Unimog's are used by many train companies, where they have a set of hydraulic operated train wheels they can lower down to the tracks. So being able to goes both ways at 70 m/h are used for that.
Living in Austria I see the Unimogs very often in very different situations (as the "Uni" in Unimog stands for "universal" ;-) ), but I'm always impressed by its offroad capabilities! This video was so much more fun to watch and so much more respectful for the Unimog than DeMuro's giggling-video, that I have seen a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for that!
The older e83 x3 BMW was made in Austria and is a great car, the sport version was rough but rewarding and reliable, and based on the perfectly balanced 3 series chassis, a fun drive too.
Those are even used as trackless trains for visitors of Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia, in several different generations. In The Czech Republic those are often used repair vehicles, even able to travel on tram tracks.
"Der Ingenieur Hans Zabel vermerkte auf einer Zeichnung den Namen „Universal-Motor-Gerät“, der zum Akronym „Unimog“ zusammengezogen wurde. Offiziell erhielt das Fahrzeug den Namen am 20. November 1946. Seit 1950 ist Unimog eine eingetragene Wortmarke der Daimler AG."
My father was the first to import Unimogs into the UK primarily as snow clearing equipment in the very early 60s after he saw them operate in Switzerland in the winter of 59! One was a dedicated unit with a fixed snowblower on the front, driven by a large diesel engine mounted in the bed with a shaft that ran under the truck! the other ones were more a standard unit with the smaller snowblowers driven off the front PTO!
I was just about to cross shop a 30k Bronco and a 30k Wrangler when this video popped up on my feed. Thanks, TFLoffroad, I've decided to buy a 300k 25 year old truck.
Americans don’t realize that Mercedes is one of the biggest truck makers in the world, just because you don’t see them in the U.S. The Unimog is the Mac-daddy of off-road vehicles.
I mean when people from north america think "truck" they think pickup trucks and as far as i know mercedes only truck sold recently is the 6x6 but hey maybe they sell the most offroad utility vehicles
Lol not! We Americans created the first off-road vehicle so there’s that....we’ve been circling the world in Jeep’s and Ford since forever....the UniMog is sweet but just an oversized version of a Jeep
In Europe you can buy a Unimog that is registered as a tractor, they come with 3-point lift, power outtake and hydraulics just like a standard tractor.
This is clearly basically new mechanically. Entirely different drivetrain, etc. Would be interesting to see the full bill because you can buy a mid-90s Unimog for less than a quarter of this price.
1problem with Unimog as an expedition truck thru Africa/South Amercia/other parts of the world: it scream money from 10 miles away. That in itself can be a problem, and not just because of security.
Remember overseas regular MB trucks are use for almost everything like deliveries and other activities this unimog will blend easily believe or not G Wogon or just a MB Sprinter are more flashy
@@marvinhidalgo2659 This one lmao NO !!! the old unimogs for sure.. new versiones like this one, nto a chance, EVERYONE will notice you got the $$ trust me
Those reduction hubs aren't instructable though. In my experience a 2 1/2 ton Rockwell narrowed with the pumpkin modified (cut off all excess bottom and replace with flat plate) is stronger. You get the clearance and width of a Dana 60 but much stronger. I tried these on a rock buggy and after breaking a few hubs went back to Rockwell's. The couple inches of clearance was negated by having to run smaller, less aggressive tires. Also a Rockwell axle shaft can be changed trailside pretty easily compared to a reduction hub. They are great for less extreme mud buggies.
Portal axles for the win! Awesome build, and Mr. Couch is really cool, thanks for posting. Luckily here in Austria we have had Unimogs around as long as I remember (I am 53).
My dad has one, I guess it's a 406 or 416, certainly an oldtimer, but its whole life it's used for heavy work in the woods and it's still used for that purpose but it runs great. His boss knew he was driving an Unimog and he had some connections so he asked him if he want to drive a support vehicle (obviously an Unimog, but not his own) through the Sahara for a motocross and quad (?) travel group which he did. Must've been really cool.
UNIMOGs have always been the ultimate off roader - just not cheap to buy or maintain - unless you can get them surplus - but still not cheap to maintain!
This is where individual electric hub motors would really shine. Gobs of instant torque going up, regen braking going down, no driveshafts, couplers, or linkages to worry about, with precision digital control. It would be the ultimate rock crawler. For those “non battery” die hards, you could even keep the diesel in place to constantly supply a/c power to the motors.
@@aussie2uGA if you only do like 1 day trips and can charge at night, batteries can be awesome as long as you can keep the weight down. I'd be worried about flipping/puncturing a battery though
The cockpit is - even if the Mog is from the 90's - from the 80's. I remember it from my childhood. Have been in so many Mercedes trucks and semi -trucks. And also in Wörth where the plant for Mercedes trucks is.
