I have lived in Utah for 27 of my 43 years. Did I say that! I think people in Utah, as in any other state, will go out of their way to help if they can. Many people may not ask for help or may think that they are putting someone out. If we don't ever ask, we may not be giving someone the gift of helping. Beccy in Utah, very happily.
Kat wrote:
Now that's what I wanted to hear, real saves by US Rider. I'll junk AAA.
While I doubt that I would keep two separate emergency tow services (though I might if they had different "coverage areas.")
However, my experience with AAA is quite different (but then, I am a member of the Automobile Club of Southern California and it states quite clearly that their RV membership covers horse trailers). They are even willing to come up my "driveway" (a 2 mile dirt road with a 800' climb and three hairpin turns.
Additionally, when I was on my way to the Outlaw Trail and started to have trouble outside of St. George. I limped into Cedar City and called AAA and asked them if they knew of a service station that was open on Sunday (after having asked a few other people at the gas station....who said no, they didn't). They put me through to their local representative. Who told me, "No there isn't anybody open on Sunday (we are, after all, talking about Utah here), but I can call a mechanic I know and get him out to you, or can you make it over to my place?" I could, so I drove over to his house, parked my truck and trailer in his front driveway, he called a mechanic who said I needed a new fuel pump and to rebuild the carburetor (or buy a new one). So the AAA guy called around to find an owner of an auto parts store who wasn't in church that would open his shop to sell the parts.
During the ~ five hours that this took, he let me take my horse out of the trailer an graze on his front lawn (and, incidentally, give pony rides to all the kids in the neighborhood, and receive carrots from just about everybody's refrigerator).
When it was all over, I was back on the road with a new fuel pump, a rebuilt carburetor (which, incidentally, 9 years later are both STILL in the truck), and a readjusted timing. The extent of my bill was to pay for the parts. I have no idea if AAA got billed for anything.
But I have no complaints about AAA.
This is, of course, an extreme example. And yes, when the axle of my horse trailer (that I had loaned to a fried) over heated (as in fried) and he had to pull over on I-10. He called me, and I called AAA. They did tell me we had to take the horse out of the trailer, but that is because the only safe way to tow it was to winch it up onto a flatbed, and only an idiot would winch their horse trailer up onto a flatbed tow truck with any horses still inside.
I have never, once, had a tow truck operator tell me "No, I can't help you." Unless that statement was literally true (i.e. he didn't have the proper equipment to help me safely), and then, by and large, they are willing to hunt down somebody who DOES have the proper equipment to help me.
However, my dad was with me on the trip to the Outlaw Trail (he came along to drive for me), and he is convinced that if it had been him and not me who was trying to get his truck fixed on Sunday in Utah, not only would he not have gotten the labor for free, but that HE would have had to wait until Monday. :)
