Offshoreonly.com - Help Needed

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Board Gods: I put this in the "general boating discussion" section because this truck is used only to tow the boat, so it kinda fits here!

I need help from guys that are using medium duty tow vehicles like the F-650, Topkick, Kodiak, Freightliner, etc... I need some insurance leads. I had my medium duty Peterbilt with Progressive, but I got a refund check and a letter in the mail today stating that they are no longer writing non commercial policies for medium duty tow vehicles.

I contacted the agent that wrote the policy and he said that it was his mistake. He wrote the policy under the RV terms even though I clearly told him that it was not an RV. He said that he thought it was the same kind of policy no matter if it was a medium duty, non-commercial tow vehicle or an RV (motorhome). Well, evidently Progressive ran the VIN # and found that it was not an RV, so they dropped the policy. Why it took them 2 months to figure it out, I don't know. They will still insure fully self contained RVs, but they will not cover medium duty, non-commercial tow vehicles.

Anyhow, I have called everywhere today looking for non commercial insurance for this truck and I cannot find anybody that will take it. I have called more than a dozen companies with no luck. The GVW on the truck is 26,000 and it has regular truck tags from the DMV.

My attorney said that we can make Progressive keep the policy for the remainder of the year since it was paid in full. I have even received my policy and my insurance cards from them. He said that the policy is essentially a binding contract. The problem with doing this is that in the event of an accident, Progressive is going to side step the responsibility stating that the vehicle was misrepresented. This is all thanks to the local Progressive insurance agent.

I would have bought a toterhome if I had known that it would be this tough to find insurance for the Pete. The crazy thing is that I had the insurance lined up before I even put a deposit on this truck. Progressive was my first call since they have our other vehicles and it went through without any problems, so I never thought twice about it.

So, here I am. If I can't find non commercial insurance for the truck, I will either trade it in on a toterhome or send it back to Texas to have the manufacturer make it meet the RV specs so that it can be tagged and insured as an RV (motorhome). The other option is to say screw off to the insurance companies and sell everything, including the boat. They are seriously making me consider this last option! :mad:

Oh yea. The policy that Progressive canceled was $770 per year. The only way that they will cover it is under a commercial policy for $5,500 per year. Isn't that convenient for them? Now I know why they no longer write non commercial policies for medium duty tow vehicles. There are lots of companies that will write a commercial policy to cover it, but they are all as expensive as the price that Progressive quoted above. Crazy huh? These companies want more to insure the truck than what it costs to insure the boat! :eek: :eek: Here is the truck.

I hate insurance companies. It took them two months to figure it out :rolleyes: so they could use your money for two months. Bastids!

Try National Interstate Ins 1-800-929-1500. Additional premium might be worth the tax deduction you get depending on the way it is titled or owned.

ahh, what's 5 gs to a guy with those toys anyways......

seriously Duck, I saw your boat at Tres's, very nice!

I hate those damn insurance companies

I don't know who does it ,but you CAN insure it as a recreational vehicle ....
Look at all the thousands of large 5th wheel trailers on the road being pulled by these trucks . They ARE registered RV's . IT is hard to find the right company that will see ti your way ,but they are there . Best thing to do is hook up with "Good Sam club " OR camper world . They could tell you right away what to do . They are like the Offshoreonly of RV's ! MAkeing your truck an official RV is tough . It must be fuly self contained . Running water , etc. You could do it on a very small scale and technicaly fit in that catagory . YOu know, an outside show, and a sink in the glove box !! :D :D Easier to just get it insured by the right company .
Start right out with a good story ! Tell them you pull a camper that you borrow all the time "AND" you pull your boat too ! :D One of those places should help you with no trouble . Also look for RV insurance on the web . Best of luck !

Let me know what you find . I may need it too . I have my Kenworth insured as a farm truck right now . $700 . Comercial is around $6,000 . When the RV conversion is done ,they say it will be around $400 a year ! :D

What the hell's the difference? You don't haul for money(not a commercial vehicle), you purely use the truck as a device to tow your recreational vehicle(boat) to a recreational facility(water). Seems to fit the definition to me. I hate insurance! :mad:

And you'll probably put less than 5000 miles a year on it.

Call Rick Felson at Hawk Race Consultants 516-466-9760. See what he has to say.

I was always told a porta pottie and a microwave make it an RV. Maybe there was something about running water too but I don't think so.

Damn Will..that's an impressive rig you've got there!... :cool:

Good luck...

Marty

Roger 1: That's exactly it! What I wonder though, if something had happened during those two months, would they have covered it? I'll bet not.

OffshoreOnly: Thank you for the info. National Interstate Insurance sent me to two other companies that are affiliated with them. The first was Diversified Insurance. They would only cover the truck under a commercial policy. The second company was Explorer Insurance. They would have covered the truck as a recreational tow vehicle had it not been registered in Maryland. They said that Maryland has enacted some tough guidelines for insurance companies over the last few years and that is why they cannot write a policy for it in Maryland. So, if I lived in pretty much any other state, your lead would have worked out. Thank you anyway. It was certainly worth the few minutes that it took to make the calls.

thedonz: I agree. I can't stand insurance companies either. I think that they are the biggest scam artists out there!

