What is a Unimog?

When we began discussing Overland, we wanted to pursue it with a unique and classic machine that in and of itself defined the Overland experience. There are many classic automobiles, many of which have faded into history, but not so with the Mercedes-Benz Unimog: created in the hard times immediately following World War II, the indestructible Unimog has long been a living legend in automotive engineering.

The Unimog (Universal-Motor-Gerät, universally applicable motorized implement carrier) remains steadfast and undeterred, both during operations under the toughest conditions and in different economic situations with changing buyer groups. And no wonder: the Unimog is able to master extreme terrain, tow entire goods trains, can be used as a roadrailer and has space for a wide variety of implements.

Over several decades the Unimog has gained an outstanding reputation as a hard-working Jack-of-all-trades all over the world. The basic concept has remained unchanged: enormous versatility for applications of all kinds, extreme all-terrain capability by virtue of all-wheel drive, portal axles and differential locks front and rear, a compact cab, great robustness and scope for mounting a wide variety of implements.

Since the Unimog's inception, innovation and range expansion progressed rapidly. In 1955, Daimler-Benz produced the first Unimog S (404 series). It featured a long wheelbase and was designed for military applications - against the background of the foundation of the German armed forces in 1956.

During the long career of the Unimog S, which continued to be produced for a quarter of a century until 1980, the German armed forces became the major buyer of this version which consequently established itself as the best-seller among the Unimogs. With its outstanding offroad mobility, the Unimog A was also highly appreciated by armed forces anywhere else in the world - the first batch of Unimog S units was supplied to the French army.

The Unimog S featured the oval radiator grille with rimmed circular headlights that were typical for commercial vehicles from Daimler-Benz at that time. Cab design was timeless and attractive. Compared to the first Unimog, wheelbase grew by about a metre, first to 2700 and then to 2900 millimetres.

The Unimog S was powered not by a diesel engine but by a modified petrol engine from the car range. The engine initially developed 82 hp from a 2.2 litre displacement; a 110 hp version with a 2.8 litre displacement was added at a later stage. In the course of the years, the Unimog S not only attracted customers in uniform but also enjoyed growing popularity among civilian users.

We obtained our Unimog 404 S from the Swiss Army, via Canada, where the previous owner had the foresight to upgrade the gasoline fueled engine to a turbo diesel, increasing the horsepower to 125! This 300 series Mercedes diesel engine is the workhorse of all the Unimogs, and became the platform for our tour buggy, enabling us to run straight vegetable oil and bio-diesel as fuel.

Content of this article courtesy of Mercedes Benz Classics.

If you'd like to learn more about Unimogs, or see them in action, check out this YouTube video. Translation may be necessary for those not fluent in German: