Dave Mason and his family drew a few odd looks as they drove their unusual all-terrain vehicle up a steep mountain road near St. Elmo, Colo.
And for good reason. It’s not often you see a camouflaged golf cart climbing a back road at 11,000 feet.
But Mason and his partner, Darrin Rice, aren’t in the business of building ordinary golf carts.
They re-engineer standard-issue golf carts, genteel vehicles that end up looking like something more appealing to Arnold Schwarzenegger than to Arnold Palmer.
What Rice and Mason have come up with is a business named In the Rough, and their main attraction is a series of redesigned E-Z-Go golf carts called Rough Riders.
Rice, formerly with Kansas Mini-Power Vehicles in Wichita, has been field-testing golf carts, literally, for four years.
He’s an avid hunter, trapper and fisherman whose goal was to adapt a golf cart to his off-road interests.
“I’d go out and break them and then build them a little stronger,” Rice said.
“After you ride one, you wouldn’t consider them a golf cart because I yank the front suspension and put in a triple-leaf spring. In the back we have a 1,500-pound payload coil spring,” he added.
Rice and Mason buy 1992 to 1994 carts. They raise the chassis; replace the suspension; add 12-volt quartz halogen headlights, large knobby tires, Cordura seat covers and seat belts; and build a sturdy rear deck.
Finally, the cart gets a good coat of camouflage paint.
“A golf cart is a really rough ride where you feel every crack in the sidewalk,” Rice said.
“With these flotation tires, you can go across a plowed field and not feel that many bumps.”
One of the few vestiges of the original cart is the quiet, reliable, energy-efficient 5cc engine with an overhead cam.
“These engines were designed with a lot of torque for climbing hills on the golf course,” Rice said. “It’s just a great little engine.”
A finished Rough Rider has a top speed of 30 miles per hour, will haul four people and has a top and a hinged windshield to keep out the weather.
“We’ll fuel it up on Friday night, hunt all day Saturday and Sunday and haven’t gone through a tank of gas yet,” Rice said.
Mason said Rough Riders can be ordered with a camouflage cover much the same as the one that comes with a Jeep.
And if you’re interested in music, they’ll build and install a walnut console in the roof area for a stereo.
“We thought that handicapped people and older people could really use these to get them going out in the field,” Rice said.
“One handicapped person said that if they had one of those, they’d be out hunting all the time.”
According to Rice, the carts, though low to the ground, can travel through mud and water, and over rocks.
“I’ve never been so stuck that I couldn’t get it out,” Rice said.
“I’d just pick up the frame and point in another direction.”
To make the Rough Rider safer, they are installing a roll bar on the rear deck behind the front seats.
The two businessmen started In the Rough two months ago.
“We’re wanting (the golf cart) to look like a Humvee when it’s done,” Mason said.
Mason and Rice say they have sold several carts, which retail for $4,500 each.
The carts weigh 800 pounds and can be driven onto a truck bed in the same manner as other ATVs.
Mason and his family recently returned from Colorado where they field-tested a Rough Rider at altitude.
“It was still climbing at 11,000 feet,” Mason said.
“We went from St. Elmo to Tin Cup twice and over the Continental Divide three times.”
