New Member hello

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Pinz aus
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Jun 08, 2017 8:00 pm
Location: Tasmania, Australia

New Member hello

Post by Pinz aus »

Hi everyone
Just wanted to say hello from Australia and ask for your help and opinions.

I am from a Landcruiser family and love them, I have owned a number of them myself and we run them in our business. We have found them to be extremely reliable and hardy vehicles and have a few sittings around 500,000kms without the drive train being touched.
Although we have a mix of old and new vehicles in our business I prefer older, pre electronic and emissions equipment.
For these reasons I have had a 60 series factory turbo wagon for my family and I to explore, travel, camp and take off road trips in.
We have reached a crossroads where I wanted to either undertake a considerable rebuild on our existing Cruiser and build it up to what I want it to be or purchase a good clean canvas to build into a long term travelling bus for us.

This was all before I had that one fateful word uttered to me..........."Pinzgauer"

Oh what a can of worms it has opened!
So time has gone into research on these amazing off-road vehicles and it has answered some of my wants in a tourer but also raised plenty of questions!
So I think what I want is a right hand drive 4X4 K hardtop five door wagon (we have two kids to cart around) in a turbo diesel.
I initially had a look across all potential outlets for Pinzgauer's when researching but have focused on the UK as I want right hand drive and turbo diesel but I am open to suggestions.

So the questions:

Is there a particular series or years that are preference?
Are the later 5cyl TD Pinzgauer's any good? I have read that they had issues in service.

Leading from these two questions do they improve in drivability in later years? One of my concerns is what they are like to drive long distance, I'm not expecting a Rolls Royce but in Aus you can easily travel thousands of km's to get to where your off-road trip begins so I guess the fact that the engine is sitting beside you and that they are a utilitarian build how do they stack up on the highway?

Auto or manual?

Another can of worms I think is asking should I be looking at 6x6?
My simple thoughts towards looking for a 4X4 is that many of the tracks in Tasmania (where we live) are often over grown and physical size and manoeuvrability is important to get through or turn around. I thought a 4X4 would have as much or more cargo area as our Landcruiser behind the rear seats?

I also thought that a 6x6 in a practical sense like ownership costs means another set of tyres, additional drive train to maintain etc etc.
In saying that I can't help but think about how much room there must be in a 6x6 hard top which would be fantastic for extended trips.

While I have read that they have a reputation for being tough and reliable Another worry that has developed while reading and researching is how many of these vehicles have seen punishing service and possibly poor repairs and modifications at points in their life, when I look at posts of them pulled down there seems to be plenty of corrosion, muck and things to rebuild. As I read on another post here some seem to have been modified or had dodgy repairs by owners after their service which causes more problems than help.
While I can pick up a Landcruiser that has spent its life on the highway and may not have even had the hubs wound in, I'm thinking the same won't be said for any Pinzgauer. Although I'm assuming vehicles that have been fire trucks, ambulance and maybe radio may have had better treatment?
To ship something at a high cost to Australia and have no local source for parts worries me, I don't want to spend a lot getting it here and then another fortune repairing it.

Finding the right vehicle is key.

I have seen the Shropshire Gunbus and Haflinger Technic websites, are there other outlets worth looking at to source a vehicle?
I'm not against sourcing privately it's just about getting the guarantee of getting what I'm paying for. I have a friend currently touring around Europe/UK and he has sourced parts for his Haflinger from Haflinger Technic and intends to drop in and see them.

Thanks in advance guys, I look forward to your feedback.
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TechMOGogy
Canada
Posts: 2831
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:39 am
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: New Member hello

Post by TechMOGogy »

Buy one that has been restored from S-Tec
http://www.s-tec.at/1894_Puch-Pinzgauer-G.aspx?LNG=en
And
http://www.puch.at/en/specialist-worksh ... pinzgauer/
Will cost you an arm and a leg but you will know what your getting and it will not need any work done to it, just start using it.
They can also do a repower with a Steyr motor that comes with a warranty (send large whee- barrow of $)
I don't know the diesel Pinzgauer so others here will help answer those questions.
Cheers,
72 Pathfinder | 75 710M 2.7i | 96 350GDT Worker
pinzi
Belgium
Posts: 154
Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2008 4:23 am
Location: belgium

Re: New Member hello

Post by pinzi »

Contact Gregor form shropshire gunbus.....he will help you with Any question about a 716 or 718 TD pinz. :wink:
Tell him Joeri form Belgium sends you.....it will work out just fine for you.
A other Ausie guy bought the red 718k from him, he is here on the forum to...try to contact him.
He is here under the name alloffroad.
off-road until i die
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David Dunn
United States of America
Posts: 2274
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2004 7:08 pm
Location: Arcadia, CA

Re: New Member hello

Post by David Dunn »

Howdy, and welcome to the group.
Have you check with your local motor vehicle dept regarding requirement of importation? There have been people to get TD Pinzes into Australia, but had hoops to jump through. A sister to my ATL 718K (also a military sales demonstrator ) was auctioned off in Oz a few years back and was required to be exported out of Australia.

Some basic numbers to start with, there were less than 6000 TD Pinzes made in Austria total (before the plant moving to the UK), 1210 in the UK (including 181 Vectors).

IMO, the newer the version of the TD, the better. The P80s went through a few revamps in the cooling system, the P90 got a much larger radiator ( noticeable by the larger vertical radiator cover). The P93 had an innercooler add to them.
Through Roush Technologies, the Pinz in the UK got the 5 cyl 2.5TDI, ABS, ETC and EBD. All UK Pinzes were auto trans and ALMOST all were RHD ( you could count the # of LHD on your fingers)

I’d like to hear the "issues" you read on the 2.5TDI, if it was with the engine, truck or not getting proper maintenance, mechanics will blame the truck if the animal isn't familiar to them. It take a mininum of 20 minutes to pull the doghouse on a TDI truck (an hour the first time :evil: )
I got my 718K with only 262 miles on it and the only issues were more with build quality control ( probability something to do with S&S just buying ATL), and BAE in the US not understanding some of the British automotive “quirks”.

I doubt I'd have a Steyr engine installed. Warranty or not , you'd be hamstringed on parts availability for the mono block engine, though like most things, you'd learn where to find them... the basic VW TD and TDI engines have worldwide availability.
.
The Trojan Horse... the 1st Pinz used to covertly carry troops into battle .




ATL Pinzgauer XM 718K TUM(HD) 6x6 FFR (aka The Green Grail)
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Pinz aus
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Jun 08, 2017 8:00 pm
Location: Tasmania, Australia

Re: New Member hello

Post by Pinz aus »

Thanks for the information and advice guys, it's greatly appreciated.

David, I agree that many things are tainted as lemons by those that don't understand them or simply haven't maintained correctly and then blame it when it breaks.
I certainly don't have anything concrete but had gathered from different articles and internet sources that the newer vehicles that had introduced electronics had reliability issues. I had heard the the NZ defence force have had issues with their fleet but again I don't know exactly in what areas.

The research and fact finding continues!
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