I've had several calls lately regarding insurance on Freightliner and other Medium Duty Tow vehicles used to primarily tow fifth wheels. Apparently, there are some "issues" with insurance companies on these vehicles.
I have insured Medium Duty tow vehicles for several years and I can tell you that there are only a handful of companies that can insure these correctly. When insured correctly, you should have no limitations on when coverage will or won't apply. One client said their policy would only pay if the RV was hitched to the truck at the time of the accident. Well, we got rid of that policy immediately. If you are going to spend the dough to get one of these bad boys, you do not want to be limited on how you can use it.
Another client had Progressive auto insurance and called his agent to add his new Ford 550 to his auto policy. The agent took the VIN number and added it to the policy. The client started receiving lots of mail from Progressive telling him that his VIN number was invalid and that they were not able to locate his vehicle. They wanted him to send photos etc. After dealing with this for about 3 months, he called me and I figured out what had happened. Progressive does insure Medium Duty tow vehicles BUT, they are insured under a Motorhome policy not an auto policy. That agent should not have added it to the auto policy in the first place, they should have started a new Motorhome Policy. Also Progressive will require the Fifth Wheel be insured with them in order to insure the Medium Duty.
GMAC and National Interstate both insure Medium Duty Tow's no problems. No restrictions. Most of mine are with National Interstate right now, but GMAC has been quite competitive on them. Now, I am a National RV agent for GMAC and there are only a handful of us out there. National RV agents have a different pricing structure since we do virtually all RV policies and Medium Duty's are a part of that.
My clients that have made the move to the Medium Duty tow vehicles have never looked back. I had the opportunity to jump in one of these last summer and I was impressed with how comfortable it was. So, if you have a Medium Duty tow or are considering one, please make sure that you have it insured properly. There should be no restrictions on how you use it as long as you are not using it for business use. The cost of insurance is based on the current value and I would say that the average annual premium for a newer model is somewhere between $800 and $1000 per year in South Dakota so not much different than a 1 ton dually.
