Holliday pics from reader CvM. He went to the great & remote city of Huaihua in inland Henan Province and found a bunch of interesting farmer vehicles. They might look very home-made but are only partially so. The chassis plus engine plus pick-up bed are factory made, the rest of the work, like the roof, is done by farmers themselves.

China has zillions of small factories that make machines like these. They are always very small with an annual output of a few 1000 vehicles a year that are only sold in very local markets, by county or by city. The extremely polluting two-cylinder diesel engines come from various small engine makers that are of slightly bigger scale.

Sure China has some bigger nationwide producers of farming vehicles but local farmers like to buy local because of price and service. A vehicle as pictured won’t cost more than 2500 yuan, or 390 USD in today’s rates. A driving license is not required for this sorta car, which is fine for the farmers but much less so for other motorists.

One with a tank, likely for milk. See plastic cans for delivery.