Yep! That's probably a U1700 or U1300 originally, made all the way into the mid 90s before they launched into the "new gen" electronic U3000 / 4000 / 5000 series
No wonder that guy has 20 Unimogs of his own... For 385.000 I buy at least 3 brand new ones here in Europe. The last ones I bought were a bit less than 120k (EUR) and were nearly full option since we needed them to build agricultural equipment on them. They are awesome machines though, we once let one crawl onto a excavator bucket and it did it with ease 😎
Amazing farm vehicles, all Iverson Europe you will see these at farms, never saw any in military use, but farms and other dirt type work they are everywhere.
Brings me back to when I was a kid in Oz, my Dad and I entered a raffle to win a fully equipped Unimog with a camper on the back. It was beautiful. Since then it’s been a dream to travel the 🌏 in one of these things....Maybe one day. Love it. Keep it up TFL.
Have driven U1300s during my time in the German army - the most offroad worthy wheeled vehicle there, literally unstoppable in the rough, but a nightmare on long road trips
Appears your time in the army was a bit earlier than mine, didn't have the 5 ton MAN anymore end of the 80's, but rather Folgegeneration trucks. The U1300 was nice to drive offroad but its short ratio gearbox didn't offer much pleasure on the street. Preferred the Mercedes 1017 here.
Great Video! Thanks a lot. I am from Germany and I always saw the Unimog just as a agricultural or municipal service vehicle and never in the class of large Offroad vehicles. But to be honest as Offroad expedition vehicle this is awsome! Also, in documentaries in Germany about the unimog, most of the time they talk about the history of the development and the different tools you can attach to the front or the back (which I think is total cool) but I never heaard someone explain the point why the unimog is so capable in offroading or why things like the transmission or the frame is not solved differently. Big up!
Bruh, not to insult you but when you never heard of the Unimog being the excellent off-road/expedition rig you must either not have much to do with trucks and off-roading stuff or living under a rock😄✌️ Greetings from Germany
I knew it can drive through mud and fields but I never thought to use it as anything cool. It was always just a useful tool. Maybe retired teachers build an expedition vehicle on that base. But how those Americans see the Mog and use it is freaking awesome. And yes, you are right. I was incredible limited not to get the thought by myself.
So funny to watch this. I used to do this all the time when I was in the British Army, the difference was that I had an L118 light gun attached to the back of my truck!
My sailing club in Berlin uses an old Unimog to transport the boats to and from the crane to let them to water. They use a special trailer with hydrulic controled axels because to get to the crane the have to traverse a 40° ramp. The boats weigh up to 10 metric tonnes, and the Mog has no problem shifting these weights.
Impressive Unimog..but at the same time I can pick up an M1078 for 10k or any other surplus vehicle for way less and modify..TFL you guys should do reviews on those vehicles..they are reasonably priced...
We’ve built a couple higher end 1078A1 and 1088A1 expedition rigs. They’re just not that good and they get quite up there in price when built correctly
OK - tonight I'll ply the missus with a decent red and we'll cancel our forthcoming renovations and order one of these babies. That would require a lot of red wine unfortunately! I wonder if they'll do a RH drive version? Awesome vid and cheers from Sydney, Aust - Dave
Drove one of these in the Catskill Mountains in Upstate NY was very impressed. Well over 30 Years ago and obviously not priced like this in the least. Very practical along the USA Eastern and Western Regions I thought but for obvious reasons not so much in all of Central North America.
Larry Perkins designed and built an overdrive unit for the Unimog here in Australia, it's now certified by Mercedes as a spare part. For $300k I'd like the rear door seal to actually not let the outside in. I'm not convinced of the guy's argument that manual transmission is better off road than auto "because the torque converter takes time to load up" - I have an auto 4WD and have never found this. Maybe it's a thing in a huge vehicle, but in a regular 4WD it isn't. All in all I love the Mog - if I ever win lotto ...... I could afford the fuel :)
If I had the money, I wouldn't be driving a Jeep. The Unimog has been the ultimate off road workhorse for decades. There's only a few military vehicles that can match it. Yeah, that would be my camping rig given I had the change for it.
Last year I came across one in a gas station that had a for sale sign on it, I stopped went in and looked at it for a few minutes then inquired about it. It was way more than I could afford so I took photos of it to push me to one day get one.
Bro, i've been all over South America and a as cool as a unimog is, its complete over kill. I did epic mountain passes, salt lakes, patagonia, Amazon (not the rain season) all with a 2 cylinder 550cc Mitsubishi micro van (not even 4wd). If you wanted to travel the trans amazonian highway you'd need something 4x4 and lifted, but otherwise.....
