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Old 01-19-2013, 12:09 PM   #21
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Re: VAN INSURANCE

Ha, insurance again!

I switched to AAA. They use American Commerce. I saved $2500 plus a year doing this on my all inclusive coverage. I have a rider to cover the value of my upgraded van.

Insurance companies are basically law firms, in the business to take your money, not pay out when needed.

The thing I see is many people use their full coverage to fix every idiotic self incurred damage you do to your vehicle.
Plus all the fraud.

Thats why they are lawyers working you over - because everyone abuses their insurance.

If you did a foolish move and dinged your van off-road, FIX IT YOURSELF!!!

And learn from your lesson. You probably won't do it twice.

/Peave

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Old 01-19-2013, 02:10 PM   #22
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Re: VAN INSURANCE

I have yet to find a company that covers off road travel (at a reasonable price). I found that even most tow insurance Companies such as AAA consider off pavement or non-maintained roads as a no tow zone yet usually campgrounds are exempt as well as government maintainded roads paved or not. It seemed I got the same answer with collision insurance companies. I plainly asked GMAC how they would know if an incident happened on or off road and other than somebody hitting me they wouldn't know if damage occured in the backcountry or on a paved road. So I doubt GMAC would cover something like the White Rim Trail. If anybody does find a company that covers this type travel I'd like to know about it. Hopefully the agents I had talked to weren't leading me down the wrong road
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Old 01-19-2013, 03:59 PM   #23
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Re: VAN INSURANCE

I too am with State Farm. I started the process about 3 months before I picked up my SMB and it took till about 4 months after I took deliver to finally get everything squared away. During that time the price went from $700 to $800 to $1200, and back to $800 before finally they decided it could be insured as an RV for a bit under $500. The policy also got issued/rewritten at least 3 times. I have a camper, not a full build-out and was eventually told that: "Our underwriting department stated that as long as there are sleeping/cooking facilities we can insure it as an RV. Even if you only have a portable cooking device, it does not need to be an installed stove." They wanted pictures to prove all this, which I provided. It was a painful process.
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Old 01-19-2013, 07:46 PM   #24
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Re: VAN INSURANCE

Quote:
Originally Posted by daveb
If anybody does find a company that covers this type travel I'd like to know about it. Hopefully the agents I had talked to weren't leading me down the wrong road
Like I said, Farmers and Progressive: as long as you're not in an organized racing event on the white rim trail. Heck my understanding is if you drove off Lion's Back you'd be covered as long as it wasn't during an organized racing event.

And the concern about offroad coverage is not about getting a scratch covered, it's about a total loss- which you can't really claim happened in Kroger's parking lot if your van is in the bottom of a ravine. Deductibles and getting dropped from your insurance will eat you quick if you get every little thing covered.
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Old 01-19-2013, 09:15 PM   #25
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Re: VAN INSURANCE

Quote:
Originally Posted by jage
Like I said, Farmers and Progressive: as long as you're not in an organized racing event on the white rim trail. Heck my understanding is if you drove off Lion's Back you'd be covered as long as it wasn't during an organized racing event.
Don't know about Farmers but Progresisive told me anything off road (non maintained) was not covered. Now this was in 2005 and I never followed up on it. GMAC at the time said the same thing but covered campgrounds and the like. I'm so sick of the BS I'm getting (even now) I don't want to mess with it.
I've said it before:
Until somebody files a total out claim and gets reinbursed I'll wait to switch. Both GMAC and SF have been good to me so I'll roll the dice. Coverage seems to change from state to state, company to company, and agent to agent. How in the hell can the underwriters make different conclusions on similar vehicles is beyond me. I think the whole thing is a scam
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Old 01-19-2013, 10:23 PM   #26
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Re: VAN INSURANCE

Quote:
Originally Posted by jage
Quote:
Originally Posted by daveb
If anybody does find a company that covers this type travel I'd like to know about it. Hopefully the agents I had talked to weren't leading me down the wrong road
Like I said, Farmers and Progressive:
I have personally seen Progressive deny a claim because the car was on a road not maintained for winter travel. Not even off-road. Just not regularly plowed. The road is access to a Forest Service recreation point (Mary's Peak in Oregon). Cars brakes went out coming down the mountain, went off a cliff into a Ravine. Car was totaled but because Progressive doesn't cover "off-road" travel the owners had to pay for the recovery, which was around $3500 IIRC. Recovery was expensive because there was about 4' snow off the roadway, and about 18" on and during winter storm conditions.

My State Farm policy has no exclusions for off-road coverage, including towing (which is why I have it, since AAA does not cover towing if you voluntarily go off-road). It does however exclude coverage for racing in a sanctioned racing events (but I would still be covered driving the course for any non-race purposes).

I dropped Unitrin a couple years ago because they had an exclusion for "vehicles with modified suspension." I called asking about airbags (pre-dually conversion) and they wouldn't provide an exception for airbags even!
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Old 01-20-2013, 09:51 AM   #27
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Re: VAN INSURANCE

Quote:
Originally Posted by carringb
I dropped Unitrin a couple years ago because they had an exclusion for "vehicles with modified suspension." I called asking about airbags (pre-dually conversion) and they wouldn't provide an exception for airbags even!
Ah, both Progressive and GMAC have a "4 inch lift" limit. It never came up with Farmers- Farmers is where I had an agent who is a family friend and asked most of my stupid questions when I was offroading and towing back in Indiana.

Ironically Progressive has nothing in the RV policy about lift limit. And, I need to double check the "offroad / not in a race" policy at Progressive- too much info, and I could easily be transcribing my Farmer's answers in the confusion.

Still I hold fast that they will use anything and everything to deny a claim if it's the least bit non-standard, regardless of company involved. Farmers recently denied a vandalism claim on our rental property and then used the information gathered to try to drop us from coverage! So, regardless I expect a fight if anything ever happens, more is the shame.
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Old 01-20-2013, 10:34 AM   #28
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Re: VAN INSURANCE

Because my vehicle is registered as a Sportsmobile (not a Ford) I wonder if they are refering to a modified lifted vehicle. I know it's a thin stretch but being it's coming off the line built as it is, would it be possible that they are considering a lifted vehicle as one that's been modified by somebody other than the manufacture?
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Old 01-20-2013, 12:20 PM   #29
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Re: VAN INSURANCE

How did you get it registered as an SMB Dave? I tried to do that, but both DMV and SF said the serial number says it is a Ford van, so it is registered as a Ford van and insured as a Ford Van based RV.

Mike
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Old 01-20-2013, 07:05 PM   #30
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Re: VAN INSURANCE

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ford_6L_E350
How did you get it registered as an SMB Dave? I tried to do that, but both DMV and SF said the serial number says it is a Ford van, so it is registered as a Ford van and insured as a Ford Van based RV.

Mike
Maybe I'm wrong Mike. But on the insurance info I carry it says Model:Sportsmobile...I'd take a closer look but the van is at SMB right now. If you're correct, I guess my idea would be moot and I might have to look at GMAC's policy a bit closer. It would be another reason to go with SF. Did I say I hate insurance companies?
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