Unimog

www.mercedes-benz.com | June 2003
Mercedes-Benz
Unimog
The magazine for multi-functional applications.
1 | 2003
The Clean Machine
in the Land of the Rising Sun
Indispensable for communal tasks | Working on high-voltage wires | Africa fever
Unimog 1|2003 1

Contents
Road maintenance 14
The roads must be clean! This is an attitude
shared by employees of the Salzburg road
maintenance authorities
Power industry 8
Not the usual kind
of workplace. A
U 500 is an
important element
in the tasks carried
out by the e.on
company’s
engineers on highvoltage
wires
Fighting forest fires 20
Pushing back the flames. A U 400 is a reliable tool for firefighters in
the mountains around Salamanca, Spain
P u b l i s h e r ’ s d a t a
Publisher:
DaimlerChrysler AG, Unimog Division
Responsible at publisher:
Dieter Sellnau, Unimog Division
Co-ordination:
Martin Adam, Unimog Division
Editorial committee:
Martin Adam, Dieter Mutard,
Karin Weidenbacher
Contributors to this issue:
Texts and photos: Dieter Mutard, Stefan Loeffler,
Petra Forberger, Unimog Division
English translations: Colin Brazier, Munich
Editorial office address:
DaimlerChrysler AG, Unimog Division,
Sales Marketing, 76568 Gaggenau, Germany
Production:
Dieter Mutard DWM Pressebüro und Verlag,
Ringstrasse 11, 89081 Ulm, Germany
The next issue will be published in the autumn of
2003. The publishers accept no responsibility for
unsolicited copy or photographs.
Printed on paper bleached without chlorine
Printed in the Federal Republic of Germany
Public-authority use 4
An indispensable helper at the municipal
construction yard in Gummersbach
Winter services 7
How Marktleuthen in Germany’s Fichtelgebirge
region keeps its roads free of snow
Power industry 8
Working on high-voltage wires
Presentations 10
Winter realities
DaimlerChrysler Worldwide 12
Road maintenance 14
Spring-clean in Salzburg
Power industry 16
Unbeatable in Toggenburg
Official snow clearing machines 18
at the World Skiing Championships
Fighting forest fires 20
A U 400 guarantees safe working conditions
for firemen in Spain
UNISCOPE 22
Unimog museum in the Murg valley
5,555 Unimogs in Switzerland
Tourist vehicle
Africa fever
DaimlerChrysler Worldwide
The Shinkansen goes to Taiwan 12
Cleaning up in the Land of the 13
Rising Sun
Unimog 1|2003 3

Communal use
An indispensable helper
The public works experts in the town of Gummersbach know very well
how important the Unimog is for their job. It can be used all the year
round. For external municipal service providers, too, the Unimog is an
essential precondition for doing business with public works departments.
Köln
Zentrum
Genkeltalsperre
Aggertal
sperre
Hagen
Dortmund
Siegen
Giessen
Frankfurt
The town of Gummersbach, in Germany’s
Oberbergisches Land region and within
the city triangle formed by Cologne/Bonn,
Hagen/Dortmund and Siegen, has one or two
exceptional things to offer. It may not be
widely known that the German record champion
handball team and multiple European
Handball Cup winner VfL Gummersbach
hails from here. The town’s total area of
100 square kilometres (according to the map)
is surprising enough, as is the fact that its
public works department has to maintain
300 kilometres of public roads and another
300 of agricultural tracks. This is no easy
task, in view of Gummersbach’s topography,
which extends from 200 metres above sea
level at the lowest to 512 m at the highest
point.
Ekkehard Mesch, the active and highly experienced
manager of Gummersbach’s public
works depot, knows what he is talking about,
and confesses frankly: “We couldn’t do without
our Unimog implement carriers.” This is
because of the region’s special geographical
features and also the depot’s organisational
tasks within the overall pattern of municipal
services, which include road maintenance in
town, canal maintenance, gully emptying and
various environmental protection measures.
Köln
Gummersbach, Germany, is very close to the densely
populated urban areas of Cologne and Dortmund
Olpe
Mesch’s team is responsible for the structural
maintenance of municipal buildings
and also various tasks for the horticultural
and cemetery authorities, grass and woodland
area care and of course playgrounds
and sports fields. Ekkehard Mesch commissions
selected external municipal service
providers from the Gummersbach area for
some of these extensive tasks. One of the
fundamental preconditions when choosing
the service providers has always been that
they should have one or more Unimog implement
carriers in their fleet, so that the
working attachments are fully compatible
with Unimog technology – and therefore
with the equipment available at the municipal
depot. Three service providers based in
the direct vicinity and their Unimog implement
carriers work on behalf of the Gummersbach
public works department. Additional
trucks only have to be hired in the
winter, when large quantities of snow often
have to be removed.
The main tasks of the yard’s own Unimogs
(two U 300, two U 1400 and one U 1000) and
the external service providers’ vehicles are
winter services, mowing and trimming work
and road maintenance. Ekkehard Mesch and
the group of qualified craftsmen and foremen
who work with the Unimog daily are
convinced: “In urban streets and similar often
confined spaces, the Unimogs are considerably
faster and easier to manoeuvre
than conventional trucks. What’s more,
these implement carriers built in Wörth possess
a high safety potential in addition to all
their other advantages.”
The public works depot with its 67 employees
is an established element in the activities
of the town of Gummersbach, partly
due to the fact that it has frequently been at
the centre of events during very bad weather
in the recent past. A sandbag filling machine
designed by Ekkehard Mesch and his colleagues
Reinhard Sauermann and Oliver
Karp, which passed its first crucial test at the
turn of the year, has attracted a lot of attention.
It was used by the depot staff to fill
1,000 sandbags within a very short time in
order to protect an industrial company’s
premises during a flood.
Ekkehard Mesch had the idea for this device
when he saw TV pictures of hundreds of
helpers with shovels filling sandbags during
The complete Unimog
fleet operated by the
public works authority in
Gummersbach –
including three U 1000s
owned by external
communal service
providers (left)
4 Unimog 1|2003

