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[OilyRover]

I was thinking about leafsprings,when it occurred to me that Land Rover didn't fit parabolic springs to Series vehicles - would I be right in thinking that parabolic springs would be classed as a 'modification' by insurers and would need to be declared as such?

[twomokes]

The factory fitted parabolics to Land Rover 101s . As it is still a leaf spring insurers wouldn't see it as a modification any more than fitting 5 or seven leaf air portable springs or softer station wagon springs. Certainly it is not counted as a modification by my insurers and hasn't been for the near two decades they have been fitted.

[Wittsend]

... and I believe Santanas had them. So, a tried and tested "option".

You need to tell your insurers (in writing) but there should be no change in the (risk) premium.
You are just covering your backside should you need to put in a future claim and they try to wriggle out of paying up.

One assumes you are insured by one of the recognised classic car brokers

 

[Genem]

IMHO they are just "leaf springs". Arguably better ones but still leaf-springs. 

[OilyRover]

IMHO they are just "leaf springs". Arguably better ones but still leaf-springs.

In an age where they void your insurance over a sticker in your window I' m not sure.

[Genem]

^^^^ Really - or just another myth ?   I've never heard of it happening.  A quick google reveals a lot very similar articles ….where the word "could" is doing some heavy lifting...

[geoff]

You need to tell your insurers (in writing) but there should be no change in the (risk) premium.

  This really is all you need to do for springs and any other changes 

[w3526602]

Hi,

It is an offence to obscure your windscreen with anything other than "official" stickers (tax disc), but I don't know if that is the whole screen or just the "swept area"

... seeing as there were recent headlines (which I didn't read) .... something to do about police booking drivers with snow on their screens.

602

[Peter Holden]

Quite rightly so, if you saw some of the photos of the cars they booked the drivesr must have been driving by braille

Peter

[martinrh]

Not proud of this but many years (30?) ago, I was late for work on a cold winters morning.
Quick scrape of the ice from the windscreen and off into the traffic.
30 seconds later I could see nothing as the screen iced up.
I opened the window and was negotiating a roundabout with my head stuck out of the window and eyes streaming when I saw the police car coming the other way.
It was 30 years ago though, so after my apology and a brief ticking off, they lent me some de-icer spray and I was on my way :-)

[w3526602]

Hi,

Way back when, I drove a "thirty shilling " Armstrong Siddelly (sp?) Whitney (wish I had it now) with multiple cracks in the cylinder head. The radiator overflow pipe used to spray steam into the heater fresh air pick-up. The steam used to condense on the inside of the windscreen and then freeze.

Character building!

602

[Exile]

Declare every darn thing you can think of (even the wife's maiden name ) when you take out insurance.

Why not?

A tiny bit of hassle now to make as sure as you can that they won't give you a big hassle if.........

[oilstain]

I have declared everything mainly to justify my agreed value. but is it the way you describe them but always telling the truth

eg
I have fitted parabolic springs to improve stability and saftey on modern roads   
NOT
Parboliv springs fitted to allow higher cornering speeds and more stability on heavy breaking   

[MWAD7]

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/107964/car-modification-impact-on-insurance-cover-revealed

I guess one benefit of the agreed-value ‘process’ is that my insurer has detailed (current!) photos of the vehicle and a list of specific features including security measures.

[agg221]

I have a Volvo estate. It was supplied new with 17" alloy wheels which take low profile tyres. Volvo always offered the options of 16" and 15" steel wheels, to take tyres with wider walls. I seriously considered swapping over to one of these options because they are more robust against the state of the roads, due to the number of potholes. A single new wheel for mine would be over £300.

I spoke to my insurer about doing this and was told it would be classed as a modification and would add £30 a year to my premium. I pointed out that since these were an original OEM option there was no way they could tell which wheels were originally fitted, and that I was considering doing it to reduce the likelihood of a claim through damage. I had a look at the questions around this 'modification'. They were questions like 'have you modified the width of the wheel arches?', 'have you increased the turning circle?' so clearly not aimed at what I was talking about, but in the world of computer-generated premiums it was a modification and that increased my risk and hence my premium. In the end i picked up an absolute bargain set of spare rims on Ebay for £100 and 7yrs on I have used all of them.

My neighbour opposite used to run a transport business as owner/driver. One of his vehicles was a small flatbed hi-ab and one of the jobs he regularly got was removing irreparably damaged cars from the M11. One time i went over to see him there was a smashed up Golf on his drive. This was unusual as they normally ended up at 'repair' place in Haverhill, before going to the scrapyard. This one had come to his place as the owner wanted it back but the insurance assessor was declaring his insurance invalid - he had fitted standard size but non-OEM alloys (to replace the original steel wheels) and a wider bore stainless steel tailpipe on the exhaust, and not declared them as 'modifications' which the insurance assessor regarded as invalidating his insurance.  I never did find out who won that argument.

Neither of the above relates to a classic insurance policy but both do indicate how picky some parts of the insurance system may choose to be.

Alec