Insurance For Home Use: Compact Tractor?

[TommyB33]

Hi All,

We just picked up an L2501 for use on our 10 acres. After talking with our insurance agent, it sounds like the tractor would be covered while in use/storage on our land under our traditional homeowner痴 policy for theft/damage. This coverage ONLY applies if an incident occurs on our land. 99% of its use will be at our place, but I will occasionally drive it over to help a neighbor move dirt etc.

My question is: for those not operating your tractors on a farm or for commercial purposes, are you adding any sort of coverage to your machines? I believe Kubota offers a stand-alone tractor policy, but it was around $500/year. Are there other options for the few hours a year I might be using it off property?

 

[Beltzington]

Inland Marine policy is what many of us use for equipment not located at our primary residence. Can't imagine a policy based on limited usage as the insurer would have no way to quantify when the loss would occur. Many more knowledgeable folks on TBN that may disagree with me.

I'm insured through Great American for about $300/year for up to a $30K loss.

 

[Kubota 2350]

When I insured my tractor as an add on of my homeowners, the difference to have it covered off my property was only $10.00 for the year.
It was a no brainier.
I very seldom take my tractor off my property, but the one time I tried to help a neighbor would be the time something would happen with my luck.

 

[TheFarmerInAdell]

One thing to remember is that if it is covered under your home owners policy without added coverage it goes against your "personal belongings" value. So if your personal belongings policy is for $100,000 and tractor is $20,000 you just lowered the amount you can claim on your other items to $80,000 if you had a fire and everything was a total loss. You need to evaluate how much you would need for replacement of all your belongings and then add the tractor value to that. You might be able to get a rider to your policy like Kubota 2350 has to add the value of the tractor in addition to your personal belongings (much like a jewelry/fur/firearms rider). I insure all of my equipment for off-property use because I take it around to help others out.

 

[TractorNH]

You would need to check with your insurance company but after speaking with the underwiters at mine I learned they modified the wording a few years ago so you would have coverage on "adjacent properties" for all perils covered on your homeowners policy like fire, theft, vandalism, tree falling on it, lightning, etc.

The problem with the homeowner's policy route is that it doesn't cover damage to the tractor from the use of it, like if you roll it over. If you crash it into your house and the house were to fall on it, the house would be covered for damage but the tractor wouldn't be. Bottom line, be careful if you're relying on your homeowners policy and understand what is and isn't covered.

I called around to several companies about inland marine policies but the best I found was a "personal articles" policy through State Farm. I could insure the full value of the tractor (roughly $40k) with a ZERO deductible for just under $500/yr. With a $500 deductible it dropped to about $375/yr. The personal articles policy is similar to "scheduling" items on a homeowners policy. You can put just about anything you want on the policy....jewelery, coin collections, guns, artwork....you name it and they will probably insure it. I plan on adding a couple of my more expensive implements to the policy when I get them too, a snowblower and a grapple. A very flexible type of policy.

This policy doesn't have a liability component though so even though you could take the tractor off your property, if you hurt your neighbor by running over his foot you might still have a gap in coverage. With Inland Marine you can add the liability coverage as well which is what I would need to cover operation on the road if I ever decided I needed to do that.

 

[TheFarmerInAdell]

This policy doesn't have a liability component though so even though you could take the tractor off your property, if you hurt your neighbor by running over his foot you might still have a gap in coverage. With Inland Marine you can add the liability coverage as well which is what I would need to cover operation on the road if I ever decided I needed to do that.

Wouldn't your standard homeowner's liability cover this (but only if you are not charging for the work being done)? That's the way it was explained to me about snowplowing with my truck, but vehicles have their own liability coverage. That's definitely something to verify with your insurance company. In fact, I'm going to call my agent today and double check this! Thanks for pointing this out!

I have all of my equipment covered by the "personal articles" policies.

 

[thekkfan]

Wouldn't your standard homeowner's liability cover this (but only if you are not charging for the work being done)?

Correct. Same here. Inland Marine covers anything YOU would do to the tractor while operating, you homeowner's liability for anything you damage (person/property) unless you pay extra for that too.

 

[Kubota 2350]

One thing to remember is that if it is covered under your home owners policy without added coverage it goes against your "personal belongings" value. So if your personal belongings policy is for $100,000 and tractor is $20,000 you just lowered the amount you can claim on your other items to $80,000 if you had a fire and everything was a total loss. You need to evaluate how much you would need for replacement of all your belongings and then add the tractor value to that. You might be able to get a rider to your policy like Kubota 2350 has to add the value of the tractor in addition to your personal belongings (much like a jewelry/fur/firearms rider). I insure all of my equipment for off-property use because I take it around to help others out.

I do have a rider for replacement coverage for the tractor, on and off my property, this is separate from any of my homeowners coverage

$100.00 deductible on damage to the tractor, 0 deductible on the glass.

 

[justinramani]

The best insurance I could find for my Mahindra and implements was from CNH insurance. Their coverage covers the tractor anywhere and covers accidental damage too.

 

[vvanders]

Highly reccomend not using your homeowner's policy.
Many people have made small claims with it(~5-10k) and found out they couldn't get insurance and/or dropped.

It's really best to only use for catastrophic things.