The public works department’s Mercedes-Benz Unimog and Atego are a familiar sight on Gummersbach’s streets
the River Elbe floods in 2002. He didn’t
understand why they had to do it this way,
and immediately started developing a simple
yet practical piece of equipment with the
help of his colleagues. They modified a winter-service
spreader attachment – and the result
of this inventive work is today highly
praised by the Gummersbach fire brigade
and the disaster teams of the Technisches
Hilfswerk (THW). It is particularly useful to
be able to work directly where the sandbags
are needed. “We are logistically much more
flexible with this piece of equipment,” confirms
the senior Gummersbach fire officer,
Friedhelm Köster.
Thanks to the dedication of its manager
and the hard work of its staff, the municipal
public works department has become wellknown
throughout the Oberbergisches Land
region. Its staff members are ever present,
helpful and alert during practical day-to-day
activities and at special events. It comes as
no surprise, then, that shortly after reunification
a partnership with the East German
town of Burg in Saxony-Anhalt was established.
The aim of this was for Ekkehard
Mesch and his team to support their colleagues
in Eastern Germany in word and
deed. The present handed over at the start of
this partnership, incidentally, was a Unimog
U 1000 that had been technically overhauled
and prepared for use in Gummersbach. ■
25-kilogram sandbags can be filled in a matter of seconds: With no injuries, no shovel and no lost sand! The
Unimog allows this important dam strengthening material to be stacked and built up directly in the flooded area
Unimog 1|2003 5

Communal use
The Unimog is a regular
sight in day-to-day work
Ekkehard Mesch, public works department manager
in the largest town of Germany’s Oberbergisches Land
region for more than 35 years, has developed a
sandbag filling machine with his colleagues that is an
invaluable and logistically efficient aid in disaster
situations
In the interview below, Ekkehard Mesch,
who has been the Gummersbach municipal
works department’s manager for more
than 3 decades, answers questions that
come up again and again in day-to-day communal
service work. With his many years of
experience, he can certainly speak on behalf
of many municipal authorities, since the
tasks required in their daily work are largely
identical. The decisive factors here are for
vehicles and equipment to be used to optimum
capacity, for economy, efficient work
methods and absolute reliability.
? When did the town of Gummersbach start
to use Mercedes-Benz Unimog implement carriers
and how many vehicles do you have, including
those owned by external service
providers? What are their main tasks?
➜ E. M.: “Gummersbach has been using
Unimogs for more than 35 years now. The
municipal depot currently operates two
U 300s, two U 1400s and one U 1000. The
service providers working for us own three
more U 1000s. The main tasks are carrying
out winter services, mowing and trimming
work and road maintenance.”
? Was their use of Unimog equipment an this is asking too much of our service
important precondition when choosing external
service providers?
providers, so in busy periods trucks are
sometimes used. But as you see, the answer
➜ E. M.: “The service providers are mostly to your question is a definite ‘yes’!”
engaged to perform winter services. In urban
areas, the Unimog allows them to work faster ? An important purchasing criterion for a
and with better manoeuvrability and flexibility
than any other vehicle.”
vehicle system is economy. What makes the
Unimog interesting in this particular respect
for the Gummersbach public works department?
? Why are there such frequent floods in the
Oberbergisches Land region and what is the ➜ E. M.: “The fact that no comparable im-
Unimog used for in the event of flooding?
➜ E. M.: “The floods are mainly caused by
climatic changes and different altitudes. In
the flooded areas, the Unimog is primarily
used for logistic tasks and for supplying the
helpers with road signs, sandbags etc., but
also for recovering floating objects.”
? Have you been able to pass on your sandbag
filling technique to other rescue and public
works organisations?
➜ E. M.: “The fire brigade and the German
THW are most enthusiastic about the sandbag
filling machine. It makes filling the large
quantities of sandbags so urgently required
in flood situations much easier and guarantees
fast and efficient action.”
? Can the Unimog all-terrain implement
carrier be used for all the tasks that have to be
performed in Gummersbach?
➜ E. M.: “The Unimog has greater manoeuvrability,
is faster, provides a better view
of the work area and is more practical to use
than many of its competitors. The service
providers’ other vehicles are naturally suitable
for certain situations, but none of them
cover such a broad range of applications as
our Unimog implement carriers do, thanks to
their basic concept. The service providers
have a truck which they use for transport
purposes and modify for winter service.
With our topography, we would prefer to use
only Unimog implement carriers for winter
service, but for just a few weeks per year,
plement carrier is available as far as usability,
functionality and safety are concerned,
especially for winter services, has so
far fully convinced all the decision committees,
despite the fact that the vehicle seems
relatively expensive at first glance.”
? Let’s talk about driver satisfaction. Do
they appreciate the many improvements that
have been incorporated into the latest U 300 –
U 500 implement-carrier family? How important
is driving comfort for municipal use?
➜ E. M.: “If you will allow me to exaggerate
slightly, a new era began for the Gummersbach
public works staff when the first
U 300 joined the fleet in January 2001. As
far as comfort and convenience are
concerned, I would like to mention the lownoise
driver’s cab and the 360-degree view
in particular, which is ideal for the driver or
operator. My colleagues also very much appreciate
the air-sprung driver’s seat. Other
positive factors are having air conditioning
as standard equipment, the ergonomically
arranged controls and, last but not least, the
EPS gear shift system for top-class driving
comfort. The U 300 covered more than
16,000 kilometres (800 operating hours) in
its first full year of winter and summer service.
From the drivers’ point of view, the concept
on which the Unimog U 300 – U 500 implement
carriers are based offers them
excellent driving and operating comfort,
which is an aspect not to be underestimated
in day-to-day work.”
■
6 Unimog 1|2003