Boot: I tried that. I called Good Sam, RV America and a few others. The truck has to be a fully self contained RV or it has to have an RV trailer on the same policy, with the same name listed as the owner for each. You did get me on the right track though. See the post below.

Baja Daze: I agree. I really don't see the difference. I think that it is just a way for the insurance companies to make more money!

Ron P: I took the number that you posted and called Rick. He said that if it was part of a race team that he could cover it without any problem, but since I got out of racing and no longer have the race team that he could not help me. Thanks anyway. I certainly appreciate to the lead.

Ryan Beckley: I looked into that. To be considered as an RV it has to be self contained with running water, a bed, something to cook with (microwave or stove) and some kind of bathroom or porta pottie.

BODYSHOT1: Thank you! The insurance companies are trying to beat me down, but I refuse to let them win! It just seems like the insurance companies are trying to penalize me for being safe. If I had kept the dually to pull this boat, it would have been 6000 pound over weight, but I would have had insurance. Of course, had I kept that truck and gotten into an accident, they would have hung me out to dry being that far over weight. Now that I have a truck that will handle the weight safely, they want to rape me for nearly 4 times the cost for insurance. That's crazy!

I've seen it done in similar trucks. Porta pottie, microwave, some rinky dink water system, and doesn't the back seat fold down into a bed? Lots of the race guys go this route to do the RV and you also don't stop for weigh stations with an RV.

I think have it figured out. I talked to RV America and Good Sam again today.
Like they had told me before, neither company will take the truck by itself, but they will take it if there is a self contained RV trailer on the policy. Then they will include the truck in the policy as a tow vehicle for the RV trailer.

I told the agent at RV America that I don't own an RV trailer. He suggested to go and find the cheapest, self contained RV tailer out there so that I could use it to get an RV policy. He claims that he has had a lot of customers pulling big boats and horse trailers do this over the past few years in order to get non commercial insurance for their medium duty tow vehicles.

I asked him if we did this, would the truck be covered when traveling without the RV trailer. He said absolutely yes. I asked him if the truck was covered if it was pulling the boat. He said yes. He said that as long as there was an RV trailer on the policy, the truck would have full coverage no matter if the RV trailer was with it or not.

To test the theory, I called Good Sam back and asked them about this kind of arrangement. They said that, once again, they could take the truck if it was included with an RV trailer on the same policy. I asked them the same questions about the truck being covered when it was not with the RV trailer and their answers matched the ones that RV America gave. They said that the truck would be covered no matter if the RV trailer was with it or not. This made me feel a little better to get the same answer from two different companies. RV America and Good Sam are also underwritten by different companies, so I know that the source for their answers did not come from the same place. RV America is underwritten by Progressive and Good Sam is underwritten by GMAC.

So, it was time to do some homework. I priced some small, used RV trailers today. I found numerous ones under $2000 that were 100% self contained. I am considering grabbing one of these and just putting it in storage so that I can get the RV policy for the truck. It sounds crazy, but it works out in the long run.

RV America quoted me $700/year on the truck if I had an RV trailer on the policy. The RV trailer, valued at $2000 for easy numbers, would cost less than $200 a year to insure on the same policy. That is a total of $900/year for insurance if we do it this way.

For the truck by itself, I could not find anybody that would list it in anything other than a commercial policy, even if it was listed for private use only. That's stupid, but that is what I found after making dozens of phone calls over the last 2 days. Anyhow, the quotes on a commercial policy for just the truck ranged from $4800 - $7700/year!

So here is the bottom line. Buy a cheap RV trailer for under $2000 and get insurance for the pair for $900/year, or get insurance for just the truck for (the cheapest quote) $4800/year. This is kind of a no brainer. The overall savings in cost for the first year, including $2000 for the trailer purchase, is $1900. Then after the first year it will be a difference of $3800/year.

Obviously, I think that I am going to pursue this avenue. It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but the numbers work out to my advantage. I'll let you all know how things go. As always, thank you for all of your help!

THIS IS JUST STUPID!!!!!!

I understand what you're doing, and why you have to do it.

It's just f#$kin crazy what you have gone through just to "do the right thing" - insure your rig.
I mean buying an RV that you don't want and storing it just to get a better ins. rate - why is that necessary?
That's the part that pisses me off, you have to spend $2000 on an RV that you never intended to buy and Dont intend on using to save $ to cover what you really want - legally!
I understand why your doing this, but not all of us are fortunate enough to be able to do that - I'm still struggling putting money together for the next boat, if I took a hit like that it would keep me out of the water, I mean that's good gas money...

Good luck, but this system sucks...