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Old 05-11-2019, 09:36 AM   #21
Mini-Skoolie
 
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I am happy to report that we are finally insured! The local company that Progressive Commercial recommended to us managed to get us insured through Progressive as an RV. Go figure.

So, with all of the paperwork finally done, we were able to get the title transferred and it plated yesterday. Now to cross all the things and hope they don't change their mind and cancel the policy, at least until we get to our final destination in a couple of weeks.

Now to start researching on how to start converting for fun.

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Old 05-11-2019, 09:38 AM   #22
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Originally Posted by BigSkyWren View Post
I am happy to report that we are finally insured! The local company that Progressive Commercial recommended to us managed to get us insured through Progressive as an RV. Go figure.

So, with all of the paperwork finally done, we were able to get the title transferred and it plated yesterday. Now to cross all the things and hope they don't change their mind and cancel the policy, at least until we get to our final destination in a couple of weeks.

Now to start researching on how to start converting for fun.
that's good news
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Old 05-11-2019, 12:43 PM   #23
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As an Ins agent, let me make some people mad if I have to... any policy that’s not an “RV” policy with the company knowing well and good it’s a converted school bus... well your asking for trouble. At best the company will pay out then drop you negatively effecting your Ins score worst case and most likely they refuse to pay for “misrepresentation or miscatigoration and still drop you. All are obviously bad. Get the right policy if you can. National General has a good one for skoolie but needs you to be well along in the conversion process. The reason some are able to get policies from a company and others get a hard no from the same company/dif agent is that some agents are less ethical than others. They get paid commission and want the policy count and agents don’t have to deal with claims Adjusters have the dirty job. At claim time the agent is in the wind and the insurance company will not likely pay. Legal disputes because it’s all he said she said almost never go in favor of the client. Take it for what it’s worth. I have no horse in this race just a lot of experience

I wish it was as easy as being honest with the insurance company and then just paying whatever premium they're comfortable with for coverage.

The problem we've run into is that no one will insure us as an RV. We sold our house to full time it in our bus, got domicile in South Dakota because it's the only state who won't make us take a trip back there once a year for inspections, and quickly found out that no one wants to insure a converted school bus that is a full time residence. Add to that the fact that we heat with a small wood stove and we're SOL on anything but Progressive commercial for personal use, liability only.

We're terrified of the stories of being cancelled out of the blue, and afraid to try National General or anyone else because of the stove. It's a bad spot to be in, especially when we'd happily pay a high premium if we could just be honest about what we're doing and be guaranteed good coverage.
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Old 05-11-2019, 01:31 PM   #24
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Originally Posted by BigSkyWren View Post
I am happy to report that we are finally insured! The local company that Progressive Commercial recommended to us managed to get us insured through Progressive as an RV. Go figure.

So, with all of the paperwork finally done, we were able to get the title transferred and it plated yesterday. Now to cross all the things and hope they don't change their mind and cancel the policy, at least until we get to our final destination in a couple of weeks.

Now to start researching on how to start converting for fun.
This is a problem, it comes from people who don't want to do their job and just want to sell you something that they make money off of, damned if it had any value to the buyer. Progressive is no longer covering anything that was a bus in it's previous life. Progressive, when they find out it's a bus will end up canceling you or denying any claim you have because they insured your bus as an RV when it is not an RV.
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Old 05-11-2019, 02:16 PM   #25
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This is a problem, it comes from people who don't want to do their job and just want to sell you something that they make money off of, damned if it had any value to the buyer. Progressive is no longer covering anything that was a bus in it's previous life. Progressive, when they find out it's a bus will end up canceling you or denying any claim you have because they insured your bus as an RV when it is not an RV.
With all of the country caught up in this "political correctness" garbage over the past few years, why not simply "self identify" as an RV, and when asked for pictures to prove it, simply claim discrimination???
Hey, it works for some...
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Old 05-11-2019, 02:54 PM   #26
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Congratulations! I know what a mill stone finding insurance can be.
Not to be a Cassandra, but a friendly word of advice:
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigSkyWren View Post
I am happy to report that we are finally insured! The local company that Progressive Commercial recommended to us managed to get us insured through Progressive as an RV. Go figure.

So, with all of the paperwork finally done, we were able to get the title transferred and it plated yesterday. Now to cross all the things and hope they don't change their mind and cancel the policy, at least until we get to our final destination in a couple of weeks.

Now to start researching on how to start converting for fun.
Input your local affiliates' and every corporate Progressive fon # you can find into your cell fon. Do Not take their calls! Let 'em VM you.
I got more'n 2 weeks, having done the same thing, before getting the cancellation call.
If it comes at while you're still in transit: "Hey, they didn't tell me!" Could always claim to have misplaced you fon for whatever convenient time frame...
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Old 05-13-2019, 09:41 AM   #27
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This is a problem, it comes from people who don't want to do their job and just want to sell you something that they make money off of, damned if it had any value to the buyer. Progressive is no longer covering anything that was a bus in it's previous life. Progressive, when they find out it's a bus will end up canceling you or denying any claim you have because they insured your bus as an RV when it is not an RV.
And you would have us do what instead? From all accounts it sounds like you were blessed with your policies on the first try, I'm happy for you. I truly wish it could be so easy for everyone else. Apparently latecomers to the Skoolie life are having a harder time of it than those who came before, such is life apparently.

Admittedly I'm not the one who has been lurking on the forum for a couple of years, reading and absorbing all the things, obsessing over it, and maybe should have anticipated the complications this vehicle might have been. Instead I'm just the naïve one who reluctantly agreed for him to buy it. And I'm the one that has the time to post and ask questions to folks who have been down this road before and might be able to offer some helpful insight. All the while spending a week calling all over trying to work out an insurance solution at the same time as trying to pack for a cross-country move in less than two weeks, all while raising a baby.

