So you bought this cool car, you drive it for a couple of weeks and then you notice the guy next door drives exactly the same car. We’re looking at two options: you can keep your car stock (just like the other car) or you can start changing a few things. You lower the suspension, then you try to fit some bigger wheels and there you go. Your car is better looking then the one next door. This same thing starts happening with ATV’s. After buying a Yamaha Rhino, let’s say, you start asking yourself what to do to improve the road characteristics and to make it look cooler. You search the web and you end up reading this article. I suggest you contract someone who does just that: customizes all-terrain vehicles to improve performance and looks. Someone like these guys: 45-year old Doug Gyder, his nephew Marschall, 20, and Mitch Harris, 20. These guys, organized under the name of Goblin Offroad in downtown Peoria can build you a better cruiser.

To produce a fully tricked-out Rhino, Goblin replaces its suspension, tires and wheels, builds a custom roll cage, adds lighting, installs a Goblin-invented dashboard, adds gauges, also installs a GPS system, puts in custom seats, then paints and lines the truck bed and does an overall paint job dictated by whatever customers want. The complete vehicle, which can be a two or a four-seater, rides like a Cadillac rather than like a buckboard, Doug Gyder said.

The customized vehicle offers a artistic and integrated overall look as the guys try to have everything blend when they build one.

Do you want something like this? It will cost you somewhere between $14,000 and $35,000 which includes the $10,500 cost of the basic vehicle. The price difference consists in ambitious paint job and the client’s options.

Will it develop into a growing industry like the hot rod or custom motorcycles? We don’t know that but we sure hope will be here to witness the thing happening. I do know I want something like that.