Convincing arguments
Glittering snow everywhere, piled deeply in the forests. This wonderful winter scenery is attractive, but can
be treacherous too. In the little town of Marktleuthen in the midst of Germany’s Fichtelgebirge region, a
U 1400 and a U 400 make sure that the roads remain passable at all times.
Wolfgang Theinert and his team have
been responsible for maintaining the
roads and paths in Marktleuthen for 26
years, and have used Unimogs for almost as
long a period. A U 406 was a reliable tool for
24 years before being succeeded by a U 400
in 2002. Just a year before, the community
had purchased an additional U 1400. “The
Unimog has never let us down. The infrequent
need for repairs and its demonstrably
long operating life were the most convincing
arguments in favour of the decision
to buy another Unimog,” the communal public
works manager explains.
Four drivers and three road workers perform
maintenance work on Marktleuthen’s
narrow roads and hilly gradients all the year
round. Snow has to be cleared from some 80
kilometres of road, often several times a day,
and both Unimog are equipped with a
Schmidt snow plough and a Gmeiner spreading
attachment. In summer, the roads have
to be swept and repaired, grass must be cut
and sandbags transported when, as was the
case last year, the River Eger, although
small, bursts its banks.
“At the beginning, we had to get accustomed
to the new-look U 400,” grins Wolfgang
Thumser, Wolfgang Theinert’s colleague and
U 1400 driver, but he became convinced of
the U 400’s merits quite a while back. “On
narrow roads in particular, where you sometimes
have only millimetres to spare when
manoeuvring, the high seat position and the
panorama window provide a unique view that
makes our work so much easier,” explains
Wolfgang Theinert. Wolfgang Thumser
praises the new joystick gearshift that “is intelligent
and makes frequent, rapid gear
changes easy.” Anybody who has spent
many years of his working life in a Unimog
appreciates how comfortable this workplace
has now become. “When I drive the new
U 400, I sometimes feel like the pilot of an
airliner!” says Theinert with a smile. For
him, there is no doubt: “The Unimog has
been dramatically improved. There are
worlds between past-generation Unimogs
and the U 400 as far technology and other
design features are concerned.” The power
output of the implement carrier naturally
adds to this positive impression. With its
177-hp (130-kW) engine, the U 400 has more
tractive power, which is evident on uphill
gradients in particular. The ability to get
from place to place rapidly and the higher
payload make it very economical to use,
which in turn has a positive effect on the local
authority’s budget. This is why the people
in Marktleuthen are satisfied with their
investment and proud to be able to provide a
“safe” winter environment for locals and visitors
alike.
■
Hof
Marktleuthen
Bayreuth Landkreis
Wunsiedel
Nürnberg
Bayern
München
Wolfgang Thumser (left)
and Wolfgang Theinert
(in small photograph)
agree: “The Unimog has
been dramatically
improved.”
Unimog 1|2003 7

Power industry
Working on high-voltage wires
Simply unimaginable for the uninitiated, but daily routine for the Bavarian
power supply company e.on Bayern’s technicians: working on 20,000-Volt
high-tension wires. The necessary safety preconditions for this work are
provided by a Unimog and an elevating platform from equipment-system
partner TIME Versalift.
The e.on Bayern company uses a Unimog
U 500 all-terrain implement carrier for
installation and maintenance tasks on its
high-voltage electricity network. This model
from the U 300 – U 500 product line is
equipped with a special lifting work platform
from US manufacturer and Unimog
equipment-system partner TIME Versalift.
What’s so special about this, the first
equipment combination of its kind in Germany,
is that the installation technicians’
working platform is insulated against contact
with power supplies of up to 69,000
Volts. This permits service and maintenance
work on the medium-voltage overhead lines
(MS) of the Bavarian electricity network at
up to 20,000 Volts without having to switch
off the entire power supply system. Nor does
the all-terrain Unimog have any problems in
quickly and easily accessing locations where
the masts and lines are situated, thanks to
its permanent four-wheel drive, although the
lines are usually spread out across open
country.
Working on high-voltage wires is still a
fairly new technology for Germany’s energy
suppliers, but it has already been tested successfully
in many European countries. The
technicians at e.on Bayern complete as many
as four jobs under power (AuS) every day at
heights of up to 19 metres on their mediumvoltage
overhead lines operating at up to
20,000 Volts that supply both private households
and industry. Multiple safety systems
protect the service team, the Unimog U 500
and its highly insulated TIME Versalift lifting
work platform against exposure to anything
up to 69,000 Volts.
The advantage of this technology is that
most maintenance and repair work can be
Nobody is interested in the view from up there right
now! Before repairs can start, extensive insulating
measures have to be carried out on the power lines
carried out without switching off the power
supply to customers. This is made possible
solely by insulation of the work baskets and,
consequently, of the vehicle and its superstructure.
The TIME Versalift superstructure
with elevating work platform (working
height: up to 19 metres), a maximum load of
900 kg, two personnel cages and an insulated
boom that can be used with the
power switched on, also has various storage
The U 500’s well-planned elevating work-platform
superstructure includes a number of practical storage
compartments for insulating and protective material
8 Unimog 1|2003

