Texas Travel Trailer Insurance

A trailer is not a motorhome

TDI’s RV tip, updated July 21, 2025, says travel trailers or fifth wheels are pulled with a truck. A motorhome is drivable and is not pulled. That split is the whole shopping map. If you drive it, TDI says you need an auto policy with liability coverage so you can pay for accidents you cause, plus collision and comprehensive if you want damage to the motorhome paid, including fire, flood, and theft. If you tow it, the tip does not tell you to insure the trailer as if it were a car. It says your auto insurance might pay for accidents you cause while pulling, and that you probably need a separate RV policy or endorsement for damage to the travel trailer itself.

Ask which of those sentences your quote is answering. A policy that only raises the truck’s liability limits can be the “accidents you cause while pulling” part. It is not, by itself, a promise to repair the trailer after a hailstorm in a campground. A policy that schedules the trailer for physical damage can be the second part. It is not, by itself, a promise that a guest who falls on the steps is covered. Those are different asks, and TDI tells you to make them to the agent or the company.

What the truck’s policy might already do

The auto policy on the tow vehicle is still an auto policy. TDI’s auto guide says drivers show they can pay for accidents they cause with liability insurance, at least $30,000 for injuries to one person, $60,000 for injuries in one accident, and $25,000 for property damage. That is the floor on the truck. Our 30/60/25 guide walks through those caps. If you cause a crash while the trailer is hitched, the RV tip says the auto policy might pay. “Might” is the word on the page. Read the trailer exclusion, if there is one, before a holiday weekend.

Property damage on the auto policy pays other people’s property. It does not rebuild your trailer. Collision on the truck pays the truck. Comprehensive on the truck pays the truck for fire, hail, theft, flood, and similar losses if you bought it. TDI does not say those truck coverages automatically follow the trailer. The RV tip says you probably need a separate policy or endorsement for the trailer. If a lender has a lien on the trailer, ask that lender what proof it wants. Do not assume the truck’s loan requirement covers a second vehicle it does not name.

If you still owe on the truck, the lender will require collision and comprehensive on the truck. Losing those can lead the lender to buy single-interest coverage that protects only the lender. That is a truck problem and a trailer problem only if you let it distract you from scheduling the trailer. Handle both.

Damage to the trailer

The separate policy or endorsement is how you insure the trailer as property. TDI does not publish a required limit, a deductible, or a list of perils for that trailer form in the consumer tip. We will not fill those blanks with round numbers. Ask the agent to show the amount of insurance on the trailer, the deductible, and whether the settlement is actual cash value or something closer to a repair cost. On cars, TDI says a total pays actual cash value, meaning the cost to replace minus depreciation, not the price of a new one. Ask whether the trailer form works that way. If the form says otherwise, the form wins.

A fifth wheel and a travel trailer are the same category on TDI’s page, so do not pay for two philosophies. Tell the company which one you tow, the year, and how it is hitched, and insure that unit. A motorhome quote is the wrong form. Collision and comprehensive, in the RV tip, are the words TDI uses for damage to a motorhome you drive. For a trailer, use the words the trailer form uses, and make sure “damage to the travel trailer itself” is actually a covered promise and not only liability while you are in motion.

Where the trailer sits matters only in the sense that you should describe it. Parked in a driveway, stored, or sitting at a park for a month are facts for the application. The consumer tip does not set a storage rule. If a form limits coverage when the trailer is vacant or rented out, that limit will be in the form. Ask. We are not inventing a day count.

Clothes, dishes, and the home policy

TDI says you need an RV policy to cover personal property inside a travel trailer or motorhome. Your home policy might pay some, but the coverage is very limited. Ask how much you have and whether you can buy more. Do not guess a dollar cap. A 2002 filing comparison that mentions a small trailer limit is not a current statewide rule, and it is not a number to shop against.

Make a list of what you actually leave in the trailer: bedding, a television, tools, fishing gear. Then ask whether those items are on the RV policy, on the home policy’s off-premises contents, or on neither once they live in the trailer all season. Jewelry, cash, and business tools often have their own sublimits on home policies. The RV tip does not restate those sublimits. Point at the declarations. If you carry a laptop for work, say so. A camping policy built for dishes may not be a business-property policy.

The truck’s comprehensive coverage is not a contents policy. A theft of the trailer and a theft of the cooler inside it can be two claims, or one claim and one denial, depending on which form you bought.

Full-time living is a different policy

If you live in the trailer full time, TDI says to consider full-timers coverage. That coverage includes personal property and liability. The liability part pays for other people’s damages you cause when you are not driving. The examples on the page are someone hurt inside the RV, and damage you cause to someone else’s property. Towing liability, if the auto policy responds, is the on-the-road half. Full-timers liability is the parked half. A weekend trailer that never serves as a residence may not be priced or worded as a full-timer policy. Tell the company the truth about how many nights you sleep there. A vacation unit described as a house, or a house described as a vacation unit, is how claims get argued.

Full-timers coverage does not, on this tip, replace flood insurance for a site-built house, and it does not replace the auto liability on the truck. It is an RV product for people whose RV is home. If you also own a house, keep that policy in view. A home policy’s liability is for the residence premises it describes. Do not assume it follows you to a park three hundred miles away after you have moved into the trailer. Ask.

If the crash is on the auto policy

When the truck’s company is the one that might pay for an accident you cause while pulling, the auto guide’s claim timing is the one to know. The company must acknowledge the claim within 15 days, accept or reject it within 15 business days after it has what it needs, and it can take 45 days if it explains the delay. The check is due within five business days after it agrees to pay. Photograph the hitch, the trailer, and the other vehicle. Get the other driver’s name and insurance card. Those facts tell the company this was a towing loss, which is the situation the RV tip says the auto policy might cover.

If the damage is to your trailer and the trailer is on a separate policy, call that company too. One crash can be an auto liability claim and a trailer physical-damage claim. Do not wait for the truck’s adjuster to volunteer the trailer. Deductibles follow the form that applies. The auto guide’s deductible example, a $500 deductible on a $1,500 collision claim, is a truck example. The trailer form will print its own deductible.

How to line up the quotes

Texas Insurance Resources can compare those pieces through licensed agents. We do not tow the trailer and we do not rewrite the form. The wider RV insurance guide is the place to start if you are still deciding between a motorhome and a trailer you pull.

Get your free Texas travel trailer insurance quote

Fill out the short form below and a licensed Texas agent will compare carriers for you. It takes about two minutes, there is no obligation, and we never sell your information. Prefer the phone? Call 800-875-4711.

Sources

The trailer, fifth wheel, motorhome, contents, and full-timers descriptions come from TDI’s RV coverage tip. The truck’s liability floor and the lender’s collision and comprehensive requirement come from TDI’s auto insurance guide. No statewide trailer dollar limit is stated on those pages.

• Texas Department of Insurance, “Insurance for RVs: Know your coverages”.
• Texas Department of Insurance, auto insurance guide.