Funeral director adds bike-drawn carriage to fleet

The name Michael Archer may not immediately ring a bell to many persons, but his legendary ‘ground plane’ invention, Sweet And Dandy, has certainly left an impression on people.

Nearly a decade after he took an aeroplane body and turned it into a car, Archer yet again has tongues wagging after putting another ‘crazy’ motor vehicle on the road.

Archer, who is also a funeral director, has retrofitted a motorised trike, fitted it with a glass carriage, and is using it to transport bodies to their final resting places.

Claiming that it is the only such transport in Jamaica, Archer said that he bought it from a man who imported the vehicle from England.

“It was built to run by propane gas, but seeing it, knowing that I could modify it and do something with it, I decided to pull down the engine, dismantle all the propane system that he had on it, and decide to put in it regular gas,” he said.

Archer said that he made other modifications to the vehicle. He said that he has fitted it was a Ford Cortina 1600cc engine, gas tank from a Lada, as well as a five-speed gearbox from a Benz.

“It has created a lot of excitement. The first place I went with it was Meadowrest Memorial Gardens. Oh, what a beauty, seeing a bike coming inside the gardens with a chariot. From there on, Jamaicans just get to love it and want their loved one to travel in the chariot with the bike pulling it. I can say to you that it is one that is really taking the market and people are so excited over it,” Archer said.

Monica Brady, who visited Archer’s Spanish Town office last week, is among the persons lining up to use the trike in a funeral.

“This is what I am here to hire to carry my mother to the funeral. It looks pretty and simply different. This is how she would want to be transported to her final resting place,” Brady said.