Snowmobile Strapped To A Nissan 'About As Backwoods Redneck As You Can Get'

Gillette resident Twila Mundschenk was traveling between Casper and Shoshoni with her husband on Saturday when they saw something that turned both their heads.

“I've seen a lot in my lifetime, but I have never seen anything like that," she told Cowboy State Daily. "My husband said, ‘Turn this truck around. I want to get pictures.'” 

The unusual thing that caught their attention was a white Nissan sedan, stopped on the side of U.S. Highway 26, with a snowmobile strapped to its roof.

Ratchet straps had been stretched through the open front and back windows, securing the snowmobile at a precarious angle. The front of the snowmobile was pointing downward and backward, blocking the rear window and hovering over the trunk.

“It was about as backwoods redneck as you can get,” Mundschenk said.

Marcia McBeath saw the same thing Saturday morning, as she and her husband were driving into Casper. When they were heading back to Riverton six hours later, it was still there, so they had to stop.

“We both said, 'We didn’t actually see that, did we?’ So, I told my husband that if it was still there on the way back, I was getting a picture, because nobody’s going to believe this,” she said.

The biggest shock to everyone was the Natrona County license plate. No way this snowmobile shenanigan could be blamed on a tourist.

“I want to know how they got that on the roof,” Mundschenk said. “That’s my biggest question.”

Mandy Fabel, a recreational snowmobiler and Polaris ambassador, had the same question when she saw the photos.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” she said. “Right up until there isn’t.”

Seriously?

Will Mook, co-owner of The Mountain Riding Lab in Jackson, couldn’t take the photos seriously when he saw them.

“I'd say it was either somebody in a pinch or somebody trying to be funny,” he said. “Every once in a while, you see these crazy contraptions to haul snowmobiles. You make do with what you got, as long as it's safe.”

Mook couldn’t speak to the safety or legality of this method of snowmobile transportation. His biggest question was the same as everyone else’s.

“With fuel and everything, you’re talking about 500 pounds for a newer mountain sled,” he said. “Old ones can weigh around 400 pounds. I’ve never weighed mine, but it takes two people to get it into the bed of my truck.”

While the method of securing the snowmobile was a little suspect, Mook didn’t take much umbrage with the position of the snowmobile on the Nissan. It was at least feasible to get it that far.

“The bulk of the weight is the front of the snowmobile,” he said. “As long as that gets up and over your axles, you're usually pretty good.”

Nevertheless, he wouldn’t recommend that means of transport for a snowmobile.

“It seems like quite a bit of hassle and questionably safe,” he said.

Cart Before The Horse

Many people transport their snowmobiles via trailer, but that’s not always an option. While Mook wouldn’t recommend a Nissan sedan for snowmobile transportation, he regularly has to use his vehicle to get his machine where he wants to go.

“Teton Pass mandates no trailers,” he said. “A lot of us, myself included, living in southeast Idaho and northwest Wyoming use sled decks in the back of pickup trucks because it allows you to carry two machines in one truck without a trailer.”

A sled deck is a metal structure that can be bolted to the bed of a pickup truck and allows snowmobiles to slide right in and be secured. Mook said it’s an ideal solution for roads that don’t allow trailers or for accessing trailheads where maneuvering a trailer could be difficult.

“The sled deck allows you to have you, your riding buddy, and two snowmobiles in one pickup truck,” he said. “I would say the most common way people get around.”

Most pickup trucks have enough capacity to carry at least one snowmobile, but Mook doesn’t like taking chances. He recommends trucks over a certain threshold, just to be safe.

“I drive a three-quarter-ton pickup, so I’m never over my payload rating,” he said. “By the time you load two snowmobiles, riding gear, and passengers, you're typically over your payload rating in a half-ton truck. We do see half-ton pickup trucks with sled decks fairly frequently, but I chose not go down that route.”

According to the website Edmunds, the maximum payload of a 2025 Nissan Altima is 1,005 pounds. That’s enough torque for a snowmobile on the roof and a passenger or two inside, barring some unforeseen circumstance.

Scratching The Itch

When Mundschenk stopped to see the snowmobile-strapped Nissan, it was clear something was amiss. The driver of the vehicle was nowhere to be seen, and several tags had been attached to it.

“There was a yellow sticker on the car and the snowmobile,” she said. “That’s usually what the Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers put on a vehicle when it’s been there too long.”

Kaylee Humphries got to see the resolution to the conundrum at The Fast Lane in Shoshoni on Sunday. It appears the Nissan had broken down en route, as it was strapped to a trailer being hauled by a green pickup truck.

The snowmobile, meanwhile, had been tossed into the back of the truck. Either one of those could have been used to carry the snowmobile initially, so the Nissan’s driver must have phoned a friend to assist.

“My husband said there were three people in the truck, so maybe he was hauling it and broke down,” she said. “If you have the itch, you’ve got to find a way to scratch it, I suppose.”

McBeath and her husband enjoy the hilarity while admiring the driver’s tenacity.

“That’s one diehard snowmobiler,” she said.

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.