There is also Guy #3 who is trying to get the bank to give him a secured
loan for 5 years instead of an unsecured one for 3. This was my case :-)
I simply wanted to cut the monthly payments down by about 35%, and
insurance was what I needed to do that. Thing that is really stupid is
that I only needed liability as the bank owns our house and is not
worried about the fixed value of the loan itself. But although any yahoo
can go out and get this for a overpowered snowmobile or dangerous ATV, I
couldn't get it for probably the safest off road vehicle possible :-)
>I would say you are right. One thing I have learned over the years is to
>only give as much information as needed by the DMV or insurance company. If
>I had a Weasel, I would make sure it was titled as a "Studebaker Truck". A
>nice generic description of what it really is. You are not providing false
>data. It is a Studebaker. And it is a truck. Unless it mentions whether
>it has tracks or not, I wouldn't volunteer to give out this information.
I agree that one should dance around definitions, and not offer more than
is necessary, but it is really hard for a tracked vehicle owner to do.
First of all, I think calling a tracked vehicle a "truck" crosses the
line into the lying side. It would be like having someone ask you to
describe your house but you neglect to say that it missing something like
plumbing or a roof. "Forgetting" to mention that the only bathroom is in
the basement would be OK though :-) If you ever got tagged for some
reason I am sure that no authority would side with you on this one :-)
Everyone should keep in mind that the insurance folks ask for a
description of the vehicle right off the bat, so avoiding the issue of
how it is propelled is not possible. As I said above, omitting such a
fundamental piece of info, which is contrary to expectation of the
average person, would most certainly be called lying (think of recent
politics here for another example!). Oh, and I was also asked, very
directly, what kind of engine it had. Once I told her it was a 6
cylinder, well... so much for calling it a snowmobile!
Another lesson to learn from is that they will ask WHAT you plan on doing
with the vehicle. If you say "I want to keep it in my barn and look at
it" they get suspicious. But if you tell them you want to drive it, then
they get start talking about wheeled vehicle coverage, which is NOT
applicable in any way. For example, one asked me about having it
registered. I said I didn't have to do that (and in fact CAN'T by Maine
law, which ground the wheels of the agent's mind to a halt. Again, the
difference between a tracked vehicle and a wheeled one. There is plenty
of wiggle room if you have wheels, very little if you have tracks.
In my case I told the insurance people from the start that the Weasel is
"like a snowcat, but older". I live in snowmobile country, so I thought
this would be the easy way to go since it is basically the truth and
there are plenty of snowcats around here. But it turns out that most are
insured under municipal blanket policies, and the others are owned as
commercial vehicles for trail groomers. In short, the snowcat
definition, though *VERY* close to a Weasel, did not help me one bit.
The suggestion about trying to have it classified as being agricultural
is tricky. I certainly could have made a case for that here (I have a
decent sized wood lot), but then I wouldn't be able to drive it off my
property because I would then have to register it with the state as an
ATV. The definitions of ATV and farm equipment are mutually exclusive.
It is either one or the other. So I guess I could have got the insurance
as a piece of farm equipment then register it as an ATV (no insurance
required, so they wouldn't check). But if I were ever caught, we are
talking fraud charges here! Not worth it.
Hope all this stuff helps someone, or at least make all you wheeled guys
feel lucky :-)
Steve
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