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After an 8-year love affair, my Unimog and I must part company. I am moving to a place that suffered a forest fire four years ago, and there is no work for the Unimog to do there! On my current property, the Mog and I cleared probably 600 trees, all the slash, and all the logs over the years. I imported it from Germany where it was ex-Army, hence all the drab green. The German Army used the backhoe that used to be attached to the rear platform. In a backhoe application, one needs to add 600# to the front bumper to balance the weight of the ' hoe. I imagine it was not all that fast with all this gear on it. I just wanted the bed to dump, so my importer put the hydraulic cylinder in and plumbed it all up per Mercedes. He also put a new top fabric on, and since it has always been garaged, it still looks new. It is a 6-liter and has a 6-speed. In town, one gets by just fine with using 4th, 5th and 6th. Crunching around in close quarters in the woods, the other gears work just great. The truck tops out at 35-40 mph (70 kph.). The windows aren' t shown in the pictures, but I have them. I also have a spare tire (185#) that I don' t keep on the truck, since the spare tire location make a great step for accessing the bed. I also have the spotlights and the wipers that came with it stock. I am a part-time restorer of German cars, so, naturally, I couldn' t keep my hands off it. In all the pictures, if you see something that is not green, that means that I took it off and had it chromed, powder coated, or otherwise refurbished. This includes, but isn' t limited to: the front bumper, all the fenders, the battery box, the gas tank, the rims, the steps, the mirrors, both air tanks, the snorkel, various brackets, and the headlight grills. Lots of the hydraulic and air lines got stripped. I have put four new shocks on it. I bought new taillight lenses and spent lots of time fussing with making the rear of the truck look spiffy. I bought new bumper-end antenenas - they help when in close quarters with trees. I painted all the drain and fill plugs red, per the Mercedes manual. I bought an extra-thick engine cover that fits over the stock one for extra sound dampening (this was a really good idea!). It has a exhaust pyrometer (don' t exceed 1200F!). I put this on under the advice of someone smarter than I after I increased the fuel pump injector amount for additional horsepower. (M-B make a 90- 100- and 100-hp. engine for the 406 - all the same engine, with differing injection pump tweaking. This truck has the 110-hp setting.) I also have an inclinometer. M-B says the 406 can traverse a 45 degree side slope. I never verified this, but I can tell you that at 35 degrees, it' s pretty crazy! The original oil-bath air cleaner isn' t in the truck, but I have it. The paper element air filter made an immediate difference in the power it made. Here at 5000' , we need all the power we can get. I also replaced the bed in the back. I can' t remember exactly what material I used, but it' s Marine-grade something. It has stood up handsomely to years of throwing logs in the back. As shown in the pictures, it dumps to each side, as well as to the back. Jeepers hear this: we have 19" under the differentials! I bought and replaced with new the clutch hydraulic cylinder, the brake master cylinder, the muffler, the alternator, and the battery box cover. I had the radiator and the heater core both boiled out and rodded. I have recently (within the last 20 gallons of fuel) replaced the lubricants in the transmission, the engine, the front and rear differentials, and the gearboxes in each of the four wheel hubs (the portal axles). She is good to go for another 10 or 20 years! In terms of the life of a Unimog, and Hobbs meter tells all. It is attached to the engine and registers hours of engine use. This truck has 1153 hours on it. I am told that when a Mog has 12, 000 hours on the clock, it is time to consider an engine rebuild. So, this Mog has used up 9.5% of its useful life! For those of us that are car geeks, I do have the factory build sheet in my documentation package that shows all the options it came with. I am not looking for "blind bidders" here - I expect someone to come here to Boulder, CO to see this thing up close and personally before buying. Also, training on shifting the transmission is highly recommended. How often does one get a chance to buy a "good as new" 40-year old Unimog? Contact me here, and I' ll give you my phone so we can chat, thanks!
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