MH Insurance

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ncluley

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Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Posts
13
Are there insurance companies that provide stand-alone motor home insurance?  My current auto insurer does not.  We will be taking delivery of our new (and first) DP in a few weeks and I want to have insurance all set before delivery.  As always, all info and recommendations will be greatly received.

 
We use State Farm for our coach, but we receive junk mail offers for RV insurance from different companies all the time; They all claim to be the best, most comprehensive and cheapest in addition to having the best claims record. You'll find that folks here use a variety of companies and most are satisfied with their choice. Stay tuned.
 
We likewise, have State Farm and have since the 50's.  No one has bettered their rates yet for us.  Guess we have too many vehicles.  Always treated us great.  In fact, they totaled 1 MH for us that I didn't think was that bad. Paid us off and said it's value was $4000.  I kept it, sold and sold it the same day  for 11G. The guy is still driving it.  Cost him about 2G to repair.  We're all happy.  I was dumbfounded when they did it.  I'm sure  they know what they are  doing.  I wasn't going to argue with them.
 
I had a similar experience with State Farm when one of the kids totalled one of the cars. The adjuster called me and said a"this is the value of the vehicle, but I know it was in excellent condition with low mileage, so I looked around for cars in similar condition and I'm giving you the highest number I've found". Sure enough, it was a lot more than I was expecting.

We too have all our vehicles insured with State Farm (in addition to the house and some life insurances) and get their max discounts. I used to insure my boats with them, but they're not really geared to boats and use(d) independent adjusters, so I switched to BOATUS insurance. I still have a PWC (jet ski) insured with SF because they didn't have the "named drivers only" restriction for PWCs that BOATUS has.
 
Insuring a motorhome with a typical auto insurer will generally have limitations on the amount of use allowed.? This may be something like no more than 6 months a year, or similar wording.? If you're insuring for fulltime use, then it's a completely different situation and the choices are more limited as there are only a few companies that write fulltime RV insurance.

In either case, it pays to shop several insurers.
 
Ned has made a good point about fulltime use.  It does make a difference.  And like Ned said it is important to shop for insurance.  What works for one person may not apply for another.
 
My agent told me to go when, where and for how long I want.  That that was his problem not mine, and nothing in the policy indicates otherwise.  So that's what I do.
 
I don't recall seeing an exclusion in my SF policy either, but I haven't looked for a while. OTOH I recall my agent making a comment approx 15 years ago that they calculate the premiums based on the assumption of 6 months use in a year. I took it to mean that they weren't expecting full time use. But, as your agent appears to suggest, there's not really any way they'd know if you're full or part time.
 
I posed that question about extensive  time on the road and we decided that when our house sells, we will leave my car at the daughters house, to keep our Dr.  license here.  After all, we are keeping our checking, banking at several banks, bookkeeping system, Doctors, attorneys, and own the house the dau. lives in so all our ins. can stay intact.  Regardless if we own property out of state, in Arizona, Montana, and elsewhere.  This is still our home base.  The question came up because we both drive Lincolns and were afraid that using an Enclosed, 24', Car-hauler for a portable garage, behind our MH, with 1 of them inside, How good would our insurance be?  His answer was, your home is here and your insurance is good.  I don't question his judgement, figuring he knows better than I.  After all he carried our business insurance for years, plus all of our families. Hope I explained it right.  I do have trust in him and them. Maybe it's the agent that makes the difference.
 
I agree that an agent can make a big difference to the relationship. When we arrived in CA in 1980, were staying at a motel and had just bought our first car here, I opened the yellow pages and found this agent. He met me in a restaurant 20 miles from his house at 10.00pm and wrote me a binder. I've been with him ever since and his service has been consistent, which is one reason he and State Farm have had all/most of my insurance business for 25 years. Sounds like you have a similar relationship with your agent.
 
ncluley said:
Are there insurance companies that provide stand-alone motor home insurance?  My current auto insurer does not.  We will be taking delivery of our new (and first) DP in a few weeks and I want to have insurance all set before delivery.  As always, all info and recommendations will be greatly received.
I have mine thru GMAC submitted by Camping World. I have my car with another carrier. The only thing I lose is the mutil-vehicle discount. I told GMAC that I use the coach 7 months a year but it made no difference.
 
