Insurance

[sparky]

I Phoned Footman James yes your right they seemed ok with modifications I may go with them.
sparky.

[ChrisB]

I'm quite surprised with fluxies giving problems ??

They never had any problems with my electric Feista "conversion" ??

I wonder why the whole seat issue is causing such a problem

Of course theres the whole issue of putting windows in a van as well, but we better not go there

ChrisB

[Grumpy-b]

Flux always used to be the place to go for converted vehicles, and they would always give a quote. They now dont seem to be the same, guess they are now too mainstream. They just put you through to another call centre in Ipswich who pass you on to another Insurance company or just give you a telephone number. Yet another institution that has gone.
There does seem to be a space in the market for the sort of insurance that we are seeking. A friend is involved with a London based company and I have asked him if ther may be an underwriter interested in our insurance. The market has changed a lot from lots of small LLoyds syndicates to huge corporate insurance companies.
NFU do however still do their own insurance,its not farmed out and my experience through a close friend is that they are very decent to deal with. Once I get my formal quote I will give some idea of the deal on offer.

Grumpy-b

[ChrisB]

That would be useful.

Must admit from what you've said about Fluxies I'm surprised I got insured, as you say I wonder if its cos they are all main stream now, when they use to be the insurers to use for wild and whacky stuff.
Some of the vehicles I've had with them are.......
Transit Van that we shoe horned a 3ltr V6 and auto box in
An electric Fiesta conversion
3.5ltr V8 powered Beach buggy

We even asked them to quote for a 27.5ltr V12 powered transit as well (yes thats 27.5 ltrs i.e 2.2ltrs/cyclinder) which they did, even though we hadnt built it, sounds like they wouldnt even entertian that sort of thing today

ChrisB

[Tim]

NFU do however still do their own insurance, it's not farmed out.

You would have thought that if anyone would farm it out it would be NFU..

[tim.strutt]

I think the issue with seats in a Berlingo is that its a safety critical modification, - the standard for seat belt anchor points is so I've found otu an N1 test, where they have to be tested to withstand 3ton opull for 0.2 seconds.

Also there is a major difference (apparently) between Vans (commercials) and cars when it comes tgo insurance.

The NFU for instance now have two seperate policies, The landrover is on a "commerfcial" policy, but the Berlingo-es are on the (SAME!) Car policy (yes even though they are Vans!).

I asked yesterday and they've checked the cost of putting the two vans on the same Commercial policy as the Landrover, and thankfully they haven't - the cost rockets by £140 for EACH van!!!!

Apparently the price of the cover is based on the weight of the vehicle, and those batts are not light.

Jasmin from the Leighton Buzzard NFU (yes its a plug, she was excellent at helping sort this out - 01525 372634) has been in contact with their underwriters and has confirmed that yes they are OK with seat conversions, as long as it is a "professional" job, but they do want an engineers certificate putting on file - which I am more than happy with.

So definately sticking with the NFU.

Tim

[ChrisB]

So basically more rules and ruddy regulations and we're suppose to be in a free country

Thanks for all the updates TimS and hopefully the above will be of use to others in due course.

ChrisB

[tim.strutt]

Thank you - and I'm sure SWMBO is relieved I subjected this board to my exploits rather than bore her rigid with it

It was good to go through the process, at the very least it validated my decision to renew with my exisiting insurer.

Re seat conversion certs - Once I find out how much its costs, and who is qualified to test/certify the seats, I'll post a reply in the Modifications area

As you say I hope others find it useful, I've also been warned that since the EU got involved, the chance of having a bespoke tow bar made and used (legally) is nigh on impossible.

Oh well, thats progress I suppose, but I do wonder how and why it appears to be so much easier to get kitcar insurance, when compared to mildly modifying a commercial vehicle.

TimS

[tim.strutt]

Grumpy-b

re "I also dangled the carrot of another one to insure in a couple of months as my Mk2 shelled multispace gets finished."

Just thought I'd re-itterate something I've mentioned in my posts about our NFU policies, as I am sure it will help your premiums when you have two vans on the same policy. We have two vans on the one policy, with two named drivers- hence c£200ish per van.- its some time ago, but I'm sure that we had one van, and the premium increased no where near twice when we put the other van on some time later.

I'd lay odds this is why we get such relatively low quotes, I say relatively as I suspect the other quotes mentioned in this thread with FJ (sub £200) may be because of the restricted mileage. - NFU do not take mileage into account on thier policies, they DO however give an ammortised annual bonus of your premium for staying with them - they are I believe a Mutual organisation like building societies, but they have a windfall clause, so don'y buy in expecting a building society windfall They are also EXTREMELY flexible during the life of the policy - we frequently swap one van out and substitute the third at no additonal cost., and the cover note is put in the post that day - and yes I am recommending them.

The NFU are one of the best insurance companies still on the market, and I think they have proved it (again) to me. I may even wait another six years to get further comparisons


Very interested in your Berlingo conversions, can you post a thread (appols if you already have - I've been distracted looking for the right insurance!)

I also liked the farming out ref but let it roll - ) TimC I'll get back to you about unrestrained persons in vans when I manage to check what we discussed, with the brigade/ friendly Police.... I'll let than one roll as well.


TimS

[qdos]

I'm not a Blingo owner or anything but as I see it the Blingo comes in two formats both based on the same basic shell.

The van and the Multispace. a lot of vans as I mentioned elsewhere are simply estate cars with no rear seat and panelled in where there were windows, though some do actually have a rear seat

Now car manufacturers seldom make huge changes to 'chassis' that cars are based on and infact often nowadays collaborate on the same platforms so you'll find basically a completely different manufacturer has a car based on another manufacturer's underpinnings. Anyways I will hazard a guess that you will find that the Blingo will have the seat and seatbelt mounting points in the floorpan already for the seats and seatbelts as fitted to the Multispace and all you have to do is fixt them using the same parts.

If you fit your own seats of your own design then ok I can see where they may be comming from but all this talk of engineers reports and qualified fitters is a nonsense and a money making / money saving excercise by some insurance companies.