New Gates Installed at Headworks
by Dan Nitzel

Headgates division employees at Loup Power have installed new fencing and gates at the entrance trail at the Headworks OHV Park near Genoa. The new fence will help keep riders on the trail and off of the canal road and will allow only machines of 56 inches or less to gain access to the park. The Loup staff at Headworks did an outstanding job with the fencing and gates. NOHVA paid Loup Power about $878 for most of the materials. As of this writing, a new entrance sign is being designed.

The new gates were installed as a solution to the growing problem of large, street-able motor vehicles gaining access to the area. It is desirable to keep the street-able vehicles out of the area as they present a danger to the smaller ATVs and dirtbikes, and vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs often become stuck in the sand and need to be towed out.

A width of 56 inches for the gate openings were set after Loup officials and myself discussed the optimum width for ATVs, dirtbikes and Odyssey/Pilot vehicles. Small SUVs such as the Suzuki Samurai are just under 60" wide, and some small pickups are about 66 inches wide as well. A new jeep wrangler is 66 inches wide, and some of the older CJs are even less. Our intent is to keep the small SUVs, sand rails, dune buggies and jeeps out of the area. It was my understanding after hearing some input from our members and after doing research on the Internet that the 56 inch width would work just fine. A few of our loyal members continue to enjoy the Pilots, even though they were not made since 1990.

However, after the new gates were installed, we quickly discovered that 56 inches was not wide enough for Honda Pilots. The information from one of our members was not correct and the information on the Internet stating that a Honda Pilot was 50.5" wide was ten inches off. Additionally, those with the Pilots have added a widening kit to bring them out to about 68 inches wide. Considering the 68 inch width of the widened Pilots, if the gates were made wide enough to allow them to pass, then small pickups, jeep and other SUVs would be allowed to enter.

Unfortunately, the new gates leave the owners of the Honda Pilots locked out along with a few assorted UTVs and side by sides and the like. With this in mind, we respectfully apologize to those who are effected and we will refund membership fee’s and donations to those who have been locked out by the new gates.

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This page was updated on Wednesday, January 19, 2005