Power industry
compartments for equipment, tools and
working materials.
The implement carrier is an all-terrain
Unimog U 500 with a gross weight limit of
14.3 tonnes and the powerful, well-proven
205 kW (280 bhp) OM 906 LA 6-cylinder inline
engine with charge-air intercooling. The
only optional extra on e.on Bayern’s Unimog
with its four-wheel drive, but none the less a
very important one, is the “tirecontrol” tyre
pressure control system, which is ideal for
off-road applications, particularly on surfaces
that are not particularly firm. “The offroad
Unimog U 500 implement carrier, with
its progressive technology, is unparalleled in
its versatility and range of applications –
particularly with the Versalift work platform
when we have to deal with power failures,”
says Norbert Bursian, who is the vehicle coordination
manager responsible for the entire
service area at e.on Bayern’s Upper Franconian
regional management offices, which
are in the town of Bayreuth.
Even though working on high-voltage
wires is still classified as a pilot project, the
financial advantages of the “Unimog plus
equipment” system are already evident.
Switching off the affected power supply
lines, notifying customers of the power cut,
the expensive installation of emergency
power generating sets and comprehensive
and cost-intensive switching work on the
group control lines all become unnecessary
with this equipment. No matter how long the
repair work takes, the power never has to be
switched off.
■
This peaceful scene on a meadow in Germany’s
Fichtelgebirge mountains is somewhat misleading,
since work on the electric lines requires the utmost
concentration. The technicians are repairing the lines
while the U 500 stands safely in the wet, low-lying
terrain. The technicians can operate their equipment
from the personnel cage
Unimog 1|2003 9

Presentations
Winter
realities
The Unimog Division held winter
service presentations at nine
locations all over Germany in
February and March. One of these
was at the Nürburg Ring motor
racing circuit, where weather
conditions were quite realistic.
Nature still does it best! At the Unimog
Division’s winter service events in Germany,
held this year from January 30 to
March 6, there was no shortage of snow anywhere.
At the Nürburg Ring, too, real-life
winter weather supplied ideal conditions for
the various equipment combinations to be
demonstrated.
An average of 500 guests attended each
event and watched these well-prepared presentations
of sample equipment applications
with the satisfying feeling that “the Unimog
masters any situation”. This also confirmed
that their companies’ decisions to purchase
the Unimog were correct. The morning presentations
at the Nürburg Ring, with the
thermometer reading minus two degrees
Celsius, heavy snowfall, icy roads and, in
some places, deep snow on the track itself
(which is usually reserved for potent racing
cars), made it clear that the system combination
of Unimog plus winter-service
equipment is currently the most professional
choice available on the market.
A total of 14 presentation vehicles
(three U 300s, eight U 400s and three
U 500s) were equipped with the latest generations
of snowplough and spreader equipment
from system partners Gmeiner and
Schmidt Winterdienst, as well as snow tillers
and rotary snow-ploughs, also from Schmidt.
The latter, made by the company based in
St. Blasien in Germany’s Black Forest, are
driven by the vehicle’s engine via the front
power take-off shaft, which in most cases
makes expensive superstructure modifications
unnecessary.
Regional Manager West Erich Mahler, who
was largely responsible for the event tour,
was very satisfied with customer attendance
and the ideal weather conditions: “The
equipment presentations and also the safety
demonstrations with four-channel ABS were
convincing evidence of the Unimog’s outstanding
driving behaviour even in critical
conditions.”
■
Above: Nürburg Castle in the winter light and a U 400
equipped with a Schmidt snow tiller on its way to a
presentation
As the snow melted in the warm February sun, the
experts gathered to discuss what they had seen
10 Unimog 1|2003

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DaimlerChrysler Worldwide Japan
The Shinkansen goes to Taiwan
In December 2000, the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation took the decision to purchase the Japanese
Shinkansen high-speed train. Japanese companies were also commissioned to build the 330-kilometre rail track.
Versatile German Mercedes-Benz Unimog implement carriers are being used on this large-scale Asian project.
The state-owned company Japan Railway
Construction Public Corporation (JRCC)
was founded in 1964. JRCC built the existing
systems, infrastructure and rail network for
the Shinkansen and took delivery of its first
Unimog implement carriers, U 1450 and
U 1650 road-rail models equipped by Unimog’s
equipment system partner Zweiweg,
in 1993. No fewer than 79 have been purchased
since, making the JRCC Japan’s
largest customer for the ‘two-way Unimog’.
The JRCC’s Unimogs are used as locomotives
to pull freight cars containing railway
construction materials and equipment, or as
driverless antenna platforms when making
electrical connections. “We bought the first
Unimog during the Hokuriku Shinkansen
construction phase,” says Mitsumi Iwasaki,
JRCC’s deputy fleet manager. “This is one of
the most difficult routes in the world. Our
Unimogs are used to pull six work trains, each
200 metres long with a weight of 12 tonnes,
the rail vehicles on which these trains are
transported and a tracklaying machine,
which amounts to a total weight of 150
Well-planned work processes and the wide range of
tasks that the road-rail Unimog can perform are major
features of the day-to-day working routines on the new
lines being built for the Japanese high-speed trains
tonnes. When we calculated the performance
on the basis of the data specification,
we found out that two Unimogs connected in
tandem can perform the same task as the
vehicles we used in the past, which were
much heavier and more expensive.”
The Hokuriku Shinkansen is the sixth
Shinkansen track in Japan. It is used exclusively
as a high-speed train route through
the country’s very mountainous interior.
Some sections of the Shinkansen track between
Karuizawa and Nagano run in tunnel.
During construction of this track, the
JRCC developed its “building material transport
by train” method, for which temporary
tracks with a length of 200 metres are laid
on the planned sections of the route and
used to move construction materials to the
actual track-laying point. The Unimogs are
used to pull the freight cars with the rail
tracks, the vehicles carrying concrete slabs
and an actual construction vehicle in which
the buffer layer of concrete mortar beneath
the slabs is mixed, poured and kneaded.
24 of the 79 Unimogs are used not for load
movement but as ‘antenna platforms’ without
drivers, for installing the Shinkansen’s
power supply lines and insulators. No timeconsuming
shunting movements are needed
with the Unimog, which results in faster
completion of the building projects, shorter
work times and a reduction of some 30 percent
in the construction costs.
After the Hokuriku Shinkansen railway
track had been completed in 1993, the
JRCC’s road-rail Unimogs were next used for
construction of the Tohoku Shinkansen
(Morioka-Aomori) and have now been transferred
to the Kyushu Shinkansen (Shin
Yatsushiro-Nishi Kagoshima). The Kyushu
Shinkansen is due to be opened in spring
next year, but construction work is already
almost finished. During work on this 127.6-
kilometre track, a total of some 520 km of
rails and 46,000 concrete slabs was transported
by the Unimogs. At peak times during
Kyushu Shinkansen track construction,
nearly 70 Unimogs were in use at certain
times.
■
12 Unimog 1|2003

