We love creativity when it comes to custom vehicles, sometimes that creativity is just a little too over the top, but other times it’s like that one little bear in the woods and everything is just right. Take, for instance, this miniature tow truck that the five-man automotive shop fabricated at a local casino. This is what customization is all about.

Pechanga Resort & Casino resides locally here in Temecula, California, and it sees it’s fair share of customers on a daily basis. With millions paid out in monthly jackpots, it stands to reason that there will always be those who wish to test their luck at slot machines, video poker, card tables, and any other of the numerous games they have at the casino.

Testing Lady Luck at a casino is always a crap shoot (pun intended), but sometimes the bad luck is out in the parking lot, instead. With thousands of cars coming in and out of the resort and casino on a weekly basis, and cars being cars, you can imagine that there are occasionally customers who end their visit only to find a dead battery, a flat tire, or a car that just won’t start because they used the last drop in the tank to get to the casino.

In order to assist those customers who get stranded out in the parking lot, the crew at the automotive shop decided to build a service vehicle for those unfortunate drivers. They decided to use some old carts, cars, and lawnmower parts, and it took them a little more than eight months to complete this custom build that they call Franken-Truck.

Franken-Truck is a recycled service vehicle that brought back to life parts from other vehicles that would have ended up in the landfill, according to Ciara Green, a representative at Pechanga. The auto shop used the obvious components from out-of-service golf carts and passenger carts, as well as some parts from a Pontiac Grand Am that had played its last hand as a security patrol car at the casino.

They fabricated the tow boom from the passenger handrails that they removed from a retired passenger shuttle cart, and pulled the second rear axle from the front of a Yamaha golf cart. Green says the exhaust stacks on Franken-Truck are fully functional, pulling exhaust from the 26-horsepower Honda riding mower engine.

The service truck includes a tow hitch, an air compressor and hose reel, and storage bins for the tools they use when assisting stranded customers. Franken-Truck looks like one cool little truck that took retired service vehicles and breathed new life into them to become that trump card that can put people back on the road again.

There are those who say that creativity is a sign of boredom, but to us gearheads we see that creativity as another reason to get our own tools out and build stuff like Franken-Truck. Because let’s face it, that bumper sticker that says, “He who dies with the most toys wins” wasn’t just a piece of vinyl – nosir, that was a challenge! Have you ever constructed a purpose-built vehicle from old parts that you have around the yard? Let us know in the comments section below, and tell us what you think of Franken-Truck – the little engine that could.