Mods to Alan's Pinzgauer

These are mods I have made or are in the process of making to my Pinz:

VIC-1 Intercom

Electronic Fuel Injection

Garmin 168 Mapping GPS

The Garmin 168 GPS is ideal for my purposes. I use it in my boat and the pinz. With 240x240 pixel resolution, maps are easy to read, even while driving. The 168 has the depth finder built in for boat use. The 162 is the GPS/plotter version. You can get one here:

• Amazon.com Garmin 162

• Amazon.com Garmin 168

The RAM mount works well, and allows easy removal or repositioning. The internal antenna has worked fine to date.

I use the Garmin Mapsource oftware to upload waypoints, routes and map info to the unit. This software works will nearly all the Garmin units, and is great if you are using the Garmin maps. (Otherwise I would use waypoint, or other shareware) 

Here are the maps I use and recommend:

• Roads & Recreation-  This map has a very good combination of the various Garmin map data. The main addition to the base map is residential and other small roads. It also has shoreline detail for water and some of the near shore lights and markers. 
• Topo- This set is based on the USGS map data, and provides terrain contours, etc. The downside is that the road information is harder to read, and sometimes not as current. I'd use this for areas major offroad areas where having the most recent street detail is less important. 
• Blue Charts- These are the best for Marine usage, and are extracts from the actual NOAA charts. These are codeword protected, and you have to buy access to the region you are interested in.

Spray in Bedliner

9x34 Super Swamper Tires

Optima Deep Cycle Batteries &  Solar Converter's Battery Equalizer

Optima Deep Cycle batteries provide are an excellent choice for the Pinzgauer. They are far safer due to the sealed construction. The deep cycle allows use of accessories without damage to the battery life. 

The Solar Converters EQ 12/24-20 Battery Equalizer is a very slick device. They are some times referred to as DC/Dc converters or autotransformers. It allows both charge and discharge on the 12-24v volt battery to be equalized matched to that of the 0-12v battery. IE: no 12-24 volt converters required! You can draw from the 12 volt tap as needed, and the device will equalize the batteries at up to a 20 Amp rate until the voltages are the same. Likewise for charging. I use a 12v charger, and the battery voltages track within 12 millivolts.

The only trick with the converters is that they need to be relay switched if the vehicle is used in frequently, as they do draw from the battery when connected. I'll be switching via some small 24v 20A relays found surplus. If you drive weekly, it's not an issue.

Civilian Ignition Conversion

I finally converted over to civilian plugs and ignition wires, and later to the civilian coil. I still use the factory distributor cap but will convert it once it needs replacing.

The wire conversion was easy, installing the military ends on normal silicon plug wire. I used a set for a V-8 I had on hand, and bough the plug ends at Napa.

My original coil turned out to be low output, so I ended up installing a civilian coil. While the Flamethrower replacement works well, it was not available locally. I used the infamous Bosch "Blue Coil" which is a higher voltage replacement for the German car crowd. It is also 3 ohms, and works great.

I added a boot from a BMW to make the conversion a bit more splashproof, which should help.

One note, if you use resistive wires, you need non-resistor plugs, or vice versa. But resistive wires and plugs lead to poor spark output. Most of the platinum plugs are resistor, so the tried and true W7DC works ideal.

Combo Pintle/Ball Hitch

Photo & Info to come