Thrifty Illinois traveler straps snowmobile to roof of car instead of renting trailer

An Illinois man took drastic measures to cut travel costs for his road trip to Michigan — he strapped his snowmobile to the roof of his Chevy.

Tommy Mecher, 22, did not want to rent a trailer for his snowmobile for his more than 400-mile trip from Illinois to Bessemer, Michigan, WGN reported.

“I didn’t have a snowmobile trailer, and I didn’t feel like renting one,” he told WISN. “I wanted to save some money.”

Instead, he took matters into his own hands using plywood and straps to build his own rack on the roof of his 2005 Chevy Malibu, WGN reported. He strapped in his 1990 Polaris Indy 500 snowmobile and took it on a test run before taking off for Michigan.

“We got it up there with a tractor,” he told WISN. “It took about an hour because we had to make a support in the back to shift all the weight to the sides of the roof so it didn’t cave in and break the back window.”

The snowmobile was so secure it didn’t even move when a friend hopped on to try to make it rock, Mecher told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Mecher says he got “quite a few stares” on the highway and a number of questions as to whether his homemade rig was legal, according to the Journal Sentinel. But he says police didn’t seem to have an issue with it.

“A lot of cops saw it and they didn’t say anything. I saw a cop at a gas station and he said ‘I don’t see anything illegal about it,’” he told the newspaper.

And the best part is, Mecher was right: He said his homemade rack did, indeed, make his trip more affordable.

“In gas alone, I saved 100 bucks,” he told WGN.

When he arrived in Michigan, he paid a stranger with a skid loader $20 to unload the snowmobile from the rack, WISN reported. All-in-all, he says he saved about $200, according to the outlet.

Several drivers caught photos and videos of Mecher on his journey, one of which was posted to the Facebook page for the Official Wisconsin Snowmobile Enthusiast Club.

Several users commented on the post, both impressed and bewildered by Mecher’s ingenuity.

“If there is a will, there is a way. I’d be proud to help him unload it!” one user wrote.

“I want pics of him unloading,” another wrote.

“This guy knows how to party.”

The video has been shared more than 1,000 times as of Thursday.

This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Thrifty Illinois traveler straps snowmobile to roof of car instead of renting trailer."