Is My Tractor Pulling Tractor Covered for......

Posted by Cathy Stahl on

Is My Tractor Pulling Tractor covered for…                                

A couple of years ago, Julian & I were at Keystone Nationals in Harrisburg, PA and pulled up the weather radar for back home, it was nothing but bright red spots and warning boxes over our hometown of DeWitt and surrounding areas.

After the radar map cleared over our area, I started calling family to see if everyone and everything was ok.  The answer was yes, until about 2 hours later; and I was told my nephew’s farm and buildings were hit by a tornado. Everyone was fine, but the destruction was major.  

Two weeks later, after dealing with the insurance adjusters, he had, for the most part, all the appropriate insurance on vehicles, the house and even the equipment and animals.  Not everyone is always this fortunate.

Over the recent years some of our customers have not been that lucky.  One customer lost everything in the tornado in Parkersburg, IA and another had a house fire and lost nearly everything. Some customer losses were when they were traveling to a pull and had an accident totaling truck, trailer and tractor inside and yet another had the trailer with the tractor inside stolen.  These people were not quite as fortunate as my nephew. These customers thought they had all the appropriate insurance, until they had their loss.

I was licensed insurance agent in the State of Iowa for many years.  Sold Homeowners, Automobile, Life Insurance and Umbrellas before moving up to handling and insuring businesses and then moving to a new career selling tractor parts, we manufactured, to friends and family. After some of our customer’s misfortune, I felt I should share some of my knowledge with other pullers and talked to Jen with Full Pull Magazine that I had an idea for an article for the magazine.   Pulling tractors, trucks, big or small are not covered under a Homeowner policy, the way you may think, even though they are your property.

A homeowner policy or renters insurance has contents coverage which covers your belongings. Your furniture, clothes, sports equipment and other personal items are covered if they are stolen or destroyed by fire, hurricane or other insured disasters. The coverage is generally 50 to 70 percent of the insurance on the structure of your home. Expensive items like jewelry, furs, art, collectibles and silverware are covered, but there are usually dollar limits if they are stolen.  To insure these items to their full value, purchase a special personal property endorsement or floater and insure the item for its officially appraised value.  http://www.iii.org/article/what-covered-standard-homeowners-policy.

I know people don’t read their policies, but your homeowner policy does not cover a pulling tractor in the way you may think.  Example: To an insurance company it is a 1969 Cub Cadet, has a Cost New value and then it is depreciated until the date of loss and you received Actual Cash Value of your Cub or if you have replacement cost coverage you will receive money for the cost of a like & kind  a riding lawnmower, not a pulling tractor.  It will not pay for the aluminum rims or tires, the changes you’ve made to the engine, transmission, the paint or lettering or other enhancements you have made to the 1969 Cub Cadet that is no longer a mower, but a pulling tractor.  

In order to insure a pulling tractor for close to what you actually have in it, you need to schedule the tractor on the Homeowner policy, if the company will do this; or to purchase a separate policy, such as a Floater policy.  Either way you will need to have some way to place a value on the tractor, start with receipts of what you spent on modifications and/or a catalog with a list of parts is another way if receipts are not available. My best advice is to talk to your insurance agent, who handles your Homeowner Coverage, he or she can advise you what your insurance company requires in your state to secure the coverage.

As far as the totaled truck, trailer and tractor, your Auto policy provides no coverage on the contents of the trailer, it would again go back to the homeowner/renters policy; the truck & trailer were covered under the Auto policy.

If you have insurance for a Farm or a Business and think you have automatic coverage on a pulling tractor or truck; check with your agent today.  It is easier for both of you to ask the question before you have a loss.

I know that not everyone will want to insure their pulling tractor, it is a hobby and you have built the tractor a little at a time and can do it again but now you can plan for it.  Life is too short for bad things to happen and for those that have more invested, it may have a nice surprise on what little it can costs to get back to where you were before the loss.  Your agent will be glad to discuss the issue and who knows, he or she may become a puller too!

 

Written by Cathy Stahl

Pulling Friends and Family Together!


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