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I'm guessing that you can carry approximately 2400 lbs in a 712. I am NOT concerned about towing capacity with this question.

I was thinking that's roughly what 12 Swiss soldiers (or guys from a Ricola advertisement) would weigh, averaging 200 lbs. each.

Is that about right? If so, any limitations around that, on road or off? Any knowledge of this subject would be appreciated!

David

I thought is was roughly 1 & 1/2 tons.

So if some of those Swiss soldier had backed off on the fondue and chocolate, that sounds about right.

(Jan - I'm waiting for you to starting giving me some $hit right about now with the Swiss military taunts.)

Basic 712M is rated at 1-1/2 metric tons or 3300 pounds. Some of the other variants have reduced cargo loads due to the added weight of doors, boxes etc.

However, my opinion is that this rating is conservative (perhaps since it is an off-road rating) and the occasional "I didn't realize how heavy that was" occurance is not likely to result in damage to the truck; as long as you don't drive beyond the braking capability and hit something! It is never a good idea to knowingly operate beyond a vehicle's rating, but you probably won't break something if you hit 3301 pounds (or 4,000 lbs, or maybe even 4,800 lbs... Let us know if you try, we like a good laugh).

I know I loaded 45 50 lbs concrete pavers (to reinforce a mountain bike trail about an hour from here) and that was about as much as I could get inspired to handle.

Other than feeling "sluggish", it ran fine with this load. Thanks for the confirmation that I wasn't going to kill it with too much of a load.

I'll second "sluggish", after I got home with one ton of garden blocks I started thinking about the fact that I failed to take into account a full tank of gas, a full gas can, my passenger ~150 lbs and my own weight ~230 lbs, so figure ~500 lbs over what I had intended. Kind of slow up the hills. The photo shows my 710K with said load.

texas pinzgauer wrote:So if some of those Swiss soldier had backed off on the fondue and chocolate, that sounds about right.

(Jan - I'm waiting for you to starting giving me some $hit right about now with the Swiss military taunts.)

You can taunt all you want. A real Swiss soldier doesn't back off fondue and chocolate

When Haflinger Sales and Service originally sold the 712 Pinzgauer in Australia, they said it had a Payload of 1.5 ton off-road and 2.5 ton on-road.

I didn't check to see how compressed the springs looked but I have to assume that they were.

I'll toss my 712m experience in here...

I bought a pallet of retaining wall blocks (144 total) that weighed 20 lbs each...
20 x 144 = 2880 lbs. The pallet was a heavy oak one (est. 75 lbs) so we've got
2955 lbs, plus gas (70 lbs), me (155lbs) and wife (120 lbs) new weight = 3300 lbs.

The bed was only about 3/4" lower than unloaded, worked really well on the flats.
Going home I have a fairly steep grade in one spot (Sierra foothills) that most people
drive at about 30 - 35 mph (curvy two lane), I put it in low range and went up at 25 mph.

A GREAT WORKHORSE for me... mileage went down to 8!

The 712 handled very well but watch out and don't overdrive your brakes!

I have carried lots of bags of concrete mix and barely noticed a slow down except up hill. did account for the extra distance it would take to stop with that kind of load.
Just came back from a rock and gravel yard. They weighed me going in...pinz, two people, 1/2 tank of gas and all camping supplies (keep them in the pinz) weighed out at 5900 pounds. Not a wonder that I go a bit slow up hills and especially above 10,000 feet in elevation.

I regularly carried 60, fifty lb feed sacks in the 712 and towed the Swiss Army 1 ton trailer with another 40 bags in it when I was feeding deer leases. On and mostly off road, up and down hill. No problems except turning in low with everything engaged
But that ain't easy even without a load.