‘Woodstock’ brings joy
Staff writer
Not only is Byron and Lura Lange’s 2001 Suzuki mini-truck handy for working on their farm. It also offers enchanting drives on county roads.
The yellow truck Lura affectionately calls “Woodstock” is mostly used for farm work.
But it’s a dream for cruising around when the mood strikes.
“We love driving the country roads and we love the way it gets around,” Lura said. “We can look at the land and we can see everything.”
Byron said the mini flatbed truck won out when he was considering, and looking to buy, a Polaris for the farm.
It was much less expensive and handier as well.
Many older mini trucks from Asia are imported and sold on the U.S. market because their vehicle tax system is opposite ours, Byron said. The older the vehicle is, the more its taxes go up. This encourages people to replace their vehicles with newer ones.
He paid $4,000 for it and added another $1,000 in modifications, including wheels, tires, and a life kit. He also added a snorkel-type air flow valve.
“Asian people are not large-statured people,” Byron said. “When you get in this vehicle, you’re pretty cramped.”
Byron said the man he bought the Suzuki from is 6’4”.
“He was just too cramped in it,” Byron said.
The Langes decided to use it as a utility vehicle so they don’t have to tag it.
The truck has an 800 pound payload capacity. Theoretically, a round hay bale could be loaded onto the truck, but Lange doesn’t do that. He has put a 100-gallon water tank on it.
The truck sat in the parking lot of Webster Auto Service for several days while mechanic Barry Allen waited for parts to arrive to replace its burned-out clutch. There, it got enough attention that people have called the Langes wanting to buy it.
Clearly, that’s unlikely to happen.