Found a company that insures conversions in NC

[crazycal]

In California, many idiots don't have insurance and if I didn't have it I would be stuck with the bill. One time in band camp, oops, wrong story. One time I was driving past a freeway offramp on a frontage road when some douche pulls off the freeway and does a very illegal and dangerous U-Turn as soon as he clears the fence right into the front of my car. When the cop shows up, the other driver gives some bogus story about it being a company truck, blah, blah blah...he just keeps spewing garbage when he slips up and says that it is his truck. I looked at the cop and pointed to the idiot and said, "did you just hear that, he admitted that it is his truck. Make him provide insurance." Not a chance, my insurance had to fix it...at a cost of about $8000.

Insurance is a necessary evil and I hate to admit it but I am glad I have it. Many other stories like the first one that would have cost me dearly if I didn't have it. Life insurance is another one that you need if you have a family that needs to be provided for if you drive your skoolie into a 200 year old Oak tree and DIE! Who will take care of them and with what money? Relying on the charity of others might not always be and option.


I think it is called being responsible.

[onenationundergoat]

Originally Posted by Dammit

I bought a policy with Progressive to get mine from auction to my shop, but they are adamant about "No RV conversions" on a school bus. No RV conversions on large, private, Thomas-bodied trucks either (I tried)...

Actually, AIG did manage to get me a policy through Progressive as a converted International Toter truck. But I knew that it would get booted as soon as the underwriters checked the VIN so I cancelled it and got my money back. TECHNICALLY it is a medium-duty truck, just not the truck she put it down as.

[Emidd27]

I called State Farm (my current agent with everything else) and National General yesterday. State Farm has not called me back yet and I was having my doubts that they would cover a bus. National General gave me a price around $300 per year. My issue is that National General wants interior pictures of a completed vehicle before they insure and I plan on building over a few years. I was hoping to be covered by insurance and take my time to build the interior. I am not sure what to do.

[onenationundergoat]

Originally Posted by Emidd27

I called State Farm (my current agent with everything else) and National General yesterday. State Farm has not called me back yet and I was having my doubts that they would cover a bus. National General gave me a price around $300 per year. My issue is that National General wants interior pictures of a completed vehicle before they insure and I plan on building over a few years. I was hoping to be covered by insurance and take my time to build the interior. I am not sure what to do.

Where are you from? If it's NC then National General definitely won't insure it. They might have given you a quote without realizing what state you're in. I've spoken to many different people at that company. One lady said they never insured bus conversions at all anywhere. Yeah right. Most people on Skoolie must be having a group hallucination.

As for the pictures, put a couch and cabinet and air mattress in there and make it look reasonable. Good enough for pictures. I've also heard of people just using a random conversion picture from someone else's build to get insurance. There's no rules about it having to stay the same inside after the pictures, so they'd never know the difference.

[Emidd27]

Originally Posted by onenationundergoat

Where are you from? If it's NC then National General definitely won't insure it. They might have given you a quote without realizing what state you're in. I've spoken to many different people at that company. One lady said they never insured bus conversions at all anywhere. Yeah right. Most people on Skoolie must be having a group hallucination.

As for the pictures, put a couch and cabinet and air mattress in there and make it look reasonable. Good enough for pictures. I've also heard of people just using a random conversion picture from someone else's build to get insurance. There's no rules about it having to stay the same inside after the pictures, so they'd never know the difference.

I am in Arizona and I told them it was an unprofessional bus conversion. The agent was very nice from cleveland ohio. I even game him the vin for the bus I am looking at. I have read about National General on this forum but they were also recommended by another insurance company that I had called.

Ya I have heard of people sending other pictures and if push comes to shove but I really prefer to not do things that way. I am interested to see what State Farm says.

[onenationundergoat]

Just got insurance in NC from Farm Bureau. No one at Allstate, Nationwide, National General, or anywhere else we called would do it. Farm Bureau spoke straight to the underwriters and was very transparent about it being a school bus conversion. They had to get it "seated" which apparently helps get insurance in high risk situations. It's insured as an RV, and our title says "House Car." $222 a year for 50/100/50 liability.

[dond]

Congratulations, same experience we had.....Enjoy your legality

[onenationundergoat]

Just got a call back from my local National General agency. He actually got National General to approve it, even though we're in NC. And for $209/year. We're just gonna stick with Farm Bureau since they were so good about it to begin with, but it's good to know we have options.

There is definitely something to be said for going through small local agencies. Harmony (where the National General agency is) has a population of about 500 people. Turns out this is the same guy that sold my parents life insurance 20 years ago. I remember him coming to our house and sitting on the couch discussing it with them when I was very small. This guy is also the only person around who will insure remodeled antique cars, so he gets a lot of business because that is a booming hobby in this area.