[Silly Little Cars] Insurance for Cushman - help!

Fri Sep 23 13:36:52 PDT 2016

Recent trip back home (Puerto Rico), I saw this Cushman Police parked on the side of the road selling Piraguas (snow cones). The owner switched out the original engine for a VW beetle engine and he said it's 100 times better. Unfortunately, I didn't get what modifications he had to make, but I guess I will find out soon enough as I'm planning on doing the same.

Javier

> On Sep 22, 2016, at 9:51 PM, Keith Charsha via Silly_little_cars <silly_little_cars at lists.sillylittlecars.com> wrote:
> 
> Has anyone considered a VW engine?  It's aircooled also and almost an exact size match for the cushman engine and with a doghouse cooler it should fit with no alterations.  Everything would also be on the front of the engine just like a cushman making it easy to work on and access.  It's nearly twice the HP @40HP and parts are cheap and easily found.  I'd think an adapter plate could be easily made that could bolt to the bottom frame and come up in an L fashion to bolt on the motor and hold it to the transmission.  I've seen one before many years ago and it was able to do wheelies.  I can't remember exactly how the guy had it rigged up, I was just a school kid back then.  
> 
>> On 9/22/2016 12:50 PM, Charley via Silly_little_cars wrote:
>> I have been considering a Honda 1000cc Gold Wing motorcycle engine (78 hp), but I haven't found one at the right price and in running condition (rebuildable) from a wrecked Gold Wing, and it will take a bunch of work and specially made machine shop parts to get it installed. As best as I can tell, it will easily fit in my 1987 Truckster and provide awsome horsepower for it's size, but because of the expected installation difficulty, so I haven't been looking very hard for one.
>>  
>>  Harbor Freight sells a 22 hp overhead valve V twin Predator engine for about $600, but it too will require a lot of work to install. I think the Cushman engine mounts will need to be lowered about 2" too, and although it's a new engine and newer technology, it's still only 22 hp. I think if I'm going to go to all of the trouble to install a different engine, I'm going to want better performance.
>>  
>> I hadn't thought about a Geo engine. I'll have to look into it. The height of the motor space in the Cushman seems to be the most critical problem. It's tough to be comfortable while sitting on a valve cover or spark plug. 
>>  
>> So far I keep repairing the 22 hp OMC engine that's in it, using parts from 2 other OMC 22 hp engines that I have, but I'm running out of the parts that seem to be going bad. My best upgrade for it so far has been the installation of an electric fuel pump, and removal of the mechanical fuel pump and bypass filter. It will now almost always start in the first revolution with very little choke, if a cold start.
>>  
>> Charley 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: David Rosenblat via Silly_little_cars
>> To: Will Hodgkins
>> Cc: Silly Little Email List
>> Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2016 3:06 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Silly Little Cars] Insurance for Cushman - help!
>> 
>> You guys are great! Thank you for all your help and experience. I will keep everyone poated with my progress. Any suggestions on a motor swap. I want to convert into a micro camper probably with a final weight of 600-800 pounds. Currently I have a geo metro motor sitting in the garage.  
>> Thanks 
>> Dave
>> 
>> 
>>> On Sep 22, 2016 1:01 PM, "Will Hodgkins" <batwill911 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> Dave
>>> 
>>> try state farm. I live in CA and Geico turned me down, Progressive insured me for 2 weeks then canceled my policy (went through an agent for that one), and farmers said no State farm finally wrote me a policy on my 2000 go-4
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Will
>>> 
>>> Sent from Outlook
>>> 
>>> 
>>> From: Silly_little_cars <silly_little_cars-bounces at lists.sillylittlecars.com> on behalf of David Rosenblat via Silly_little_cars <silly_little_cars at lists.sillylittlecars.com>
>>> Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2016 3:09 AM
>>> To: Silly Little Email List
>>> Subject: [Silly Little Cars] Insurance for Cushman - help!
>>>  
>>> Hello Enthusiasts,
>>> First a quick thank you to this community. I read emails from the mailing list almost daily. I'm glad to hear about everyone's modifications, reasons for owning, and of course struggles haha. 
>>> I need to find someone to insure my 1968 and 1969 Cushman trucksters. Both have titles and are road worthy. Geico said no because they were                         formally for commercial use. Geico won't cover them even under their Collectors/Classics insurance. I live in Colorado. 
>>> Also I aim to repower my trucksters so I can go a bit faster than 25-30mph. Any suggestions. 
>>> Thank you all!
>>> 
>>> Dave 
>>> 
>> 
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