Every summer, tens of thousands of motorhomes, fifth wheels and travel trailers roll west along I-94 through Van Buren County, headed for South Haven, Van Buren State Park, and the campgrounds strung along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Most of them make it. Some of them don’t — and when a 30-foot Class A quits in the right lane just past the M-40 interchange at Exit 60, it is a very different problem from a sedan with a dead battery.
Arndt’s Towing & Recovery is based right here in Paw Paw, and RV season is one of our busiest stretches of the year. This guide covers why breakdowns cluster in July and August, what to do in the first ten minutes on the shoulder, what equipment a motorhome or camper actually requires, and how to make sure your rig gets towed somewhere useful instead of just somewhere.
Why RV Breakdowns Spike Here Every Summer
Van Buren County occupies an awkward and busy piece of geography. I-94 carries the bulk of the Detroit-to-Chicago corridor traffic straight through it, and M-40 and M-43 funnel that traffic north and west toward the lakeshore. Add the Red Arrow Highway and Blue Star Highway running the coast, and you have a county that hosts an enormous volume of recreational vehicles between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
The other factor is simpler: most RVs sit still for nine or ten months a year. A motorhome that has been parked since October gets its first real workout of the season on a 90-degree afternoon in July, fully loaded, climbing and descending, running the roof air the whole way. Components that were fine in storage fail under load. Tires that looked fine in the driveway have been slowly aging in UV light. That combination — heavy use after long dormancy, in peak heat — is why the calls cluster the way they do.
The First Ten Minutes: Getting Safe Before You Get Towed
An RV on the shoulder of I-94 is a large, slow-moving hazard that other drivers may not register until late. Before you worry about the mechanical problem, worry about position.
- Get as far right as you can. If you can still move, aim for an exit ramp, a rest area, or at minimum a wide shoulder past a curve rather than on it. Visibility upstream of your rig matters enormously.
- Hazards on immediately, and if you have reflective triangles, set them well back — further than feels necessary. Highway closing speeds are deceptive.
- Get people out on the passenger side and behind the guardrail. Michigan’s Move Over law requires drivers to slow and move over for stopped emergency and service vehicles, but you should never rely on every driver complying. Do not stand between your RV and traffic.
- Note your exact location. The nearest mile marker, the last exit you passed, or a GPS pin. “Somewhere on 94 near Paw Paw” costs a dispatcher time; “westbound I-94, just past Exit 60” gets a truck to you faster.
- Then call. Tell the dispatcher it is an RV, and give the length and approximate weight if you know them. That single detail determines which truck we send.
What Actually Fails on RVs in Michigan Summer Heat
Tire failure — by a wide margin the most common
RV tires typically time out before they wear out. A trailer tire with good tread depth can be six or seven years old and structurally finished, and hot asphalt on a July afternoon is exactly when it lets go. Blowouts on a travel trailer or fifth wheel frequently take bodywork, wiring, and plumbing with them, which turns a tire problem into a tow.
Check the four-digit DOT date code on your sidewalls before the season, not during it. And carry the correct load-rated spare — a passenger-car spare is not a substitute on a loaded rig.
Overheating and cooling system failure
A loaded motorhome towing a car behind it, in stop-and-go summer traffic on I-94, is asking a great deal of a cooling system that spent the winter sitting idle. Radiator restriction, a failed water pump, a split hose, or a slipping belt will all show up as a climbing temperature gauge. If your temperature gauge climbs, get off the road promptly — engine damage escalates fast and turns a tow into a very expensive tow.
Brakes and wheel bearings on towables
Trailer wheel bearings need periodic repacking, and this is one of the most commonly skipped maintenance items on recreational trailers. A bearing that runs dry generates enough heat to seize a hub or, in bad cases, separate a wheel. If you smell hot metal or see one hub noticeably hotter than the others at a fuel stop, stop driving.
Electrical, charging and generator problems
House batteries that sat discharged all winter often will not hold a charge. Alternators fail under the load of running chassis systems plus charging a depleted house bank. Sometimes this is a roadside fix — sometimes it isn’t. Our roadside crews carry jumpstart and battery service equipment and can often sort a charging fault on the shoulder, which saves you a tow entirely.
Why RV Towing Requires Different Trucks and Different Operators
An RV is not simply a large car. It is tall, long, often low at the rear overhang, and its weight distribution is unlike anything else on the road because it is carrying water, propane, batteries, and whatever you packed. Hooking one wrong bends frames, tears bumpers, and damages driveline components.
That is why we approach RVs with heavy-duty equipment and operators trained for commercial-class work. Depending on the rig, the right answer might be an oversized flatbed, an extended wheel-lift, or a heavy wrecker with air-brake hookup capability. It also means paying attention to details that catch inexperienced operators out — driveshaft disconnection on a rear-wheel-drive motorhome being towed from the front, low-clearance rear overhangs that ground on ramp transitions, and awning or slide-out clearance on tree-lined county roads.
Our fleet spans light duty through heavy duty, which means we can match the truck to the rig rather than forcing the rig onto whatever truck is available.
Motorhome vs. Towable: What Changes
If you’re driving a motorhome (Class A, B or C), the RV itself is the disabled vehicle and needs to be towed. If you’re flat-towing a car behind it, that dinghy vehicle usually needs separate transport or a second driver — worth mentioning on the call so we plan for it.
