Advice needed)
Hello everyone,
Im away to begin converting a Mercedes Sprinter LWB and am having trouble with insurance. My problem is that im 22, I have a clean licence with no claims but im finding most insurance companies for this specialist cover require you to be 25 to 70 odd. The couple of quotes i have had, have been around £2000 annually, yet i can get a quote of £450 annually if i insure it just as a van?????.The conversion is to be carried out to a high standard so to look at, i wont get away with calling it a van and im not prepared to spend £2000 for insurance. Its quite disheartning considering I have the same respect and consideration of the older campers. Would appreciate any thoughts, im prepared to lose some of the specialist cover perks, such as a high contents cover so my only real worry with van insurance is if im involved in an accident and the insurance spots the sink and beds in the back and says they were unaware so no payout at all.
If i took just the van insurance and told them of the fixed items such as the cooker, wiring and bedding. Would they just take note of that and add a few pounds on or would they tell me to contact dvla to change vehicle class?
I have found speaking to insurance companies very unhelpful as they aren't interested in queries unless im buying a policy, many thanks anyway people.
How long is a insurance company required to give before they cancel your insurance? My insurance called me yesterday and informed me that they would be cancelling my insurance because I have rented my house to a group of students. They gave me two weeks to find new insurance before they cut me off. I'm having trouble finding someone who will insure us. If they cut my insurance, my bank will cancel my mortgage, and I guess that means I'd lose the house. Is this insurance company allowed to drop me in this manner. When we got the insurance two months ago there was nobody living in the house, but it was rental insurance. We never lied or anything, we were completely honest through the whole process.
whilst i hate to be commercial lol the only specialist insurers i could find for self conversions are a company called adrian flux..all others wont touch my truck .k i am old (48) clean licence etc and i ay 180 quid a year for an iveco 65-12 with a 6k mileage allowance
regrds geoff
Hi there,
Looking for help! We're in the beginngin stages of converting our VW T4 and we're look to self build a bed. We've already, carpeted it, insultated the walls, fitted new front seats and now we're on to the bed. We have the vanm insured with ardian flux on the 6x6 plan - i.e 6 months as a van, 6 months as a camper - but i've heard that you need to have your van class changed from a light good vehicle to a camper van or motorhome for the insurance to be valid - but I can't seem to find the requirement to make this change or how to do it! Before I go through the whole DVLA customer services haul, I wondered if anyone else knew?!
Thanks, Laura
Oh and if your in the begininng phase of your conversion you may find it helpful to check out the blog i'm writing on our conversion http://vwt4conversion.wordpress.com/
Try Adrian Flux
They do a cover called 6x6 which allows you 6 months to convert a panel van into a camper van then gives you 6 months cover for a camper van. The problem is as soon as you modifly a panel van and this could mean anything from putting in seats or windows you are not covered on van insurance .
andy
I'm 20 years old and have just taken out a campervan policy with Adrien Flux for a big Transit Campervan, it cost me £1250 which considering no other insurance company would even give me a quote is a good price!
Good Luck.
Adrian Flux just insured my Hiace conversion with full breakdown cover, legal cover, european cover, taking into account 5 years NCB still being used on my main car for £380 for 30year old male. Which I think is a bargain! And they are happy to cover a self conversion.
Hi, I would try CIS as they don't seem to specify or differentiate on this as far as I can tell. I had a similar experience trying to do it all by the book, and found out about getting it re-classified with DVLA etc, but the insurance companies then won't touch it. Most people I know who have home-converted vans seem to be with CIS. Good luck and Happy camping!
Hi there, try quotezone.co.uk, just had a couple of decent priced quotes for my T4, it lets you list all the changes like-change of seats,windows,alloy wheels,alarm, etc etc and actually came up the same for me n spouse fully comp with 90 days eu cover as my old car!! (I do have full no claims but spouse has 2 sp30's too!) Give them a try??? I tried the specialist campervan one but theres was 100 quid more!? Good luck!
Hi All,
Have only just found this site so forgive me if I am asking for info that can be found somewhere else but could somebody please clarify for me what elements of a conversion need to have taken place for insurance companies to change the classification of the vehicle from commercial van to camper? Thanks.
I am looking at a very reasonably priced van and thinking of converting. It is a 2.8 litre diesel but the one drawback in my mind is that it is a Fiat and I am not confident about them as a make. Does anyone have experience of them?
Thanks very much all.
Hey NB,
I know this dilemma. When I looked into it, it wasn't quite as bad (being a girl and over 25 and all) but some of the prices I was quoted were nuts. My thoughts, for what they're worth (and I don't know these are 'legally' right). I just went for the van insurance as I don't mind if they won't pay out for all the conversion kit (bed, cupboards etc) if I have a crash. However, I am 'hoping' they don't say it invalidates the insurance but I just don't know. As far as I'm concerned it's not much different from a workvan with a bench seat, shelves and stuff in it but my conversion is pretty basic. Obviously if the accident was due to a stove blowing up or something then that would be different - I'm not sure if the main concern is electrical stuff? I don't think you need a change of the vehicle class but someone else might know? This is all a risk tho' and you do cynically feel that insurance companies would use any excuse not to pay out. If it is taking time to convert (i.e. a year or so) you could start it with basic van insurance and then upgrade at some point. Trouble with that, is there would never seem to be a good time to pay the extra! I'd put a forum post up and see what other insurance companies folk have gone with.
R
Ive just gone thru the process of reinsuring my van which has folding bed, cupboards, leisure battery and insulation. Last year when i was converting Adrian Flux were the only people who would quote. This year Commercial Vehicles Direct also would quote but only when i had got thru to the technical brokering division who actually understood what the mods were.
my experience is that insurance companies will try any possible method to weasle out of paying out, so any undisclosed mods will invalidate the insurance.
Think im going to carry on modifying to get it signed off as a camper. Does anyone know how much this might save on insurance and also what exactly is required?
C
Hi
A mate of mine did a serious camper from a leyland 4ton bread lorry . He has a garage area in the back for his racing hovercraft ,its an amazing bit of kit and involved reducing the whole back box by 300mm in hight due to rot in the bottom and replacing the floor .It was his trade so its easy for him i guess.He told me he had trouble with reclassifying it initially until he took it to the local councils Truck MOT garage . It was an MOT station for all council trucks and any others . Apparently the guy MOTd it then just keyed into the computor and it changed there and then from a truck to a camper . No big fees or hassle . Apparently the guy said he gets loads and this was one of the best he'd ever seen probably because its like new underneath.As far as i know Most normal MOT stations cant reclassify but this council place could .It was from a truck to camper but id imagine its same with a van. Hope that helps
Greg