- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
- Messages
- 12,955
I had it for several years and it was a very reliable truck. I took it on a few long trips and always did 55 mph on the highway with it but it can go faster. They will do 65mph but its not recommened.
As for the reliability history. Typically when you first buy one there are several things that needs to be done to make them roadworthy and trustworthy unless you get one already owned and upgraded a bit. If you get one from the Swiss army its going to be cleaner and if you get one with low miles it is that much better. www.swissarmyvehicles.com in Fayetteville AR had some with less than 20,000 original miles on them at one time.
But even with those its necessary to flush all the fluids, and check it over as far as the condition of brake hoses, any other rubber, the hub seals, brake shoes, plugs wires and stuff like the carbs being securely mounted and all screws tightened and you may or may not have to change the windshield to safety glass since many of them come with tempered glass. If you are using it on a ranch off road you can keep the bias ply military tires and be quite happy since they are quite tough and have super sidewall strength but on the pavement they really suck and you will want to get radial tires for that. You will also need the tire balancer which is like $90 to balance these rims. The Pinzgauer rims are lug centric not hub centric like modern wheels. So if they balance them using the center hole of the wheel it won't be right. Its the lugs that center it and you need an adapter to do it correctly.
My carbs were missing a few springs and the hub seals were leaking which ran me about $300 per wheel to fix but it has to be done or you end up getting your brake shoes oil soaked and then you will be looking at having to replace those also.
Once I did all these things it was only elective stuff I did after that and it never really gave me any suprises the entire time I owned it. Valve adjustments are frequent and being air cooled it needs more frequent oil changes since the oil gets dirty real fast with them but otherwise it was a very positive experience owning it. The sad truth is in my case, embarasing as it is to admit, that had I not talked the wife into letting me loan a family member $5000 on the condition that I would sell my Pinz to put it back into our account if they failed to pay us back then I'd still have it. But when we got notice from their attorneys that they filed bankruptcy well, guess what? The rest is history. I'll miss the thing the rest of my life. It was one of my all time favorite toys and I've had a lot of nice toys my friend.
The thing was 31 years old and I trusted it more than I do my newer Lincoln Navigator ok? I mean even when it had a few problems it never left me stranded to where it was disabled. The Pinzgauers have stellar reps as reliable solidly built trucks which is why so many Armies in the world rely on them. Parts are still made for them, the vehicle is still made ( a new one in 4x4 is like $135,000 only the new ones are diesel instead of gasoline) and there is no chance of parts being discontinued anytime soon with so many armies using them world wide.
Sometimes the little things like vibrations from excessively long travel at highway speeds shake things loose. I lost manifold bolts, door screws, the carbs need checking for tightness, and other stuff like that but if you keep up with that and check those things after every long trip you should be fine. Everyone I know that has one and kept it loves the things. They are very reliable once you cover the basics.
STR
As for the reliability history. Typically when you first buy one there are several things that needs to be done to make them roadworthy and trustworthy unless you get one already owned and upgraded a bit. If you get one from the Swiss army its going to be cleaner and if you get one with low miles it is that much better. www.swissarmyvehicles.com in Fayetteville AR had some with less than 20,000 original miles on them at one time.
But even with those its necessary to flush all the fluids, and check it over as far as the condition of brake hoses, any other rubber, the hub seals, brake shoes, plugs wires and stuff like the carbs being securely mounted and all screws tightened and you may or may not have to change the windshield to safety glass since many of them come with tempered glass. If you are using it on a ranch off road you can keep the bias ply military tires and be quite happy since they are quite tough and have super sidewall strength but on the pavement they really suck and you will want to get radial tires for that. You will also need the tire balancer which is like $90 to balance these rims. The Pinzgauer rims are lug centric not hub centric like modern wheels. So if they balance them using the center hole of the wheel it won't be right. Its the lugs that center it and you need an adapter to do it correctly.
My carbs were missing a few springs and the hub seals were leaking which ran me about $300 per wheel to fix but it has to be done or you end up getting your brake shoes oil soaked and then you will be looking at having to replace those also.
Once I did all these things it was only elective stuff I did after that and it never really gave me any suprises the entire time I owned it. Valve adjustments are frequent and being air cooled it needs more frequent oil changes since the oil gets dirty real fast with them but otherwise it was a very positive experience owning it. The sad truth is in my case, embarasing as it is to admit, that had I not talked the wife into letting me loan a family member $5000 on the condition that I would sell my Pinz to put it back into our account if they failed to pay us back then I'd still have it. But when we got notice from their attorneys that they filed bankruptcy well, guess what? The rest is history. I'll miss the thing the rest of my life. It was one of my all time favorite toys and I've had a lot of nice toys my friend.
The thing was 31 years old and I trusted it more than I do my newer Lincoln Navigator ok? I mean even when it had a few problems it never left me stranded to where it was disabled. The Pinzgauers have stellar reps as reliable solidly built trucks which is why so many Armies in the world rely on them. Parts are still made for them, the vehicle is still made ( a new one in 4x4 is like $135,000 only the new ones are diesel instead of gasoline) and there is no chance of parts being discontinued anytime soon with so many armies using them world wide.
Sometimes the little things like vibrations from excessively long travel at highway speeds shake things loose. I lost manifold bolts, door screws, the carbs need checking for tightness, and other stuff like that but if you keep up with that and check those things after every long trip you should be fine. Everyone I know that has one and kept it loves the things. They are very reliable once you cover the basics.
STR
