Take care of one problem then comes another - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

Take care of one problem then comes another

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

Try Farm and City Ins.

2riker2go · RV-Dreams Family Member

We got ours through GEICO.

Dave Buck · RV-Dreams Family Member

We insured with National Interstate through Miller Insurance. Had it for 4 years.

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

Miller ,National good morning Sam and Geico can not do a policy in Mass.
Working on Progressive now but not very hopefull.
What a pain this is turning into. I can't pick up the trailer I own. Because I can't get insurance on it.
I have 3 Weeks to find a way to get this done.

TRAILERKING · RV-Dreams Family Member

Why tell them you're fulltiming with it? Just pretend you're going camping for an extended period.

CJSX2fromCT · RV-Dreams Family Member

Just talked to a friend of mine who lived in Mass.... When he bought his MH he went through Progressive and had no issues... He wasn't "FT" yet but told them that was in the future plans... no problems... there would be a $$$ change when he went "FT"... he has now registered in (as did I) in S.Dakota.... called Progressive and told them he changed and had no problems.
Now whether there is a differance in registering a MH and a 5'er in Mass... I don't know. good luck on your ordeal.

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

Are you retaining your Mass. domicile? If not, and that is the hangup then join Escapees, sign up for their mail service and register your domicile state as TX. Make your MA residence your second home. That might solve the issue. Not sure if that would work, just trying to think outside the box. You can always return to Mass. to "visit" for 180 days or so per year to not run afoul of certain residency requirements that various states have in play. I also think you should pay attention to Dec 31, 2016. The feds use that for a lot of things for tax purposes etc and so do many states. Where do you plan on residing on that date? It could make a difference as far as insurance options also.... or not. Again, outside the box thinking in play.

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are finding out here that a MH is much easier than the 5th wheel. The problem becomes worst because it is a high end 5th wheel. And the bigger problem is the truck which is pulling the Trailer.
Because it is a 2 ton truck , nobody seems to want to touch it.
We never expected this problem.
But we will not give up.
Now we do not have the time to change or domicile, as we need the insurance and plates to pick up the trailer in the next month.
We wanted to keep Mass as argue domicile until we both turn 65, we can get better health insurance option here.

Second Chance · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bob,

Any chance you are former or retired military? USAA had no problems when I told them we were going to full-time in the fifth wheel. The RV itself is insured - moving or standing - on our auto policy. We then purchased a renters' policy (also USAA) to cover the contents and personal items. It's very affordable and worked out very well.

Rob

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

No military service. Not sure renters insurance would work without a real rental property. But to for the suggestion.

JackKim · RV-Dreams Family Member

Rob, when did you insure with USAA? We have our truck with them, but they had us go to progressive for the 5er. Has something changed maybe?

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have Allied Insurance which we got from Miller Insurance in Oregon and they have been excellent.

Trace

Second Chance · RV-Dreams Family Member

JackKim wrote:
Rob, when did you insure with USAA? We have our truck with them, but they had us go to progressive for the 5er. Has something changed maybe?

Jack,

We've had the autos with USAA for almost 30 years and had our previous travel trailer insured with them. We only purchased the 5th wheel in August of 2015 (just last year). USAA said that if it were a motorhome, we'd have to insure with Progressive, but they had no problem with the fiver. They were the ones who suggested the renters' policy for contents and personal items, too. The renters' policy even covers the stuff we left in storage in SC. We also have a rider for valuable items (musical instruments, photo equipment, firearms, etc.) attached to the renters' policy. The whole thing is VERY inexpensive.

Rob

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Rob,

I guess I will have to check with USAA on the full-timing in a fifth wheel. We were told that we would have to be routed to Progressive, and their rates weren't as good as the National Interstate policy through Miller Insurance. USAA said that we would have been fine if we weren't full-timing. However, none of this is helpful for Bob because they are in Massachusetts and Miller can't help them.

Terry

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

This is just such a mess I can,t believe it.
I have found I can get insurance from Foremost but they can not give me the stamp I need to register the trailer and get plates in Mass. I can't pick up the new trailer until I pay the sales taxe but I can't do that until I register it.
This is just a crazy mess and is driving me crazy. I guess shame on me for not looking into this earlier.

Second Chance · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bob,

Maybe you just need to "quit fightin' it and join us Texans." (Half joking, of course...)

Rob

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

We will become Florida resident once we both turn 65. We have to years to go to do that.
Unless this crap pushes us to do it earlier

ticat900 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bobc wrote:
This is just such a mess I can,t believe it.
I have found I can get insurance from Foremost but they can not give me the stamp I need to register the trailer and get plates in Mass. I can't pick up the new trailer until I pay the sales taxe but I can't do that until I register it.
This is just a crazy mess and is driving me crazy. I guess shame on me for not looking into this earlier.

LOL ;move to BC and you pay the dealer the sales tax and they register it for you (28.00) and you go to ANY insurance company and they insure you no matter what

takes little effort and less than a day exact same deal for the 2016 dodge truck u bought you know to me our system is so easy and straight forward and your system is really laughable at best

-- Edited by ticat900 on Sunday 21st of February 2016 03:20:32 PM

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Terry and Jo wrote:
Rob,
I guess I will have to check with USAA on the full-timing in a fifth wheel.

