New Member hello
Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 8:32 pm
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.
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.