Thanks to a $99 air conditioner and a small Honda generator, Gary and Cynthia Holloway can enjoy running around their ranch, no matter how hot it gets in Whitewright, Texas. Holloway and his brother, Mike, installed the air conditioner in the couple’s Deere Gator so they can check their cattle, feed the catfish and watch the sunset in relative comfort despite humid, 90 degree-plus temperatures. The Gator’s small size allows them to go through woods and areas where a pickup won’t go.

“I had a little Honda generator I used on the farm, and I bought the smallest air conditioner (5,050 BTU) I could find,” Holloway says. He and his brother used a reciprocating saw to cut an opening on the back of the cab and covered the gaps around it with a metal frame. They removed the front metal wall of the bed and replaced it with a 2 by 12 board on each side of the air conditioner, which is bolted with 4 bolts to the back of the cab.

“It really keeps us cool in this hot and humid Texas weather. It also keeps allergens out of the cab. My wife has grass allergies, and now she enjoys riding every evening in the Gator,” Holloway says. The couple’s 2-year-old Havanese dog likes the ride, too, from a perch on top of the dash. As a bonus, grasshoppers and other insects can’t get into the enclosed cab.

Because the air conditioner is mounted, he can’t use the Gator’s dump feature. If he needs to do anything with the engine, he simply loosens the bolts and removes the air conditioner.

For others considering adding AC to their utility vehicles, Holloway suggests choosing a quiet generator. Also, a used air conditioner from an RV mounted on top of the cab, might be a better choice. Home air conditioners are not designed to work on inclines.

So far, the inexpensive unit he purchased has worked fine.

“It’s really perfect if we want to sit under a shade tree when it’s 100-plus degrees,” he says. “If we didn’t have it we would not go out at all.”