I have a Unimog 1300 Turbo '82 that has freewheels on the front axle. ( custom made ) 8 speed forward 4 backwards. Overdrive is not such a good idea on a Unimog because of the portal axles with some " gearbox " on each side. Those things have an airvent and by high speeds, the oil leaves by that airvent in the axle and never returns. So, it's posible that the wheelbearings run dry and that leads to a high cost on parts. A Unimog was never build for the highway. 90 km/h for houres can give problemes. Oil get warm, less oil make's it even hot . On mine there is a looking glas for the oil level and an expansion system that let the air go but not the oil. And the problem is only on the front axle because the back axle is one part in total so the oil go's back and so with the differential. A Unimog with fast axles is in my opinion a bigger risk. Oil control is realy needed and for that a bold need to be unscrewed every time on a standard Unimog with the risk of dirt getting where you do'nt want it. The engine on mine has an extra oil cooler and a bigger engine cooler with an 24V fan and thermostat. The freewheels and that fan system safes HP and feul . The Mog , single cab, has some 73.000 km now and has a new empty box on the back, ready to build in, and is for sale. In Spain. ( Unimog ex-German army, I'm out of the needed driving licence, I'm a " ' 49" er :-)
I like Unimogs, they have been around for more than forty years, but when you start talking about $385K-$600K for a Unimog, you're being an idiot. I have bought several 25 year old Landcruisers with differential locks for less than $5K, they ran well with no problems. Save the other $380K for something else.
I just commented on that too. Complete dissatisfaction. I want to get a school bus and drive it to the same first tiny rock ledge and then drive it back to the trailhead while this rig is trailered too.
When you tell a chick you drive a benz and then roll up in this. Technicallythetruth Damn a potential to have 3800 to 1 gear ratio is freaking nuts. 600 to 1 is pretty crazy as is
Lol yea the 3800 to one is because the use these as Shunt trucks in rail yards. The front and rear drop down rail wheels and they hook them up to freight carriages and move them around the rail yard. So crazy.
Aside from having much smaller tires this is very similar to my tractor drivetrain wise. I like it a lot. I once thought these axles would be great under a jeep until I tried it. They weren't as strong as the 2 1/2 Rockwell's in my experience. Those reduction hubs are great for ground clearance but not the strongest for rock bouncing with 44 inch cut boggers attached to them.
Great Video! Just the price is a bit "amazing" for European standards. You can pick up a nice ex-Military version for 30-40K Euros and start from there.
A good chunk of that cost is usually the cost of components to repair and maintain these things as most have to be imported from Europe. There's also the labor required to pull everything apart, repair and put back together. Lastly, a lot of these offroad accessories, campers, etc. are usually specially ordered and not mass produced, so there's a higher cost involved in that in order to cover business overhead and the like. Also, throw in transportation fees, brokerage fees (customs, registration, etc.), And whatever else required to get the vehicle into the US.
This is for places that dont have 5 star hotels. This is for places that might not even have wifi or starbucks as scary as that may be for some people, this is for the wild.
As far as I know Unimogs didn’t use torque converters (in Europe). They have electro pneumatic transmission. Some older models (2000s) shared the same auto transmission with the Axor trucks. It was pure pneumatic, the gear shifting sound was impossible to avoid :)
There are actually some Special Unimogs with Torque converters. But u still have to Shift them manually. They are/were used in military airports to push planes.
@@XielefR I see. Unimog has so many variant. Do you mean the one with tiny gear level push forward and backward to select a gear. Then, you depress the clutch to change the gear? The ones I know featured that gearbox was based on Mercedes-Benz Axor truck’s transmission.
the mogs are just outstanding I used to use mine for recovering and removing burnt out cars from the forrest the forrest servive in ther uk wetre all ways amazed of where I would put the mog
300k but for a modified one. There are quite a few types of unimogs available in Germany today from the 1960s to now, they are very different in price because of the different size and usage. Prices for used ones are between 3k for a small 1981 type and 250k for a big 2021 model.
Unbelievable vehicle, but the price makes it suitable for only the rich. Fitted with a fancy camper body the truck costs about $ 100,000 more than my house.
Finally someone agrees with me on manual transmission and the lurching stop-go progress of autos off road, but l don't understand the eyewatering price here over a standard and totally capable U2150 or U1300L or the justification for a "prototype" overdrive when the proven Claas splitter overdrive is a standard fit.
@@philhealey449 The claas overdrive fits even cheaper Unimogs, say a U1300L, that have a UG3/40 trans. In those cases, that's 30 percent of the vehicle cost.
@@AaronBockelie Fair point if considering in low power variants, especially something propelled by a 1960s car engine, but assuming assured reliability is essential, would there be anything more cost-effective say for a U1250 with a retrofitted intercooler and around 200 bhp from its OM366? I can accept that the Claas unit may be overbuilt given I understand its U2450 origins to primarily reduce gear spacings in 6x6 rocket launcher applications. Having experienced this device once as a revelation on both highways and for hill climbing it was a no-brainer to transplant it from the U1250 into a subsequent U2150. As intimated originally, just seeing the thing arrive in the wooden crate softens the blow of the cost compared to a typically miniscule overdrive made out of a few kg of aluminum and dismatched from the Unimog ethos. Happy Mogging !
