First dragons and now this

March 26, 2023 10:14 PM

We had no idea how this person got his ATV on top of his car, or why...until now. After a number of reddit posts spotting an ATV on a car in Minnesota appeared, another redditor who happened to know the guy inquired and got us the answers we needed in video form.
posted by nTeleKy (35 comments total)

"There's a horse in that car"
posted by clavdivs at 10:26 PM on March 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

Doesn't seem that bad. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Sometimes when you do that, a bunch of people that never leave the couch will laugh at you as if you're the one doing something stupid. But you know better, so you don't care.
posted by dg at 10:33 PM on March 26, 2023 [8 favorites]

I think insurance companies would consider that an off-label use
posted by gottabefunky at 10:59 PM on March 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

As the saying goes, a ship can carry a boat but a boat can never carry a ship. So as it is for ATVs and cars.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 11:22 PM on March 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

tl;dr with a ramp
posted by The Tensor at 11:22 PM on March 26, 2023 [4 favorites]

As the saying goes, a ship can carry a boat but a boat can never carry a ship.

There are, however, ship shipping ships shipping shipping ships.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 12:20 AM on March 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

Where I live (Europe, so different regulations and all that), a compact car is rated to carry a max load between 350 kg und 550 kg depending on the specific model.

I don't know anything about ATVs but it says 'Grizzly' on it. A small Yamaha Grizzly weighs 290 kg.

So... if the driver is not particularly heavy ... this may be 'ok'?
posted by UN at 12:39 AM on March 27, 2023

Owning an ATV is like a sign that says “I have poorly developed planning skills and a lack of foresight”.
posted by The River Ivel at 1:04 AM on March 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

The real hero is the car's rear window.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:08 AM on March 27, 2023 [15 favorites]

he loves that ATV a lot more than he loves that car.

[this is an interesting artifact as it is a video that could have ended up on FailNation or Ridiculousness but didn't because in the end everything went OK and reversing down off the top of the car via the ramp didn't end in a painful tumbling ATV disaster]
posted by chavenet at 4:05 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I don't think that's supposed to be a load-bearing windshield.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:28 AM on March 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

Corolla > F150.

This is one more point for "you don't actually need a pickup truck".
posted by rickw at 4:45 AM on March 27, 2023 [9 favorites]

Okay. Now I don't feel so bad about going to the lumber yard and strapping a pair of 2x12x12s to the roof racks on my Honda Fit.

I did enjoy the video where he demonstrates how secure the ATV is by rocking it to show the entire car rocking. I learned that one from my father. Something isn't secure until the whole vehicle moves with it.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:04 AM on March 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

On the one hand that looks risky. On the other hand I can assure you that’s not nearly the most dangerous thing he did with his ATV that day.
posted by sjswitzer at 5:49 AM on March 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

The real hero is the car's rear window.

Yeah, he hit that window pretty hard with the front tires on the way up.

It's probably not wildly overweight for the car, but that weight is really high up, which isn't ideal for, say, going around a sharp turn. But the risk is low and it is getting the job done, so I give him some credit. .
posted by Dip Flash at 5:49 AM on March 27, 2023

One click and now reddit thinks I must be SUPER into all the Upper Midwest subs.
posted by obfuscation at 5:51 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I once saw a car with what can only be described as lifeboat davits attached to the trunk from which a Vespa was mounted. It looked awesome.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:14 AM on March 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

Owning an ATV is like a sign that says “I have poorly developed planning skills and a lack of foresight”.

Or you're a farmer with a large property. You might need one of these to get some work done. The fence is broken but it's 3 miles away and there's no road. Wanna walk there?

It was on a farm in Tasmania where I first took one of these for a joyride. It was so much fun! This one had a rollcage and a harness, and I was wearing a motorcycle helmet. A lot of the deaths caused by these ATVs could be avoided with these three things, it should probably be the law.

Anyhow, while I was zooming around the paddock it was super obvious why you'd want one of these on a farm. Also obvious why you'd want one of these just for fun. They're awesome! Why are you being a buzzkill?
posted by adept256 at 6:37 AM on March 27, 2023 [10 favorites]

That 4 wheeler is a toy compared to some of the crazy Quads etc that you will find with the zoomies all over MN, ND, & SD (actually everywhere but...)

I second From Bklyn that the window is the real star of the show here but let's also praise the forever dependable Toyota Corolla for just taking it like a champ.
posted by djseafood at 6:55 AM on March 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

Also: Who needs a truck with a hat like that!
posted by djseafood at 6:57 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

The front wheels are too wide for the roof so you need the top wood. But I wonder the bottom wood helps or hurts? The tires are probably tackier and will more evenly distribute the weight (i.e. no sharp wood edges). The wood probably does nothing to help it rolling off the back.
posted by lowtide at 7:11 AM on March 27, 2023

It's probably not wildly overweight for the car, but that weight is really high up, which isn't ideal for, say, going around a sharp turn.

So roughly as dangerous as one those SUVs or cross-overs.

That said if saw this guy on the highway I would give him lots and lots of space because like camper trailers you never know how secure they are until they come loose and then you KNOW.
posted by srboisvert at 7:23 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm guessing that that particular car - which a) is noisy due to general undercarriage rust and b) the owner clearly doesn't feel to precious about - is a beater car that is only used locally and never sees a highway. In fact it's possibly just used to transport that ATV (which isn't street-legal) from one place to another in town or on country back roads, never at a very high speed.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:41 AM on March 27, 2023

I bet a kid with a hat like that has some very cool politics.
posted by slogger at 9:18 AM on March 27, 2023

Where we're going we don't need roads.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:45 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

is a beater car that is only used locally and never sees a highway
So... having lived in a few rural areas I can assure you that every beater does get driven on the highway, often at high speeds. In fact those same speeds are often carried on the backroads as well. You see washboard kind of rattles your fillings around but if you go at least 80kph you kinda skip over the top and get a nice smooth ride.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 9:47 AM on March 27, 2023 [11 favorites]

> Owning an ATV is like a sign that says “I have poorly developed planning skills and a lack of foresight”.

I'm not sure if the personality trait that unites every single conservation officer, hunter, farmer, and community forest planner I know is "lack of foresight"
posted by Cpt. The Mango at 10:48 AM on March 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

Okay, but what I really want to know about is the literal fire-breathing dragon made of metal that I saw going down University Avenue in Minneapolis
posted by LindsayIrene at 11:04 AM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have a friend who used to go off-roading in an International Harvester Scout. He said you’d often get to the end of the most gnarly barely-trail and find a Toyota Corolla there like it was nothing.
posted by sjswitzer at 11:06 AM on March 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

Was it Megasaurus?
posted by slogger at 12:07 PM on March 27, 2023

Where does he keep the ramp though?
posted by Flashman at 3:28 PM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Ramp shed, probably. When he posts a video of that, I'm sure we'll have another thread about it.
posted by The Tensor at 4:18 PM on March 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

got us the answers we needed in video form

f***ing kids^H^Hmillennials^H^Hdigital natives
posted by intermod at 6:05 PM on March 27, 2023

"he drives it up a ramp and straps it down" is the answer in text form, but I think the video really is more effective in this particular case
posted by mbrubeck at 6:24 PM on March 27, 2023

If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid.
posted by workerant at 7:35 PM on March 29, 2023 [2 favorites]