OK guys,
As you may have read already, I asked my business partner to write a piece about insuring your classic truck. She is a licensed insurance agent.
I was hoping she would be able to give a list of simple dos and don'ts. Unfortunately, what I learned working with her on the piece is that it frequently comes down to the relationship with your agent. If he doesn't know much about insuring an odd vehicle, like your stovebolt - big or small, you are likely to be faced with higher rates, forced into a "commercial" class when it isn't necessary, or inadequately covered.
Each insurance company has it's own schedules regarding the risk for different vehicles. For some companies if they don't have recent claims on vehicles (like my '54 3100), they place very high risk on the vehicle. Consequently, the rates are high. Others take the opposite approach. If they don't have recent claims on the vehicles, the prices are very low - there doesn't seem to be much in between.
When we discussed this on the phone, She used the example of an old, 1985 Celebrity. The difference between companies to insure the old beater was up to four times higher from one company than the cheapest for the same coverage.
Her article is posted in the "never-ending newsletter":
http://www.stovebolt.com/news/2005/october2005/index.html#insurance I hope this is helpful, and good luck!