@@philhealey449 I definitely agree on matching like kind equipment origins. At this point I'm just waiting for a good drop in replacement electric drive system that can turn about 4000 rpm...maybe another 5-10 years ;)
Divided by oceans United by TLF 💪❤️
That's lame
Me when I retire…Honey I am buying a mercedes… Wife: OMG I have always wanted one 😊
Lol I had the same idea
Mario Gomez 😆😆Yes!! that would be Hilarious 😆😆
Ohoho, the surprises.
In our house the wife wants to buy a unimog.
Brabus made a luxury version.
Here in Germany we say: If an Unimog can't go there, no one can go there. Nice Video! Greetings from Germany.
I love Unimogs, they epitomize the ultimate off road truck. If you guys get a chance, do a story on his shop and the other rigs that he builds.
Unimog's are used by many train companies, where they have a set of hydraulic operated train wheels they can lower down to the tracks. So being able to goes both ways at 70 m/h are used for that.
Living in Austria I see the Unimogs very often in very different situations (as the "Uni" in Unimog stands for "universal" ;-) ), but I'm always impressed by its offroad capabilities!
This video was so much more fun to watch and so much more respectful for the Unimog than DeMuro's giggling-video, that I have seen a couple of weeks ago.
Thanks for that!
The older e83 x3 BMW was made in Austria and is a great car, the sport version was rough but rewarding and reliable, and based on the perfectly balanced 3 series chassis, a fun drive too.
Those are even used as trackless trains for visitors of Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia, in several different generations. In The Czech Republic those are often used repair vehicles, even able to travel on tram tracks.
"Der Ingenieur Hans Zabel vermerkte auf einer Zeichnung den Namen „Universal-Motor-Gerät“, der zum Akronym „Unimog“ zusammengezogen wurde. Offiziell erhielt das Fahrzeug den Namen am 20. November 1946. Seit 1950 ist Unimog eine eingetragene Wortmarke der Daimler AG."
My father was the first to import Unimogs into the UK primarily as snow clearing equipment in the very early 60s after he saw them operate in Switzerland in the winter of 59! One was a dedicated unit with a fixed snowblower on the front, driven by a large diesel engine mounted in the bed with a shaft that ran under the truck! the other ones were more a standard unit with the smaller snowblowers driven off the front PTO!
That unmistakable sound of a MB inline 6 diesel!! Brought back memories!!
@Annant - Is that what it is??? A MB inline 6? Iron block I’m sure... what size is the block?
@@ralphlazio505 Probably 5.7 liter or 346 cid. These were all over the world in buses, lorries, etc.
I had a Swiss 404 UNIMOG back in the late 90s. Military surplus in excellent shape! Loved it...
Those actually look better than the news also.
It's a pity the 404 had a petrol engine. Two 60-liter-tanks but only a range of about 500 km. On the road...
I was just about to cross shop a 30k Bronco and a 30k Wrangler when this video popped up on my feed. Thanks, TFLoffroad, I've decided to buy a 300k 25 year old truck.
it's in use in the german army since forever...
Most likely the best decision you ever made my friend 😉
Andre standing next to that ledge really helped put things into perspective. WOW!
Couch is very accommodating, I needed parts for my G wagen and they downloaded and sent me the data card and parts!
This was one of the coolest videos I’ve ever seen on the channel guys. That rig is just next level. Great find!
It's looking at next level in the mirror .
And it's just a stock Unimog with fresh paint ;)
No need to "improve" anything to make it capable
those samuri sounded cool.
Americans don’t realize that Mercedes is one of the biggest truck makers in the world, just because you don’t see them in the U.S. The Unimog is the Mac-daddy of off-road vehicles.
Mercedes is actually the biggest truck maker in the world. Freightliner and Western Star are both owned by Daimler Benz.
@@XielefR not for long. They are spinning trucks off into a separate company.
I mean when people from north america think "truck" they think pickup trucks and as far as i know mercedes only truck sold recently is the 6x6 but hey maybe they sell the most offroad utility vehicles
Lol not! We Americans created the first off-road vehicle so there’s that....we’ve been circling the world in Jeep’s and Ford since forever....the UniMog is sweet but just an oversized version of a Jeep
@@kylehunt8291 Wow. You have no idea what a Unimog is then, do you? Obviously not.
I want to see one of your Samurai on TFL . I was so sad when they sold the small lovely Suzuki.
Should have built it up...
Yes please on seeing his Samurais!
