gregnash
Anal Retentive Analyst
Sorry to hear about your brother but glad he is recovering. Healing juju for him for sure!!
Look in the 60 series forums for some of the insurance stories there. Basically, Insurance companies are not in the business of paying out money, rather they bank of the fact that there is a very slight likelihood that you will need to utilize their services and thus they "take" your money every month easily but will make you jump through hoops to get it back...
Things like maintenance based items, cosmetics (carpet, seats, paint) are considered total loss items based on the policy you have and thus will not be reimbursed. So don't even consider those items into YOUR number when looking at offers, as they will not cover that stuff.
As everyone else has said, start documenting similar rigs for sale. Go nationwide for your sales research and come up with a number that is a bit higher than the average price. Then add a couple grand depending on where your rig fell in that average.
For stuff like accessories, unless they are part of a stated price policy, most likely will not be covered. Depending on the company you may be able to work them into the price, but that really varies on agent, assessor, company, your policy, etc. As for the parts, if they are on the vehicle and you settle for a total loss without purchasing the vehicle back, they are the insurance companies, not yours. You can try and track the vehicle down at the yard and go salvage everything. But NOTHING on the vehicle is yours if you settle without a purchase back, again this may vary by your policy but that is the general SAFE way of thinking about it.
Good luck with the insurance company. All companies have good and bad traits, agents, etc. Hell my SIL is my agent for State Farm and I know for a fact that she is going to err in favor of her office/own pocketbook vs. my favor if we ever have to do something like this with my 60 or the wife's 4Runner.
Look in the 60 series forums for some of the insurance stories there. Basically, Insurance companies are not in the business of paying out money, rather they bank of the fact that there is a very slight likelihood that you will need to utilize their services and thus they "take" your money every month easily but will make you jump through hoops to get it back...
Things like maintenance based items, cosmetics (carpet, seats, paint) are considered total loss items based on the policy you have and thus will not be reimbursed. So don't even consider those items into YOUR number when looking at offers, as they will not cover that stuff.
As everyone else has said, start documenting similar rigs for sale. Go nationwide for your sales research and come up with a number that is a bit higher than the average price. Then add a couple grand depending on where your rig fell in that average.
For stuff like accessories, unless they are part of a stated price policy, most likely will not be covered. Depending on the company you may be able to work them into the price, but that really varies on agent, assessor, company, your policy, etc. As for the parts, if they are on the vehicle and you settle for a total loss without purchasing the vehicle back, they are the insurance companies, not yours. You can try and track the vehicle down at the yard and go salvage everything. But NOTHING on the vehicle is yours if you settle without a purchase back, again this may vary by your policy but that is the general SAFE way of thinking about it.
Good luck with the insurance company. All companies have good and bad traits, agents, etc. Hell my SIL is my agent for State Farm and I know for a fact that she is going to err in favor of her office/own pocketbook vs. my favor if we ever have to do something like this with my 60 or the wife's 4Runner.