Semi Air Suspension - C&MC.

ontheroadagain

ontheroadagain

Joined
Apr 20, 2020
Posts
1,247
Likes collected
2,889
Location
Northern Ireland.
Funster No
70,057
MH
Adria Compact SC.
Exp
Since 2017
I recently fitted an Easy Top semi air suspension kit to our Elddis motorhome.
I thought I would do the right thing and notify my insurance company (C&MC which is underwritten by Highway insurance)
This morning they presented me with a nice bill for £50.32. (insurance expires Jan 2021)
Is this to be expected? I had naively expected them just to take a note of it.
Regards
Ian.
 
We are with comfort insurance. No charge for adding air assist on rear axle, or for weight upgrade ( twice )
 
Definitely worthwhile talking to them. We are also insured through C&CM and put both levellers and full air on, was referred to underwriter for approval, no increased charge. Interestingly they increased the vans value for the levellers but not for the full air!
Bill
 
Like others with Comfort there was no change in premium and no admin charge when I advised them of semi air installation and change on Max weight.
 
Full air all round on ours, no change with Comfort.

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Caravan Club insurance and we just had a personalised plate put on. Was a £20 admin fee.
 
I'd point out that it's unlikely to be on the road before then, so little additional risk, although there may be a rise in value.
 
ontheroadagain said:
I recently fitted an Easy Top semi air suspension kit to our Elddis motorhome.
I thought I would do the right thing and notify my insurance company (C&MC which is underwritten by Highway insurance)
This morning they presented me with a nice bill for £50.32. (insurance expires Jan 2021)
Is this to be expected? I had naively expected them just to take a note of it.
Regards
Ian.
Click to expand...
Strange, I did exactly the same last year and guess what, no increase in premium and I'm also with C&MC underwritten by LV. In fact I've just received my renewal notice. its £346 an increase of £20.10 on last year
 
Thanks to everyone who responded.
I spoke to the CAMC this morning and pointed out that others had confirmed that they had not been charged for this modification (including some people also insured through CAMC).
They said that there was nothing they could do as it was the underwriter (Highway) who had requested the additional fee. (They did indicate that they had also added an admin charge).
I have reluctantly paid the fee, but it is now very unlikely that i will renew with them in Jan 21.
I just hope the semi air suspension is worth the additional cost. Our motorhome hasn't moved since i fitted it 3 weeks ago!
Regards
Ian.

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ontheroadagain said:
Thanks to everyone who responded.
I spoke to the CAMC this morning and pointed out that others had confirmed that they had not been charged for this modification (including some people also insured through CAMC).
They said that there was nothing they could do as it was the underwriter (Highway) who had requested the additional fee. (They did indicate that they had also added an admin charge).
I have reluctantly paid the fee, but it is now very unlikely that i will renew with them in Jan 21.
I just hope the semi air suspension is worth the additional cost. Our motorhome hasn't moved since i fitted it 3 weeks ago!
Regards
Ian.
Click to expand...
I appreciate it's small consolation, but you'll not regret fitting the air assist suspension. completely changes the driving and handling characteristics, plus you'll benefit from the increased rear axle and overall GVW
 
Hettie's Crew said:
We are with Comfort and had weight upgrade, rear air assist and levelling jacks, no change to premium.
Click to expand...
Sorry to go off-topic, but who did your 'weight upgrade' ? I've had semi-air added with the promise of an extra 200kg uprating, only to be told by 'SV Tech' that the front would also need doing, the tyres need to be wider and wheels uprated - did they just not want the job?
 
Paul Wilkins said:
Sorry to go off-topic, but who did your 'weight upgrade' ? I've had semi-air added with the promise of an extra 200kg uprating, only to be told by 'SV Tech' that the front would also need doing, the tyres need to be wider and wheels uprated - did they just not want the job?
Click to expand...
I had semi air fitted to the rear axle (AS Suspension), wider tyres by the local tyre fitter, up from 215 to 225 increasing the load index.
This was done after first speaking with SV Tech to check what was needed for our particular motorhome to go from 3500 to 3850kg.
 
Paul Wilkins I had a similar experience as Hettie's Crew. I'm my case I had semi air and larger tyres on the back to increase the man to 3850 and the back axle loading to 2240. Svtech said to go beyond 3850 I would also need larger tyres on the front and uprated suspension.

