Specialty Vehicle
Insurance in
Tennessee and Mississippi
RVs, motorcycles, boats and everything else you own for the fun of it. Each one needs a policy of its own, because none of them are covered by the auto policy on your car. We shop more than ten carriers for each of them.
One Gap, and a Policy for Each
Everything on this page has one thing in common: your car insurance does not cover it. A personal auto policy is written for private passenger vehicles, and a motorhome, a motorcycle and a boat all sit outside that definition. A homeowners policy will sometimes reach one of them while it is parked at the house, and almost never once it leaves.
Past that shared starting point they diverge quickly, which is why each has a page of its own rather than a paragraph here. An RV policy has to behave like a vehicle policy and a dwelling policy at once. A motorcycle policy turns on gear, custom parts and the driver who did not see you. A boat policy turns on how a total loss is valued and who pays to raise a hull off the bottom. Those are different sets of questions and, more often than not, different sets of carriers.
RVs, motorcycles and boats each have a page of their own below. Golf carts, ATVs, side-by-sides and collector cars we write too, and they are covered here.
What Needs a Policy of Its Own
RVs, Motorhomes and Travel Trailers
A rig is a vehicle and a dwelling at the same time, so the policy carries liability and physical damage for the driving plus contents and liability for the living. Total loss replacement matters more here than anywhere else we write, because an RV depreciates faster than the loan on it. RV and motorhome insurance
Motorcycles and Scooters
Both states require liability on a street-legal bike. What a dedicated policy adds is the machine itself, your gear, the parts you fitted after you bought it, and uninsured motorist coverage for the driver who pulls out in front of you. Motorcycle insurance
Boats and Personal Watercraft
Neither state requires boat insurance, which means the boat that hits you very likely carries none. A policy covers hull, motor and trailer, your liability, and the wreck removal nobody thinks about until they owe it. Boat and watercraft insurance
ATVs, UTVs and Golf Carts
Off-road vehicles used beyond your own land need their own coverage. A homeowners policy may reach them while they sit at the house, and it rarely follows them onto a trail or into a park. Golf carts are a separate question again: DeSoto County does not allow them on unincorporated county roads, but Southaven, Olive Branch and Hernando each permit them on city streets — and Mississippi requires a licensed driver and proof of financial responsibility to put one there, so on the street the coverage is not optional.
Collector and Classic Cars
A standard auto policy pays what a car is worth today, which is exactly the wrong answer for one that has been appreciating for thirty years. A collector policy insures it for a value agreed in writing up front, usually in exchange for limited mileage and a secure place to keep it, and it is frequently cheaper than the daily-driver policy it replaces.
Utility and Car-Hauling Trailers
A trailer behind a truck is covered for the liability it causes while hitched, and not for itself. If the trailer is worth having, the damage to it, the theft of it and whatever is strapped to it are all separate questions — and the answer is usually a line on the policy rather than a policy of its own.
What Changes From One to the Next
Whether the Law Requires It
A street-legal motorcycle and a motorhome are motor vehicles and must carry at least 25/50/25 in both states. A boat, a personal watercraft, an ATV and a towable trailer carry no state requirement at all — which is why the boat that hits you so often has nothing behind it.
What the Policy Has To Be
A motorcycle policy is a vehicle policy. A boat policy is a marine policy, with its own rules about named waters and lay-up periods. An RV policy has to be a vehicle policy and a dwelling policy at the same time, which is why it is the longest of them to get right.
Which Carriers Will Write It
These lines do not share a carrier appetite. A company that prices a bike well is frequently not the one that prices a coach well, and marine is often a specialist market of its own. Shopping them through one agency is the point.
Whether Your Umbrella Reaches It
An umbrella sits only on top of policies the carrier has agreed to sit on top of. A boat or an RV usually has to be scheduled onto it specifically, with a minimum underlying liability limit first. This is the gap we find most often on households that own more than one of these.
The Exclusions They All Share
Each page covers the exclusions specific to that policy. These apply across all of them.
- Maintenance and Age — Every one of these policies pays for sudden accidental damage and none of them pay for the machine wearing out. Where that bites hardest differs by vehicle, so it is worth reading on the page for the one you own.
- Earning Money With It — Carrying passengers for a fee, chartering, or renting the vehicle out through a peer-to-peer platform is commercial use, and a personal policy is not written for it on any of them.
- Racing, and Operating Under the Influence — Organized speed contests and timed events are excluded on all of them. So are losses that occur while the vehicle is being operated under the influence — and on the water that rule is the same as it is on the road, which surprises people.
Specialty Vehicle Insurance FAQ
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