Hi

My partner and I are queitly trvelling around the world in our Iveco 4x4.
We are in South Korea and intend to ship via sea container at end of next month.

The plan is to ship directly into Los Angeles.

But I have the following issues :

1) If vehicle is in sealed shipping container does it need to be emptied of all contents ? i.e. Can we ship vehicle with all our stuff and engine/fuel liquids on board ?

2) Insurance - this is proving problem, anybody know a company that offers US insurance for a foreign registered 'tourist' vehicle. ?

3) How fussy ? We have been 'warned' that 'scruffy' vehicles may not get permission to enter ? (similar rules to Australia ?) my truck is somewhat battered and little rusty round edges, will it be ok ?

pics of at : www.travel.uklinux.net

any help really will be appreciated, be great if someone has actually done this recently and REALLY KNOWS the way in !

Thanks
Phil.

Planning something similar myself. Someone who shipped a truck into LA earlier told me had a helluva job getting insurance to the point where he almost cancelled his sailing at one stage because of the difficulty he had. In the end someone pointed him toward the American Insurance Group or AIG (it's the name on the front of Man Utd shirts this season!!) who have offices around the world. AIG insurance products and services in United States | offering auto insurance, life insurance, accident and health insurance, environmental coverage, property and casualty, retirement services, and more for consumers and businesses

He went RoRo (and paid the consequences!) so can't comment on the container issue.

Kev

Cheers Kevin.

I'll look into insurance and let you know the results !

Phil.

We found two USA company prepared to issue USA insurance to UK vehicles:

1) Explorer RV
2) Thum Insurance Agency

See PanAm 2006. for all the details.

We shipped our British registered Land Rover into Los Angeles Port 3 weeks ago. The customs was easy, as britain and America are both signatories to the 1949 International Road Traffic Convention, your vehicle does not need to conform to any DOT or EPA regulations, you do not need to reregister your vehicle. This is free from cost or duty. We were able to obtain customs clearance for our vehicle in just under 2 hours ourselves, by going to the office in Long Beach.

You need to obtain customs clearance before you attempt to get the vehicle released from the shipping company. But customs will let them know for you.

We did have to wait for our shipping agent to get his behind in gear, for 4 days, and it only did because we were on the phone to him almost constantly!

When we unpacked the vehicle, there was no customs agent present, and now we are out of America, the vehicle had about 1/2 a ton of Asian soil in the chassis, there was a bit of an ant infestation, and we could have been carrying absolutely anything else in the container. Of course this is just our experience.

We didn't bother with insurance, but we were fed up with America by then, having waited for 2 weeks for the vehicle to arrive, we drove straight to the border with Mexico.


Lone Wolf,

Lone Wolf Transglobal Expedition

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Lone Wolf Transglobal Expedition 2007

Hi 'Lone Wolf'

Thank you.
Excellent information and re-assuring to know so easy.
I was very intrigued by the fact you got out of port with no insurance !
Was this easy ?
I have yet had to buy any insurance for our route and it seems daft to break a pattern !!!

Looked at your site, very nice, particularly liked your map/route on opening page (how to ???)

Interesting route, and I note you are heading to Ghana and then reversing a route we did in 2004.
When you get to Ghana, I highly recommend 'Millies' campsite, about 45mins from Accra. I have a friend who is due to be there in November. If you meet a short Australian guy called Tim who may (or may not) be in a big yellow cab overland truck (he's trying to sell it in Ghana), say 'good-day' and buy him a from me.

What did you pay to ship vehicle into States ?
We too are shipping to Africa, but probably South Africa first, I'd be interested in any shipping info you may have for that leg too.

take care
And thanks again for posting.

Phil.

We overpaid on shipping to America, because we shipped from Thailand, and at 11th hour notice, they hiked up the cost, which ended up around $4000US. As a result of the depletion of funds, we are reconsidering our route into Africa again, as we are running out of money and time, the alternative for us is to ship to Spain, and then drive down to Morroco and Western Sahara, before heading back.

In the US, security was tight, such that we couldn't unpack the container at the port, it had to be trucked out to a yard for unpacking, which did add about $600US to the cost (included above). Once in the yard though, there was no customs, no inspection, no anything... but this may have been a unique experience...

Our map was just made using adobe flash writer.



Thanks, and good luck with your trip,


Nick and the Lone Wolf team

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Lone Wolf Transglobal Expedition 2007

We have now had prices back from 6 companies / agents that will offer vehicle insurance to drive in the US (including Canada & Mexico) for British citizen and a UK registered vehicle (1995 iveco).

We had prices back from the likes of 'RVExplorer' 'Thum' 'AIG' 'CAA' 'Alessie'
but without doubt the lowest price returned came from a company called "5th Avenue Insurance" lady there known as Norma Mouet

contact details :

Norma Mouet
5th Avenue Insurance
nmouet #at# 5thaveins.com
(619) 640-3130 phone
(619) 640-3120 fax
(619) 955-1274 direct

For our vehicle 12months cover comes in at about $572 (full comp) or $310 (liability only), next closest to this price was RVExplorer, but their price was still over $1000 all others coming in at about $1400.

Phil.