Japan DaimlerChrysler Worldwide
Cleaning up in the Land of
the Rising Sun
120 million people live in Japan, and own a total of 77 million cars.
Residential areas are often located in the vicinity of busy roads. To keep
these clean, the Road Maintenance authority of the Japanese Land,
Infrastructure and Transport Ministry in Yokohama has been operating a
Unimog U 400 since the spring of 2002.
The Yokohama road maintenance authority
is responsible for roads with a total
length of 240 kilometres. A Unimog U 1450,
initially used for snow removal in the mountains,
has so far been employed on this task.
More Unimog-specific equipment such as a
tunnel cleaning device and a can collecting
machine have now been acquired. According
to the Unimog representative YANASE,
based in Yokohama, no implement carrier as
versatile as the Mercedes-Benz Unimog is
currently available in Japan. A U 400 has
now taken over from the U 1450 mentioned
above. For the new U 400 implement carrier,
the same equipment as on the U 1450 can be
used, together with a special cleaning device
for curved transparent walls.
These noise insulation walls are made of
polycarbonate for optimum visibility. The
cleaning attachment for these transparent
panels is equipped with a curved, rotating
brush, 75 centimetres in diameter, that
cleans the dirty area directly. The brush is
mounted at the rear of the Unimog and can
be rotated through 90 degrees toward the
edge of the road (on an axis vertical to the
direction of travel). Depending on how much
the separating wall is curved, the brush can
adopt a radius of between 2 and 4 metres.
A private road maintenance company has
leased several Unimogs from the Yokohama
road maintenance authority as a subcontractor
and has been using them for some time
already. A company spokesperson
commented on the positive effects of the
Unimog’s performance in the following
terms: “It used to take us six hours to clean
a 600-metre noise insulation wall. Now we
can clean the 600 metres within an hour.”
One of the road maintenance authority’s
employees with many years’ standing has
the following to say about his new vehicle:
“Some service vehicles are basically trucks.
The Unimog is much better than these,
particularly our U 400 with its VarioPilot
changeover steering. Since we drive on the
left in Japan, we can see the side of the road
at all times. Using the changeover steering
guarantees optimum 360-degree visibility
and safe working. What’s more, our working
conditions are more pleasant all year round
thanks to the standard air-conditioning.”
Smiling, he adds: “I am very happy to have
this vehicle to work with!”
The person responsible for the equipment
adds to his colleague’s comments: “The
purchase price of a Unimog chassis certainly
cannot be compared with that of a singlepurpose
vehicle, but thanks to its front power
take-off shaft and the hydraulic system, the
Unimog is very versatile and compatible with
all kinds of add-on devices.”
■
Above: The brush of the cleaning device adjusts to the
curve of the transparent wall
Unimog in Japan: cherry blossom and high-tech
Unimog 1|2003 13

Spring cleaning in Salzburg
For the first time this year, temperatures are rising above 20 degrees
Celsius. A few tourists wearing T-shirts are sitting in street cafés and on
restaurant terraces. For them, winter is over for good. It’s not quite over
yet for the Salzburg road maintenance authorities and their Unimog
implement carriers.
Despite the fact that, with an area of just
over 7,150 square kilometres, Salzburg
is one of the smaller federal states in Austria,
it has a varied and interesting topography. In
the vicinity of the capital, which bears the
same name as the state itself, it is relatively
flat, becoming higher towards the south and
reaching an altitude of 1,805 metres at the
Radstädt Tauern pass. And halfway through
April, when Salzburg citizens and Easter
holiday visitors from Germany and Switzerland
are already lying in the warm spring
sun in the northern Flachgau near the
German border, there are still up to two
metres of snow on the mountain crests and
peaks, for instance at the 1,600-metre Gerlos
pass between Salzburg and Tyrol. “As late as
mid-April this year, there were 40 centimetres
of new snow in some of the more
mountainous areas we are responsible for,”
says Hans Gehmacher, who is the Salzburg
State Government’s Deputy Road Maintenance
Manager. It is his responsibility to
purchase vehicles and equipment, including
the newly four newly acquired Unimog
U 400s and one U 500. The Second President
of Salzburg’s State Parliament , Johann Holztrattner,
took delivery of the vehicles last
August with the words: “We decided to
purchase the Unimog because it can be used
to carry a wide variety of equipment in
winter and summer, guarantees clean, snowfree
roads and is safe and convenient to
operate.”
The 170-kW (230-hp) vehicles, all with
permanent four-wheel drive, Telligent gear
shift, air-operated twin-circuit disc brakes
with ABS, hydraulic power steering and a
dual-circuit power hydraulic system, have
been in use in Austria’s northernmost
federal state ever since. They are operated by
the road works departments in the Flachgau,
Hallein and Bruck an der Glocknerstrasse
and by the Salzburg ‘autobahn’ maintenance
authority, which has also purchased another
U 500 with 205-kW (280-hp) engine. Hans
Gehmacher is responsible for up to 90 kilometres
of ‘autobahn’ highway and some
1,300 kilometres of federal and state roads.
Altogether, 36 Unimog implement carriers
are operated by the road authorities, and
14 Unimog 1|2003

