Specialty RV Insurance
I’m talking today about insurance for an ambulance, van, bus-type RV conversions. It’s a minefield of requirements if you are repurposing your vehicle for camping or living in it full time.
Even before we finished our build, my wife wisely got AAA insurance (BCAA here in Vancouver) for our ambulance as an RV. It was a cheap $20 a year to include it with our another vehicles. I didn’t think much about it at the time. Well, let me tell you!
The First Breakdown
Our first outing in the ambulance had no heat and only a bed, it broke down at a gas station about 80 miles from home-base. We called the auto club, and they sent some guy with a flat deck to tow it to a garage within a mile of our breakdown. After calling 3 garages, I was told it was a 3-week wait to get into any garage.
We called back our AAA and insisted we get help from Vancouver. They finally agreed after Jo-Ann got on the phone and sent another flat deck the 80 miles to pick up our ambo and take it to our local garage.
While we were waiting the 4 hours, a ‘friendly’ tow truck driver seeing our dilemma pulled up and offered to tow us home for a flat $500 – geez! Sorry, but we will wait. As an aside, my good buddy also with an ambulance, recently broke down without AAA coverage and paid $300 to have his ambo towed to his house around 20 miles.
A lesson well driven into our psyche, for sure.
Talking to Our Agent
When the build was complete (it’s never really complete) I called my insurance agent in Vancouver to see what the cost to convert it to an RV would be for my insurance. Amazingly it was cheaper and took my coverage for a Ford 2013 e350 van valued at $15,000 to an RV with an agreed upon value of $90,000.
So is it easy to transfer the coverage? Yes and no!
The ambulance according to the BC insurance corporation (the government agency that manages insurance) said we needed to have certain things ‘installed’ in the ambulance to be transferred to RV status. We needed three of the following:
– a bed
– a stove
– a fridge
– heat
– a toilet
or an installed sink or water supply.
We had four of the six, so we were covered. Next?
What’s Entailed
Well, we needed to have a Commercial Vehicle Inspection by a licensed mechanic. This was a $300 bill that we were happy to pay. The mechanics were thorough and besides finding some issues with our engine injectors and other engine parts, told us we needed a new license plate light in the rear and a new foot pad for the brake pedal – seriously? Well, at least we know that the ambo is safe and reliable. The cost $3000 -geez!
Are we done yet? Not really! Now we had to take it to a commercial weigh station to ensure it was not over the road-rated weight of six tons. We passed, but we had a few scary moments pulling up to all those 18 wheelers and facing peace officer inspectors.
Then we had to take the paper work to our insurance agent, who was responsible for ensuring we had the necessary three out of six items inside the vehicle. The young guy was more awestruck than diligent when he did the tour, and within the hour we had our new insurance and license plate.
Was it worth it? Sure, our ambulance is happy to be officially an RV and not the beast it was as an ambulance. The monthly insurance went down a bit, but now we were relieved that if we had a major accident with our baby it would be covered for considerable more than it was as just a plain Ford van.
Other Considerations
So there are some considerations to ponder.
We aren’t living in the ambulance full time and where we live in Vancouver the cost of insurance is higher than a rural area and our insurance is government mandated. Prices and coverage vary across Canada and in the US apparently just getting insurance on an ambulance is tough unless your agent can see it as a simple heavy-duty van. I guess in the US it may be more difficult because most buyers end up with the ambulance still with its emergency decals, lights and paint job, while in Canada all that has to be removed before decommissioning it.
You really need to do your due diligence. There are a few more things you must consider.
While you’d probably want replacement cost for all the work you put into it, that doesn’t work in this case unless you have a new, one owner, less than 5 year old RV actually made and sold as an RV vehicle.
Revalued
So what can you do? Insure it at an agreed upon value, in our case we told our agent it was worth $90,000, and they signed off on it. It’s not like you can go to the NADA or Kelly Auto guide for a replacement cost.
You should look at what policies cover, too. Check out the camper vs. full time RV coverage – it will be different.
Check out camper liability, roadside assistance and towing – remember the $500 towing quote for us.
Does your insurance cover personal items in your RV? Cameras and stuff are covered under our home insurance. How about pet insurance, that can be a hard pill to swallow if you have an emergency on the road. Speaking of emergency expenses, does your policy include hotels if you break down somewhere?
I’m sure I didn’t cover everything and remember this is for the weekend warrior, the camper, not for a live aboard full-timer. I’d love to hear from some full-timers and the rest of you how you manage your insurance coverage.