Insurance

[Christa L.]

My trailer insurance is due for renewal and I just found out that they are now using NADA values as replacement should the trailer ever be totalled. I looked it up and it is many thousands below market value. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good company/policy that uses a reasonable replacement value?

[Carol H]

Happy to say that my insurance company based my replacement cost on my actual bill of sale price and since then each year when they suggest the replacement value be dropped by 20% which is what they do yearly with stick trailers I say no thats not the case and show them recent ads for same age make trailer and they leave it alone. Bottom line is you the customer are paying the extra cost associated with the higher replacement cost so it should not be a big issue with them. They have suggested though that I keep lots of photos of the trailer and keep the ads I run across which I may need if the trailer is ever written off or stolen to get them to actually pay what its insured for though.

[D Davis]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Happy to say that my insurance company based my replacement cost on my actual bill of sale price and since then each year when they suggest the replacement value be dropped by 20% which is what they do yearly with stick trailers I say no thats not the case and show them recent ads for same age make trailer and they leave it alone. Bottom line is you the customer are paying the extra cost associated with the higher replacement cost so it should not be a big issue with them. They have suggested though that I keep lots of photos of the trailer and keep the ads I run across which I may need if the trailer is ever written off or stolen to get them to actually pay what its insured for though.

Thanks for discussing this, I was thinking of insuring mine as well. Useful tips here.

[Mike Magee]

Any insurance company I know of will pay as little as they have to, when totaling out a trailer (or any vehicle). Thus they will want to fall back to the NADA book value, which as you noted is not truly representative of a used egg's value. The only thing you can do to prove that the actual value is higher will be to gather, like Carol does, actual data on what similar FG eggs sold for in recent months.

[Roy in TO]

Appraisals help and may be necessary for some of our older trailers.

[monB]

My insurance company insured for cost of a new one. Allstate.

Mon

[Art VanDelay]

We get ours through Good Sam Club and don't worry.

[MinnesotaJill]

You have to get a different kind of policy based on declared property value. I went through Good Sam and I insured my Eggcamper for a declared value of $35,000. I think the premium is about $300 annual.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

The only thing you can do to prove that the actual value is higher will be to gather, like Carol does, actual data on what similar FG eggs sold for in recent months.

It actually pretty easy to do. I have kept a Word document on my computer since I bought the trailer and search through the for sale ads on Fiberglass-rv-4sale.com every once and awhile for a similar trailer/age and copy the ad with the date, description, photos and the URL into the Word document.

My problem is that Scamps are not a common trailer in BC & the prices of used fiberglass trailers in BC are higher than the US, so I will also look in the ads for other makes of fiberglass trailers in my area for sale with the same features. Also save those that have fewer features & are much older but are priced way higher than my insured value. Those ones may come in handy for a local market reference point that I can use should the insurance company start to argue it at pay out time - hope there never is a pay out time though

LOL have no idea if at the end of the day if the above will work but have been told by more than one local car collector that the above approach is the only one with any hope of getting the insurance company to pay anything close to what you insured it for, if it does not match what NADA says its worth.

As far as getting total new replacement value insurance goes - here you can only get that if you are the first owner of the vehicle - not sure if it is even available for trailers.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by MinnesotaJill

You have to get a different kind of policy based on declared property value. I went through Good Sam and I insured my Eggcamper for a declared value of $35,000. I think the premium is about $300 annual.

Yes that is true & the same as what I carry, but at the end of the day you still need to have a way of proving that what you say the declared value is, really is its value. Insurance fraud is a big problem so insurance companies are not going to pay out any more than what they think something is worth (in the case of trailers its usually what NADA says) regardless of what you paid to insure it for.