Working in picturesque
scenery: the road
maintenance authority
staff’s tasks include
cleaning reflector posts,
to make driving in the
Austrian Federal State of
Salzburg as safe as
possible
Road maintenance
have proved to be reliable helpers throughout
the year and in any weather. “When
snow is still falling at higher altitudes and
we are already tidying up and carrying out
maintenance work down in the plains, the
fact that equipment can be changed so fast
on the Unimog is a decisive advantage,”
explains Hans Gehmacher. Another reason
why the vehicles are so important for the
Salzburg region, which depends so strongly
on the tourist trade, is that they offer quite a
few benefits that the visitors appreciate too:
“With the Unimog and its snow ploughs,
snow tillers and add-on spreading equipment,
we can make it possible for as many
winter tourists as possible to get up into the
mountains and back down again without
difficulty, even though not all of them have
equipped their cars with winter tyres or
snow chains.” While some of the Unimogs
are still clearing snow on mountain roads,
the remainder of the new vehicles are using
reflector-post washing attachments, frontend
sweepers and front chaff-cutters for the
first spring clean-up on the roads elsewhere
in the Federal State of Salzburg. ■
With a Schmidt front-end sweeper attachment, the U 400 cleans up the site of road works without interrupting the
flow of traffic
Hans Gehmacher (right) and his team appreciate the fact that equipment can be changed so fast on the Unimog
Installing new reflector posts on the road to Grossgmain, not far from the city of Salzburg’
15

Unbeatable in Toggenburg
Working conditions for
SAK’s installation staff in
the Toggenburg mountain
region have little to do
with the traditional
romance of the “Heidi”
stories
Service work in the mountainous Toggenburg region of
Eastern Switzerland is very demanding on man and
machine. The perfect task for the Unimog.
Ohni de Unimog bruuchet mer gär nütz’
„ versueche“ (Swiss German for “Without
the Unimog, we might as well not bother at
all!”), says Hans Baumann, installation
manager at the St. Gallisch-Appenzeller
Kraftwerk AG (SAK), after a closer look at
the current weather situation. We are in the
midst of the Toggenburg mountain region in
the canton of St. Gallen, between the River
Thur, a tributary of the Rhine, and the road
pass between Wildhaus and Wil – in the
yard of a SAK depot. The team of three is
preparing for the task of erecting a new
foundation for an overhead cable mast as
part of the SAK’s power supply system – in
light snowfall and an icy wind.
The SAK’s supply network has an overall
length of 4,058 kilometres, which amounts
to some 10 percent of the earth’s circumference,
and it maintains 926 transformer
stations, 1,185 kilometres of high-voltage
and 2,873 kilometres of low-voltage lines –
hard to believe in a region as tranquil as
this. The masts and cables are located in the
two Appenzell cantons and the canton of
St. Gallen, stretching all the way from Lake
Constance to the Lake of Zurich, between the
steep mountains and gentle hills of the
wildly romantic Eastarn Swiss Alps. SAK
delivers electricity to 400,000 users, including
a high-tension supply to 162 industrial
companies and a low-tension supply to
almost 60,000 other customers.
These are the SAK’s statistics, but all we
see on this frosty afternoon in early February
is winter scenery in its purest form. The
depth of snow in Toggenburg is half a metre,
but this varies in the hilly landscape, and is
often more than a metre due to snowdrifts
and snow collecting in hollows. The newest
of the SAK’s five Unimogs, a U 400 equipped
with various optional extras, is being
prepared for this task. Its technical specification
includes provision for fitting twin-
16 Unimog 1|2003

Power industry
St. Gallisch-Appenzellische
Kraftwerke AG supply area
SAK
St. Gallen
tyred wheels (a Unimog with a tyre pressure
control system is still high up on the department’s
wish list), a loading crane, a radio
remote controlled Werner cable winch and a
crane support frame including a bridge to
carry a machine drill, the latter specially
designed and fitted by Swiss Unimog
regional represenative LARAG AG in Wil
(St. Gallen canton).
Driver Engelbert Thoma, who has more
than 10 years of Unimog experience, is
delighted with his new “workmate”: “The
U 400 has a unique standard of driving
comfort, which we naturally appreciate a lot,
since more than 90 percent of our work is
off-road, and this is quite mountainous country.
Working with this vehicle and its equipment
is a pleasure, thanks to its many technical
innovations and advantages.” The
U 400 is primarily used by SAK for installing
and erecting masts, but also for towing the
cable drum trailer and transformers weighing
up to 2.5 tonnes, and for transporting
emergency power generators that can weigh
as much as 16 tonnes.
Before tackling the task in hilly terrain
that this article describes, the wintry conditions
call for careful preparatory work by the
SAK’s technicians. Hans Baumann, Engelbert
Thoma and Alois Herger together install
the twin-tyred wheels that are absolutely
essential due to the heavy load to be transported
and the low load-bearing capacity of
the soil where they will have to work. Later,
when the Unimog leaves made-up roads
behind it, the importance of this measure
becomes clear. Even the U 400 struggles
slightly through these seemingly endless
masses of snow, but in the end confirms why
it is considered unbeatable here in Toggenburg
too. We reach the construction site at
an altitude of about 1,000 metres above sea
level in freezing temperatures. The hours
simply fly by and evening approaches as
snow is cleared from the construction site,
the equipment is prepared for use and the
hole for the mast is drilled. The three-man
The Swiss SAK’s supply
area (right)
Without “tirecontrol”,
only twin tires help in
deep snow (centre
picture)
On the way to work at
1,000 metres above sea
level. The SAK’s U 400
with Werner cable winch
and crane (below)
Geneva
Zurich
Switzerland
St. Gallen
Schweiz
Appenzell
Uznach
Uznach
Sargans
DWM-Grafik©
Unimog 1|2003 17

