.

But they had 4(yes 4) flat tyres on the way home on the towy...

Hey dude, were you driving down Nepean Hwy yesterday afternoon towards Mordialloc?

Sure was, I guess that was you in the black mav next to me then turning off to the right?

total care rocks. i think I have had the Zuk on the back of a tow truck about 12 times now. had the t/case fall out near Horsham on the way back from the Flinders ranges. travelling with a group of people. Any way the RACV guy got it back to Horsham rang it thru to RACV to organise accomodation for me. "Yeah got a busted Zuk eith Total care. 7 People in the car so we need rooms for them and meal vouchers"

Also been towed from jamieson to Kinglake, and Kinglake to Sth melb and carrum to Rowville, and carrum to Sth melb etc

Davidh wrote:

Hey dude, were you driving down Nepean Hwy yesterday afternoon towards Mordialloc?

Sure was, I guess that was you in the black mav next to me then turning off to the right?

How did you guess?

grimbo wrote:total care rocks. i think I have had the Zuk on the back of a tow truck about 12 times now.

Tells you something about your truck dont it..

Yeah, another vote for Total Care, the heaps been towed once, and is about to be towed again (front brake's locked up). The RACV guy came out yesterday, said "we don't touch brakes" but you're with Total Care, just get it towed whereever you want, and ring the RACV and they'll sort out the cab fare for you when its ready to be picked up.

For me $160 is nothing for the peace of mind I get knowing I can be in the middle of nowhere and I'll still always be able to get home without it costing me a cent.

ok ok ok I hear you all

Just signed up with Total Care. I hope I don't need to use it.

bogged wrote:

grimbo wrote:total care rocks. i think I have had the Zuk on the back of a tow truck about 12 times now.

Tells you something about your truck dont it..

cheaper to get Total care than fix the Zuk

blkmav wrote:ok ok ok I hear you all

Just signed up with Total Care. I hope I don't need to use it.

what bullshit did you go thru to sign up? Cost? etc

bogged wrote:what bullshit did you go thru to sign up? Cost? etc

Joined online - $199 total inc joining fee

https://motoring.racv.com.au/racvm/peacemind/membership_form.cfm

my brother also got it a few years back at the start of June (it used to be a financial year thing so you only paid for a component of the year) So he paid $19. Drove the Zook from melb to cairns and then was heading up to the cape. About 600km out of cairns snapped the rear diff housing. Flatbed truck came out picked him and the Zook up and then back to cairns. Paid four days of accom and a hire car whilst it was getting repaired. He then relaised he wasn't going to be able to catch up with the rest of the group so they helped get him a really good price on a flight to Bamaga to meet everyone else. they then took care of storing the car until he got back three weeks later. best $19 he ever spent

Everyone probably allready knows but it was news to me,,,,
Total care covers the nominated 'person' and 'car' on the account.
So if you borrow 'Johnos' 4b from down the road and it breaks down on ya the 'RA' will come out tell you to take the datto badges off and all will be good ....
So with mine the missus car is nominated but i am the policy holder, that
means that both of us get covered for the one fee. Now i didnt think this up the sheila at the RA told me to do it this way as it's cheaper than getting 2 extra care policies//Thumbs up RA

hmm cheap holiday

do you have to have insurance with RACV for it

bogged wrote:do you have to have insurance with RACV for it

No

yep ill put in another vote for total car , and nothing less

ive had it for the last 5 years and ive always had heapas , so ive used it regularly.

latest one was.

i was up at toolangi and the rings went , meaning the car still ran but blew more smoke than a steam train , so i limped it out to the local servo , called racv, got the car towed back to their depot , then home a couple of days later.
only fight i had was about the cab because i had 3 passengers , racv were only going to give me 2 x cabcharge vouchers (about $55 worth each) i had to argue with them for a while but in the end i got an agreement that they would reimburse me of any extra costs for the cab , because they couldnt get a hire car at 7:00 on a sunday night for an under 25 driver.

just make sure youve got a full battery in your phone , because you can expect to be on the phone for over 45 mins if its busy.

very well worth the money , one short tow will cost you the same as their yearly fee , and you get unlimited tows with them.

Does the NRMA or any other organisation have this setup?

My "Total Care" story:

Drove my truck up to Canberra for the Summernats, with my brother and his Group A. He has Total care, which covers the policy holder, not the car. He blew a head gasket up there, so it was towed to a nearby workshop. according to the policy, if it takes more than 3 days, he gets it towed home. It went in on a friday, so was not going to be ready sunday. They got it towed home, and he got a lift with us in my truck. The F150 shat a rear wheel bearing in kynton, so he rang them back up, and as the policy covers him, and anything he is in, it was towed home, with all of us.


My other story:

My father in law moved to Bundaburg, from Melbourne. He had to get 2 cars there, but could only drive 1. He signed up, with his new address in QLD, hooked up a trailer (that was overloaded) in Melbourne, unplugged the fuel pump, and rang them, saying that he needed to get it home. It arrived at his place before he did!!