Extended Warranty Comparison

Wiff155

Member
Does anyone have a comparison listing the advantages and disadvantages to the most popular extended warranties?
 

JohnD

Moved on to the next thing...
Does anyone have a comparison listing the advantages and disadvantages to the most popular extended warranties?

All I've got to say is this . . .

If you like making someone else's monthly BMW payments . . . go ahead and sign up for this RV warranty!

Stay as far away as you can from N*Compass/Preserve . . .they WILL NOT PAY WHEN YOU NEED THEM THE MOST!

They'll leave you hanging 1000 miles from home and make you feel like it was your fault that you even considered calling them to try and get them to pay for what you paid them for!

Been there . . . done that . . . turned in our cancellation notice, despite loosing half our money for the warranty!
 
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Jim.Allison

Well-known member
Put the money in a saving account. or buy a visa bucks card. That way you have the money in a bank, then you will have the cash plus the deductible that it is going to cost you on each trip. Dont let them scare you about motherboards and all that. Buy yourself a good EMS and you're good to go. And hey, if you wind up spending the premium and it cost you another $1000 bucks somewhere, that is the chance you take. I guarantee you that the odds are in your favor. People that take the risk are the ones who make money, and in this case you shoulder the risk and save money. Extended warranty sellers are not benevolent, and are just like you, they do not want to turn loose of their money. An EMS is the best insurance you can buy for your rig.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
If there is a note involved, regardless of whether you paid cash for the extended warranty, or you financed it, the end results are the same. The $s that you spend on the warranty are the last dollars you pay on your note. So in effect you will be borrowing money and still be paying for the warrantee long past its expiration, and will be paying interest on that money for the duration of the loan. The $1500 will cost much more in the end, than any benefit that it can provide, especially factoring in the $50 per service call.
 

JohnD

Moved on to the next thing...
Been almost a month since we presented the paperwork that we were supposed to . . .

Haven't heard a word.

We called them to check the progress of the cancellation of our extended warranty . . .

Guess what . . . they claimed they lost the paperwork so we had to start the process all over again!

Imagine that?????

Again . . . do not consider the N*Compass/Preserve extendend warranty if your dealer offers them . . . they WILL NOT cover you!

Take that from someone that has experience with them . . .
 
We just purchased our 2014 Cyclone 4000 June 18th, 2015 and have had MULTIPLE problems since. We are a military couple and decided to purchase a RV instead of moving into a place we have not seen when we got orders from CA to NC.

1. At the dealership they replaced the main air conditioner.
2. June 28th the TV in the master bedroom went out and the dealership paid for replacement.
3. July 3rd the microwave went out.....and again the dealership paid for replacement.
4. July 18th the washing machine went out.
5. July 20th the central vacuum went out.
6. Aug 1st (about) the TV in the back garage went out.

I called the warranty company CORNERSTONE and they told me to call a RV repair place to write a estimate and send it in then they would send out a inspector. Well......we are in a area where their were NO RV repair places that would come out to us and because of the amount of rain that we have had there was NO way for us to pull the RV out of where we are at. My brother in law is a electrician and we had him come out and install a brand new 50 amp service BEFORE we ever plugged the RV in, he checked everything!!!! After the washer went out I called the electric company to come out and make sure we were not getting power spikes. They did and gave me a letter stating that there were no problems found at our property. But when the inspector came out to see everything I told him that they did go up on the poll for something, though I did not know what and I had taken a picture of it.

Everything finally gets turned into the warranty company and they won't pay at all!!!! They claim it was a power surge!!!!! I am so upset. Can someone recommend a warranty company because I want to cancel my contract.

Thanks

Tresa
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
It seems like you have had a lot of 120 volt items go bad.
Are you using any type of electrical protection?

I think you will find that most extended warranties are not very helpful when making a claim.

Peace
Dave
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
Your brother in law is an electrician, but you need to verify he understands the difference of an RV 50-amp plug vs standard household 50-amp.

A miswired plug could easily cause the damage you have mentioned.

http://www.myrv.us/electric/


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danemayer

Well-known member
Hi Tresa,

If the failure of all of these devices was that they acted as if they had no power, that would strongly suggest some type of electrical problem.

