It’s easy to take a jab or two at Brian Lohnes’ love of big trucks, but his kryptonite, without a doubt, are Mercedes-Benz Unimogs. At least his rationale behind the obsession is sound…Unimogs are some of the most renowned go anywhere, do anything vehicles on the freaking planet. I’m pretty sure that if he was to get his hands on an Army-spec Small Equipment Excavator (read: Freightliner Unimog FLU419), we might not ever see him again…he’ll be clearing out ditches and plowing snow and doing all sorts of jobs around town until someone tells him we put him on the backs of milk cartons.
So…I wonder how he’ll do with this beauty?
You’re looking at a 1966 Unimog car hauler that has an excellent party trick up it’s sleeve. It’s a flexiloader, or Niederflurhubwagen (“low floor elevating truck”), which means that when called into action, the rear axle is hydraulically moved to allow the bed of the truck to squat down lower than the dancer of your fantasy. Drive vehicle onto bed, secure it down, and hydraulically lift the loading tray back up by putting the rear suspension back into place. Now you can use that 80 horsepower (!) diesel and all four forward gears to move the car from point A to point B at a nice, relaxed pace…not that you have a choice in that matter.
We know he’d rather have the FLU419. But if you don’t think that he’d find a use for a Unimog that can drop it like it’s hot, then you don’t know Lohnes. Soon as he sees this, he’ll be concocting a plan…or texting me with a bunch of unprintable words. I’m not sure which will happen first, honestly.
Bonhams’ Amelia Island 2020: Lot 181 – 1966 Mercedes-Benz Unimog 406 Niederflurhubwagen
When is Finnegan coming to pick this one up?
Maybe I missed something, but do any of his car haulers run?
Finnegan’s? Let’s see:
“OG Ramp Truck”, aka Roadkill RT: Cummins swapped, yes
“Big Red”: Sold
“Square Force 1”: Yes, expecting Duramax swap
The Green C60: Yes, might get real wicked soon
Big Ford: Yes
It’s kind of like those car haulers made out of a large FWD vehicle and a car trailer except on a German industrial scale. Is it front wheel driver, or is there some weird chain drive on the back wheels?
They are front wheel drive traction heads and the rear is bolted to it by 4 huge bolts (plus the hydraulic, electrical etc. connections). I got both an early 406 and a 416 (mainly a difference in power output). Given a good treaded tire on the front it will get you through most building site situations proper though the turning radius rules out going anywhere beyond straight in and out a dirt lane. Fun trucks that were primarily designed for quick recovery of wrecked vehicles or heavier loads such as fork lifts when most wrecker services here either had to prepare vehicles to drag along on a hook or get them on some trailer. With the Ruthmann you just back up to it and winch it on and off you are.