The first unimogs were designed to work as a tractor on the farm and be able to drive to town also after WWII.
In Europe you can buy a Unimog that is registered as a tractor, they come with 3-point lift, power outtake and hydraulics just like a standard tractor.
Like a Willys-Overland
@@morilot alot cheaper than this too
@@derrickdrew17 In Europe they cost about the same as a tractor.
This is clearly basically new mechanically. Entirely different drivetrain, etc. Would be interesting to see the full bill because you can buy a mid-90s Unimog for less than a quarter of this price.
I'm watching you from Namibia big fan...
I bet this guy's favorite thing ever is when someone starts bragging about their Jeep to him.
1problem with Unimog as an expedition truck thru Africa/South Amercia/other parts of the world: it scream money from 10 miles away. That in itself can be a problem, and not just because of security.
Remember overseas regular MB trucks are use for almost everything like deliveries and other activities this unimog will blend easily believe or not G Wogon or just a MB Sprinter are more flashy
@@marvinhidalgo2659 This one lmao NO !!! the old unimogs for sure.. new versiones like this one, nto a chance, EVERYONE will notice you got the $$ trust me
Yes if the thing is blinged but keep the original front grille and it looks much more utilitarian.
Depends how old the mog is, never had problems with mine from 1982 with a lot of fake rust on.
remove the badge haha
less than 50k$ in Germany, when in excellent condition. btw
brand new ones 150k or so, for these small ones
I learned driving an unimog 401 when I was 15 years old. The most challenging part was kicking the clutch. This thing went everywhere you want it :-)
One thing I love about Unimogs is the portal axles. Gives so much ground clearance that diff housing isn't an issue anymore.
Those reduction hubs aren't instructable though. In my experience a 2 1/2 ton Rockwell narrowed with the pumpkin modified (cut off all excess bottom and replace with flat plate) is stronger. You get the clearance and width of a Dana 60 but much stronger. I tried these on a rock buggy and after breaking a few hubs went back to Rockwell's. The couple inches of clearance was negated by having to run smaller, less aggressive tires. Also a Rockwell axle shaft can be changed trailside pretty easily compared to a reduction hub. They are great for less extreme mud buggies.
This was a nice treat to wake up to on Sunday. What a machine! Thanks TFL.
Portal axles for the win! Awesome build, and Mr. Couch is really cool, thanks for posting. Luckily here in Austria we have had Unimogs around as long as I remember (I am 53).
Considering a used surplus military U1300L in good conditions is around 13.000€, the price here seems a bit excessive...
15:40 , Yep, a Samurai with diff-locks is crazy capable and cool!
My dad has one, I guess it's a 406 or 416, certainly an oldtimer, but its whole life it's used for heavy work in the woods and it's still used for that purpose but it runs great.
His boss knew he was driving an Unimog and he had some connections so he asked him if he want to drive a support vehicle (obviously an Unimog, but not his own) through the Sahara for a motocross and quad (?) travel group which he did. Must've been really cool.
UNIMOGs have always been the ultimate off roader - just not cheap to buy or maintain - unless you can get them surplus - but still not cheap to maintain!
This is where individual electric hub motors would really shine. Gobs of instant torque going up, regen braking going down, no driveshafts, couplers, or linkages to worry about, with precision digital control. It would be the ultimate rock crawler. For those “non battery” die hards, you could even keep the diesel in place to constantly supply a/c power to the motors.
for a pure rock crawler it could work with batteries, if you wanted to travel the world, diesel is the way to go.
@@joshkiej6601 oh absolutely it could be battery only but the majority of people here wouldn’t accept that.
@@aussie2uGA if you only do like 1 day trips and can charge at night, batteries can be awesome as long as you can keep the weight down. I'd be worried about flipping/puncturing a battery though
The cockpit is - even if the Mog is from the 90's - from the 80's. I remember it from my childhood. Have been in so many Mercedes trucks and semi -trucks. And also in Wörth where the plant for Mercedes trucks is.
Yep! That's probably a U1700 or U1300 originally, made all the way into the mid 90s before they launched into the "new gen" electronic U3000 / 4000 / 5000 series
No wonder that guy has 20 Unimogs of his own... For 385.000 I buy at least 3 brand new ones here in Europe. The last ones I bought were a bit less than 120k (EUR) and were nearly full option since we needed them to build agricultural equipment on them. They are awesome machines though, we once let one crawl onto a excavator bucket and it did it with ease 😎
I used to drive one on the army, amazing machine goes everywere, reliable, the reversible gears is crazy.....really miss it.
Amazing farm vehicles, all Iverson Europe you will see these at farms, never saw any in military use, but farms and other dirt type work they are everywhere.
The sheer size of tires and ground clearance makes unimog in a different league than regular offroaders and suv's.