3rd party post warranty agreements typically say that they cover manufacturing defects that show up after the warranty expires. They're a type of service contract where you prepay. The issuer typically has a bunch of fine print that restricts what is covered and has a number of exclusions. If you change companies, the new policy will probably have at least many of the same limitations. I don't think any service contract (extended warranty) is going to cover external causes like power fluctuations, or freeze damage for example.

It's more likely that the comprehensive insurance on your trailer would cover external issues like power surges. The problem is that the insurance company may want some evidence or expert opinion that the damage was caused by something other than a manufacturing defect, which they wouldn't cover.

If the power company (or your brother-in-law) had determined that a nearby lightning strike, or wiring problem at the park had caused all these failures, your insurance company would likely pay. If your shore power cord showed some type of damage, that would probably be acceptable evidence.

Btw, if the power company checked things for 10 minutes and found no problems, their findings (and letter) would not mean that there had never been a spike. Just that they see no evidence that there had been one. There's a difference. And one serious electrical event could have caused damage to the power supplies of the various devices, weakening components, setting up a later failure.

If you trust your brother-in-law's skill level, you might ask him to check all of your trailer electrical connections from the pedestal to the circuit breaker panel. Pay particular attention to the transfer switch. I'm sure he knows that a poor electrical connection anywhere on the neutral wiring (including pitted contacts on the transfer switch) could cause the types of problems you've experienced. The transfer switch is where shore power connections and generator connections come together so that one or the other feeds power to the circuit breaker panel. It's usually located behind the pass-through basement storage wall.

And as others have mentioned, using an Electrical Management System like a Progressive Industries EMS-HW50C is essential to protecting your trailer from electrical problems. The one linked to is a hard-wired model that would be installed just before the circuit breaker panel. We use an external model that has detected transient power problems many times, at multiple locations, protecting us each time.
 

avvidclif

Well-known member
Your brother in law is an electrician, but you need to verify he understands the difference of an RV 50-amp plug vs standard household 50-amp.

A miswired plug could easily cause the damage you have mentioned.

http://www.myrv.us/electric/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There is no such thing as an RV 50A service.

I quote from myrv.us

"This 50-amp service has 4 wires with two 120-volt HOT feeds. It is a misconception that this 50-amp RV service is something special. This service is a STANDARD 120/240 50-amp 3 pole with 4 prongs used for numerous applications. "
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
There is no such thing as an RV 50A service.

I quote from myrv.us

"This 50-amp service has 4 wires with two 120-volt HOT feeds. It is a misconception that this 50-amp RV service is something special. This service is a STANDARD 120/240 50-amp 3 pole with 4 prongs used for numerous applications. "

Cliff, I understand, but it's not the same wiring configuration as 50amp for your clothes dryer! That's the distinction I was trying to make.

http://www.myrv.us/Imgs/PDF/50-amp Service.pdf


http://www.dasplace.net/RVWiring/wiring.html

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AKDallBH

Member
Last year, we bought a 2008 Bighorn. Planned on living in it for 7-9 months, so we did purchase an extended warranty. Have had two claims so far, one for landing gear, and one for the transfer switch. Both were paid immediately, and we were reimbursed for hotels, food while the rig was in the shop. Haven't offset the cost yet, but 1/3 the way there in less than a year. It was a 5 year waranty through Protective Asset Protection.
 

Kenneths

Well-known member
All 50 Amp services are wired the same, there is no special wiring of a service for an RV! RV's may be unique in their distribution of the power once in the RV but mot at the Main plug.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
You can see the various types of 50 amp and 30 amp receptacles on the pages at this link.

There are different kinds of 50 amp receptacles that are wired in various ways, but I believe your 50 amp RV plug will only fit one type and I don't think it would be very common for an electrician to wire it incorrectly.

There are also different kinds of 30 amp receptacles, and it is not all that uncommon for electricians to wire an RV receptacle as though it were a 240V 30 Amp dryer receptacle. That happens because electricians routinely install dryer receptacles and rarely install RV receptacles. If you plug into one of these that's wired for a dryer, you will cause a lot of damage to your RV.

If you have a newly installed receptacle, it's worth taking 2 minutes to verify that it was done right.
 

Kenneths

Well-known member
That is correct, for 30 Amp they are wired differently, 120 verses 240. For 50 Amp there are different receptacles but they are all wired the same.
 
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