Just paid our MH Ins for the year 98 37 1/2' Ford with Banks Pack Slide and Tag axle $250 Deduct $583 for the year.  I ticked to death with it.  Heck my car is nearly that much, Boss' car is more, but the trucks are  the same.  But then Insurance here is much less than it is in many areas of the country.  I'm about 25 to 30 miles east of St Louis, Mo, in IL.  Country Area.
 
Sorry can't spell tickled  and missed it when proofing.  Age and CRS I guess.
 
BernieD said:
I have mine thru GMAC submitted by Camping World.

Bernie, IIRC the GMAC/CW offer I recently received in the mail guarantees a new replacement RV if it's totalled, not current value. That's quite an incentive to switch. Is your coverage the same?
 
Albslb2 said:
I posed that question about extensive  time on the road and we decided that when our house sells, we will leave my car at the daughters house, to keep our Dr.  license here.  After all, we are keeping our checking, banking at several banks, bookkeeping system, Doctors, attorneys, and own the house the dau. lives in so all our ins. can stay intact.  Regardless if we own property out of state, in Arizona, Montana, and elsewhere.  This is still our home base.  The question came up because we both drive Lincolns and were afraid that using an Enclosed, 24', Car-hauler for a portable garage, behind our MH, with 1 of them inside, How good would our insurance be?  His answer was, your home is here and your insurance is good.  I don't question his judgement, figuring he knows better than I.  After all he carried our business insurance for years, plus all of our families. Hope I explained it right.  I do have trust in him and them. Maybe it's the agent that makes the difference.

Another thing you have to think about....After you sell the house you will no longer have homeowners insurance. Once you park the MH in a campsite it is no longer a vehicle. It's a home. If someone falls off your steps and breaks a leg your vehicle insurance won't cover it. That's why you need "full timers" insurance on the MH because it will have liability coverage when the MH is parked.

Another thing to check that Bernie mentioned. If you MH is totaled do you get current value or full replacement value? Big, Big difference.

 
Alaskansnowbirds said:
If someone falls off your steps and breaks a leg your vehicle insurance won't cover it. That's why you need "full timers" insurance on the MH because it will have liability coverage when the MH is parked.

Don, are you saying that "regular' motorhome insurance doesn''t have liability insurance? I'll need to check my policy when we get home.

Another thing to check that Bernie mentioned.

That was me, but we knew what you meant  :)
 
Tom said:
Don, are you saying that "regular' motorhome insurance doesn't have liability insurance? I'll need to check my policy when we get home.

Tom,

I may be wrong but it is my understanding that with "regular" auto type insurance on your MH, you have liability coverage if you're at fault in an accident while you're driving. Once the the MH is parked you don't have liability coverage. You (Tom) have coverage because you have a stick house and your homeowners insurance liability coverage takes over when you park the MH. A fulltimer WITHOUT a stick house doesn't have homeowners insurance so they need a "fulltimers insurance policy" on the MH that provides this coverage.

Like I said, I may not have my facts right but that's the way I think it works. Now I'm NOT saying that State Farm or Allstate or anyone else can't write a policy that includes that coverage. I'm just saying that if you don't have a stick house with homeowners insurance it's something you need to ask your agent so you're sure you have the coverage.

 
Alaskansnowbirds said:
Once the the MH is parked you don't have liability coverage. ...... A fulltimer WITHOUT a stick house doesn't have homeowners insurance so they need a "fulltimers insurance policy" on the MH that provides this coverage.

Thanks for the explanation Don. I'll certainly be checking my Motorhome policy when we get home. Similarly with our boat insurance, I'd be very surprised/dismayed to find that we don't have liability coverage if someone fell off the boat while it was berthed at the house.
 
Ncluely:

We have fulltimer MH insurance with Progressive.  This is our first year fulltiming and our first year with Progressive.  Can't say yet whether we like them best as we are still looking around.  We went with Progressive the first year because they are big and well known and offer full replacement value.

Tom:

Do you know if State farm will cover fulltimers or can you find out?  Also do they offer full replacement value on new MHs?

Smoky
 

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