THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

I am going to get trailer for this truck eventually, but want to take a trip in the truck and needing some input/confidence boost.

Round trip is about 200 miles, with offroad in between. Would be the farthest I have taken the truck and wanted some input on how these trucks hold up for extended highway driving. Anything to watch for.

From what I can tell, mechanically sound so far, no issues, and have swapped out all fluids when I bought the truck a few months ago.

If a buddy of mine is free, I'll put him in my chevy truck as a chase vehicle the first time (have flat tow rig but really don't want to use it unless necessary). But was just curious if people drive their pinzgauers more than just off-road.

Thanks

Andre drove his from Texas to Cali to Washington and then back to Texas last year!!
Read through it as Andre gives info on his trip and Pinz performance on the trip.
See here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8701&hilit=west

This Summer I plan to drive about 10 000 km in the truck through Scandinavia

The only reason to trailer your Pinz is if you plan to do something stupid offraod and have to haul it back.
Or don't care for "Pinz" highway speeds... well, at least gas Pinz speeds...GG cruises nicely at 70+.

Last September I took my 712W over 3500 miles in 18 days when camping; several days each way of non-stop highway driving. Years ago I took it from Indiana to Vermont and back, then drove it when I moved to California. I've taken our 710M out for 6-8 hours of non-stop highway driving to get where I wanted to go.

It depends both on how you care for your truck and how well you can acclimate to spending long time in the drivers seat; for me, comfortable aftermarket seats are a must, as is some sort of hearing protection.

I have driven from San Diego to Seattle to Denver at least three times. ...so thats about 4800 miles each time. Been from Denver to Flagstaff for the OX. Taken trips from Denver to Moab several times, going again soon. Just watch the oil. Only issue was the seats. Got seats from a Honda and never regretted it.
Your trip of 200 miles in not an issue...just my thoughts.

Although if you have a big ass truck and a trailer, it's your choice.

I drive about 250 miles round trip to my favorite camping locations in the Ozark mountains and I really like wearing hearing protection. More than anything, it just takes getting used to not being in a hurry to get there, especially since I don't do interstates, just the back highways. The Pinz always does fine, but it's a psychological challenge to get used to a trip taking twice as long or more than it would in a more typical vehicle.

I will drive mine anywhere that takes less then eight hours (pinz time). After that the ford gets a chance to stretch its legs, the diesel needs a little work out once in a while. This weekend we are headed out and it will be 6.5 hours to the trail head.

I noticed several posters mentioned hearing protection associated with long drives. Early on in my ownership of my truck a friend introduced me to sound proofing materials we used to take much of the high-pitched gear noise out of the truck. This stuff is rubberized asphalt that comes in sheets that you can stick to the floors of the cab foot wells and under the seats. I also bought it in rolls that I have laid on the bed and then covered with some shop carpet I bought at Home Despot. All this has made a huge difference and I have not needed hearing protection for years and the experience for my guests is much better. It's not the most expensive mod you can do to the Pinz and the effect is well worth it.

Thanks everyone.

I have a history with older bikes and sort of expect breakdowns with those. Where I am headed does not have cell service, so if it has issues I will be walking for a bit. Plan on getting a sat texting unit for the future, but I am off this weekend and can get away and plan on enjoying the beast. It will be the first trip since I brought her home in January.

Thankfully the PO had a spare for just about everything so feel a little more confident, and reading about Andre's trip and hearing about how for a lot of you take them is a real confidence booster. I will have to take some pictures when I get out there. It will be a blast.

4x4Pintz, you might know my truck, as I have your metal "pinzgauer" pieces on my mudflaps, and bought it from a nice guy in Arizona.

Yes, I recognized it. Should serve you very well. If you have a basic mechanical knowledge of automobile mechanics you can just about get the pinz home irregardless of the issue. We spend a lot of time offroad in our trucks here and I can not recall any time we have had to leave a truck on the trail, well other then the time when one caught on fire and the other broke the slave cylinder to the 4X lockers on a VERY large rock. Now that was a bit of a hike out but a couple 712's to the rescue and a little over an hour we were good to go with both trucks.

More often than not I end up the solitary truck in places with no cell coverage as well.
As a precautionary measure, I have recovery gear, tools, spare parts for things that
break but you would be pissed at yourself for not having a spare e.g. fan belt. As you
get more experienced with the Pinz you will find yourself adding to your emergency
stash, like the Pinz'y fan belt wrench

I have also invested in comm's and Nav; CB, and HAM gear 2M/70cm, and hf. A 2M rig
is pretty small footprint and more often than not you can find a repeater to lock onto
extending your effective reach considerably (except in DV, thus the hf rig). No Morse
code test anymore, so pretty easy to get licensed for VHF.

As far as distance. For me, getting to something worthy of a trek is a minimum of 500 mi
round trip, then there's Mogfest and DV which run me ~1,000 mi round trip.

I have been lucky so far, but have had vapor lock a couple of times. Got caught with a
tank of winter blend gas on a hot spring day twice now Ya, ya, I know what Jim L is
going to tell me

ron

I know there is a spare fan belt, so that helps, and most of the tools that came with.

I have a CB and Ham in the truck, but they came with it from the PO and I have 0.00 knowledge about how to use them. Other than knowing that you are not supposed to use the ham without a licence.

I guess in an emergency, I would figure it out pretty quick.

Vapor lock is interesting, how do you recover from that? just time, or taking fuel hoses off?

This Summer I plan to drive about 10 000 km in the truck through Scandinavia

I can't believe that passed without comment.


Tony

That's because we know you can do it.