Cushman Truckster Saved From The Forest

[CharleyL]

I guess it's about time that I started a thread about my Cushman Truckster, it's discovery, and it's restoration.

I found my truckster when visiting a friend. He had it sitting next to his woodworking shop in central North Carolina. After asking about it I asked if he would sell it to me. He told me that it had belonged to his dad who had died back in 2000 and it has been sitting there untouched ever since (about 1/2 of it's total life) and he said that since he was never going to do anything with it, that maybe it was time to let someone else have it who would put it back into shape and use it. It's a model 898532-8710, which I've been told was built in 1987. It had 4 flat tires that were sinking into the ground, and solid layers of spider webs though out the whole inside of the cab. The door hinges were so badly rusted that I had to pry the doors open enough to get my hand and arm inside holding a can of WD-40 and then spray the hinges as best as I could. The door latches got a good spray too. About an hour later the hinges and latches on both doors worked perfectly.

I took the attached photos that first day, while I was discussing it's possible purchase. Notice the close up of the speedometer - 1651 miles is the actual original miles on this truck. It's almost new! Well, by it's mileage anyway. These pictures make it look much better than it really was that day. Notice the black spots on the seat. They are a mixture of the disintegrating ceiling foam and black mold. The whole inside of the truck cab was covered in this mess. Paper wasps had also built many nests in there (good thing it's Winter) and vines were growing up through the pedal holes.

I loaded (dragged) the truckster up onto a rented trailer with a winch and towed it the 140+ miles to my home the following weekend. Unloading it required tying it to a large tree and then driving the trailer out from under it in the dark, since I was working alone and could think of no other quick way to get it off the trailer. The trailer had to be returned early the following morning.

I've been a bit lax in my photo taking since then, but promise to take and post some more soon. My plan is to restore the truckster enough to make it useful for yard maintenance chores, and to have some fun doing it. It will not be super modiified or made better than it was new like some of you have done with your carts. They're beautiful and all that, but I just want my truck to be a useful and reliable yard maintenance vehicle, (and toy). I have a very large yard to maintain.


I quickly decided that new tires were a must for the truck so that I could at least push it around to work on it and then be able to push it out of the way when I was not working on it. Of course, you can't put new tires on rusty/ pitted rims, so they had to be sand blasted and painted before the new tires went on. I had wanted wider turf type tires, but in the interest of getting the truck to move easily as quickly as possible I settled for the original 5.70 X 8 tire size, at least for now. During the holidays, etc. not much progress was made, except for the tires and getting the motor running. My son offered to help me get it running one December Saturday, before the new tires were even on the truck, and within a few hours the carburetor had been cleaned, a new electric fuel pump, new fuel filters and fuel lines had been installed, the oil and oil filter changed, and the battery replaced. The motor was up and running by the end of that day. After an initial puff of smoke the rings seated and it didn't smoke at all anymore. It was running, and very smooth.

The brakes were a total disaster. The left rear brake shoes were rusted to the drum, all 4 wheel cylinders and the master cylinder were full of rust, and no fluid in the brake system at all. I also discovered that sometime in it's life someone had replaced most of the wheel studs with metric studs that almost fit the American standard nuts. There were 3 distinctly different types of studs and nuts that did not interchange. I ended up figuring out which were standard american and replacing the rest so they are now all the same.

I had the wheel cylinders and the master cylinder honed, and found that early 80's Ford F100 pickup trucks used the same wheel cylinder rubber parts, so I purchased and installed them. I also discovered that the front brake lines were plugged and I passed a coat hanger wire through them, followed by a blast of compressed air to clear them out. I failed to find an automotive equivalent for rebuilding the master cylinder, but discovered that a local fork lift sales/service shop had an identical master cylinder on the shelf for about 1/2 of the lowest listed internet price. It seems that this same master cylinder is used in several models of fork lifts. I also discovered that the flexible line running to the front axle had been rubbing and the braid was exposed and rusting. The auto parts store found that a 1968 Dodge truck uses the same length line with the same end fittings, so I replaced it. I also replaced the brake pads on both of the rear wheels. These also came from the fork lift service shop, again for 1/2 the price of the same shoes on the internet. After assembly and bleeding, the brakes now work like new.

In the past 2 weeks I have been wrestling with fuel tank problems. The years of sitting in the forest with a defective fuel cap has allowed some heavy rusting in the fuel tank. So much so that there was a water (rust) line in the tank about 1/2" up from the bottom and the whole tank bottom was caked with rust and scale. A fuel tank repair kit from KBS was ordered from Amazon and I spent several days cleaning, etching, and then epoxy coating the inside of the fuel tank. I also sanded and repainted the outside of the tank while it was out of the truckster. This week I have no more fuel problems and the truck is running fine.

So far this week I've been correcting some electrical issues, mostly with the lighting circuits. Cushman didn't provide high beam headlight capability, since my truck was supposed to be for off road use only in an industrial environment. The different wiring harness for the headlights left the high beam wire out of the headlight connectors and a high beam / low beam switch was not provided. Today I replaced this harness to add high beam capability. It only took a few additional wires. I also added a small high beam indicator to the instrument panel in an existing hole that had been designated by Cushman for this purpose and I added a high/low beam toggle switch just below the instrument panel (I don't like floor switches) so I can dim the headlights easily when needed. I've also been working on the tail light circuitsb and a "Slow Moving Vehicle" sign has been added to the rear of the cab between, and just below, the rear windows.

I finally located a Cushman parts listing for the Keihin carburetor about a week ago, and ordered new rubber parts, gaskets, a float, and a float needle valve from my friendly fork lift parts source. He said that all of what I wanted was available, but it would be 2-4 weeks before they would arrive. I'm glad my carburetor is at least working now. I can't wait to see how much better it will work with the new parts installed. Maybe a little, or maybe a lot.