It's in the league of Sherps, MAN 8x8's and Tatra's that's for sure
That thing takes "granny gear " to a whole other level
Great granny gear
Try the crawler
And thats not even the 3600 to 1
Right, Great, Great, Great grandma gear
Designed to move trains.
Brings me back to when I was a kid in Oz, my Dad and I entered a raffle to win a fully equipped Unimog with a camper on the back. It was beautiful. Since then it’s been a dream to travel the 🌏 in one of these things....Maybe one day. Love it. Keep it up TFL.
Have driven U1300s during my time in the German army - the most offroad worthy wheeled vehicle there, literally unstoppable in the rough, but a nightmare on long road trips
Wonder if the newer models are better for long distance travel
Appears your time in the army was a bit earlier than mine, didn't have the 5 ton MAN anymore end of the 80's, but rather Folgegeneration trucks. The U1300 was nice to drive offroad but its short ratio gearbox didn't offer much pleasure on the street. Preferred the Mercedes 1017 here.
Thats a nice Universalmotorgerät!
Great Video! Thanks a lot. I am from Germany and I always saw the Unimog just as a agricultural or municipal service vehicle and never in the class of large Offroad vehicles. But to be honest as Offroad expedition vehicle this is awsome! Also, in documentaries in Germany about the unimog, most of the time they talk about the history of the development and the different tools you can attach to the front or the back (which I think is total cool) but I never heaard someone explain the point why the unimog is so capable in offroading or why things like the transmission or the frame is not solved differently. Big up!
Bruh, not to insult you but when you never heard of the Unimog being the excellent off-road/expedition rig you must either not have much to do with trucks and off-roading stuff or living under a rock😄✌️
Greetings from Germany
I knew it can drive through mud and fields but I never thought to use it as anything cool. It was always just a useful tool. Maybe retired teachers build an expedition vehicle on that base. But how those Americans see the Mog and use it is freaking awesome. And yes, you are right. I was incredible limited not to get the thought by myself.
The engineer knows his stuff, thank you TFL.
So funny to watch this. I used to do this all the time when I was in the British Army, the difference was that I had an L118 light gun attached to the back of my truck!
Lol yes I live near the army base here in Australian and there every where...holding up traffic lol. So slow.
I've wanted one of these since I first saw a German military version in 1986. Great rigs
My sailing club in Berlin uses an old Unimog to transport the boats to and from the crane to let them to water.
They use a special trailer with hydrulic controled axels because to get to the crane the have to traverse a 40° ramp.
The boats weigh up to 10 metric tonnes, and the Mog has no problem shifting these weights.
"No electronics to fail". Aaaahhh - music to my ears!
Lol and to all army's around the worlds ears.
I can't believe you compare a unimog to a jeep or bronco not even comparable!
i think you forgot to highlight the portal axis, perfect for the ground clearance
Unimogs are the best trucks ever made
I wish I could afford one of these monsters! Truly amazing to see it destroy the Moab trails!
Impressive Unimog..but at the same time I can pick up an M1078 for 10k or any other surplus vehicle for way less and modify..TFL you guys should do reviews on those vehicles..they are reasonably priced...
We’ve built a couple higher end 1078A1 and 1088A1 expedition rigs. They’re just not that good and they get quite up there in price when built correctly
a used unimog in good state is 5- 50k in europe
That thing is nuts! Great video, Andre and crew!
well one of those has the record for altitude climbing the ojos del salado volcano
Bigger vehicles are most of the time more capable but smaller vehicles have easier lines that they can take.
More MOG content, please.
What a cool guy, and what a cool truck. TFL has so many interesting people on the channel.
We finally get to see a real four wheel drive truck on this channel except for the U500 unimog video the other day
unimog king of offroad...even in the wet slippery terrain tropical rainforest can travelled.... greetings from sarawak malaysian Borneo. 🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾
This guy knows his stuff on these things. Awesome
Them things go everywhere. Good example of that is them being used in the Dakar rally . Very much like you see it in this clip
Saw a number of these in Iceland. Great for river crossings!
Thanks Andre. I enjoy your kid like enthusiasm for the stuff I love too
OK - tonight I'll ply the missus with a decent red and we'll cancel our forthcoming renovations and order one of these babies. That would require a lot of red wine unfortunately! I wonder if they'll do a RH drive version? Awesome vid and cheers from Sydney, Aust - Dave
Sure they do a right hand drive version. ADF has hundreds of them in 4x4 and 6x6. Buy it surplus.
Unidan modify unimogs in Aust similar to the dude driving in this vid
Drove one of these in the Catskill Mountains in Upstate NY was very impressed. Well over 30 Years ago and obviously not priced like this in the least. Very practical along the USA Eastern and Western Regions I thought but for obvious reasons not so much in all of Central North America.
