1972 Pinzgauer 710
By
- 1972 Pinzgauer 710
You would not believe what you find when you start paying attention. I brought you a post on the Unimog Camper that I discovered an acquaintance owned just a couple of weeks ago. Then I remembered that another acquaintance had some sort of surplus military vehicle that I had seen him driving on several occasions… Strange, at least it seems that way to me?
Anyway, I call this second gentleman and proceed to ask him about his vehicle. He explains to me that it’s an old Swiss Military truck, a Pinzgauer 710 built in 1972. He continued his explanation, it had been configured as a troop hauler. It could carry as many as 10 soldiers in the rear of the vehicle plus the driver and passenger in the cab. Like I said, I had seen it around town from time to time and it didn’t appear much larger than a jeep. At least that was how I remembered it. I was confused as to how 10 guys could get into the back of this thing? He continued the run down for me, the rear seats are a bench design and run up both sides and face each other. Alright, that makes a bit more sense but I still wanted to see this thing for myself as I could no longer trust my “minds eye”…
Hatch to rear from cab / heavy tow cable came stock
I arranged with him to come and take a look. He wasn’t planning to be around but gave me the access information to the yard where he currently had it parked. I was thinking to my self that this would be perfect, allowing me to get up close and personal with my inspection. I cleared my schedule and headed over as quickly as I could…
I was just arriving at the place he told me to go to find his truck when low and behold he pulls up right before me. Alright, I can’t complain as he has generously allowing me to come look. I’m always leery of taking to many photos when I’m privileged enough to get a peek at someone’s preps… I’d just have to do my best and hope you all can use your imaginations on what I might miss.
As you can see from the photos, this is a pretty cool truck. He again explained that this one was designed to move troops but they have been configured in many different designs from command vehicles to ambulances. He happened on this one and did some horse trading with the previous owner to make the deal come together. He told me about a couple of other folks in our area and how they have theirs outfitted. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled and see what else I might get to do a review on!
Rear bed stuffed with camping gear
We walked around back and he opened up the rear door. As you can see it was stuffed with camping gear. He explained that he is active with a search and rescue group and can be ready at a moments notice. This truck can go anywhere he wants to take it and has. I don’t know this gentleman from any of my “Prepper” circles and he didn’t describe himself in this way at all but with the camping gear and some specific ammunition magazines that I also noticed, he’s a prepper whether he realizes it or not… Nice to know who the good guys are! He said something that I’m not sure is true, maybe someone can confirm this, it is powered by an inline 4 cylinder aircraft engine? Not that this wouldn’t be possible but I hadn’t ever heard of this before so I wasn’t going to open my mouth and look stupid, at least not until I was back to the safety of my own blog… Over all I really thought that this looked like a capable vehicle.
We moved around to the drivers side and he’s rattling off the specs, 24 volt, storage here and here, built in shovel and ax, etc. etc. He said that this particular vehicle has been referred to as the “Swiss army knife of trucks”… He went on to show me how the engine is mounted up between the driver and passenger, which allows even better ground clearance and center of gravity. The thing is designed to be able to complete water crossings up to 27 inches with out taking on water and he claims that it has exceeded that with no issue. The ground clearance is 13+ inches to the differential, not to shabby, in that arena either.
24 Volt Battery and Storage compartment
It sounded to me like he had purchased the truck more for search and rescue than anything else or at least that was his excuse to buy it. He pointed out that the rear seats flipped forward and made into a bunk that he used whenever he’s out over night. I couldn’t see that in action because of all the gear but it sounded like the designers put some thought into additional usages beyond the obvious. Another quick example of this is what are called the “Step Centers”, at least thats what this guy said they were called. It was a round metal center cap that stuck out from the front hub and acts as a step to get up into the cab, pretty ingenious…
I have always been VERY happy with my jeeps and I don’t think I’ll ever be without one in some configuration. However, as I am recently getting to see some surplus military vehicles I can begin to see an appeal that I had never understood before. These are really cool, often they have stock capabilities that we jeepers normally only get in the after market realm. I have far to much to get done already to be sidetracked by another project right now but if the funds were ever available at just the right time, I might be tempted to add a historical BOV to my preps. I hope you all found this as interesting as I did!
Prepper
Lots of ground clearance
I too also have a 710M that I’ve had since 2004. I love mine although I don’t do 4 wheeling and terraining with it. It’s definitly a rubber necker when going down the road. Although it runs on unleaded, it needs the lead additive. Valve springs 1 & 2 broke when I hit a rain gutter going to work one day. It’s because the people who had it before me didn’t use the lead additive that lubricates the valves. Other than that no issues.