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My first Hustler arrived today! It's a 980 tall tub. I almost thought the entire process behind my acquiring this machine seemed too good to be true, but luckily for me, it wasn't. Here is the story:
In my online search for six wheelers and/or six wheeler parts, I stumbled across an ad on the Louisiana Sportsman classified section with a picture of a Hustler 980, a description of the machine and an asking price of $1,000 which seemed like a pretty good deal to me. There was only one problem - the ad expired January of 2011. I thought to myself, man, I bet this thing is already gone. In the description under the photo, the seller gave his number and stated that he only does texting because he is deaf. For the heck of it, I decided to shoot him a text and, long story short, he still had it! Two years had passed since the ad expired and he still had it! I knew I had to jump on this opprotunity, so I text back and forth with him for a couple of days and he agreed to let it go for $800. He claimed that he had not used it in a year and the transmission was 'broken.' After seeing that I could get this for $800, I posted an ad on uhip.com to see how much it would cost to have it shipped up here. I ended up selecting a bid of $700 to have this shipper bring it up from Louisiana..a total distance of 1,400 miles.
It arrived today and I was very pleased with my purchase overall. The body is in really good shape, although the flash from the camera does not do it justice. Despite the oxidation and three boxes-worth of baking soda, it actually looks a lot better in person than it does on here. In some of the pictures, it looks a lot worse than it is, although it does need a lot of work for sure. The only thing I was not very happy about was the fact that the large car battery the owner had mounted in it must have cracked during shipping and there was acid all over the inside of it. I poured three boxed of baking soda in it to neutralize it and will have to rinse it out tomorrow. I think the acid made the right front area of the frame a little crispy, but won't know for sure until I get it all rinsed off and cleaned.
As far as the transmission goes, stating that it needs work would be an understatement. There are a lot of teeth broken off in a lot of different places
Thankfully, I have the aid of the great minds on this forum and some local members to help me get the T-20 fixed up and back together.
I plan on doing a complete tear down on this machine and bringing it back to running order for use on the trails. I will post pictures and updates as I proceed and will more than likely have a question or two along the way
In my online search for six wheelers and/or six wheeler parts, I stumbled across an ad on the Louisiana Sportsman classified section with a picture of a Hustler 980, a description of the machine and an asking price of $1,000 which seemed like a pretty good deal to me. There was only one problem - the ad expired January of 2011. I thought to myself, man, I bet this thing is already gone. In the description under the photo, the seller gave his number and stated that he only does texting because he is deaf. For the heck of it, I decided to shoot him a text and, long story short, he still had it! Two years had passed since the ad expired and he still had it! I knew I had to jump on this opprotunity, so I text back and forth with him for a couple of days and he agreed to let it go for $800. He claimed that he had not used it in a year and the transmission was 'broken.' After seeing that I could get this for $800, I posted an ad on uhip.com to see how much it would cost to have it shipped up here. I ended up selecting a bid of $700 to have this shipper bring it up from Louisiana..a total distance of 1,400 miles.
It arrived today and I was very pleased with my purchase overall. The body is in really good shape, although the flash from the camera does not do it justice. Despite the oxidation and three boxes-worth of baking soda, it actually looks a lot better in person than it does on here. In some of the pictures, it looks a lot worse than it is, although it does need a lot of work for sure. The only thing I was not very happy about was the fact that the large car battery the owner had mounted in it must have cracked during shipping and there was acid all over the inside of it. I poured three boxed of baking soda in it to neutralize it and will have to rinse it out tomorrow. I think the acid made the right front area of the frame a little crispy, but won't know for sure until I get it all rinsed off and cleaned.
As far as the transmission goes, stating that it needs work would be an understatement. There are a lot of teeth broken off in a lot of different places
Thankfully, I have the aid of the great minds on this forum and some local members to help me get the T-20 fixed up and back together. I plan on doing a complete tear down on this machine and bringing it back to running order for use on the trails. I will post pictures and updates as I proceed and will more than likely have a question or two along the way
Does the rusted out section extend to the chain adjuster bracket? It looks like there's mild to moderate carnage on the inside of the center rail, as well. Eh, it's just metal.... Metal's cheap. I've been getting lot of my mild steel up at Lake Winds Steel up on Route 18, between 98 and 63. It's a small, Amish-owned shop and they've got a great inventory, and their prices are really competitive. It's worth it just to go up and see an entire diesel-over-pneumatic-run machine shop.
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