What they told us back in 2012 was the same…normal RV usage they will cover it but full timing they send you over to Progressive. I checked with them again last year before we renewed our Progressive policy in June and was told that was still the case.

They are going to cover our new 5500HD/hauler bed combo from Classy Chassis on an agreed on value policy that includes both the base truck and the bed. I also changed our Progressive policy on the rig to be agreed on value of what we paid for it just recently after some discussions with Bill Napier. The problem is that any of the insurance companies want to settle the claim in 30 days for a total loss…and they do that by going and buying you (assuming you have replacement value coverage) a brand new rig. This would work (maybe) fine for a production line RV…getting a new Elite Suites is in just about any model is probably pretty doable in 30 days. Getting a new New Horizons in 30 days is simply not possible as they build to order and if one ordered a new one today you just have to get in line for the production line…even if they were to bump you to the front of the production list the timeline is still more than 30 days. I suppose it's vaguely possible that the insurance company could just pay New Horizons and leave the owner to work out exact features wanted and delivery and such…but going with agreed on value Progressive would just write a check and leave the owner to negotiate with New Horizons. We would have to figure out where to live for a few months while it was getting built…but that's another issue and not really relevant to the getting a new rig in 30 days problem.

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

The real problem Bob is having concerns his state of residence. It’s just hard to do this in a few states and Bob’s is one of them especially if you purchased the big truck from out of state.

Having now purchased two trucks from out of state from Classy Chassis we had our trucks inspected, tagged, the title application in work and the taxes paid – start to finish in 3 hours and that included driving from a local Chevy / RAM dealer to the DMV offices. It just depends on your state (and having all the paper in hand.)

FWIW, for those reading along: Even if you don’t have a New Horizons or similar rig, I'd recommend you reading through Neil’s post carefully and considering. For those with more “specific” trailers, motor homes or modified / up-fitted trucks like many of us have - especially if what you want can’t realistically be duplicated pretty quickly - I’d investigate “Agreed upon Value.” If your truck or rig is totaled, and they write you a check, then you’re in control. I sort of hate to say this but maybe you’d just want to the cash and retire from RVing or maybe a completely different type of rig. Just saying. . . . “It depends.”

Bill

Genecolleen · RV-Dreams Community Member

We have Blue Sky. They insured our NH and truck no problem. Domicile Fla.

Howard · Host

Bob, I'm checking to see if I can make something happen for you. No promises, but I've made a couple of contacts.

Alie and Jims Carrilite · RV-Dreams Family Member

Blue Sky here as well. We have a class 8 truck and they didn't bat an eye.
Also try Farmers.

ChefMom · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bobc wrote:
This is just such a mess I can,t believe it.
I have found I can get insurance from Foremost but they can not give me the stamp I need to register the trailer and get plates in Mass. I can't pick up the new trailer until I pay the sales taxe but I can't do that until I register it.
This is just a crazy mess and is driving me crazy. I guess shame on me for not looking into this earlier.

Make certain that you can indeed get the insurance in MA on this truck. My husband knows a thing or two about finance and stated to me when I broached this subject (we live in MA), that the type of truck you have chosen is first and foremost difficult to finance because it is considered in MA to be a commercial vehicle and its usually dictated that as such it be insured through your business. The same exact issue with registration. They want to see it registered to a business in MA. I don't know if this is new information to you or helps in any way but I thought I'd throw it out there. Good thoughts and good luck.

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

Yes it looks like the truck is the issue here.
No financing was need for the truck.
get Insurance on just the truck was OK.

Now add the Trailer and we have a Very big problem that we have not been able to solve yet.

we are still working on it at this time. Even Howard has gotten involved to Help ( Thank You Howard)

At the moment i have only 2 choices 1) move out of state ( wish i could, but can't do that for another year, or 2) pay the crazy price that Safety Insurance wants to do it for 9 Truck only 5400.00 plus 2000.00 for the trailer for a total of 7400.00.
That is a budget killer for the first year of being a fulltimer.

Once we turn 65 we will change our Domicile to Florida. and this should be much easier and cheaper

we still have 2 more leads that we are falling up on, one thanks to Howard and second Local.

keeping my figures crossed for a better out come.

Thank You everybody for your Suggestion and Help, this is such a great group to be in contact with.
I will keep you all posted on what the final outcome is.

lessen for everybody else, Before you buy anything double check everything, even the details that you think will not be a problem!! Never in my wildest dreams would i have thought this was going to be a big issue.

SuzieQ · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thinking outside of the box raised a couple of questions
1) If they say a commercial vehicle needs to be registered to a business instead of a person, how about forming a corporation or LLC. Get paid for babysitting someone's kid or cleaning a house and you in business.
2) Carnival people have very special/custom rigs. We have a lot of them in FL-Gibsonton. Don't know if there are any in MA. Wonder what they do for insurance.