Iltis Owners! Share your photos and stories!

Found something to throw into the conversation on the Iltis. Here is a picture of our line vehicle parked at Irish Bridge (IB) the last of the Canadian line houses in the Canadian sector of UNIFCYP (Cyprus) in 1989 even though the little Iltis had been in service for about five years this little car was driven half to death by then. One thing I liked doing was as a line NCO was driving from the Ledra up to the "Blue Beret Camp" (the BBC) to check on the troops through Nicosia at 2-3 in the morning, No traffic, temps half ways normal, different then day time. After Irish Bridge was Britcon and between the two was one unmanned OP (OP Coronado) that was neat to be at as the sun set as it looked like a set for a Indianna Jones movie.
 
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Hope you folks are doing something about the battery fumes that tend to linger in the rear passenger compartment?

I was a mechanic on the Iltis from the time they came into service until just about the time they left. In my experience, if you are smelling the acid smell of overcharged batteries, it was almost always caused by loose terminals on the batteries due to driver neglect. The batteries were in a hard to get to place, and if even one terminal was loose, the alternator would charge at around 36 volts. It would boil the two batteries, and burn out the voltage regulator on the alternator.

Over the years, I had to recover many, many, many Iltis for this reason. It was always preventable.
 
Heaters work ok. Good defrost on the windscreen. Two vents you can open for passenger heat. Best not to use it in the winter, salt will eat it away.
 
Heaters work ok. Good defrost on the windscreen. Two vents you can open for passenger heat. Best not to use it in the winter, salt will eat it away.

Ok that makes sense. Damn I want one of these! Maybe in a few months... How are insurance on them? I live in the worst place for insurance (Brampton) especially for younger drivers.
 
How are these in the winter? Does it get cold inside them?

They have a heater so they don't get too cold when driving in the winter. But, often the plastic side and rear windows would fog up so you could not see out of them. Many were the times I would ask ask the passenger to open their door and check so I could safely make a lane change on the right side. For I left hand side lane change I would pop open the door to check my blind spot. I worked with the French army on a couple of UN missions and really envied their VBL's. I wished we had similar instead of the Iltis.
 
How are these in the winter? Does it get cold inside them?

heater works... in the front.
Poor suckers sitting in the back! It is miserable in the back in cold weather.
In Bosnia, we would tie rap wool blankets to try to insulate the tarp.
Great vehicle in trails if you have the chains
 
The two heater vent doors on the dash were normally ripped off by the drivers. As a mechanic I had to keep replacing them. Then I took one for a road test around the airfield on a cold November day. Half way around and I ripped the two little doors off. What a difference.
 
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