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Pontic ATV Does The Work Of A Pickup
"A friend of mine offered me this 1988 Pontiac Lemans 2-door hatchback with 100,000 miles on it for only $200. When I got it home I decided to have some fun with it. I ended up with a handy new workhorse that I call a æPontiac ATV,'" says Ron Stadler, Monroe, Mich.
Stadler used a Sawz All to cut the roof off just
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Pontic ATV Does The Work Of A Pickup FARM HOME Cars 20-6-6 "A friend of mine offered me this 1988 Pontiac Lemans 2-door hatchback with 100,000 miles on it for only $200. When I got it home I decided to have some fun with it. I ended up with a handy new workhorse that I call a æPontiac ATV,'" says Ron Stadler, Monroe, Mich.
Stadler used a Sawz All to cut the roof off just above the door. He removed the doors and rear seats and bolted a skid plate under the car to protect the undercarriage from stubble and brush. He used 13-ga. sheet metal to build a cargo box on back and made a tailgate out of 10 gauge diamond steel plate. He also bolted a length of angle iron onto the rear bumper to make a hitch.
"It's as handy to me as any ATV I could buy yet I spent less than $300 to build it," says Stadler. "It works like a Deere Gator but a new Gator sells for $7,000 or more. I use it to bring in watermelons and sweet corn and also to haul wood, bricks, and other heavy loads. I also use it to pull empty gravity wagons out to the fields and to haul 5-gal. buckets of soybean seed to my grain drill. It isn't road legal because I removed the doors which makes it easier to get in and out of. However, it eliminates the need to drive my pickup in the field as much which saves wear and tear.
"It rides smooth. I didn't beef up the suspension at all. I did worry at first that the frame might split behind the seat, but after almost 500 heavy duty miles on dirt roads it's still running strong. I usually haul 500 to 1,000 lbs. on it but I have hauled up to 2,000 lbs. of watermelons. The only limitation is that I can't drive it in real muddy fields or it'll get stuck. The 4-speed manual transmission lets me drive slow over rough, bumpy ground. Also, there's a nice roomy cargo area behind the seats and under the cargo box where I can store tools, tarps, etc. I mounted an extra cooling fan on the radiator to keep it from overheating. So far it hasn't."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ron Stadler, 7400 N. Custer Rd., Monroe, Mich. 48162 (ph 313 587-3458).
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