The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Called AAA and broker NO ONE will ensure the truck because it is commerial?

As title. What gives? Any suggestions? its a 1938 1.5 ton!

Call one of the specialty brokers like Hagerty or somebody who can get to American Modern Home Ins Co. The market has changed, but I'll bet they'd insure it. They're not afraid of a risk and they're one of the better insurance companies around to deal with. Professional and fair. Good luck.

And if Jon's suggestions don't pan out for some reason, a lot of us have insured antique Class 8 trucks with Gulfway Insurance

I have a 2 ton Low Cab Forward insured through Hagerty - no problem for them.

....and I have two with Grundy. No problems. No hazzle....at least back a few short years ago.

None of my trucks are worth much so I just put liability insurance on them when they may be on the road.
Just call my insurance agent and she adds it on or takes one off. About 90 bucks a year. Safeco insurance.
Which reminds me, I need to go talk to her and make sure a truck is covered for the Jamboree!
What truck? Will it be a GMC 57 one ton or 65 one ton?

Don

Thanks for the replies everyone. I hope to maybe get my truck ready so I can meet some of you.. I will post latest pics up soon. I heard that the high dollar insurance carriers want it garaged. Not possible for mine right now. Does anyone know if true?

p.s. I type too fast.. should be 'insurance', not ensurance

Not sure what is meant by "High Dollar insurance companies" ...

The companies like Grundy, Hagarty, JC Taylor etc who offer the lowest rates for collector vehicles do have some stipulations in their policies to help lower the risk/exposure -- which they can then turn around to offer lower rates. Up the risk (no lockable covered storage or other than use just for shows and club events, for example) and the rates go higher.

Next up the food chain are companies like Gulfway who don't have as many stipulations but do have correspondingly higher rates.

As always, you have to do your own research to find the lowest rates for *you.* If you can meet the stipulations of the companies with the lowest rates then you get the lowest rate. If you can't (and thus are a riskier policy to underwrite), then you don't get the lowest rates. But you have to do some research to find the companies offering collector vehicle policies to see what their stipulations are.

And also keep in mind that a *lot* of factors go into figuring the policy for each individual. And no two individuals with similar vehicles are probably going to get similar rates from the same company. So say Alvin, Don, Buckshot and I all had the same truck (say a '39 halfton semirestomodded ... just for figgurin'). Based on our driving records, ages, marriage status, education and a number of other factors feeding the algorithms, we might each get our lowest rates from different companies.

Also pay attention to each company's coverages to make sure you are comparing policies/quotes on an equal basis. And know what your state mandates for minimum coverages so you can tell if you are being overinsured. Deductibles ... can you live with a higher one?? If you are a historically good driver, why pay a higher annual rate for something you are likely not going to need? Figure out how high a deductible you can live with and go from there.

But all of the companies mentioned above have good reputations. Some of the regular insurance companies now offer policies for collector vehicles, too, and it might be a savings to bundle that in with your regular car insurance if your particular carrier offers it (like State Farm, for example). Sometimes not.

For example, at one point I had vehicle policies with four different companies: USAA for the DD's, Hagerty for the '49 1-ton and '63 M-37, Gulfway for the '72 GMC road tractor and the '65 fire truck and State Farm for the '01 F-450 farm truck. Since then, Hagerty has expanded its business to cover "retired commercial vehicles" or however they put it. USAA wouldn't cover anything other than regular use modern vehicles. Gulfway wouldn't cover the modern farm/commercial use truck. State Farm would cover all of it but they were more expensive so I elected just to go with them for the farm truck. I let my State Farm agent work up a quote and he even said he couldn't beat what I had put together for myself. But in the process, I had learned a lot about risk, deductibles, minimum coverages and making an honest assessment of my own driving and what would be decent coverage.

If you are willing to put in some time reading and making phone calls and talking to insurance company reps, you can come up with good coverage at a good price.

“Commercial” are you indicating your intended use or just the fact it has commercial plates? If you have zero intentions of using it commercially then go to your States licensing agency and get a regular truck tag and change your registration to indicate the same. If you are going to use it commercially expect to pay up for coverage.

They will only want it garaged if you are purchasing physical damage insurance. The risk to them being theft, hail, wind, vandalism, etc. If liability is all you're buying in Maryland my recollection is they're going to require it is (a) licensed (b) inspected by your state annually (c) kept in good operating condition and (d) not loaned nor rented to other drivers. Some insurers may want to limit your mileage to 5 or 6000 miles per year on a truck in your weight class and age unless you are using it commercially and covering it under a commercial fleet program. And if you're using a 1938 1.5ton vehicle commercially they will have some other questions for you...at least until they understand why and can document their file. Not to imply they won't cover it, but it will be outside the bounds of what they normally expect to see and I'd expect them to want to know what modifications have been made to it. These are questions your agent will pass on to you. Whether you purchase physical damage coverage is up to you. If you also carry a personal umbrella policy, be certain your umbrella insurer knows about the vehicle and schedules it on that umbrella policy.

