I then loaded the trailer to the brim with tools and a pot belly stove, and clothes and sleeping bags in the truck and headed out with my mom following in the VW Squareback. Our first stop was the Snow Bird haven, Quartzsite. We cruised around the various vendors checking out the antique wares cool collectables.
The picture of the John Deere tractor was at a cool collection of metal goodies from old gas cans to pot belly stoves and old farm equipment. I picked up an old US issue gas can for $10 and some safety clips to hold the front canvas in place. The old leather straps had dried up beyond their usefullness.
We got to Pheonix in time to shake hands with Tony(the Pinz Dr.) and watch the sun set. I wish the Pinz got the same milage the VW got(28mpg).
It took a visit to the local Pull a Part and O Rileys to get everything I needed to fix the service truck. After a day and a half of work and the sale of the VW, it was time to button up and head for home.
After years of witnessing the genius of Jim Laguardia up close, it was a pleasure to learn of his evil twin in Arizona. Tony displayed the same knowlege and competance with the pinzgauer while additionaly maintaining an operating room level of cleanlieness and organization within his shop. Tony has modified his garage into a fully functional pinz repair facility. His limited amount of work space keeps him ultra organized and he stays focused on the task at hand until complete. As a fabricator, I could appreciate the home built Pinz tools that enabled him to remove and replace drive line components all most effortlessly.
If your in the area, make an effort to stop by and shake hands with The Pinz Dr. while getting your rig the once over. He truly and asset to the Pinz comunity and am glad to have met him.
The rest of the trip was a mixture of cold nights and long days of 95kph humming down the road. The heat exchanger kept things warm with the cab canvas divider down. The truck averaged 11mpg with the trailer in tow. I had made one leg of the trip with 15.7 mpg but it was all down hill from NM into El Paso. Slowing to 90kpm made a big difference in fuel consumption but not enough to warrant taking twice as long to get home.
The wife and kids were all happy to see a pinz in the driveway again. So much for the new people laying low. Instant celebrity is the only way to describe our small towns reaction to the Pinz. Guess now is as good a time as any to put a Fat Fabrications sticker on the side of it.
