What Happens When You Hitch Something to the Back

Utility trailers, boat trailers, travel trailers, motorhomes. Attaching something to your vehicle changes the coverage picture in ways that are not intuitive, and the general shape catches people out in a predictable order.

Liability usually extends. Damage usually does not.

This is the pattern worth remembering. Many personal auto policies extend liability coverage to a trailer being towed by a covered vehicle — so if the trailer causes harm to someone else, the liability side generally responds. What typically does not extend is physical damage to the trailer itself. Comprehensive and collision cover the vehicle described on the policy, and a trailer is not that vehicle.

Both halves are policy language rather than California law, which means the only reliable answer comes from your own policy or your carrier.

The contents question

What is in the trailer is a third thing again — generally personal property, generally a homeowners or renters matter, and generally subject to limits that a fully loaded trailer can exceed easily. If you are towing tools, equipment or a season's worth of gear, ask about that specifically.

Motorhomes are a different animal

A motorhome is a vehicle you drive and a place you live in, and it is normally insured on its own policy rather than added to a car policy. The coverages it needs — contents, liability while parked and occupied, emergency accommodation, roadside for something that size — do not exist on an auto policy.

Towing someone else's trailer, or renting one

Rental trailer companies offer their own coverage products at the counter, and the decision is easier if you already know what your own policy does. Ask before the trip: does my liability extend to a towed trailer, and is there any physical damage coverage for one I do not own?

The practical questions to ask your carrier

• Does my liability extend to a trailer I am towing?
• Is there any physical damage coverage for the trailer itself, and can it be added?
• Is there a size, weight or type restriction?
• What about when the trailer is parked and detached?
• Does my roadside coverage tow a vehicle with a trailer attached?

Five questions, one phone call, and it removes the entire category of surprise.

Before the season

If you tow seasonally, ask these in spring rather than in a lay-by. In our office the towing conversation almost always happens after something has gone wrong, and it is a much better conversation before.

Tell us what you tow and we will tell you what your policy actually does about it.