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I thought that I had solved a dying-out problem last year when I drained my gas tank and out came three small pages of German language paperwork. The dying-out problem still wasn't solved, so I had my mechanic look at it. He peaked down the filler tube and found a whole still readable French language newspaper from November 12 1980!! I can't believe that it has been in there for almost 30 years and the thing ran great... until it would just mysteriously die!

CHECK THOSE GAS TANKS GUYS!!!!!!!

Does this mean that Pinzgauers run on "bio-gasoline"? Just think how great your mileage would be with an entire Sunday New York Times abd a tank of premium gasoline!!?!??

Twin Pinzies wrote:I thought that I had solved a dying-out problem last year when I drained my gas tank and out came three small pages of German language paperwork. The dying-out problem still wasn't solved, so I had my mechanic look at it. He peaked down the filler tube and found a whole still readable French language newspaper from November 12 1980!! I can't believe that it has been in there for almost 30 years and the thing ran great... until it would just mysteriously die!

CHECK THOSE GAS TANKS GUYS!!!!!!!

that is so cool. did you save the paper?

I think if some of these Pinzes could speak, they would have some pretty hairy stories of use and abuse by the swiss soldiers who suddenly had a few weeks "off" from civilian life and could play and damage their army-issued toys without much to worry about.

In the Swiss army, you were not allowed to lose any piece of equipment... but you could damage it unless it was too obvious that it was done on purpose. It was almost common practice when your pants were all dirty with mud to rip a pocket in order to be issued a clean one immediately (instead of waiting for the day when they would change the whole unit to clean fatigues).

I can imagine that shoving a newspaper down the fuel tank of a Pinz was worth a giggle for a few bored swiss soldiers sometime in 1980...

Jan

newspaper down the fuel tank of a Pinz

I'd bring back the firing squad for such a crime!

Perhaps it was for educational purposes. The Pinzgauer needed to keep up with world affairs. Not any old vehicle can read you know.

About abuse by Swiss soldiers: yes and not, in my opinion.
At least, my 710k (probably used by officers) was in very good condition when I got it, without any trace of abuse.
And no newsparer in the gas tank ...

but, to my surprise, I found a condom (yes, a condom!) still in its sealed envelope under the "beobachter" (the observer) seat !!!
Wandering which sort of "observations" was that observer used to do ...



Cheers,
Ugo
Torino, Italy

Ugo, you are right: it is kind of a lottery: some Pinzes have seen lots of abuse during their army life, others have been used carefully... with all the possible shades of gray in between.

Now for 710K, they were not operated by officers (at least in my experience), but most of the time around officers... which has the same effect of limiting opportunities to do obvious stupid things with army-issued stuff.

But believe me: leave a few soldiers (not necessarily swiss, I guess) with a lot of time, nothing to do and a vehicle... and that's the kind of result you will get, here with the Pinz's replacement, a swiss army Puch-badged G-Wagen: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tacoipa8qcU&feature=related

This is just one example. I personally travelled at night in a 712M who's driver was in a hurry. He had to enter the highway for a few miles, so he floored the throttle to get his truck going... and left the "4500 RPM" dashboard light on for a full 2 minutes to be sure he reached the top speed...

Jan

This sort of thing is not deliberate damage, just the sort of thing we do for fun now... My friend frequently cruises his with the max rpm light on and its been to timbuktu and back. I actually flew my truck by mistake last year, hit a humpback bridge on a long straight stretch of road faster than I meant to and took off, actually landed real smooth but I wouldn't want to try it too often. Newspapers in the gas tank, well that's a different matter...