Story by Matt Myrick

When Richie Keith, a full-time farmer from Tennessee decided he wanted to build his very own custom rock bouncer it was easy to come up with a theme. He wanted it to match the John Deere tractors he used every day. The rock bouncer known as Plowboy was born.

The guys over at Custom Tint and Off Road went about building a rock bounder chassis to fit around a John Deere tractor grill and headlights. Then they stuffed a nasty 755 horsepower Dart 454 engine in between the frame rails. A Powerglide transmission and Atlas transfer case from Advance Adapters distributed the power to the custom-built GM 14-bolt front and rear axles.

Coilover shocks and a custom 4-link suspension helped keep the 44-inch Interco Super Swampers on custom bead lock wheels on the ground so all that power could be delivered to the terrain.

Once the new rig was debuted Richie quickly earned a reputation for being hard on the throttle and showing off in his custom-built rock bouncer. The John Deere Plowboy buggy soon became a rock bouncing icon.

Fast Forward

A few years later the Southern Rock Racing Series began and Richie Keith decided to try his hand at racing. He had become quite a sensation on the rock-bouncing circuit and was now competing against fellow rock bouncers and Ultra4 racers from the western states alike in timed hill climbs for bragging rights and cash.

However, it wasn’t until a fellow rock bouncer and friend Joe Lawson earned a qualifying spot in the 2014 Ultra4 King of The Hammers Race that Richie became really serious about racing.

Joe and Richie put their heads together and decided to race Plowboy in one of the toughest one-day off-road races on the planet — The King of The Hammers, held in California’s unforgiving Mojave Desert, at a place known as Johnson Valley.

There has always been a huge rivalry between the rock bouncers and Ultra4 racers. In all the years the King of The Hammers event has been running since its inception in 2007, no rock bouncer has ever competed, due mostly to extremely stringent vehicle-build and safety equipment requirements.

Getting’ Busy

As Richie explains in the “>video above, the new custom axles were beefed up with bigger shafts and knuckles, and it was also equipped with FOX triple-bypass shocks to better keep the suspension under control while running at high speeds flat out through the open desert as well as handling the massive boulder obstacles of the trails the Plowboy will face during the competition.

The John Deere Plowboy buggy was thane to Essentially Off Road for a complete tear down and rebuild (see the video “>below for a time-lapse of the build) in order to make it capable of competing in this brutal endurance race.

The top of the chassis was completely rebuilt with 2-inch tubing to allow for more head room and to meet the Ultra4 rules. A TH400 transmission was swapped in behind its powerful engine for better gearing, huge Maxxis Trepador tires and new custom bead lock wheels were added, and a custom large-capacity fuel cell was added for safety and to handle the longer distances involved in the King of The Hammers race.

The Gauntlet Thrown

There has been a lot of talk about who will win, and how will the rock bounders fare against the Ultra4 racers in this year’s King of The Hammers event. Some of even taken to kindly calling it the “hillbillies against the flatbillies.” Only time, and ultimately the race, will tell.

There has even been a challenge established — the southern rock racers will be pitted against some of the Ultra4 racers on Monday during the week-long event that lasts from January 31, 2014 to February 7, 2014.

The main event, Griffin King of The Hammers presented by Nitto Tires, is on Friday, February 7, 2014, and we are sure the John Deere Plowboy will be ready for the green flag of this epic event in Johnson Valley, California. The Plowboy team members have spent countless hours building, testing and tuning; and are ready to do battle to become the first rock bouncers ever to cross the King of The Hammers finish line.