If you’re pulling a travel trailer or fifth wheel, you may have two separate problems. Sometimes the tow vehicle fails and the trailer is fine; sometimes the reverse. Tell the dispatcher which one is disabled, because the recovery plan is completely different. In many cases the fastest resolution is towing the disabled unit and letting you drive the other to the same destination.
If you’ve gone off the shoulder — soft ground alongside county roads in this area is deceptive, especially after summer storms — that becomes a recovery job rather than a straight tow. Winch-out work on a heavy rig requires proper rigging and anchor points, and attempting it with a strap and a pickup is how people get hurt.
The Local Roads That Shape the Response
Being based in Paw Paw rather than dispatched from Kalamazoo or Benton Harbor matters most on the routes RVers actually use.
- I-94 through Van Buren County — the main artery, and the one where shoulder work demands the most caution. Note that MDOT has had reconstruction work programmed at the I-94/M-40 interchange, so traffic patterns at Exit 60 can differ from what your GPS expects.
- M-40 north and south of Paw Paw — the connector between I-94 and the Lawton, Lawrence and Gobles areas.
- M-43 toward South Haven — the direct run to the lakeshore, and a route with plenty of RV traffic and limited safe pull-off space.
- Red Arrow Highway and Blue Star Highway — the coastal corridor serving Van Buren State Park and the campgrounds south of South Haven, with narrow shoulders in stretches.
- County roads around Maple Lake, Lawton and the Kal-Haven Trail corridor — scenic, and genuinely tight for a 35-foot rig. Backing an RV out of a wrong turn on a narrow county road is a common call for us in August.
Towed to a Shop, Not Just a Lot
Here is the part that separates a bad RV breakdown from a manageable one. Plenty of tow companies will move your rig to a storage lot and hand you a receipt. That leaves you in an unfamiliar county, mid-vacation, calling around to find a shop that can look at a motorhome.
Arndt’s runs a full-service auto and truck repair shop on site, with ASE-certified mechanics and computer diagnostics. We handle engines, brakes, transmissions, suspension, exhaust, drivetrain, charging systems and A/C for both light-duty vehicles and commercial trucks. For a lot of RV chassis problems, that means the tow and the diagnosis happen in one place, on the same day, instead of across three phone calls and two days of waiting.
We’ll also give you a straight answer about whether a repair is realistic on your timeline or whether the better call is long-distance transport back home.
What to Have Ready When You Call
- Exact location — mile marker, nearest exit, or a dropped GPS pin.
- Type and size of rig — Class A, B, C, fifth wheel, travel trailer; length and approximate weight.
- What failed — and whether the vehicle still rolls and steers.
- Whether you’re towing a car behind the motorhome, or which unit in a trailer setup is disabled.
- How many people and pets are with you — this affects how we plan the trip and whether we arrange a ride.
- Your roadside coverage, if you have it. Many RV and auto policies include towing benefits, and we provide itemised receipts for reimbursement claims.
Preventing the Call Altogether
The pre-trip checks that prevent the most breakdowns take under an hour: verify tire age by DOT date code and inflate to the load-appropriate pressure cold; have wheel bearings inspected and repacked on schedule; test house and chassis batteries under load rather than just checking voltage; inspect belts and hoses for cracking after winter storage; check coolant condition and level; and confirm your brakes and breakaway cable are functional before you hitch.
If your RV has been sitting since fall, a pre-season inspection at our shop before you head for the lakeshore is a great deal cheaper than a heavy-duty tow off the interstate in August.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you tow a full-size Class A motorhome?
Yes. We operate heavy-duty wreckers and oversized flatbeds and handle Class A motorhomes, fifth wheels, travel trailers, campers and buses. Give us the length and approximate weight on the call so we dispatch the right truck the first time.
How much does RV towing cost near Paw Paw?
It depends on the size and weight of the rig, distance, and whether recovery work is involved. Heavy-duty jobs cost more than light-duty because they require different equipment and operators. We’ll give you a clear quote before we dispatch — call (269) 655-4123.
Will my insurance cover an RV tow?
Often, if your policy or RV club membership includes roadside assistance — though coverage limits on heavy-duty and RV towing vary considerably by policy. We provide a detailed receipt suitable for claims. Check your specific limits with your provider.
Can you get to me on the lakeshore, or only near Paw Paw?
We serve Paw Paw and the surrounding Van Buren County communities, including Lawton, Lawrence, Mattawan, Gobles, Decatur, Bloomingdale and the South Haven corridor. Call and tell us where you are.
Can you take my family somewhere while the RV is handled?
In most local cases, yes — we can transport you to a shop, a hotel, or a nearby location. Mention it to the dispatcher when you call so we plan for the passengers.
Are you available at night and on weekends?
Yes. Our dispatch runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holiday weekends — which in RV season is exactly when the calls come.
Broken Down in an RV Near Paw Paw? Call Arndt’s Now.
Whether you’ve blown a trailer tire on I-94, cooked a motorhome engine on the way to South Haven, or dropped a wheel off a soft shoulder on a Van Buren County back road, we have the heavy-duty trucks, the certified operators, and the on-site repair shop to handle it end to end — not just move your rig and leave you to sort out the rest.
Licensed, insured, family owned, and dispatched by people who actually live here.
Call Arndt’s Towing & Recovery 24/7 at (269) 655-4123, or get in touch here. We’re at 43910 30th St, Paw Paw, MI 49079.
Learn more about our RV towing service, our 24/7 roadside assistance, or flatbed towing options.