When it comes to unhinged automotive fabrication, the crew at the Westen Champlin YouTube channel rarely asks "why." Instead, they usually ask "how fast can we make it?" After successfully building a motorized couch in a previous garage experiment, the team recently decided their mobile living room was simply too bulky for everyday travel.Their solution? Scaling down the furniture to create the ultimate, high-speed motorized recliner cart."Guys, here's the thing we're thinking we need to take the mount of technology of laziness to the next level," Champlin explained to his viewers. Noting that their previous creation was a bit unwieldy, he added, "We built a driving couch, and it was fantastic, but sometimes a couch is a little bit too big; sometimes a couch is just a little bit too impractical".AdvertisementAdvertisementTo bring their absurd vision to life, the crew started with a pair of cheap, off-the-shelf tubular go-karts from Tractor Supply.Because the tiny karts were built for children, the team immediately had to slice the metal frames in half with a reciprocating saw and weld in 10-inch steel extensions. Once the wheelbase was stretched, they ripped out the standard plastic bucket seats, removed the roll bars, and bolted massive living room recliners directly to the chassis.To make the contraptions drivable without leaving the comfort of the cushions, they routed the throttle and brake cables to a set of mountain bike handlebars, creating a steering column that sat perfectly in the driver's lap. "We are taking the amount of laziness you can be to the absolute next level," Champlin joked as the build came together.The Recliner 500 and the Inevitable CrashWith two fully functional prototypes completed—one featuring a genuine leather La-Z-Boy and the other a standard showroom recliner—the team took the carts out for a punishing stress test.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe vehicles were surprisingly capable. After cruising smoothly down paved suburban roads, surviving a treacherous breakdown on a set of railroad tracks, and ripping across a dirt trail, Champlin and his co-host Garrett decided to settle their rivalry with an impromptu off-road race dubbed the "Recliner 500."Blasting across a bumpy grass field, both drivers abandoned the designated track and brazenly cheated by cutting across the lawn. But the high-speed pursuit quickly caught up to the top-heavy vehicles. While trying to grab his hat mid-race, Garrett violently rolled his recliner cart, spilling into the dirt."I was sitting here. I tried to reach over and grab my hat, and then the thing just flipped over," Garrett laughed while sitting in the dirt beside his overturned chair.Champlin, thrilled that he wasn't the one to crash this time, simply shrugged off the mechanical carnage. "Did you guys expect to watch this whole episode and that not happen? I'm just happy it didn't happen to me, man. I'm tired of rolling things over," he laughed.
