Insurance claim

It's what you buy insurance for, it's also a comp claim , so I wouldn't worry about a rate increase.

 

If you get hit while parked it shouldn’t do anything to your premium, worse case call and ask, they usually only jack the rate up if they pay due to your #### up

 

Did you call the police? Hit and run accident report should get you the repair without any ding on your insurance. That's what insurance is for.

 

I am sorry about the incident. I know, seeing your well taken care of truck, that it must hurt you bad.
6 years ago I filed a damage claim with Progressive but the damage was on me. Progressive assessed the damage and cut the appropriate check of $5000 and I had to pay $1000 deductible. The shop that did the body work gave me the estimate for $1000 less, so I was able to "save" $1000 and applied it towards the deductible and ended up paying nothing... but the "nothing" was not quite true. With the following renewals...with Progressive they happen every 6 months, they increased the premiums by $1000. I tried to mitigate the increased cost by increasing my deductible from $1000 to $5000 and lowering the equipment value but still ended up paying $600 more per each renewal. I think, after 3 - 4 years it went back to normal rates. Although it is hard to say when it went back to normal because till now my deductible is still 5 grand and the equipment value depreciated significantly. Now I pay $745 per six months for both truck and trailer.

With retrospect, I regret my decision to have filed the claim as I would have been able to pay for that out of my own packet avoiding drastic premium increases and damaged the loss run report. If I happen to experience a similar misfortune, I think up to 5-7 grand I'd rather pay it out of my own packet, especially if it is undeniably my fault.
Your case is different. You are not at fault so I'd ask the insurance agent about the possibility or premium increases and staining the loss run report.

 

$3-8 k for the exhaust?

sorry it doesn’t look bad, replace the shield and have the bump shop bend the pipe and mounts back a bit.

 

Exhaust is easy enough to fix in the driveway. If it was just that I'd do it myself. The sleeper, that's gonna hurt a little. Might be some structural damage under the outer skin.

 

Best case scenario is to file a claim, get the check first. Explain you want the bargaining power to make sure the works done right. In other words, don’t send the check to the body shop. Maybe you can do the exhaust work yourself. Too nice of a Truck to not have the sleeper Professionally repaired. Use any extra money for whatever. Even if it means Shopping for Insurance at renewal time.

 

I’d probably get an estimate done and make an informed decision that works best for you. I probably wouldn’t have thought to get a police report done but would be nice to have if you did.