When I finish the electrical repairs and upgrades I'll be working on replacing the stake body fencing. The original fences were white oak, stained a light brown, and were probably very nice looking before 12+ years out in the weather ruined them. The deck was made from treated lumber, probably yellow pine, and although it's not in perfect condition, it is still holding up fairly well. A neighbor has offered some leftover TREX decking boards to make the fences, and I think I'm going to take him up on the offer. It should hold up very well to the frequent moist weather here.

That's about it so far. I'll try to post a few more photos soon.

Charley

[Unforgiven]

wow not bad score. Looks like its all there. There are a few truckster builds on here. As far as a workhorse it will do the job. Playing? you'll prob have to do some modifications to the suspension. good luck and have fun

[CharleyL]

Thanks.

About the only non pavement use that it will ever see, with me using it, is running around on my lawn and it's a bit too fast for this, even in low gear. Maybe someday I can find a turf truckster rear axle for it, so I can have a lower off-road speed range. I have a BIG lawn with many pine trees that are always dropping small limbs that need picking up. Also live on a lake with about 1200' of shore line to maintain, and I don't do well walking on uneven ground (turf) for any distance because of major knee injuries and subsequent knee replacements. I'm planning to use the truckster to get me where I need to go with tools, etc. to do whatever yard work that needs to be done such as tbbo pick up limbs, washed ashore debris, haul the garbage and recycle cans to the street and back, etc.

Since it's supposed to rain here today so I will likely get started rebuilding the stake fences for the bed. The original hand made hardware is all still good, but rusty. Sand blasting and a new paint job should take care of that. I'm planning to build the fences with TREX decking and stainless flat head bolts, so they should last longer this time than I'll ever need them. The old guy that used to own the truckster was quite clever and a very good craftsman. He built the flat bed from treated lumber, but the joinery in it looks like it came from a cabinet shop. I had initially planned to replace it, but it's so solid and well built that I've decided to keep it. Only the white oak stake fences need replacing. A pressure washing yesterday brought the bed back to almost new appearance. The wood looks like new treated lumber again, except for the black rust stains in the wood from the rusting stake pocket brackets. I wish that he'd built the bed a little longer and slightly wider. It's 4' X 4' now, but it's so solid that I've decided to keep it, at least until I find or build a dump bed for it.

I've discovered that there are splashes of what seems to be dry concrete on the bottom of the truck. It doesn't pressure wash off, so maybe the truckster once belonged to a concrete plant or quarry. From what I've found out so far, it came from somewhere near Wallace, NC, which is near the coast and slightly NW of Wilmington, NC. Does anyone know of a big quarry or concrete plant near there?

The power take-off shaft is broken off just behind where it exits the transmission case, so this may be why the first owners sold it with so few miles on it. Whatever piece of equipment or accessory that had been mounted where the bed is now was probably moved to another truckster. This also seems to explain why the old guy built the wooden bed for it. It doesn't seem to have ever had a Cushman dump body or the associated hydraulics mounted in it, but the hinge plates for a dump body are attached (welded) to the tail end of the chassis, so maybe someday I can find or build a dump body and hydraulics to put on it. A dump body would be very handy for me. The manual throttle and governor controls for using the power take-off are still in the left rear corner of the cab, but they're not hooked up anymore. With no power take off shaft they may never be needed again.

Charley

[Madman415]

I have a 3-wheel one that runs great, has a rebuilt tranny that goes with it. PTO works awesome, hydraulic dump box. It's beat up but runs great. Maybe you need one for some parts, message me

[CharleyL]

PM sent to Madman415

[Madman415]

Originally Posted by CharleyL

PM sent to Madman415

didn't get a PM

[CharleyL]

Re-sent PM to Madman415

Charley

[CharleyL]

Thought that I would add some update photos to this thread. In the 6 months that I've had my little truck I have done quite a bit of work on it, so here are the latest photos (yeah, that's my front yard, the house is in picture 3 - see why I need the truck?). I built the stake body fences from TREX decking materials planned down to more reasonable thickness of 3/4". These should last much longer out in the Weather than the original wood fences in the first photos of this thread.

I'm not finished yet, but I have already put it to work maintaining the yard and doing various other chores. It has been driven almost 100 miles since I first got it running. Today I will be adding tail, stop, and turn signal lights to the top rear of the cab because I've already had a few near misses just driving around the development with it. The slow moving vehicle reflector doesn't seem to be effective enough for some of these idiots.

Charley

[Unforgiven]

NICE! you can pick up wig-wags from autozone,.....flashing strob lights.

[Yamaha_G1]

Originally Posted by CharleyL

Thought that I would add some update photos to this thread. In the 6 months that I've had my little truck I have done quite a bit of work on it, so here are the latest photos (yeah, that's my front yard, the house is in picture 3 - see why I need the truck?). I built the stake body fences from TREX decking materials planned down to more reasonable thickness of 3/4". These should last much longer out in the Weather than the original wood fences in the first photos of this thread.

I'm not finished yet, but I have already put it to work maintaining the yard and doing various other chores. It has been driven almost 100 miles since I first got it running. Today I will be adding tail, stop, and turn signal lights to the top rear of the cab because I've already had a few near misses just driving around the development with it. The slow moving vehicle reflector doesn't seem to be effective enough for some of these idiots.

Charley

Looks great!

Did you build the bottom frame too? I am going to build one myself and may need to get some measurements from you where the hydro cylinder attaches to the bed. For example the distance from the rear pivot pins to the hydro mount.... and maybe a few photos ;)