Help ID unusual German rescue van

Oct 09, 2005 10 Replies
S

(BTW, I'm in the states).



I was driving down the highway the other morning, and saw a van-like vehicle like no other. It had some funky german name on the front.



It was blue, VERY boxy, looks like it was made in the 70s, and was decked out to be some sort of rescue van. I saw equipment in the back, and it had labels alluding to rescuing stranded mountain hikers or something.



When I mean boxy, this thing was volvo-boxy. The wheels stood high above the body, so it looks like it could easily do some off-roading. The front of it was flat not unlike a bus, but with a slight angle.



Anyone know what it could be? I searched google with no luck, not exactly able to classify it. It looks almost like something the Russian army would tote around with since it has such great ground clearance.


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S

Aaand it looks like I found a picture:

formatting link
(BTW, I'm in the states).

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C

In message , S1500 writes

Sounds like the famous Austrian Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer, available as a 4x4 or a 6x6. It has a mid-mounted air-cooled engine and awesome axle articulation.

(You might know its little brother, the Haflinger).

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S

I've seen one round here, Merseyside. (a 4x4)

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A

S1500 ( snipped-for-privacy@nospam.comcast.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Pinzgauer

pronounced Pins - gower

Originally a Steyr-Puch design, the big brother to the Haflinger, now built in Guildford for the British Army.

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T

Ah yes, a Pinzgauer - one of the most capable offroaders ever built. Many a mountain goat got him/herself a new job after being overtaken by one of them going up a particularly steep mountain. Seriously, if you have an urgent need to go from A to B in the straightest possible line, no matter what the terrain is in between A and B, this is the vehicle to have.

If it was blue - fairly dark blue - and looked official, it was most likely a THW (Technisches Hilfswerk, the German disaster recovery agency) vehicle.

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R

The British Army Pinzes are diesel 1.9 Golf Egine Alan

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G

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember S1500 saying something like:

Unimog?

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S

It's something the British Army hoon around in, a Pinzgauer. If you can't pronounce it. find a pasing Amish to help you.

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Y

S1500 realised it was Sun, 09 Oct 2005

00:21:54 -0500 and decided it was time to write:

Could even be a Volvo Laplander:

formatting link

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G

Earlier in the thread (which I've lost) someone mentioned its baby brother, the Haflinger.

They did the most incredible launch in the UK in the sixties. Took a load of motoring hacks to an Army proving ground somewhere and in turns put a journo in the passenger seat and their demo driver took it up a steep muddy hill. Terrifyingly steep. And then, half way up, he stopped and climbed out - at which point the nose lifted and it very gently began to roll over backwards. The demo driver put his hand on the front, pushed it back down, then climbed in and resumed the ascent.

That was seriously impressive!

Geoff MacK

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