Insurance required on expo trailer?

[troy]

Now that we have two little ones, the wife does not want to camp in a tent on the ground. So, I'm starting to look at expo trailers, and will likely go with a small pop-up and do a spring-over, and some small mods.

Do these require insurance? I have a utility trailer now and it is covered under my homeowners.

I searched, but no relevant threads came up. Thanks for your responses.

Troy

 

[mrchips]

I have my Chaser insured with my auto carrier policy, and is insured for theft or damage.

 

[durango_60]

The trailer will not "require" insurance, the liability will extend from the tow vehicle. If you feel the value of the trailer you end up with warrants insuring than you should certainly purchase a policy for property coverage.

 

[N8URE2]

Liability insurance for the trailer will come from the car that is towing it.

Physical damage coverage (for things like theft or collision damage to the trailer itself) will need to be purchased from your auto insurance company.
This is normally super cheap.

Theft for your personal items, camping gear etc, typically will come from your homeowners/renters policy. You should check this policy to make sure you have enough coverage. Most policys have a dollar amount for personal property (this is for your "stuff" at your home), and then another limit for personal property off or away from the premises, some times this is a set dollar amount and sometinmes it is a % of your personal property amount.

 

[troy]

Thanks for the quick responses. I was hoping it would not require insurance. I don't intend to have more than $2,500 into it, so I'll probably self insure.

 

[Redline]

To confirm & agree/add to the prior posts -

Your regular 'auto' policy will cover the trailer while it is being towed (or possibly while it is hooked-up to the tow vehicle). When it’s a stand alone vehicle and not being towed, it is likely not covered. Some may think their homeowner's policy will cover the trailer when/if it's parked in their garage. Again, likely not, or not for the full amount of the loss, depending on 'the fine print'.

When I purchased my AT Chaser I called my insurance company and asked about coverage. I purchased an 'auto' policy just for the trailer so I would be covered against loss at all times.

Related to this and insurance in general, we never really know how good our customer service/claims experience will be with our insurance company until we need what we have been paying for. After many years with AAA a couple years ago (no claims) I changed to Amica Insurance. They are big in the east but I purchased my coverage over the phone from their Northern California office. For several years in a row they have had a very high customer service rating (JD Power) - this is from people who made claims!

At the time they were only second to USAA, which only active/retired/family of military people can get. Amica now has all my policies except for my life insurance. We shall see how good they are when/if I need to make a claim ☺

 

[Martyn]

To confirm & agree/add to the prior posts -

Your regular 'auto' policy will cover the trailer while it is being towed (or possibly while it is hooked-up to the tow vehicle). When it’s a stand alone vehicle and not being towed, it is likely not covered. Some may think their homeowner's policy will cover the trailer when/if it's parked in their garage. Again, likely not, or not for the full amount of the loss, depending on 'the fine print'.

When I purchased my AT Chaser I called my insurance company and asked about coverage. I purchased an 'auto' policy just for the trailer so I would be covered against loss at all times.

Related to this and insurance in general, we never really know how good our customer service/claims experience will be with our insurance company until we need what we have been paying for. After many years with AAA a couple years ago (no claims) I changed to Amica Insurance. They are big in the east but I purchased my coverage over the phone from their Northern California office. For several years in a row they have had a very high customer service rating (JD Power) - this is from people who made claims!

At the time they were only second to USAA, which only active/retired/family of military people can get. Amica now has all my policies except for my life insurance. We shall see how good they are when/if I need to make a claim ☺

Redline, making a claim on your life insurance is not in the cards for you, we like you too much :sombrero:

 

[highlandercj-7]

ASK your insurance company. Some are covered by the tow vehicle, BUT I would insure that it is. If it gets stolen or destroyed while it's not on the vehicle it is probally not covered. So my advise to you is cover your tail and ask them what's covered and how?
The following story is how it can get ugly real quick and how being good folks can sometimes come back around to you as good karma.

We have never insured any of our trailers, for some reason my Dad inquired about insurance on our new enclosed with living quarters just before we went to pick it up at the manufacturer. Low and behold it wasn't covered by the truck, after a certain size or $$. So we put insurance on it (thank god) We bring it home and take it on its first outting the following week. After the weekend we load it down with all our stuff from our old trailer. 2 weeks later we headed out on our next event. Driving down the road the 12v wiring system in the new trailer catches it on fire and the trailer got totaled. There's a 10' hole in the center and the cargo is toast. We lost our tail on all the tools inside and just lucky we had put insurance on the trailer, our we'd last that $$ too. The thought of finally getting the trailer of our dreams and only having it 2 weeks still makes my Father and I ill. We ended up buying it back from the insurance company to restore it. We sat on it for 4 years never getting the time or the place to do the work, so my father sells the trailer. It switches hands 3 more times and ends up 6 hours away from us. Somewhere along the line it gets restored all but the bathroom where the fire started. We get a call out of the blue and the guy says hey I have your old trailer and it's still in your name. Say what? Well the thing was never titled again and the salvage cert was lost and it's still in our name. So Ironicly we are able to buy it back, and it's ours once again. Not quite as perfect as it was when we picked it up the first time but it's still nice and our dream trailer is back home.

 

[Redline]

Thanks :sombrero:

It would be a pretty expensive trailer

Redline, making a claim on your life insurance is not in the cards for you, we like you too much :sombrero:

 

[Tom and Elaine]

When we bought our Tentrax I checked with my insurance agent about the cost of insuring the trailer. It was not expensive and covers the trailer completely whether it is hooked on the FJ or not.

 

[mountainclimber8]

When we bought our Tentrax I checked with my insurance agent about the cost of insuring the trailer. It was not expensive and covers the trailer completely whether it is hooked on the FJ or not.

X2. I've done the same thing.