Bloody Insurance

I hate the general bureaucracy that comes with owning possessions in the modern world, but the last few weeks have really got my goat. Amongst other things that we've had to cancel, change or create, have been: Bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages, human vaccinations, pet vaccinations, water accounts, gas accounts, electric accounts, landline accounts, broadband accounts, mobile phone accounts, house insurance, pet insurance, shipping insurance and truck insurance.

Most have been relatively straight forward, but I'm struggling with getting Jim insured for our travels in the US, Canada and Mexico. There are a number of bureaucratic issues with getting insurance for Jim in the US, the primary ones being:

1. Jim is not registered in a US state
2. Mercedes Atego 1823s do not come up on insurers lists of American RVs and when they do a web search they find lots of pictures of flatbeds, beavertails, box trucks and tippers.
3. I do not have an American address to register the policy at.

A few companies seem to be able to insure a foreign registered vehicle, including Thum, Poli Seek and Progressive, but it seems that only Thum are able to do it without a US mailing address. Too bad because their quote was over $6,000 for a year.

Poli Seek have been the second to come back with a quote, thankfully approximately half that of Thum. I have a friend in MA who kindly let me use his address for the Poli Seek quote, unfortunately the only state the they are not able to insure RVs in a is MA. No bother as I have another kind friend in NY, unfortunately NY requires policy holders to have a US drivers license. I've now resorted to using a distant relative's address in AZ.

The last hopeful candidate is Progressive. Stephen Stewart's excellent blog notes that Progressive were the cheapest of the US insurers that he tried and so I'm hopeful of getting a competitive quote. I better do after sitting on the phone for nearly an hour trying to describe what Jim is using American recreation vehicle terminology. Class A, Class C, toterhome, and 5th wheel are not terms used in the UK.

I realise that this has been more of a rant than a blog post, so to make up for it, here's some pictures of some recent progress

Here I am setting up the awning for the first time. I had to fix some brackets to the truck body and shorten the bracing bars to size. using the storm bars instead of legs means that I can secure the awning on hard standing or rocky ground. I had to adjust the angle of the awning slightly to clear the door when it opens or closes

Here's the inside of Jim, with the completed kitchen and laminate flooring laid.

The copper pipe on the right of this picture is the supply to the header tank for the Wwebasto water system.

Here's the two swing out tables together. I was experimenting with different hinges but I'll remake the table on the right with the smaller hinges if I get a chance.

Here's the table apart

And finally, a view looking towards the cab from the rear of the truck