Honesty will be my downfall one day I'm sure. Like Drew Bru said, I WANT to be honest and I WANT a policy that is exactly for what it is, an empty bus; even if I have to pay through the nose for a short-term temporary policy. In every manner of clarity, I never once claimed it to be anything other than what it is to any agent I have talked to. If they've asked for details I said it was an old school bus that the previous owners had started the conversion process on but didn't finish. If they ask what changes they (or we) made, I listed them. If they asked if it still had seats, I was honest and said yes, but that they will be removed (and they have been). If they asked about the title, I told them the previous owners had it titled as an RV by the state of Indiana. I guess my fault is for naïvely thinking that if an official document from the State of Indiana claims it to be an RV, then that should be what it is, and that should suffice enough for insurance purposes. How wrong I was. But I never deliberately tried to obfuscate the truth.

I also didn't want to expend the money or energy at this time to mock up a lie of last resort just to get insured as an RV as others have been doing. But there doesn't seem to be much choice, as there isn't a vast quantity of companies out there willing to do business with buses converted into RV's, let alone an empty bus, or there wouldn't be a myriad of posts about how hard it is to get insured. And there wouldn't be an actual insurance agent on here doing Dog's work in helping people get their conversions insured by borrowing mailing addresses.

I almost didn't even provide an obviously less than ideal update for our situation, knowing full well it'd get dumped on. But I did so in an effort to help those out there Google Sleuthing, who might come across this forum and are in the same boat that we were. Because at the end of the day, that's how it went down.
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Old 05-13-2019, 10:12 AM   #28
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I almost didn't even provide an obviously less than ideal update for our situation, knowing full well it'd get dumped on. But I did so in an effort to help those out there Google Sleuthing, who might come across this forum and are in the same boat that we were. Because at the end of the day, that's how it went down.
Thanks for posting your story, hopefully it'll work out for you. We were only able to get Progressive Commercial, but our agent asked us to submit pics because Progressive was going to consider us for RV coverage. Dunno why it failed for us, but glad it worked for you. We had Progressive Commercial for Personal Use for well over a year, when we were in Illinois, and people kept warning us that we'd get a cancellation letter in a matter of weeks but we never did. We still may, I don't know, but there's not a lot of options so we took the least-best option we had. Sometimes we need to remember to separate "internet truth" from "real world truth". Not everybody wants to dump on people, they're few and far between.
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Old 05-13-2019, 12:14 PM   #29
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I can't remember seeing any posts where a person could not register or insure a bus. I've seen many that want to change the designation to get a better price on insurance and that's where they run into issues. Ya it may cost a high premium for insurance up front before your conversion is complete.

"I guess my fault is for naïvely thinking that if an official document from the State of Indiana claims it to be an RV, then that should be what it is, and that should suffice enough for insurance purposes. How wrong I was. But I never deliberately tried to obfuscate the truth. "
The above is the one issue I've been warning about. The DMV is much easier to pull the wool over their eyes than the insurance company who has vested financial interest in it. As I understand it you don't have an RV. Most times the insurance doesn't care what it's title as, they will insure it for what it actually is.
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Old 05-13-2019, 01:01 PM   #30
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Insurance agents are all different. Our agent got onto our bus and was amazed at the transformation we did. State Farm is the company and its only 40 a month for full coverage. Guess I was one of early birds. Funny he really liked the wood stove addition we added.
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Old 05-13-2019, 01:25 PM   #31
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Insurance agents are all different. Our agent got onto our bus and was amazed at the transformation we did. State Farm is the company and its only 40 a month for full coverage. Guess I was one of early birds. Funny he really liked the wood stove addition we added.
I'm with State Farm and they have no problem insuring the RV. They did tell me if I had a wood stove that I would be able to get a policy, but if a claim was due to the stove they may not cover it.
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Old 05-13-2019, 02:32 PM   #32
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Insurance agents are all different. Our agent got onto our bus and was amazed at the transformation we did. State Farm is the company and its only 40 a month for full coverage. Guess I was one of early birds. Funny he really liked the wood stove addition we added.
I have had great success with State Farm as well. 3 buses so far.
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Old 05-13-2019, 02:34 PM   #33
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I'm with State Farm and they have no problem insuring the RV. They did tell me if I had a wood stove that I would be able to get a policy, but if a claim was due to the stove they may not cover it.

Guess we picked the wrong state to establish residency in. South Dakota has been a nightmare to try and get insurance of any kind for the bus. State Farm, as well as many others, turned us down flat.
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Old 05-27-2019, 02:50 PM   #34
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Update: We got "Mayfly" loaded up and across the country to Montana in 3 days with nary a problem. Husband flew back to Indiana to finish up his last few days of work and deal with whatever is left at the old house and got a cancellation notice from Progressive in the mail.
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Old 05-27-2019, 09:33 PM   #35
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Update: We got "Mayfly" loaded up and across the country to Montana in 3 days with nary a problem. Husband flew back to Indiana to finish up his last few days of work and deal with whatever is left at the old house and got a cancellation notice from Progressive in the mail.
So they caught on to what was going on and cancelled your policy? At least you got the move finished. I read through this entire post but didn't see anyone suggest AIS but seems like they have a good grasp on the skoolie insurance predicament. They wrote me a transport policy when I went to buy my first bus and I plan to make them my first call in future.
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Old 05-28-2019, 12:04 PM   #36
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'Fraid that was gonna happen.
Leastways, you were legal for the move...
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