Power industry
In stark contrast to the beautiful, tranquil scenery:
hard work for the SAK team and the equipment they
use to maintain electric power supplies in the Eastern
Swiss Alps
team is pleased with the results and returns
to the valley; once again, the U 400’s
performance has entirely satisfied these
experienced technicians. But then: they
knew from the very start that they wouldn’t
make it without the Unimog!
■
Official snow ploughs for the World Skiing Championships
400 athletes from 60 countries competed
for the title of World Champion in ten disciplines
in St. Moritz, the mecca of winter
sport, from February 2 to 16, 2003. Altogether,
fifteen Unimog implement carriers
and three Actros four-wheel-drive trucks
cleared some 90 kilometres of roads; the
infrastructure had been specially built for
this event, often with extremely steep road
links to the championship sites. The vehicles
passed their first test early in the first week
of the championship, when approximately
25 centimetres of snow fell in one night.
More than 100,000 spectators,
10,000 accredited persons such as officials
and sponsors’ representatives, 400 athletes
and 2,000 journalists and radio and TV staff
from all over the world were transported
from St. Moritz to Salastrains, the destination
at 2,000 metres above sea level. Swiss
PTT post buses were used exclusively for
this purpose.
The 15 Unimog implement carriers were
supplied by the Unimog Division of Robert
Aebi AG (responsible for Unimog sales in
Switzerland), the St. Moritz municipal
authorities and the neighbouring communities
of Pontresina, Celerina, Samedan and
Silvaplana. The “World Championship
Unimogs” were equipped with snow ploughs
and snow tillers by equipment-system partner
Schmidt Winterdienst und Kommunaltechnik,
which is based in St. Blasien. The St.
Moritz public works office operated a U 400
with a plough/spreader combination, a
U 140 with snow plough and ice scraper and
a U 1000 to clear away snow. The Actros fourwheel
drive trucks (3340 AK 6x6 and 1838
AK 4x4), also from the St. Moritz authorities
and from DC Switzerland’s fleet, were
mainly used for snow transport.
In addition to permanent clearing and
spreading of the access and other local
roads, the car parks had to be kept clear of
snow as well. Additional parking space for a
total of 2,500 vehicles was laid out for the
World Championships in the entire area
from Silvaplana to Samedan and in Pontresina.
Spectators who travelled there by car
were able to use shuttle buses to get to the
championship event sites.
The snow clearing service experienced no
problems caused either by the topography or
the weather. This was confirmed by
members of the organisational committee
and the local road maintenance authority. ■
One of the “World Championship Unimogs” at work in
St. Moritz during this major skiing event
18 Unimog 1|2003

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Fighting forest fires
Paths to safety
The mountains around Salamanca are high, steep and full of dry pine trees
that catch fire very easily. This is difficult terrain for fire-fighters, but no
problem for the Mercedes-Benz Unimog.
The Unimog’s engine runs smoothly as the
four-wheel-drive vehicle moves down the
rough slope. “Whatever happens, this vehicle
will always do the job!” say the driver
proudly, shifting down to the next lower gear.
Like the legs of a large insect, the tyres creep
across the rocks, each block of their treads
fighting for grip with the thrust of 4,000
litres of water to withstand. At one bend, a
man with three days of beard stubble, wearing
a helmet and neck protection, raises his
hand to indicate that the vehicle is stable
despite the 20-degree slope on which it is
standing. His name is Joaquín Cascales and
he is the fire brigade commander. His
commands are short: “Vamos!”, “Let’s go!”,
“Grab the hoses!”. The firemen open the rear
flap and pull a 600-metre hose off the reel.
“How far are you?”, a voice asks through the
walkie-talkie hanging from Joaquín Cascales’
shoulders. “We’re in a good position,” he
answers. Everything is going according to
20 Unimog 1|2003

A helmet and neck protection (small photograph on
the left) are essential for the firemen who work in the
region around the Spanish city of Salamanca,
since the burning pinewood forests generate
enormous heat (right)
Fighting forest fires
The U 400 (bottom right) is an invaluable aid to the
firefighters as it can move them up into any terrain
and also out of the flames safely
plan, and today’s target is to test how the U
400 performs when a fire breaks out. Joaquín
Cascales deals with more than 100 fires a
year. “The most dangerous one was over
there in Los Arribes,” he says, gesticulating
southwards with his helmet. “Because of the
strong wind, the fire crept up on us faster
than we could move with our heavy equipment,
and then the wind suddenly changed
direction. I can tell you, it was then I discovered
how fast I could run!” Joaquín
Cascales knows the risks: he is a forestry
engineer who has been a forest fire expert for
ten years. A sound like a roaring waterfall
can be heard from the south, but it proves to
come from the flames that can be seen licking
up into the sky a few seconds later.
Smoke fills the canyon and covers the sun.
The engineer’s face is sweaty and
discoloured with soot. “Get moving!” a voice
demands from the walkie-talkie. It belongs to
someone from the second forest fire-brigade
group, which is securing the other side of the
canyon with a second Unimog. A third group
is waiting at the summit. Joaquín Cascales
grabs an object shaped like a watering can
that spits fire, lighting a counter-fire in the
bushes so the flames cannot cross over the
the pine forest on the other side of the firebreak
that his men are creating down the hill
with chainsaws. Behind him, firemen with
huge rubber beaters are trying to suppress
the sparks that jump over the fire-break. The
Unimog follows Cascales downhill, occasionally
stopping so that the smooth sound of its
230-hp engine can be heard. The U 400 was
in frequent use last summer; sometimes four
fires had to be put out in one day. Joaquín
Cascales knows that the fires are often
started by arsonists: “Some people try to gain
additional pasture land for their animals by
dishonest means.” He thinks the Unimog is
great: “It makes the work so much easier for
our men. We used to have fire-fighting vehicles
from the Spanish Army, but they simply
weren’t able to tackle these steep hills.”
Despite intensive service, the U 400’s yellow
paint still looks brand new. From the air, red
vehicles are hard to distinguish from the
flames, which is why pilots of fire-fighting
aircraft sometimes give their colleagues on
the ground a shower instead of putting out
the flames. For this reason the vehicles are
now painted yellow. In addition to the
Unimog implement carriers’ notable reliability,
the most important features for the firemen
on the ground, who are often
confronted with smouldering fires that grow
into impenetrable fire walls within seconds,
are their robust engines and legendary offroad
capabilities. “Every second counts,”
says Joaquín Cascales, “and it’s good to know
that the vehicles are reliable and will always
get you out safely.” He tells his men to be
absolutely cautious: “Don’t overestimate
yourselves. Always leave the key in the ignition
switch and park the Unimog so that the
front end is away from the fire so that you
don’t have to reverse it if you have to leave
the area in a hurry!” Jaime Vazquez, aged 33,
wearing a pair of jeans and a leather jacket,
strolls over from the mountain summit – a
safe distance away. He is fleet manager at
Mercedes-Benz Credit España (MBCE), a
DaimlerChrysler Services subsidiary, and
wants to see the U 400 in action after the
stressful leasing negotiations. Metaphorically
speaking, he too went through fire for
the extinguishing vehicle’s financing and
insurance. The Castilla y León government’s
invitation to tender was a total challenge for
his company: insurance covering all risks, a
limited budget for 30 vehicles including 20
Unimogs. These were considered obstacles
nearly impossible to overcome in the trade,
but not for Jaime Vazquez: “I knew we would
make it!” And this is why the firemen can
fight their fires with the Unimog today. ■
Unimog 1|2003 21

