Insurance Quote from Farm Bureau

[Threepoint]

I have gone without insurance on my tractors and equipment since the beginning of time. I happened to mention that fact to the wife the other day and she encouraged me to get a quote. We have our home owners and cars through them and I was surprised at how reasonable adding the equipment will be. I had to give them photos, serial numbers, and amount I wanted each unit covered for. $167 per year for both tractors, mower, generator, and all my implements. The mower should be covered under my regular home owners but they said since it was commercial grade it should have separate coverage.

JD855guy, thanks for posting. This is interesting, as insurance coverage is a very tricky subject. Many homeowners policies automatically cover personal property like this for property loss, even if not separately scheduled, including a CUT. BUT, typically (1) only while on your property, as you note, and (2) only for property loss due to listed perils such as fire, theft, wind damage (e.g., a tree blows over onto the tractor shed, crushing your tractors).

So, I'd be very curious to know if your new coverage also extends to losses that occur while, and due to, operating. Example: The side of a ditch gives way and you roll over; or you back hard into retaining wall with the corner of your offset rear blade and bend your link arms. If so, that's terrific. But, if you haven't asked already, I suspect the answer may be no. In fact, if we also consider liability to third parties, there is typically a specific exclusion in the homeowner policy for liability for loss while operating an unregistered motorized vehicle, such as a tractor or a UTV or ATV.

I looked into this pretty carefully a few years back here in Virginia and found that coverage against such perils pretty much requires a very spendy commercial policy. Also, when we trailer off of our property, it's necessary to have a separate inland marine policy if we want the tractor covered for damage to the tractor in case of a traffic accident. (Liability to third parties in such a case will ordinarily be covered by the liability coverage on the tow vehicle).