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

Hey Guys.

Just curious what the hand throttle lock is used for in a Pinz? The Iltis had something similar, and I was told it was used a lot in convoys. A set speed was maintained by all vehicles by engaging the lock.

Not the original purpose for the hand throttle, but it worked great to get me home 460 miles from Reno to LA when the gas pedal came loose. It was a bit of a pain when I hit LA traffic and had to adjust the throttle and shift with my right hand. The rest of the way the locking feature let me hold my speed without my arm falling off.

It works great starting on a hill

When I was in jeep school in the Marines we were instructed to use the hand throttle to start out on steep hills. When I questioned why not just use the hand brake it was pointed out that it may not hold the hill after water crossings.

In a Pinz it can also be used to maintain fast idle to provide extra power for the radio gear when it is not practical to deploy the auxiliary generator on the communications trucks.

starting out when in sticky situations such as a steep hill. I use mine when in I head up to altitude for short periods of time and don't want to bother with changing jets. Simply set idle at around 1200rpms and good to go. Since my truck is tuned for 1K elevation I need to do this when I cross over the 10K elevation point.

I have found it useful on choppy inclines where the up and down motion of the Pinz can cause you to fluctuate (bounce) your foot on the accel pedal causing uneven accel/decel. I get a more even throttle response which puts down power to the ground smoothly and seems to aid the climb. You have to set it carefully and experiment as each incline will need a different setting. You may need to readjust (which in some situations might be impossible) in the middle of an incline depending on changes (steeper/shallower incline).

DISCLAIMER: I wouldn't recommend using it in the most challenging inclines where frequent finessing of the throttle is required.

I've used mine as cruise control on long motorway drives - just set 3500rpm and let go

Anyone have an extra? Mine broke.

To jump in on this thread.... the hand throttle on my current Pinz has never "locked". Pull it up and twist (clockwise) and it just thuds down when you let it go.

I haven't poked too deeply into it, but is it an easy fix? Not worth buying a complete new one as I only use it once a month. Drying the brakes out after a deepish river crossing. Right hoof on the brake and hold the hand throttle up until all six feet "grab" again! Not too convenient really.

Thanks.

Mike. 712M.
Ayrshire.

cronapress wrote:To jump in on this thread.... the hand throttle on my current Pinz has never "locked". Pull it up and twist (clockwise) and it just thuds down when you let it go

Try unscrewing it completely and turning the nut the other way round - mine was upside down and didn't hold

Thanks Robin. I'll give that a try later. Might explain why mine never worked at all !

Robin - you have a PM.

Mike

OK, Mike, I'll respond in the public domain in case it helps other people...

Not sure how the cable is attached to the bottom of the square rod that forms the shaft of the hand throttle but if you can detach it, then you can unscrew the throttle all the way until the little nut comes free of the captive thread.

As you can (hopefully) see in this photo, there are slits in the nut that on mine point downwards (and mine locks!)

Many thanks Robin for the rapid responce. I'm somewhat embarassed here. Always check the obvious thing FIRST. Whilst Robin was kindly investigating his hand throttle, I jumped in the cab and tried mine again. (Had previously got gunged up de-greasing the underfloor bit). It just turned and turned etc. So whilst thinking "What the **** ?" I just kept on turning several complete revolutions. It locked !!!

I assume that in the dim and distant, someone (not me guv. - honest) had undone it many turns. My previous Pinz was just about a half turn to lock/unlock.

Now we know.

El Embarassimo.