Insurance valuation on your RV

What is the common protocol for establishing an insured value for your homebuilt RV, price of all parts? and does the value change the older and more hours it accrues?

Just me

I value mine at the amount of money I have invested in plane parts. As time goes by, hours added, the value of the engine goes down and the value the parts go up as more newer items are added.

I think it's a by guess and by golly approach. My thought was to value the hull at roughly replacement part cost. Over time I have not changed that, but may be worth rethinking at some point. It will only really come into play when 1) paying the bill (more value = higher insurance bill, and hull is the expensive part), or 2) the airplane is considered "totaled" by the insurance folks. If you have, say 25k worth of damage and are insured for 50k, they will pay for repair. If you have 25k worth of damage and are insured for 25k, they will likely total it and you have 25k with which to replace the airplane.

Maybe one of the insurance folks on here will chime in.

Greg

Replacement cost

I value mine plane at replacement cost, which is about what I think my plane is worth if I was going to sell it.

Even though my plane is over 6 years old, I increased the insured value after I did my major panel upgrade earlier this year.

Some insure based on cost, whether parts cost or purchased cost. Others insure based on replacement cost. If you insure too low the company could possibly total it and you lose in the case of an accident. If you insure too high they may pay for repairs when it should be totaled. The only grief I've seen from an insurance company was that they said the owner had to justify the higher value than the insurance company said was normal.

You really want to insure for the market value - what you can sell it for.
If over-valued (say it's worth $50K but you claim a hull value of $75K): first of all the insurance company will be reluctant to even write the policy - they think you're going to try to cheat them. And if you do have a serious claim, they may offer you $50K to rebuild a wreck, rather than paying out more than it really was worth. If under-valued ( same $50K plane but you claim only $25K), the insurance company will tend to total the plane even for moderate damage (example: you have $10K of damage. The insurance company will want to total the plane, giving you $25K. They now own the hull; they'll invest $10K in repairs, sell it for $50K, making a profit of $50-$25-$10=$15K rather than a $10K loss).
edit: I see Jesse said the same thing. I type too slowly.

my feedback

My insurer ( Air1 ) said to always insure for the full replacement cost.
that is, with a total write-off, what would it reasonably cost to search for an exact replacement, travel there, inspect it, buy it, have it ferried home, and pay the taxes on your purchase.
all that is far more than 'parts', so of course, you'll pay the premium to match.
....but anything less, and you will be out of pocket for all those extras.
your choice; insure fully, or save a few hundred each year, and hope that accrues in your favour until you have a claim.

.....pretty much always the same dice you roll with insurance, in my opinion.