Tractor Insurance: am I being ripped off

[LDWallace]

Is your tractor the TYM 474?
If so that seems to a Kukje A2300N2 engine. Which is the supposedly Cummins Onan engine.
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LouNY

Yes it is the Tym 474

 

[LDWallace]

That's one thing about insurance you always have to fight with them. Never take their first offer.
Remember....they have no issue taking more and more money from you, so don't let them off easy when it's time to pay up.

I have USAA for auto and home. They have always been very fair and almost generous.

Dealing with Equipment Insurance International (EII) has been an eye opening experience. I will be much more selective on my next insurance purchase.

 

[LDWallace]

Were it my tractor,and the block has no obvious damage, I'd tell the ins. co. to cancel my damage claim_period. Then I'd begin calling mobile mechanics for an in-frame overhaul
My nephew just performed an in-frame overhaul on my MF 135 perkins engine with cylinders full of anti-freeze.
All new bearings, new cyl. liners, head resurfaced, all new gaskets, etc.
He has approx, $1,800 in parts plus his labor.
Even if you must replace rods and pistons, that's probably about another $800.
The mechanic doesn't have to know your specific engine, just have a shop repair manual ready for him when he arrives.

 

[LDWallace]

RayIN

The tractor is still under warranty. Is it possible to get a “mobile mechanic” to work on the tractor and still have the manufacturer’s warranty? The tractor only has 350 hours..

It is the Kukje engine which I would assume is relatively simple to work on.

As I mentioned earlier, I had contacted several local dealers with bigger shops but they told they were not authorized to work on other brands.

Should I just search “mobile diesel mechanics”?

 

[RayIN]

RayIN

The tractor is still under warranty. Is it possible to get a “mobile mechanic” to work on the tractor and still have the manufacturer’s warranty? The tractor only has 350 hours..

It is the Kukje engine which I would assume is relatively simple to work on.

As I mentioned earlier, I had contacted several local dealers with bigger shops but they told they were not authorized to work on other brands.

Should I just search “mobile diesel mechanics”?

I can't speak to most mobile mechanics, but many RV mechanics/technicians work with mfgrs. for warranty repairs.
Enter Mobile Mechanic and your city in your search engine and see the results.
Then begin calling about one of them working with warranty claims.

If the loader was on the tractor when it was purchased, and financed as such, your Ins. co. will have a hard time proving their case.

 

[4570Man]

I can't speak to most mobile mechanics, but many RV mechanics/technicians work with mfgrs. for warranty repairs.
Enter Mobile Mechanic and your city in your search engine and see the results.
Then begin calling about one of them working with warranty claims.

If the loader was on the tractor when it was purchased, and financed as such, your Ins. co. will have a hard time proving their case.

According to the OPs first post the loader is insured under a separate policy and wasn’t damaged in the event. It seems reasonable to me to not pay for the loader. My insurance has my skid steer bucket insured separate from the machine. When my skid steer burned the bucket wasn’t damaged and they didn’t pay for it which I’m fine with since I still have it. A tractor loader is harder to reuse than a skid steer bucket but I’m not sure the legality is different.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

I feel like you should be able to have the engine repaired somewhere. Insurance never makes you 100% whole, whether it's a car, a house, or anything else. I didn't even know you could get insurance for you damaging the engine.

 

[redman135]

If the loader is under a separate policy, then "loader" would be defined as : loader arms, loader mounts AND loader controls which includes the valve bank.

The insu co says they will only payout on the BARE tractor. This EXCLUDES the loader mounts and loader controls as they are never sold with a bare tractor.
The insu co have hoist themselves on thier own petard so to speak.

I would go and get those parts as they are on a 2nd policy. If the insu co sold the loader mounts and controls and did not payout then they could be charged with theft.
Do you have an "Insurance Ombudsman"(mediates disputes) or equivilent where you are?

 

[JJT]

I'm surprised the insurance company is paying anything. This was self inflicted, operator error. To quote the original poster - "Recently I destroyed the engine.. It was stupid operator error." Be happy they are paying the claim.

 

[Panik]

I’d 100 percent be removing the loader mounts and the valve kit from the tractor. That’s part of the loader that they already claimed you still own.

^ This right here. I'm absolutely horrible about keeping paperwork around... so what I'm going to say next is a bit of a hypocrisy.... I'd suggest looking through the fine print of the policies for the loader & the tractor (if you have those documents) and check the wording about how the various parts on the machine are divided in the policies.

After doing so, I'd be very strongly considering asking around town for recommendations of a good claims/insurance attorney and calling a couple to see about setting up for a consult for advice.

Often initial consults are not that comparatively expensive (~$250.00 for some time reviewing documents and an in person discussion). It's been my pretty frequent experience that spending an hour with an experienced attorney discussing the issue (without putting them on retainer) pays serious dividends in terms of having a stable knowledge base from which to proceed in settling an issue.

I'd strongly suspect that within an hour's consult an insurance/claims attorney would be able to provide you the reassurance necessary to tell the insurance company to kick rocks about removing the loader mounts + hydraulic controls form the tractor based on the way the policies are divided.....And more importantly help you understand how to confidently proceed in refusing to accept diminished value for the tractor should the insurance company be problematic about you pulling the loader and associated equipment from the tractor.

(I say all this knowing that many people are leery of attorneys, just trying to point out that they can be valuable advice resources without sucking down tons of money)

As an addendum, I'm guessing if the insurance company is trying this with you I'd think it's probably a pretty fair bet they've done this to other people and there are records of their poor client relationships that might be worth looking into.