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Paul Wilkins said:
Sorry to go off-topic, but who did your 'weight upgrade' ? I've had semi-air added with the promise of an extra 200kg uprating, only to be told by 'SV Tech' that the front would also need doing, the tyres need to be wider and wheels uprated - did they just not want the job?
Click to expand...
It depends on your base chassis. We have a Carthago on a Alko chassis, in order to go from 3700kg to 3850kg we didn't have to do anything other than a paper exercise but the axle capacities remained the same, ie 1850kg front and 2000kg rear. This didn't help us though as it was the back where we needed extra capacity so we had to have semi-air fitted on the rear which meant our rear axle capacity was upped to 2240kg, but the overall limit is still 3850kg even though the axles add up to 4090kg, it just means we have the ability to use some of the unused capacity of the front axle on the rear.

The ONLY way we could go to 4005kg (the highest safely possible for the base) would be to have the front suspension improved too but as it's neigh on impossible to use more capacity upfront than we already have there's no point.

We already had 225 tyres so that wasn't something we had to do fortunately.
 
Paul Wilkins said:
Sorry to go off-topic, but who did your 'weight upgrade' ? I've had semi-air added with the promise of an extra 200kg uprating, only to be told by 'SV Tech' that the front would also need doing, the tyres need to be wider and wheels uprated - did they just not want the job?
Click to expand...

Were you under the impression that SVTech does the work? They are a technical firm who advise on what is required for the DVLA to accept when upgrading (and downgrading too). You have to do or arrange for the work yourself then provide evidence, e.g. invoices, that it has been carried out. They'll then issue you with relevant paperwork including what to send to DVLA - who will (normally) then just amend your details at no further cost. In fact if you're upgrading over 3500kg you may well get a partial refund of your current RFL!

Incidentally it is not absolutely necessary to involve SVTech, or anybody else - but then you have to deal with DVLA yourself. The majority of upgraders accept the cost of using the professionals because the DVLA accepts them without question.

For others who might be interested, the last time I looked on their website there was a form you could fill in with all your details and requirements which you submitted. If it was straightforward they would come back to you with what you needed, or advise you to call them, without charge. But I suggest you don't try calling them "out of the blue" as they're not a big organisation with lots of staff just hanging around waiting for your call!
 
TerryL said:
Were you under the impression that SVTech does the work? They are a technical firm who advise on what is required for the DVLA to accept when upgrading (and downgrading too). You have to do or arrange for the work yourself then provide evidence, e.g. invoices, that it has been carried out. They'll then issue you with relevant paperwork including what to send to DVLA - who will (normally) then just amend your details at no further cost. In fact if you're upgrading over 3500kg you may well get a partial refund of your current RFL!

Incidentally it is not absolutely necessary to involve SVTech, or anybody else - but then you have to deal with DVLA yourself. The majority of upgraders accept the cost of using the professionals because the DVLA accepts them without question.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately AFAIK nothing has changed and you CANNOT do the upgrade yourself even if it is just a paper exercise.
For others who might be interested, the last time I looked on their website there was a form you could fill in with all your details and requirements which you submitted. If it was straightforward they would come back to you with what you needed, or advise you to call them, without charge. But I suggest you don't try calling them "out of the blue" as they're not a big organisation with lots of staff just hanging around waiting for your call!
Click to expand...
What form is this? If you mean the DVSA one then that doesn't work as I tried it a few years back and had a conversation with them about it all and the ONLY way to do it as a private individual was to have an engineer's report to confirm the details are correct and the vehicle can be uprated without modification and then submit it all to the DVLA who confirm the info and issue you with a new uprated V5C.

I put a lot of research into this and finally found another chap to do the engineer's report a lot cheaper (which is all that is needed from SVTech if there are no physical changes needed) so it doesn't have to cost a lot.
 
Getting back to the original topic , I’m amazed anybody insures with C&MC . We’ve tried them several times over the last 20 years ( some caravan and some Moho in the last 5 years ) and they’ve always been way more expensive than most others for the same cover. We went with Comfort when we converted to a motorhome and always been very pleased .
Looks like a bit of profiteering by the club to me !
 
i am with them but only until sept they will charge you for anything they can and then blame it on the underwriters
 
Paul Wilkins said:
Sorry to go off-topic, but who did your 'weight upgrade' ? I've had semi-air added with the promise of an extra 200kg uprating, only to be told by 'SV Tech' that the front would also need doing, the tyres need to be wider and wheels uprated - did they just not want the job?
Click to expand...
Hi Paul
The VB kit was fitted by Full Circle Enterprise of Banham Norfolk.
SV Tech uprated from 3700kgs to 3850kgs
The MH had previously been uprated from 3500kgs to 3700kgs by SV Tech

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