You might feel very much like this when you think about insurance..

While I’m out gallivanting around on a paradise island in the Atlantic I thought I’d leave you with a post on insurance. I know, I know…it’s rather mean of me and you may want to stick your head in the sand rather than think about it (I sure know I do), but it’s one of those inevitable things that come up and just need doing. So, I thought now would be as good a time as any.

Now I should say up-front that I have no particular allegiance to any one insurance company and I rather suggest that you shouldn’t either. Insurance companies compete for business and regularly go through rate-raises (those “vanishing deductibles” always come back in $$ somehow). So, once a year I go out and shop . I stick with well-known companies, but I don’t discriminate as long as I get what I want. Our RV & car policy is currently with Geico and we’re happy with them, but if I got equal coverage at a better price from one of the other many reputable companies I’d be just as happy to leave them.

Is my baby covered?

But I DO want fulltime RV insurance, it IS a slightly different beast than regular car insurance and for those of you considering this lifestyle it’s worth understanding the difference. I’m not an insurance broker so I won’t give you detailed info, but I’ll outline the general facts so you can go off a-happy insurance shopping on your own:

1/ Liability – When you fullime your RV becomes your home, so things that might have been covered under a “homeowners” insurance now needs to be covered under your RV insurance. With liability that usually means a higher value so that, for example, if someone slips and falls inside your RV you’re covered. Ask your insurance if you’re covered in camp (while parked) as well as on the road. Some insurance companies call this “fulltime” insurance.

2/ Personal Property – Since you carry everything you own in your RV you might want to look at the $$ of property coverage in your policy. Most standard policies come with some token amount (maybe about $5,000) of coverage, but if you’ve got a bunch of expensive stuff (computers, TVs, tow-bar, satellite dish, GPS, solar etc.) that you want to cover consider increasing this value. Ask the insurance whether coverage includes stuff attached to the RV which you’ve added after-market.

Negotiating insurance company quotes can be a prickly business

3/ Replacement Coverage – If something catastrophic happens and you manage to total your RV, you should be really clear on what kind of $$ you’ll get from your insurance. Some offer purchase price replacement, but this is usually only on new coaches. Most companies will cover the NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) fair market value of your RV.

4/ Towing - My stance is that the majority of insurance companies really don’t know much about towing bigger rigs. So I always recommend ditching whatever they offer you and getting a separate towing package from one of the “experts”. CoachNet and Good Sam’s are the most-used companies and both get decent reviews from long-time RVers.

5/ Discounts and Deductibles - Of course you should always ask for discounts (good driver, anti-lock brakes, multiple vehicle etc.) and you always want to look at deductibles. My personal feeling on insurance is that it’s there to cover catastrophic events so I want the highest deductible I can afford. Remember that every single claim you make through your insurance company can potentially increase your coverage costs (sometimes by several magnitudes!) so you have to ask yourself if it’s really worth it. Our policy is never to claim the stuff we can  afford to pay ourselves.

Rather than do all the work yourself I highly recommend going through brokers who are experienced in RV insurance and “talk the RV talk”. Here’s a couple of good names that make the rounds on the RV forums on a regular basis:

• Farm & City 800-331-1520
• Gilbert RV Insurance 888-784-6787
• Miller RV Insurance 800-622-6347

And with that I think I’ll take a tall drink by the pool overlooking the ocean….oh wait…I’m already there

Please take a moment to read the below.  I hope and trust that you will not find this offensive or an intrusion.  If nothing else I hope you find it interesting.  This is an important issue to the RV and RV Rental Industry.

I received this message from the RVIA.  I took the action as requested, it is very easy and quick to do.

Who knows if this will do any good.  It cannot hurt!

For those of you who remember the tax code change and what the affect was of that on our industry you can appreciate the potential enormity of the issue here.

All,

The second home mortgage interest is in jeopardy of being eliminated.  To preserve this important industry sales tool, the RV industry needs to launch a Congressional e-mail campaign TODAY.  We have only one week to influence the US Congress.
(See details below)

Please contact each of your association members and request that they participate in this campaign by sending an e-mail to their 2 Senators and 1 House member opposing the elimination of the second home mortgage interest deduction.

To initiate our e-mail campaign, RVIA sent the letter below to its membership today directing them to an industry website called RVACT.  There is nothing on the website identifying it with RVIA.

You can send your association members to the website to compose and send a letter to their Congressional members.  After personalizing the template letter your members will be asked to enter their address. The system will use this address to automatically send the letter to their Representative and Senators without them having to know the names of their members of Congress and without them leaving the RVACT website.  The website has sample letters for manufactures/suppliers, dealers, any industry member and consumers to send or alter as desired.  If you would like to compose additional sample letters for any of these entities, send your sample Congressional letters to Monika Geraci at RVIA, mgeraci@rvia.org and she will post them on the website. The link I have included below will send your association members
directly to the “any industry member” formatted letter.

To initiate your association’s e-mail campaign, please feel free to forward the letter below or edit it in any way you see fit, then sign your name to it instead of leaving Richard Coon’s name on it. The most important item to include in the email to your members is the link to the RVACT website: http://www.rvact.com/rvact/issues/alert/?alertid=56555506

This is the link that connects to the “any industry member” formatted letter and that allows your members to
compose and send letters to their members of Congress.

I sent a similar e-mail to RVDA and other state associations.

Give me a call at either of the numbers below or drop me an e-mail if you want more information or need
something clarified.

Best,

Dianne Farrell
VP Gov’t Affairs
RVIA
W 703 620-6003 X315
Cell 703 862-8322
dfarrell@rvia.org