<VV> Insurance Question

[Bill Elliott]

This isn't _directly_ Corvair related, but possibly the Ultravan and/or Corvan campers can help me out 
here....

I'm trying to get insurance coverage on the Corvair-powered VW '70 Westy that I just bought. I thought I 
had this all buttoned up when I got a call from my collector insurance company (Rally Insurance..highly 
recommended) saying they had just received the pictures and had to deny coverage. 

"HOW could they tell it was Corvair-powered", I wondered. ;-)

Then they tell me because of the Wesfalia conversion, they consider it an RV and thus not eligible for 
collector coverage under and of their policies.

So I call USAA (my normal insurer). No problem with liability, they signed me right up. A little under 
$300/yr... about 5 times the Rally rate for full agreed value coverage.

But comp and collision? No way. They told me they wouldn't even work up a quote because they were 
_certain_ that if I wanted comp and collision on a 1970 VW, then it was in nice condition and the BEST I 
could hope for in case of a loss was "actual cash value" which would be determined by average book 
value and would be but a fraction of what I had invested.  They could only do stated value (I didn't press 
for agreed value at this point) through their collector side, which, as you could guess, wouldn't insure it 
because it was an RV and not a "collector car".

So at the moment I'm legal but self-insured for everything except liability. Has anyone else been able to 
get reasonably-priced full coverage on a vintage "RV"? 

Thanks!

Bill Elliott
Urbana, MD