Hey Everyone,
We bought a short bus: (
http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f27/th...tml#post169091) and I wanted to share our title, license and insurance experience.
The bus was located about 80 miles South of where I live. Prior to pickup I purchased a 3 day permit for $30 to get me home and called my insurance agent. My State Farm agent assured me that my existing insurance would extend liability coverage to a new purchase for two weeks.
So, with temporary insurance in hand we brought the bus home.
I then went to the nearest licensing office and was told that I would need the State Patrol inspection and the conversion needed to be complete to a certain point. Damn!
I then called a licensing office in another town and asked about titling an E450 that I had converted into a motor home. She told me "no problem come on down". I went down hoping for the best. What it came down to is I had to sign an "Affidavit of Conversion" along with the regular paperwork.
Thirty minutes and $366 later we have a motorhome title, plates and tags.
I then sent pictures to my insurance agent. She responded that the bus had too many seats and underwriting would most likely reject the policy. She asked that I send pics with the seats removed to show that it was no longer equipped to carry xx number of people (I forget the number).
I set out to get rid of the seats. An ad on the Craigslist Free section yielded a whole bowl of Craigslist Flakes. I wasted a good part of two days waiting for people to come and pick up free seats. Not one person actually showed up.
I drove around to every place I could think of trying to get rid of them. Finally wound up at the metal recycler. They thought I wanted $ for them and said no at first. I explained that all I wanted was someone to take them and a set of hands pulling them out would be helpful. "No".. But if I pulled them out myself they would accept them.
It took about three weeks to finally get rid of the seats. All the time hoping not to hear from the insurance underwriters before I could send new pictures. Well..... Before I could get the pictures to them... They wrote the policy. It is currently written as a commercial vehicle for private use. Premiums are $166 for 6 months. Liability, Medical and Under insured Motorist.
I am not sure how much "relationship" counts when it comes to insurance but my wife has been with the same company for 30 years and I have been insured with them for 15 years.
When we have the conversion completed to an appropriate point we will take new pics and switch the insurance to motorhome. I expect that the premiums will be about the same with coverage changed to full coverage.
Soo... Now we have a short bus with title, plates, tags and insurance. All in all it was not too difficult. Just a bit frustrating at points.
I hope that this is helpful to others in WA.
Take care.
S.
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