Your motorhome or camper will not move. Here is how it gets towed.

Four things decide which truck comes

"RV" covers everything from a pop-up camper to a coach the length of a city bus, so the word alone does not tell a dispatcher much. The first questions on the phone are always about the vehicle itself, because the answers decide whether a rollback flatbed can carry it or a heavy wrecker has to tow it.

• Class. A Class B is a camper van built on an ordinary van chassis. A Class C is built on a cutaway van or truck chassis, usually with a bunk over the cab. A Class A is the large, flat-fronted, bus-style motorhome, with the engine at the front or, on a diesel pusher, at the rear.
• Length. Length decides whether the vehicle fits on a deck at all, and on a long motorhome the overhang behind the rear axle decides how it can be lifted without the tail dragging.
• Weight. A motorhome carries water, fuel, batteries, appliances and everything its owners packed. The chassis rating on the driver's door-jamb label is a far better guide than a guess.
• Drivetrain. Front-, rear- or all-wheel drive, and on a larger coach the transmission type and whether it has air brakes. These decide what has to be disconnected before the wheels are allowed to turn.

Camper vans and smaller Class C motorhomes

The lighter end of the RV world is often a flatbed job. A Class B camper van is, underneath, a van, and a smaller Class C is a van or light-truck chassis with a living box on the back. When the size and weight suit the deck, carrying it on a rollback means no wheels turn and no drivetrain spins, which removes the biggest source of tow damage entirely.

Size is the limit. A Class C with a long rear overhang, or one loaded heavy with water and gear, can be too long or too heavy for a light-duty deck, and then it becomes a wrecker tow like its bigger relatives. That is why our light-duty towing page says RVs are handled "size depending" and asks you to describe the vehicle when you call. Larger motorhomes go to the heavy-duty side of the yard, and our RV and motorhome towing page sets out which class goes on which truck.

Camper vans also inherit whatever rules apply to the van they are built on. If the chassis is all-wheel drive, it should not be towed with one axle on the road, for the same reasons covered in flatbed or wrecker: which tow truck.

Protecting the drivetrain on a rear-drive motorhome

Most Class A motorhomes and many Class C models drive through the rear axle. Tow one with the front lifted and the rear wheels rolling, and those wheels turn the driveshaft and the back of the transmission with the engine off. An automatic transmission is lubricated by a pump the engine drives, so towing it that way can run the gears without proper lubrication for every mile to the shop.

Transmission makers say this plainly. Allison, whose automatics are common in motorhomes, tells operators in its manuals to disconnect the driveline or lift the drive wheels off the road before towing or pushing, and warns that failing to do so can cause serious transmission damage. So a rear-drive motorhome towed from the front has its driveshaft disconnected, or its axle shafts removed, and secured before it moves.

Lifting the rear instead avoids the driveline question but brings its own problem. A Class A often has a long overhang behind the rear axle, and lifting that end drops the front toward the pavement and swings the tail through a wide arc. Which end gets lifted is decided for each coach after looking at it, not assumed. The steps are close to the ones in how a semi gets towed and how a bus or motorcoach gets towed, because a big diesel pusher shares much of its engineering with both.

Air brakes on large diesel motorhomes

Many large diesel pushers stop on air brakes, the same basic system a semi uses. Their parking brakes are spring brakes: powerful springs hold the brakes on, and only air pressure pushes them off. That is a safety design, because a coach that loses its air stops rather than rolls. It also means a motorhome with a dead engine or an air leak sits with its brakes locked.

Before a coach like that can roll, the wrecker supplies air to the coach's system to release the brakes, or the spring brakes are mechanically caged so they stay released without air. Either way, the motorhome's own brakes are not doing their normal job during the tow, which is one reason the tow is done by a heavy wrecker built to control that weight.

Slide-outs, jacks, awnings and propane come first

A motorhome that broke down at a campsite or a rest stop may still be set up for living in. Nothing gets hooked until it is closed up for travel, following the same preparation RV manufacturers' owner's manuals describe before the vehicle moves.

• Slide-outs in. An extended slide-out makes the coach wider than the lane and can be torn off by a pole, a sign or a passing vehicle. If a slide will not retract because the power is dead, tell dispatch; many have a manual retraction method described in the owner's manual.
• Leveling jacks up. Hydraulic or electric jacks left down will drag, bend or dig into the pavement. The same goes for stabilizer jacks on a towable.
• Awnings stowed and locked. An awning that unrolls at road speed can rip away and hit traffic.
• Propane off at the tank or cylinder. A tow is a moving vehicle that may be jolted, and appliance flames and open gas lines have no business being on during it.
• Doors, hatches and storage bays latched. A bay door that swings open can strike the tow truck or a car alongside.

Contents, pets and people

The inside of an RV is a house, and a tow moves it more abruptly than normal driving does. Secure anything that can slide or fall: latch cabinets, close the refrigerator door firmly, and put loose items on the floor. Keep medications, documents, keys, chargers and anything you will need overnight with you.

Nobody rides inside a motorhome or a trailer while it is being towed, and neither do pets. A towed vehicle can be lifted, tilted and braked in ways its interior was never built for, and there is no seat belt that makes the living area of a trailer or a lifted coach safe. Plan how you and your pets will travel before the truck arrives. If you need transport or lodging, sort that out with your roadside plan or your insurer; we cannot advise on what a policy covers.

The trailer and the truck pulling it are two problems

With a towable RV, such as a travel trailer, a fifth wheel or a pop-up camper, a breakdown usually happens to one of two vehicles, and they are separate jobs. If the pickup or SUV pulling it has failed, the trailer itself may be perfectly sound. What it needs is another vehicle with the right hitch and enough rated capacity to move it, while the tow vehicle goes to a shop on its own.

If the trailer is the problem, the question is its running gear. A trailer with a failed bearing, a broken spring, a collapsed axle or a flat it cannot be driven on should not simply be pulled down the road, and a small, damaged trailer may need to be carried rather than towed. Tell dispatch which vehicle has failed, what the failure is, the trailer's length and type, and what hitch it uses, so the plan covers both vehicles.

Details that get the right truck sent the first time

A motorhome tow goes wrong most often because the wrong truck showed up. These answers let dispatch decide before anything leaves the yard.

• Class, make and model year. Also the chassis maker if you know it, which is often on the registration.
• Length and fuel. Roughly how long it is, and whether it is gas or diesel.
• Engine position and brakes. Front engine or rear diesel pusher, and whether it has air brakes.
• What failed. Engine, transmission, tire, brakes or a crash, and whether the air suspension still holds it up.
• Whether it is set up for camping. Slides out, jacks down, and whether they will retract.
• Towed vehicle or trailer. Whether there is a car behind it or a trailer involved, and which unit has failed.
• Exact location. Highway, direction and nearest exit or mile marker, or the campground and site number, and whether it is near a live lane. If it is on a shoulder, hazard flashers on and everyone well away from traffic.
• Destination. The dealer, RV service center or storage lot, and whether it can accept a coach of that size when you arrive.

Related reading

Kansas City Towing Laws: Towed From a Private Lot — In Missouri, RSMo 304.

How a Bus or Motorcoach Gets Towed Safely — A bus is towed by a heavy wrecker, but not the way a semi is.

Does AAA Cover Semi Trucks and Commercial Vehicles? — Usually not.