UNISCOPE
The Unimog museum in the Murg valley
On November 5, 2002, some 150 Unimog
enthusiasts founded the “Unimog-
Museum e. V.” association with the purpose
of establishing a Unimog museum at the
entry to the Murg valley in front of Rotenfels
Castle in Gaggenau, in Germany’s South
Baden region. “We intend to give the
Unimog’s successful history a permanent
new home at its former production site”,
explains Hans-Jürgen Schöpfer, chairman of
the new museum association. The association
is supported by a committee chaired by
Hans-Jürgen Wischhof, an
avid supporter of the plan to
build a museum. Various
models – the association
already owns almost a
dozen exhibits, among
them the last Unimog built in Gaggenau –
add-on equipment and sectioned models of
the principal Unimog working equipment
will document the vehicle’s development
history and its many applications all around
the world. DaimlerChrysler has already
agreed to supply the museum with interesting
exhibits on loan. A shop with miniature
models, Unimog books and posters is also
planned. The initiators also consider it
important to describe the
industrial history of the
Murg valley and acknowledge
local peoples’ work.
Vehicles had after all been
built in Gaggenau for more
than fifty years before Unimog production
started. The newly established association
already has more than 500 members.
You can obtain further information and
download the application form at
www.unimog-museum.de.
■
The Unimog museum will probably look like this one
day. Construction is scheduled to start in 2004
The 5,555th Unimog for Switzerland
From left to right: Arthur Bühler, head of Meggen
district council, Markus Imboden from supplier
Gebrüder Mengis and Markus Staubli from Robert
Aebi AG at the key handover ceremony for the 5,555th
Unimog
Various Unimog models in front of Meggen fire station
(below)
This is a very unusual jubilee indeed. Last
November, the 5,555th civil Unimog was
delivered to Switzerland. It is a U 400 for use
in Meggen, on the Vierwaldstättersee (Lake
Lucerne). This municipality. located in the
heart of central Switzerland between the
Pilatus and Rigi mountains, began to operate
Unimogs 20 years ago. In order to meet
growing demands for road maintenance
even more effectively, the town authorities
decided to purchase an implement carrier
that could handle the entire scope of
summer and winter service work. Among
other items, the U 400 is equipped with a
Hiab goods handling crane and a three-way
tipping body.
■
Tourist transport
The Plitvic lakes are located in Croatia’s
most popular national park and are among
Europe’s most beautiful sights. Surrounded
by dense forests, the 16 lakes are connected
by waterfalls. The organisers invite tourists to
tour the area in a U 400, which pulls two
passenger-carrying trailers. The total capacity
of this unusual outfit enables 105 tourists to
enjoy the beautiful scenery.
22 Unimog 1|2003

UNISCOPE
Powered by an uprated
OM 906 LA engine, the
U 500 entered by the
Italian Overlook
Promotion team drives
through a canyon in the
Sahara at full speed
Africa fever
Many international rally specialists are infected with ‘Africa fever’
every year, including seasoned professionals such as the highly
successful Italian Overlook Promotion team with the
Panseri brothers and their colleagues Cambiaghi, Paccani, Vismara
and Sangalli, who invest tens of thousands of Euros in order to participate
in the Pharoah Rally in Egypt and the legendary Paris-Dakar
event. Other participants are “true amateurs”, such as Unimog test
driver Klaus Bäuerle, for whom simply taking part is the most satisfying
aspect of the whole adventure. This year, he sacrificed a promising
position in the Paris-Dakar event to help recover a broken-down
Mitsubishi after many hours of hard work. The Unimog first enjoyed
the limelight during the world’s toughest rally back in 1982, when
the French team George Groine, Thierry de Saulieu and Bernard
Malfériol won in a U 1700 L and the Frenchmen Laleu/Langlois came
in second in a U 1300. In 1985, the Italian team Capito/Capito won
this event.
■
Klaus Bäuerle, Unimog
test driver and rally
enthusiast (at the right
in the left picture), took
part in the 7,000-
kilometre Paris – Dakar
rally, both in the race
itself and as service
support for the Polish
Orlen team. In the
overall evaluation, he
“only” managed 16th
place, as the help he
provided cost him a lot
of time. He was very
much in demand as the
“Good Samaritan with
the Unimog” and often
saved the day in extreme
emergencies
Another aspect of the
Paris – Dakar rally:
atmospheric pictures of
the desert and savanna
Unimog 1|2003 23