Insurance for the RTV

I recently purchased an insurance policy for the RTV. We had been considering this for some time, and finally decided that now was the time to act. My primary reason for wanting the RTV insured is in case of theft. Since moving here we've seen no indication that theft will be a problem, but having insurance will provide some some piece of mind. Sometimes I forget to lock the RTV up at night, and when I do, the first thing I do the following morning is go check to make sure its still out there. Whenever we are gone for any length of time I also worry about it. This was especially true last fall when we were gone for 12 days on an extended vacation. I was so worried that I actually took the RTV and 4-wheeler far into the woods and chained them together to a tree before leaving. While there was still the risk of someone seeing them, they were not visible from the trailer or any road.

The RTV is not covered under our home owners insurance policy because the value of our policy is so low. Since our home is an older mobile home, it isn't worth very much. I contacted our agent last year about adding the RTV, and he indicated that the cost would likely be close to $400/year to add it. At the time the cost seemed much too high, so we did nothing about it.

Once we started talking seriously again about getting insurance I decided to check into the insurance that the salesperson offered me when I bought the RTV. I dropped by the dealership the week before last to look at tractors, so asked about it then. The person I talked to wasn't sure about the option of adding the insurance to an already paid for piece of equipment, so suggested I call back another day and gave me the name of someone to talk to. I finally got around to calling a couple of days ago. She wasn't able to fully answer my questions either, but gave me a toll free number to call and said I could work directly with the insurer without having to go through the dealer.

After talking with the lady at the dealership I did some searching online and found the website for KTAC (Kubuta Tractor Acceptance Corporation), which is the Kubota-endorsed insurance agency. I found a link for an online quote, so thought it was worth submitting my information. I had to get the serial number from the RTV, then filled out the form and submitted. Within a few minutes I received a response. The quote was for much less than the one I had previously received from our insurance company. It worked out to $1 per month for every $1000 of insured value. After discussing it with Andrea we decided that we weren't likely to beat that price, so decided to purchase the policy.

In addition to the lower price the policy through KTAC has some other advantages. One big advantage is that it is the equipment itself being insured. This means that if something happens to the RTV when it is not on our property it is still covered. While it rarely leaves the property, it is nice to know that if it does get stolen from my parents house or while I'm out on a ride it will still be covered under this policy. If we had added the RTV onto our home owner's policy it would only have been covered it stolen from or damaged while on our property.

The process of actually purchasing the policy was very easy. The quote itself included an application that I could simply fill out and mail in along with payment. We wanted to be sure the policy was effective as soon as possible, however, so I called their toll free number. I spoke with the agent who had prepared the quote, so she was already familiar with the policy I was interested in. She asked a few questions, I gave her my credit card info, and within a few minutes the process was complete.

I feel much better knowing that we'll be able to use the payoff from the insurance company to replace the RTV in the event it is stolen. Most likely this will never come up, and several years down the road I may look back at this as wasted money. For now, however, I believe the piece of mind it gives is well worth the investment. If I ever do get around to buying a tractor, especially a new or fairly new one, I suspect that we'll purchase insurance for it right away. If paying the premium were going to be a struggle I can understand not buying insurance for such items. In our situation, though, I believe insuring high-priced equipment is a very good idea and I'm happy with our decision to do so.