When I was a 16 year old kid in 1970 living in Jacksonville Beach,. Florida, I went to
the local cycle shop to get some parts for my old motorcycle. The shop was
located on the edge of a marsh adjacent to the Intercoastal Waterway. The
neighboring boat dealer had just taken on a line of six wheelers and was
demonstrating one in the marsh...plowing through mud, traversing the canal and
then up the muddy bank onto solid ground. I knew then that I had to have one.
Thirty four years later after many motorcycles, 3-wheelers and 4-wheelers, in
November of '04 I saw this '79 Hustler on ebay in Louisiana. Not knowing anything
about them I got on the internet for information and discovered Route 6x6 and
Richard Clark. I telephoned Richard to see if parts were still available before I bid
on the machine. Richard gave me the low down on Hustlers and his available parts
inventory. I bid and to my delight won the 6-wheeler...after 34 years I was finally
going to get one. The seller happened to also have sold a car to a man in my area
so I worked out a deal with the car carrier owner and got it delivered to central
Florida at a good rate. Once it arrived I was amazed at the running and operating
condiiton for a $1400, twenty-five year old six-wheeler. The T-20 transmission
worked great and the Kohler engine started easily with no internal noise or
smoke and the shell didn't appear to have any cracks or breaks. The tires were
dry rotted so I placed an order with Route 6x6 for a new set of 25" tires and
wheels to replace the original 21" setup. After receiving and installing them I drove
the Hustler into the lake and it doggie paddled around for a few minutes and then
pulled itself back out and I was happy. The drive belt was worn and the reverse had
been disconnected, but would work if engaged manually. I fabricated some reverse
linkage and with a quick call to my new best friend Richard at Route 6x6 the new
drive belt and reverse operators are on the way. After receiving the Hustler I
removed and painted the roll bar, added 3" thick custom made seats front and
rear, fabricated a rear cargo rack, added a trolling motor mount to the front and
installed a bilge pump (the lake trial proved that some water will come in around the
headlights and seep thru the upper and lower shell seam). Once I've installed the
drive belt and reverse operators I'll be ready for the woods and bogs. I have ideas
for a couple more accessories and when completed I'll forward more pics. Thanks
Richard for your advice and boneyard that keeps these old relics running.

Hey Richard, here's more pics...you're gonna love these. It's now a boat. I weigh
290 and my buddy weighs 285 and we rocked it hard and couldn't sink it. Here's
a little more narrative for the website too:

Inspired by a photo of another Hustler on the Route 6x6 website; to enhance the
stability of the Hustler in the water I welded four retractable outriggers to the
roll bar frame and then made a 1'x1'x4' form of 1/8" hardboard and duct tape
then poured two urethane foam pontoons. The urethane foam is completely
water proof by itself, but I will fiberglass the outsides for some mechanical
protection. After I fiberglass them the pontoons will only weigh 18 pounds each
(including the reinforcing metal I put inside for support), but will support 260
pounds of dead weight each so with the tires and hull plus the pontoons there is
plenty of buoyancy. My buddy and I together weigh 575 pounds and although we
rocked it as hard as we could the Hustler wouldn't sink. With the bow
mounted trolling motor it puttered around at about 3 to 4 mph. In Florida if I run
the gas engine and propel it with the tires I have to get a boat registration for it,
but that's not required for an electric trolling motor. A little water seeped in so
running the bilge pump for a few seconds quickly took care of that. Now that
the sea trials are complete I'll fiberglass and paint the pontoons and plan
a camping trip to finally enjoy the Hustler. Thanks again to Richard and Route
6x6 for a great website and customer service.
Marion