[Raz]

I was curious so I went to NADA to see what things are worth. Forget about Trillium, it's not there. All I could find are Scamp and Casita. If you bought a new 2011 Scamp 13' for $8500 ( lowest price I think), Nada says it should retail for $5700. Interesting. Raz

[Bob Miller]

NADA Values for RV's are the bain of many an owner following an accident. For example, a (molded fiberglass) 1992 Toyota Sunrader has an NADA value of about $4500, but try to buy one for less than $10,000, and top condition examples have sold for $18,000 in the past year. Here's what I do with my ins. co.
1. I make a "Declared Value" and pay slightly more for coverage. NOTE: Making a declared value of $30,000 on a $15,000 rig will not get you $30,000 if it is totaled. The declared value is for payment "Up To" that value for a comparable rig.
2. On a regular basis I print out ads for similar rigs and keep them with my ins papers.
3. I keep all receipts for repairs and modifications made.
4. Keep a file of recent pictures of the rig, showing all updates and recent repairs.
5. And make sure your tires are less than 6 years old. (I just wanted to slip that in there).

My first wife worked in claims for Allstate for many years and provided these tips.....

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Bob Miller

5. Make sure your tires are less than 6 years old. (I just wanted to slip that in there).

could you please drop over and help clean the coffee off my keyboard!

[john warren]

ok talked with my agent before we got ours and was told our auto insurance covers while towing and home owners cover at home. for replacement costs on both. all we needed was coverage for vandelism and such while camping. one of the advantages of having too many vehicles,houses,and boats insured threw the same agent. it think my suplimental for it was like $150 per year with road service, (do not quote me on that )but what ever it was seemed cheap concidering they would replace everything down to a lost potato peeler.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by john warren

ok talked with my agent before we got ours and was told our auto insurance covers while towing and home owners cover at home. for replacement costs on both.

To bad that is not the case in all states/provinces.

[Mike Magee]

Good Sam's rv insurance is provided by GMAC. I recently took out a policy on my travel trailer for replacement value, but that replacement value thing goes away once the trailer is 4 (or 5? I forget already) years old.

I also asked if they could insure my cargo trailer that I use daily for work, and the rep said no problem. But when the policy came, the language excluded business use. I called them and they then offered to cover it with a commercial policy, but they would have to insure the tow vehicle as well... net increase in premium of $500/year. Since the cargo trailer is only worth $2000 or maybe $2500, I declined and am going without coverage on that trailer. Since the premiums saved will pay for the trailer in 4-5 years anyway, I'll take my chances.

[casey67]

We just insured the '73 ECO (like a boler) for comp. and collision. We are in Texas and liability is covered by the liability insurance of the vehicle towing the trailer. There is no coverage while it is just sitting at the house unless you have comp and collision. There is no coverage based on our homeowners insurance. We used a "declared" value of $7,500. Also did like Carol H and have acumulated info on similiar year models that have been listed that have been renovated with new axle, tires, updates, etc. That is what Progressive USAA said to do, we may also get an appraisal to keep on file. The cost on the comp and collision for one year was $238 with $1,000 deductible and $1,000 in contents, vacation liability and roadside service. It is a disappearing deductible, disappears 25% for every year of no claims.

[Radar1]

For those that are under the belief that their homeowners policy will cover their trailer, I urge you to pull out your policy and look specifically at the "limitations" section. "Most" homeowners policies have a $1,000 limit on any trailer coverage, and only for specific causes of damage.
In most states, your auto policy covers liability for damage caused by your towed trailer, but not damage or loss to your trailer.
These are generalizations, there are several different types of policies available in every state, and every state has different rules governing their policies. (I recall TX and NC as having the most interesting policies)
When I was a claims agent for a top rated company that covered all states and most foreign countries, we had to get the details of the loss or damage, and then had to pull up the specific policy to confirm the coverages, limitations, and exclusions. All this is available and spelled out in your individual policies.
I have a separate "agreed value" policy for my current trailer, although when I had my basic popup I considered the $1,000 coverage under the homeowners policy to be good enough (and I had to use that $1,000 coverage after a hailstorm).