Insuring your caravan is generally regarded as an expensive task. I chatted to Ian Lesar from CaraSure about some tips that can help you reduce the cost.
Stand-alone insurance
Firstly, you need to decide if you want to insure your caravan as part of your exisiting household contents and motor insurance or on a stand-alone basis. ‘The advantage [of the latter] is that the risk profile is different, your premium won’t be affected by the area you live in and if you deal with an insurer specialising in leisure vehicle insurance, the premium will be much lower, the cover broader and the chances of a premium increase will also be lower,’ says Ian.
Determine your coverage
It goes without saying, but make sure you read the entire policy before you sign up. If there are types of coverage you don’t feel are necessary, you may be able to opt out of them. Tents, canopies and add-on rooms usually form part of the value of your insurance, but appliances, bed- ding, tables, chairs and the like don’t. While it’s recommended to insure these items, choosing cover for just the main body and chassis components will reduce your premiums significantly.
No past claims
A clean claim history from a past insurance company will reduce the initial cost of your caravan policy, so ask about any bonus offers they have for drivers with no past claims. Also, your no- claim bonus is usually assessed on an annual basis, so if you have no claims for a year the monthly premium may go down.
Safety features
Adding a few inexpensive safety accessories can lower your insurance premium. Consider installing an alarm, hitch lock or wheel clamps (or all three). If a caravan has flimsy inside locks or doesn’t lock properly, you can fit a slide bolt with padlock to bring it up to standard.
Join a club
Belonging to a caravanning club might make you eligible for cheaper insurance. The Federation of Caravan and Camping Clubs in South Africa recently arranged special schemes for club members. These schemes have no excesses and the premiums are lower than usual.
Increase your excess
One of the easiest and best ways to obtain cheap caravan insurance is by increasing the amount of voluntary excess. If you can afford to put down a larger excess, it will greatly reduce the monthly premium.
Tips
Insurance companies are notorious for repudiating claims based on the smallest of details. Ensuring both your car and caravan are roadworthy isn’t negotiable, but Ian recommends you stay on top of the following too:
- Make sure your trailer is coupled correctly, windows are closed, doors locked and gas and electricity turned off.
- Make sure it’s serviced at least once a year. Don’t try to do this yourself. The cost of a normal service for a single-axle caravan is between R900 and R1200 (double-axle caravan between R1200 and R1400), which really isn’t much to pay for safety.
- Check the wheel nuts upon leaving and every 200 kilometres.
- Park under a shade cloth or carport to avoid hail damage.
- Check the towbar and drop- plate fitted to your towcar is SABS approved (many after- market towbars aren’t).
- Ensure these have been approved as a unit (just because they’re both approved, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re safe together).
- Don’t exceed the maximum drawing capacity of your towbar.
- Don’t exceed the maximum towing capacity of the towcar.
- Make sure the GVM (gross vehicle mass) of an overrun- braked caravan is less than the tare of your towcar and the GVM of an unbraked caravan is less than half the tare of your towcar.
- Check roadworthiness of tyres. Unroadworthy tyres are the main cause of caravan accidents and insurers are quick to check that before paying out.
- Take out roadside assistance for minor emergencies such as flat tyres and, perhaps the most common emergency, wheels coming off to avoid having to claim from insurance unnecesarily.
For more information on caravan insurance or a quote on insuring your caravan visit www.carasure.com
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