I always wanted that exact setup in a Unimog, but nearly $400k is insane. Not a chance.
It is insane! Mercedes happily sells you one for half of this dreamers numbers...
Larry Perkins designed and built an overdrive unit for the Unimog here in Australia, it's now certified by Mercedes as a spare part. For $300k I'd like the rear door seal to actually not let the outside in. I'm not convinced of the guy's argument that manual transmission is better off road than auto "because the torque converter takes time to load up" - I have an auto 4WD and have never found this. Maybe it's a thing in a huge vehicle, but in a regular 4WD it isn't. All in all I love the Mog - if I ever win lotto ...... I could afford the fuel :)
4:27 that original badge: "Motordrehzahl bei Kranbetrieb max. 1000 U/min" 😁 --> engine RPM during crane operation max 1000 U/min
Told Matt of winders recovery this is the better big machine...
a unimog with a forestry winch would be so useful for him, and the older versions like the 406 are as big as a modern jeep but allot stronger
If I had the money, I wouldn't be driving a Jeep. The Unimog has been the ultimate off road workhorse for decades. There's only a few military vehicles that can match it. Yeah, that would be my camping rig given I had the change for it.
Last year I came across one in a gas station that had a for sale sign on it, I stopped went in and looked at it for a few minutes then inquired about it. It was way more than I could afford so I took photos of it to push me to one day get one.
Bro, i've been all over South America and a as cool as a unimog is, its complete over kill. I did epic mountain passes, salt lakes, patagonia, Amazon (not the rain season) all with a 2 cylinder 550cc Mitsubishi micro van (not even 4wd). If you wanted to travel the trans amazonian highway you'd need something 4x4 and lifted, but otherwise.....
That's true, but the Unimog is intended to go where no other vehicle can go, and certainly not in its size!
Unimogs are beasts! The first time we sat in one takkling 4×4 tracks we knew we want one. Now we have one and convert it into an expedition vehicle🥰
Where are you traversing the world currently?
@@Crashryding We're in Australia :)
Amazing what 150hp can do if you multiply its torque. This beast made it look easy!
There’s a short wheel base MOG all decked out for sale by my work,wish I had the extra scratch to get it!! There cool as hell
I have a Unimog 1300 Turbo '82 that has freewheels on the front axle. ( custom made ) 8 speed forward 4 backwards. Overdrive is not such a good idea on a Unimog because of the portal axles with some " gearbox " on each side. Those things have an airvent and by high speeds, the oil leaves by that airvent in the axle and never returns. So, it's posible that the wheelbearings run dry and that leads to a high cost on parts. A Unimog was never build for the highway. 90 km/h for houres can give problemes. Oil get warm, less oil make's it even hot . On mine there is a looking glas for the oil level and an expansion system that let the air go but not the oil. And the problem is only on the front axle because the back axle is one part in total so the oil go's back and so with the differential. A Unimog with fast axles is in my opinion a bigger risk. Oil control is realy needed and for that a bold need to be unscrewed every time on a standard Unimog with the risk of dirt getting where you do'nt want it. The engine on mine has an extra oil cooler and a bigger engine cooler with an 24V fan and thermostat. The freewheels and that fan system safes HP and feul . The Mog , single cab, has some 73.000 km now and has a new empty box on the back, ready to build in, and is for sale. In Spain. ( Unimog ex-German army, I'm out of the needed driving licence, I'm a " ' 49" er :-)
I like Unimogs, they have been around for more than forty years, but when you start talking about $385K-$600K for a Unimog, you're being an idiot. I have bought several 25 year old Landcruisers with differential locks for less than $5K, they ran well with no problems. Save the other $380K for something else.
the price he is talking about is really expensive, for €50 000 you can buy a nice second hand one in europe
Great video TFL. As usual Andre...very good job!
Wow, that is a beast! maybe someday.
Dang I was hoping to see them do the whole trail
I just commented on that too. Complete dissatisfaction. I want to get a school bus and drive it to the same first tiny rock ledge and then drive it back to the trailhead while this rig is trailered too.
$385k and you get double jubilee clips to hold what looks to be an inline filter... it's all about the attention to detail :D
Jay Couch, one of the nicest guys around. Knew him when I lived in Denver.
They barely even touched Hell's Revenge. This video could have been so much cooler.
At least the KING of 4 wheel drive vehicles, in my opinion of course!
Love these Unimogs.
King off the road
@@peregreena9046 True!
When you tell a chick you drive a benz and then roll up in this. Technicallythetruth
Damn a potential to have 3800 to 1 gear ratio is freaking nuts. 600 to 1 is pretty crazy as is
Lol yea the 3800 to one is because the use these as Shunt trucks in rail yards. The front and rear drop down rail wheels and they hook them up to freight carriages and move them around the rail yard. So crazy.
These always make me feel like a kid again....That primal big truck sensation.
