While cruising home from a feature car shoot with Dave Nutting yesterday morning, my dad called to let me know that he stumbled upon an auction site that listed a 2003 Unimog U500 for sale. I thought that was a neat thing to hear until pop said that the truck was at a location roughly two miles from our location. I went darting down side streets and soon we came upon the beautiful sight you see below, a 2003 Mercedes Unimog U500. These are the ultimate bad ass medium duty trucks in the world. They can out ‘wheel almost anything else in the world, they have more attachments than a garden tractor, they have multiple low ranges, they roll on 52″ Michelin tires, their retail price essentially starts at $100,000 spirals up from there, and they’re as rare as hens teeth here in the USA. Seeing one outfitted with a large sander box on the back and a mount for a massive man-eating snow blower on the front was not an opportunity we were going to miss. Nutting had no idea what he was in for when I told him we were headed to see a Unimog. He thought it was some sort of male exotic review. He was let down when it wasn’t.
Dave’s confusion aside, this truck is boss. The Unimog has a long history both as a military truck and a farm implement. I wasn’t kidding with the quip about the attachments. These can be used as flat beds, dump trucks, mobile cranes, snowblowers, front end loaders, backhoes, giant lawn grooming machines, rail repair vehicles for trains, and on and on anon.
In their lowest of low range, the truck will go .9 MPH at 2,000 RPM. That’s 150 yards and hour with an effective gear ratio of 3000:1. Pardon me while I take a second to mop my brow.
The engine is a 389ci Mercedes diesel that makes about 300hp and 700 lb/ft of torque. That torque runs through a six speed transmission that is the size of a Volkswagen, into a transfer case that is large enough for the Austrian guys who did final assembly on this truck to take lunch break in, down a driveshaft that has the same diameter of a recently felled oak tree, and into a pair portal axles that allow for enough ground clearance that would have allowed the late Herve Villechaize to pass under without messing up his pompadour.
We’re not sure why this truck is being auctioned. It only has 8,000 miles, shows minimal wear and tear, and isn’t even broken in. Even with it being almost 10 years old, the truck is still a $100,000 piece with the sander and boss hoss snow blower. Chad has thwarted my attempts at liberating funds from the BangShift vault to make the buy. Bastard.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PHOTOS OF A 2003 UNIMOG OUTFITTED TO BATTLE NEW ENGLAND WINTER STORMS – BAD ASSERY!
They are cool. My dad bought a 1961-3 404 some years ago that had been a snowblower truck at an airport. It had less than 6000 Kilometers on it and was fun to bomb around in for the looks. When I was in the army I got to drive a few of the backhow/bucket versions which the army thinks are freightliners as I was tho only one in my unit who could drive a stick. Yep thats todays army.
Are those cooling fins on the differential yoke?? Or for when wading through a lake and the massive tires allow it to float it has propulsion??
If you follow the lugnut rule of Right of Way, I can’t think of anything that would not have to yeild to this short of one of the airport cargo loader with like 18 axles.
“He who has the most lugnuts has Right of Way”
I would say salt and liquid de-icers/melters have begun taking a toll after 10 years, regardless of the low miles. That stuff just eats away. The undercarriage appears to have had a quick “spray bomb” paint job. (Note the inside of the rear tires…)
Wow, the ultimate gruntmobile!
But for the $, and low miles, I wouldn’t expect to see that much rust underneath.
Michigan Dept of Transportation (MDOT) had an older one around here with a snow blower and separate engine in the bed to power it. From what I was told it was used to remove built up snow from bridges.
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Saw this ad couple weeks ago. Went and checked it out with my father, then went to the auction yesterday during the snow storm. Ended up getting the whole package with the plow, blower, and sander. DEAL