masukomi
Member
We got insured!!!
Who by? Progressive. They said no twice, but the third time, with the right insurance agent convincing a progressive person to think creatively did the trick.
How it happened:
Note that much of this is Vermont specific so the conversations with the DMV and insurance may be different in your state.
I went to the Vermont DMV and filled out the title transfer and registration, noting I wanted Motor Home plates. More importantly, I put down "Box Truck" for the body type. Changing the "body type" is absolutely key to making this work with most insurers. I chose box truck because really, it is a box truck. DMV lady asked "does it have seats in the back?" "Yes. 5 of them." I responded. "I can't register it as a box truck then. It has to be a van." Internally I'm doing a little dance, but I played it cool. "ok."
A minute later I asked (fearing i was dooming myself) "It doesn't matter that it's a heavy vehicle? It's still a van because of the seats?" (she had seen the 11,500 lbs I'd written in the "truck" section). "No. It's the seat belts in the back. I have to put it in as van." Cue more internal dancing.
It did not matter that the bill of sale very clearly said "ambulance" in maybe 3 places and the seller's logo had an EMT symbol worked into it.
Meanwhile though, there was one insurance agent who had the tenacity, and morbid curiosity as to why this was so hard, who had convinced Progressive to do it as a box truck regardless of what it said on the paperwork, after being very clear with them that we were converting it to an RV.
Progressive will not cover this under a personal policy because of the weight. That seems to be a common response. The final price for a year (with the discount for paying it all up front) was roughly ~$1000 (US) with large amounts of all the standard coverage.
My advice for the next person is: DO NOT talk to an insurance agent until you modify the paperwork to say "box truck" or "van" or anything honest that is not ambulance. I'd go with van because of the seat belts in the back. Do this even if your state requires insurance before registration, which means you have to do a title transfer without registering. Remember you are not required to register a vehicle to own it.
After that has happened, wait for the new title / paperwork to come back from the state. In our case the DMV lady estimated it'd be at least 2 weeks before a vin lookup would see the new info. I'd give it at least 1 week more than whatever they tell you.
Then, and only then, begin calling insurance companies. Tell them it was an ambulance but now it's converted / being converted to an RV. Use the word "decomissioned" if you have to. If you use that word be sure to "decomission" it (typically this just means disabling the flashers). We're going to convert ours to floods.
There's a lot of misconception about what's inside an ambulance. Our agent was asking if the "medical equipment had been removed". I told him there wasn't any, other than the oxygen tubing (totally true). He, in turn, told the person at progressive that all the medical equipment had been removed. Which again, is true. I mean, technically you could say that the heat/ac is "medical equipment" but from a lay-person's perspective, yes no medical equipment. That seemed to help his argument.
Getting it home:
I think most folks (especially those trying to save money) get ambulances auctioned from tows that have retired them. They don't really want the thing sitting on their lots after you've bought it (usually there's a penalty if you don't), but you can't drive it without insurance. My experience says you're not going to get the insurance quickly. Thus you'll probably need to get it shipped. Note that while it's not outrageously expensive shipping a Type III is not nearly as cheap as with a normal vehicle because of the weight and size. You should probably get a quote on shipping from the seller before you place your bid. We were fortunate enough to have already arranged to have ours shipped from the dealer because they're ~5hrs away and were going to do some work on it. I'm sure he would have been happy to let it sit on his lot for a few weeks while we got this sorted out but still... be prepared to NOT be able to insure the vehicle for many weeks after you buy it.
Best of luck. If you're in Vermont and need to get yours insured drop me a line on twitter or text me and I'll hook you up with an insurance agent.
Who by? Progressive. They said no twice, but the third time, with the right insurance agent convincing a progressive person to think creatively did the trick.
How it happened:
Note that much of this is Vermont specific so the conversations with the DMV and insurance may be different in your state.
I went to the Vermont DMV and filled out the title transfer and registration, noting I wanted Motor Home plates. More importantly, I put down "Box Truck" for the body type. Changing the "body type" is absolutely key to making this work with most insurers. I chose box truck because really, it is a box truck. DMV lady asked "does it have seats in the back?" "Yes. 5 of them." I responded. "I can't register it as a box truck then. It has to be a van." Internally I'm doing a little dance, but I played it cool. "ok."
A minute later I asked (fearing i was dooming myself) "It doesn't matter that it's a heavy vehicle? It's still a van because of the seats?" (she had seen the 11,500 lbs I'd written in the "truck" section). "No. It's the seat belts in the back. I have to put it in as van." Cue more internal dancing.
It did not matter that the bill of sale very clearly said "ambulance" in maybe 3 places and the seller's logo had an EMT symbol worked into it.
Meanwhile though, there was one insurance agent who had the tenacity, and morbid curiosity as to why this was so hard, who had convinced Progressive to do it as a box truck regardless of what it said on the paperwork, after being very clear with them that we were converting it to an RV.
Progressive will not cover this under a personal policy because of the weight. That seems to be a common response. The final price for a year (with the discount for paying it all up front) was roughly ~$1000 (US) with large amounts of all the standard coverage.
My advice for the next person is: DO NOT talk to an insurance agent until you modify the paperwork to say "box truck" or "van" or anything honest that is not ambulance. I'd go with van because of the seat belts in the back. Do this even if your state requires insurance before registration, which means you have to do a title transfer without registering. Remember you are not required to register a vehicle to own it.
After that has happened, wait for the new title / paperwork to come back from the state. In our case the DMV lady estimated it'd be at least 2 weeks before a vin lookup would see the new info. I'd give it at least 1 week more than whatever they tell you.
Then, and only then, begin calling insurance companies. Tell them it was an ambulance but now it's converted / being converted to an RV. Use the word "decomissioned" if you have to. If you use that word be sure to "decomission" it (typically this just means disabling the flashers). We're going to convert ours to floods.
There's a lot of misconception about what's inside an ambulance. Our agent was asking if the "medical equipment had been removed". I told him there wasn't any, other than the oxygen tubing (totally true). He, in turn, told the person at progressive that all the medical equipment had been removed. Which again, is true. I mean, technically you could say that the heat/ac is "medical equipment" but from a lay-person's perspective, yes no medical equipment. That seemed to help his argument.
Getting it home:
I think most folks (especially those trying to save money) get ambulances auctioned from tows that have retired them. They don't really want the thing sitting on their lots after you've bought it (usually there's a penalty if you don't), but you can't drive it without insurance. My experience says you're not going to get the insurance quickly. Thus you'll probably need to get it shipped. Note that while it's not outrageously expensive shipping a Type III is not nearly as cheap as with a normal vehicle because of the weight and size. You should probably get a quote on shipping from the seller before you place your bid. We were fortunate enough to have already arranged to have ours shipped from the dealer because they're ~5hrs away and were going to do some work on it. I'm sure he would have been happy to let it sit on his lot for a few weeks while we got this sorted out but still... be prepared to NOT be able to insure the vehicle for many weeks after you buy it.
Best of luck. If you're in Vermont and need to get yours insured drop me a line on twitter or text me and I'll hook you up with an insurance agent.
