- a chicago man made headlines this past weekend when he drove 430 miles with a snowmobile on the roof of his chevy malibu sedan.
- tommy mecher apparently decided to save a few bucks by not getting a trailer for his snow toy—for you snowmobile fans, it's a 1990 polaris indy 500 classic.
- his antics caught the eye of many drivers as he made his way northward to michigan's upper peninsula and was reported by the milwaukee journal-sentinel.
when you hear the headline "man puts snowmobile on the roof of his sedan," you expect the proverbial florida man to make an appearance, but in a twist, it's actually a chicago man named tommy mecher who has made it to the front page of the latest snowmobile news, as commuters witnessed him drive from chicago to bessemer in northern michigan this past weekend (and talked about it on facebook).
we put kayaks, bikes, christmas trees, snowboards, and skis on the roof of our cars with no problem, but a snowmobile with a weight of 470 pounds on the roof of a 2005 chevy malibu? that's where it gets a little dicey, but as the photos show, this guy put a lot of thought into the process.
mecher said he recently purchased the 1990 polaris indy 500 classic snowmobile and wanted to take it to play in the snow at his father's place in michigan. to transport it, he modified the track of the snowmobile so that it wouldn't damage the roof or rear windshield of his car. he then picked it up with a ford tractor with a front loader bucket and placed it on a support rack of wooden boards to evenly distribute the 470 pounds that now resided on the roof of his car. to secure it, he ran straps through, over, and around the snowmobile, and made sure it was securely tied down to the roof of his car. the whole loading process took an hour, but it only took him nine minutes to unload it, with the help of a front-end loader and some straps.
interviewed by the milwaukee journal-sentinel, melcher claimed that over the 430-mile trek from chicago to michigan's beautiful upper peninsula, he only spent an extra $10 in gas because of the drag and extra weight of the snowmobile on the roof of his car. the return trip didn't have all that much drama for mecher: he left the snowmobile in michigan.
legally, there aren't any issues with transporting a snowmobile on the roof of your car. mecher even said that cops didn't make any fuss about his transport methods. hey, it's a free country.