Getting A Custom Build Valued Instead Of Ignored

A carrier's estimating and valuation systems start from the vehicle identification number, which describes what the manufacturer built. On a camper van conversion that is a cargo van. On a coach with an owner installed solar array and lithium bank, that is a coach with the original lead acid batteries. Everything added afterward is invisible unless someone puts it in front of a human.

This is not adversarial. There is genuinely nothing in the data telling the system that a galley, a four hundred amp hour lithium bank or a rooftop array exists. The gap is a documentation gap, and documentation gaps get filled by whoever is standing next to the vehicle when it is still intact.

Which is why the first thing that happens on a build claim here is photography, before a single fastener comes out. Once the build is disassembled the record cannot be reconstructed, and a receipt for an installation done three years ago in another state is rarely close at hand.

Model plates and serial numbers on every appliance, controller, inverter, converter, heater and refrigeration unit. Panel wattage stickers on solar. Battery chemistry markings and capacity. Breaker sizes and labels in the distribution panel. Cable gauge where it is visible. Those establish what the equipment actually is, which is what a replacement quote gets written against.

Construction photographs of cabinetry, including the fastener pattern behind a removed face, because interior components in a build are frequently structural and a photograph of the attachment method is what proves it. Plumbing runs, tank mounting, heater ducting and wire routing in the wall cavities, all before insulation and panels come out.

Then the whole interior as a finished space, wide shots from both ends, so there is a record of what the vehicle was before it was opened. That last set is the one owners always wish they had and almost never took.

Build restoration gets estimated as its own section, separate from chassis and body repair, with parts, materials and labor stated individually rather than blended into a total. Two sections evaluated on their own terms produce a better outcome than one number an adjuster has to take on faith, and it lets the chassis repair proceed on its own schedule while the build scope is under review.

Replacement components get quoted at current cost with part numbers, because a lithium bank purchased three years ago and a lithium bank purchased today are different prices and the older receipt is evidence of what existed rather than what it costs to replace. Labor to remove, re route and reseal roof penetrations for a solar array is stated separately, because reinstalling an array on a repaired roof is not part of a membrane operation.

Where a build cannot be exactly reproduced, because a component is discontinued or the original builder used a custom part, we say so and price an equivalent with the difference explained. Substitutions that are not flagged become disputes at delivery.

A roof strike that takes out solar panels rarely stops at the panels. The combiner box, the cable gland, the run down through the wall or ceiling and the controller at the other end are all part of the same system, and the estimate that covers the membrane and the trusses usually stops at the roof surface.

Reinstalling an array on a repaired roof is its own operation with its own risk, because the penetration is the most likely future leak point on any recreational vehicle roof. Mounts get bedded, the gland gets rebuilt, and the whole assembly gets water tested with the rest of the roof rather than being treated as an accessory bolted on afterward.

Lithium banks add a documentation wrinkle, because chemistry and capacity determine both cost and the charging equipment around them. Photograph the battery markings, the charge controller model and the inverter model together. A replacement quote that names the chemistry is a quote a reviewer can verify. One that says lithium battery bank is a quote that invites questions.

In a coach and in most professional van builds, cabinetry is frequently structural. Overhead boxes tie into wall framing. A galley run stiffens the floor. A dinette base can be part of the load path into a slide opening. Estimates that classify all of it as contents give the interior a personal property allowance and leave the structural role unaddressed.

We document the attachment method for every interior component we remove: screwed to framing, bonded to the wall, or freestanding. A photograph of the fastener pattern behind a removed cabinet makes the structural role obvious to someone who has never taken one apart, and it moves those items from a contents line into the body repair where they belong.

Genuinely loose contents get listed separately, which keeps the distinction credible. A file that claims everything is structural gets treated the same way as a file that claims nothing is.

Keep a dated photo set of the finished build and update it when anything changes. Keep receipts in one place rather than across three email accounts. Photograph model plates and serial numbers now, while the vehicle is intact and you have an afternoon, rather than trying to reconstruct them from memory during a bad week.

Then talk to your carrier or agent about whether the build is scheduled on the policy and what documentation they would want at claim time. That conversation costs nothing and it is the single highest leverage thing an owner of a custom vehicle can do. We tell every build owner who comes through here the same thing.

OCRV Center is an independent facility and does not sell, place or advise on insurance. What we can do is produce the technical documentation a build claim needs, and tell you honestly when a build is going to be difficult to value with the records that exist.