Martin, it's been my experience that some non-specialty insurers consider a truck to be a "commercial" vehicle if its anything larger than a pickup, no matter what year it is. Has nothing to do with intended use, titling, registration or any of it. They don't differentiate between current commercial vehicles and older vehicles "retired" from commercial use. If it's larger than a pickup, most of the "car" insurance companies consider it a commercial vehicle and thus either won't insure it at all or will do so at the regular commercial vehicle rate. The agents who are more familiar with the collector vehicle hobby will refer such vehicle owners to the specialty insurers.

Jon -- the specialty insurers who offer lower rates for collector generally don't offer a liability only policy (That I'm aware of). And they stipulate secured storage for the reasons you say and to be able to give us lower rates because we generally drive our collector vehicles less and take care of them, thus we have lower exposure to risk. If you're referring to the main stream insurers, I can't talk to that. I've never had a policy for a collector vehicle that wasn't from one of the specialty insurers as none of them (even my own insurance company I use for my DD's) could ever beat the rates the specialty companies could offer me.

And for collector vehicles, I'm not sure why you would want to go with a liability only policy. For a lot of our trucks, getting suitable replacement parts to repair damage (let alone replace the whole vehicle in a theft situation) is getting to be hard AND expensive. In my own case, my truck's sheet metal is all original and in pristine condition. Finding NOS bed sides, splash panels and running boards is exceptionally difficult these days. I wouldn't dare go liability only. On the newer DD's, I carefully track their value as they age and they do get to a point where a comprehensive policy isn't worthwhile anymore and we switch to a liability only policy. But it's a whole different situation with a collector vehicle, IMHO.

As for Maryland, this state does not require an inspection for either farm-use vehicles or vehicles that qualify for the "Historic Vehicle" registration -- it should, though, as I see a lot of hoopties out there sporting Historic tags... Maryland *does* require (for the Historic tag) that you have a daily driver (regular plate registration). Not sure about the "Street Rod" registration.

Jon makes a good point about umbrella policies. If you have one, you can/should evaluate your policies against your umbrella and the state minimums for liability. Here in MD, it's $100,000/$100,000 as I recall. Most insurance companies will try to talk you into the $300,000/$300,000 coverages and use scare tactics on you to do so. Why pay for more coverage than you actually need? *Especially* if you also have an umbrella policy.

So John, You are saying, I should pay over 500$ a year for full coverage on a vehicle I only gave 500 bucks for last year?
Don't ask me which one! Don

I have some of my antiques insured with JC Taylor and some with Hagarty. Hagarty takes things like a 1985 International truck tractor that I am restoring. I would prefer to have liability only because a claim would cause all of my insurance to sky rocket. That includes my commercial insurance that costs me well over $100,000 a year already. I don't carry physical damage on any of my commercial trucks or trailers for the simple reason I don't want any claims filed. Underwriters determine whether to take a risk and how much they think they can get away with charging. And people would be astounded if they knew what underwriters report to each other. And of course they look at age, driving record, marital status, claims filed and your credit score. In Texas commercial insurance as well as antique vehicle insurance is written by surplus lines. Surplus lines are not regulated by the Texas Department of Insurance. I have all of my personal vehicles, homeowners and farm and ranch liability with Farm Bureau. They are regulated by the TDI. Everything else I have insured is surplus lines and I am at the mercy of the underwriters. Keeping a stable full of antique vehicles is not a cheap hobby.

When I ensured mine probably 15 years ago I sent a picture and they responded they were going to insure it as a 3/4 ton truck, it's worked fine as far as I know, I've never had a claim

I just insured my truck for the first time since it's able to be driven on the road in the 2-1/2 years I've had it now. Granted mine is a lot newer than yours being a 1969 but it is a C60 with a 5th wheel , hydraulic steering and air brakes so it doesn't get more "commercial" than that. I have state farm. My agent came out took some pictures, fell in love with it and boasted what kind of shape it was in. I believe it was $100-150 for a 6 month policy. I am running historic plates and am limited. Basically I can't drive it everyday for routine driving and at 6mpg I don't want to anyways.

Just got 12 months for $242 for commercial through Hagerty on a 1953 3 ton GMC. No requirement for covered parking in AZ with them.