I believe the Dalton highway goes just a bit further north than the Dempster for North American roads. And Nordkapp in Norway goes a bit more than that side of the world. This is frustrating to be stuck there for so long. Was trying to fix the tire yourself not even a possibility? Even if you just swap the donut on and drive out to find something? With Starlink, there isn't anything you can't learn how to do! I get the point of putting Good Sam on the spot to live up to their promises but at some point, taking it into your own hands could be the best option. We've been on the road a long time and away from native English speakers, calling someone has been the last option when we are in situations like this. But I am glad you guys are safe.
What a frustrating experience, but thank you for capturing and sharing! I’m sure you’ve done ample research by now, but it only took me a few minutes to find the “maximum $1,500 per disablement event” language in the Good Sam member benefit brochure. That said, 100% agree with you that the primary sources of frustration here were 1) the overzealous sales tactics (aka, outright fabrications) to get you to subscribe, and 2) the really poor communication throughout your incident.
Thanks for posting this. I had a similar response from Good(Bad) Sam where we were close to town without any support from Bad Sam. I'm glad you are showing how horrible their service is in the middle of nowhere, as it was just as bad for me when I was close to a service facility.
Sorry to hear that and thanks for sharing. I hope this video helps to inform others that are considering their service. It really sounds like experience with Good Sam comes down to luck
We had a similar issue with Good Sam, but we were one hour south of Indianapolis and not in a remote area and they kept trying to send a tow truck out of Chicago which is 4 hours away. We kept getting the runaround and ended up just dialing 911 and got the service that we needed to replace the tire on our trailer. We switched to AAA for this service after, but haven't had to use them yet thankfully.
wow, that's unbelievable! I've heard nothing but good things about them before we made the purchase, but now I'm learning they are not as beloved as I thought they were. Sorry to hear about your experience and glad everyone was safe! Thanks for watching.
Glad you got off the highway safely and hope you get your money back. I had to write a letter to company in NY state b/c the insurance didn't do what they promised and get my money back. Within 1 week of contact I had a communication from the insurance company and my full refund/reimbursement the following week. These companies need to be held accountable!
I would have just pumped up the tire and drove until it needed to be pumped up again, and if it went flat then used the doughnut tire. Been driving on questionable tires towing trailers for over 40 years, seldom do they actually have the problems that the experts warn about. The experts are good at warning of the worst case scenario, which very seldom happens. My fav trailer, a Boler, has 50 year old tires on it, every time we head out we pump up the tires, knowing that this could be the trip where we need to buy a new one, yet every time we make it home without a problem. There are no guarantees in life, especially out in the wilderness, however when things dont work out, some fellow traveler will stop and help you change your tire, or take you to town to get it fixed. All the best to you on your travels, and please don't head south into Mexico and beyond, that's where it gets dangerous to rely on any kind of insurance or other services.
Btw, we use AAA, generally a life saver for coming out to change a tire from the main tire to the spare since my back is not up to this activity. However they do have a 5 mile towing limit before we have to pay. Fortunately most times when we need them it is just to change a tire, or pull us out of some mud or snow.
Thanks for all the tips! Hopefully we gain more confidence with time and experience. Fortunately, we will not be towing in Central/South America. Unfortunately, that means we won't have our super cool little home-on-wheels with us. :/
The new way is doing it from the inside. Back in the day, I plugged a lot of tires. Never had a problem. Everything I’ve heard about GS is trash. Lots of videos here about it. Sorry to hear about this. I would have towed the camper on that plugged 🛞 tire. A full size spare and everything needed to change it to include a practice run in the parking lot is important. Well it all worked out and everyone is safe 👍🏼
You should’ve checked the tire to see if there was another hole somewhere and I would just keep airing it up and driving I wouldn’t pay that much money
If I had known that's how it was going to pan out, I think I would have risked it and done what you're suggesting! Although, we really didn't want to risk driving on a flat and shredding the tire walls. Also, the Dempster Highway has loooong stretches of narrow road with soft shoulders and dangerous flying rocks from trucks that drive by quickly. We were very glad to be safely tucked away. Thank for watching!
We you able to stay the whole time waiting for repairs and running your trailer on only the solar /batteries you have on the trailer? No generator, no running the vehicle to recharge your house batteries. If so, you need a video on your solar/battery setup.
Yes! We were able to run the whole time on solar and batteries. I did power up the generator to charge up our batteries a little, but it started raining so I had to put it away. We have 570W of solar on the roof and 400AH(12v) of LFP batteries. We were lucky that we had so much sun over 3 days; otherwise, we would have had to use the generator more. I think we had a gallon of gas in our Honda EU3200i, so we probably could have charged up about battery to full and made it 2 to 3 more days if we had really cloudy weather. Here's a tour we made of our trailer that goes into more details for the technical specs: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JJwHXtzOv_E.html
So sorry you went through this. We went through FMCA but fortunately didn’t need it so don’t know if we’d go through the same thing. I never trust a salesperson. There’s no accountability once the policy is sold. I always read the policy and go back and ask questions and take notes, names, dates.
Good thinking to read the fine print! We made some calls to sales while editing this video to see if we'd get the same answers and you wouldn't believe the crazy and inconsistent thinks they were telling us! It's really a shame.
I hear you, but that's easier to say when you're not currently on the road. It's in REALLY bad shape and if I got another flat, I'd then be stuck with no internet to make calls, the trailer would be abandoned on the side of the road, and it drops to freezing at night up there. The situation is not that cut-and-dried and most options would be bad if everything didn't go to plan. The BEST thing I should have done was carry a full-size spare like everyone told us to!
Don’t plug a tire. Better solution; glue laden tire repair screws. Long lasting and 100% success rate. Plugs are difficult and temporary and a poor choice.
Been plugging tires for 40 years, put my wife, kids grandkids on plugged tires with ZERO issues. You did need to have come glue as well, not just the plug. I have never had a plug fail. You would have been FAR better driving on that plug than that steel rim and crappy spare. Sorry but even if you were concerned drive 30 mph and checked pressure every hour or so. Sucks that they treated you this way….
