Personal/Commercial-Dealer Tow Dolly Usage

lovehateinsurance

New Member
1
Would typical car insurance from, for example, GEICO, that covers the use of a 4-Door heavy duty (Ford F250, for example) pickup truck for non-commercial use, also cover an attached tow dolly that were towing a mid-size car (for example, a Buick) in a fashion safe according to manufacturer's guidelines, assuming the towed vehicle is also registered and insured, but by a different carrier, for example, Progressive?

Which insurance (the truck's or the car's?) covers an accident, if someone hits the towed car in an accident, or the towed car flips over and damages another car?

Would GEICO deny a claim if the towing vehicle were at fault hitting someone else, because it were towing a dolly and towed vehicle and that's excluded?

In Florida, tow dollies are legal of course (imagine all the motorhomes towing tow dollies with small cars behind them, and also folks with pickups and dollies towing a junker they are going to fix up), however some DMV agents have told me a dolly can't be individually registered or insured asserting that the tow dolly goes automatically under the registration of the towing vehicle (motorhome/pickup), however, patrol officers and sheriff's deputies have told me that anything with wheels on the ground must be registered and insured. Disagreeing with those denying DMW agents, other agents were willing to register a dolly as a trailer (those other DMV agents believed that the previously denying agents were wrong that they can't be registered, as the dolly can be interpreted as being a trailer).

How do the answers the questions above change if the towed vehicle has a dealer's plate on it and is thus covered by dealer's registration and insurance, and the towing vehicle is a personal vehicle with personal auto insurance?
 
Huh? Can't answer DMV questions.

On personal insurance, just insure the dolly with the car. It cost almost nothing to do that.

As for who pays what when and if, the question has as many answers as it has ways to twist the question. Best bet is make sure things are insured and the adjusters will sort it out in the event something happens.

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If towing commercially (i.e., dealer car on dolly), your personal insurance for you car will probably not cover anything. The dealers insurance may or may not extend to you on your personal car. You'll basically need to change your personal policy in for a commercial policy to do this. Not hard, just when you tow commercially it is a much bigger issue then doing it for personal reasons.

Dan
 
First party coverage (damage to the Buick itself or the truck) would come from that vehicle's coverage (collision or comprehensive). If the truck is pulling the Buick then they both get liability coverage from the truck. If the Buick has a license plate on it then it needs to have at lease liability coverage anyway.

As far as dealers tags... it does not change anything. Anything with a tag on it needs at least liability coverage from someone.
 
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