What engine is this running? OM366LA? 300HP is pretty good if that's the case. Great build regardless! Man I want a mog one day..
Aside from having much smaller tires this is very similar to my tractor drivetrain wise. I like it a lot. I once thought these axles would be great under a jeep until I tried it. They weren't as strong as the 2 1/2 Rockwell's in my experience. Those reduction hubs are great for ground clearance but not the strongest for rock bouncing with 44 inch cut boggers attached to them.
you probably had axles from a older and small unimog
Great Video! Just the price is a bit "amazing" for European standards. You can pick up a nice ex-Military version for 30-40K Euros and start from there.
A good chunk of that cost is usually the cost of components to repair and maintain these things as most have to be imported from Europe. There's also the labor required to pull everything apart, repair and put back together. Lastly, a lot of these offroad accessories, campers, etc. are usually specially ordered and not mass produced, so there's a higher cost involved in that in order to cover business overhead and the like.
Also, throw in transportation fees, brokerage fees (customs, registration, etc.), And whatever else required to get the vehicle into the US.
Yeah him saying you'll be done at 600.000.. I was like I can get a nearly new one full option for 150.000.
Stock Kamaz 6560 8x8 starts around 140,000 USD in Russia. But that's another type of animal. I wonder how it would handle these trails.
AIR DOWN jesus dude lol
700k I can travel around the world in first class and staying at 5 star hotels, lol
Rent and destroy a 4x4 everywhere you want.
@@geepuller1 you can do that in a 30k Unimog...
This is for places that dont have 5 star hotels. This is for places that might not even have wifi or starbucks as scary as that may be for some people, this is for the wild.
Andre always does a great job.
@Carolus Magnus lol, really?
As far as I know Unimogs didn’t use torque converters (in Europe). They have electro pneumatic transmission. Some older models (2000s) shared the same auto transmission with the Axor trucks. It was pure pneumatic, the gear shifting sound was impossible to avoid :)
There are actually some Special Unimogs with Torque converters. But u still have to Shift them manually. They are/were used in military airports to push planes.
@@XielefR I see. Unimog has so many variant. Do you mean the one with tiny gear level push forward and backward to select a gear. Then, you depress the clutch to change the gear? The ones I know featured that gearbox was based on Mercedes-Benz Axor truck’s transmission.
It's liking riding a drunk elephant!! That's freaking gold right there!!
Review all his other builds! This guy is awesome.
the mogs are just outstanding I used to use mine for recovering and removing burnt out cars from the forrest the forrest servive in ther uk wetre all ways amazed of where I would put the mog
300k but for a modified one. There are quite a few types of unimogs available in Germany today from the 1960s to now, they are very different in price because of the different size and usage. Prices for used ones are between 3k for a small 1981 type and 250k for a big 2021 model.
Really impressed by the way the guy explained everything. 👍🏼
A scaled down Unimog would be my dream car
Look into Pinzgauers.
Iveco
Unbelievable vehicle, but the price makes it suitable for only the rich. Fitted with a fancy camper body the truck costs about $ 100,000 more than my house.
they are allot cheaper than what he is saying
Finally someone agrees with me on manual transmission and the lurching stop-go progress of autos off road, but l don't understand the eyewatering price here over a standard and totally capable U2150 or U1300L or the justification for a "prototype" overdrive when the proven Claas splitter overdrive is a standard fit.
Because the Claas gearbox is hilariously expensive for what it does.
@@AaronBockelie Yes, but when you see it, it is self-evidently fit for purpose. Cost does not seem to be limiting factor in this case.
@@philhealey449 The claas overdrive fits even cheaper Unimogs, say a U1300L, that have a UG3/40 trans. In those cases, that's 30 percent of the vehicle cost.
@@AaronBockelie Fair point if considering in low power variants, especially something propelled by a 1960s car engine, but assuming assured reliability is essential, would there be anything more cost-effective say for a U1250 with a retrofitted intercooler and around 200 bhp from its OM366? I can accept that the Claas unit may be overbuilt given I understand its U2450 origins to primarily reduce gear spacings in 6x6 rocket launcher applications. Having experienced this device once as a revelation on both highways and for hill climbing it was a no-brainer to transplant it from the U1250 into a subsequent U2150. As intimated originally, just seeing the thing arrive in the wooden crate softens the blow of the cost compared to a typically miniscule overdrive made out of a few kg of aluminum and dismatched from the Unimog ethos. Happy Mogging !
@@philhealey449 I definitely agree on matching like kind equipment origins. At this point I'm just waiting for a good drop in replacement electric drive system that can turn about 4000 rpm...maybe another 5-10 years ;)
That's amazing. As was the "like riding a drunk elephant" comment!
Unimog is a capable truck in all terrain. I like the love you put on it. ❤