Ah, the Unimog: a rig that is both incredibly capable and useless all at once. This military-grade tractor, which has begun to find its way into civilian life, is an overbuilt brute with a dedicated following. It is one of my favorite vehicles on the planet, and every few months, I wrestle with how I could possibly justify owning one in the middle of suburbia. The 1976 Unimog 416 listed here on craigslist is a diesel-powered single cab model that has been serviced with a variety of new parts and is said to run well.
The downsides to a Unimog are obvious: it is slow, difficult to park anywhere, and it will likely never see an interstate. It is a limited-use vehicle, to say the least, which is why so many of them are registered simply as tractors – they weren’t meant to spend time on the open road. These were marketed heavily towards farmers and for military applications overseas, while stateside we saw them arrive as ideal choices for use on farms, plowing, highway departments, and more. Case, the agricultural equipment company, actively marketed them under their own name for a spell.
For all the shortcomings, what you do get is a truck that is absolutely loaded with the off-road equipment that is essential to clearing almost every imaginable hurdle. It comes with goodies like a snorkel, immense ground clearance, huge tires, portal axles, front and rear lockers, and in this case, a PTO winch. All of this costs money to maintain, of course, so it’s always nice to see a seller of a ‘Mog mention things like “…new brakes, tires, interior, bed, and much more.” I briefly considered a project Unimog for a time until I saw the cost of tires.
And that is a reality with these rigs: it’s a commitment no matter how you slice it. Whether you have the type of property that is ideally suited to a truck like this, or you want to invest heavily in a completely overbuilt 4×4, the Unimog life is not for everyone. There are high-speed axles that will allow you to traverse highways with greater ease, but they are expensive and incredibly hard to track down. The seller’s truck looks to be an ideal option for someone who wants a bulletproof drivetrain and a turnkey entry point into Unimog ownership. Thanks to Barn Finds reader JDC for the find.
Yes this is useless, but we all want one!!
What’s the GVWR?
Gross Vehicle Weight Rating.
I think this is the nicest Unimog I’ve ever seen. If I had some land or a farm, I’d be all over this. I’ve always had a thing for Unimogs going back to when I collected Matchbox cars in the 60s and had a bright blue one. Maybe they’re not good for driving on the expressway, but they are just plain cool.
One of my lifelong favorites!
I still have my Matchbox Mog as well as a couple of larger-scale, Corgi ones.
Alas, I don’t have a ranch or farm and this would suck as a commuter. But it’s still mighty cool!
I turned up to one of my off-road destinations about 20 years ago to find a group of mogs playing around. When I watched one idle it’s front wheels up a vertical rock surface and heard the gears moving in the portal axles I fell in love. Amazing machines.
Six levers! That is lever porn.
I had a series 2 Land Rover when I lived in Northern New Hampshire years ago and was always pumped when I got to use the secondary two levers for High/low or front engage. The trans was a crash design in first and second, but having those locker levers too would have been really cool, even saved me a tow truck one night when the left wheels were suddenly hanging off the ground.
For those wondering, this appears to be in northern New York state.
A few ranchers out west run them. We had some go through our shop. Only one gas pot but the rest were diesel. Fortunately, six cylinder units were the most common. I did entertain a couple of ‘60 models that sported 1.9L 4-Bangers.
And the latter would barely pull themselves, parked.
There was a local sheep rancher had an early one. You could get it out on the road and flat-out, you got maybe 70kph.
The guy had a lot of problems with head gaskets. Precombustion chambers, glow plugs, and ether were not good ways to start them up on a cold morning.
They rolled the truck and chiseled the crumpled parts of the cab away; used it that way for three or four years then one day, it was gone.
Wild rigs geo. Highway travel must be a chore. Almost half tractor/half truck. Round these parts, a 1 ton gas 4wd truck from the big 3 for work duty is much more practical of course. Especially with a power tailgate 💪👍
With the exception of the guy who rolled his truck the others are all from across the pond and brought their beasts from there. Quite a dedicated following; one guy found out that I was a diesel mechanic and had worked on Mercedes Benz, so that was all he needed to bring his truck to our place. I sometimes wish the word didn’t get around so much…
I have been contemplating buying one of these for years, especially with today’s distracted drivers. Imagine the fun of squishing the bozo who cut in front of you and then slammed on their brakes—one might nick the ‘Mog’s tire rubber. IIRC, these had 16 forward gears and four reverse gears. First forward gear at idle would cruise at 0.1 mph (yes, the decimal point is to the left of the “1”) and had a top speed of about 48 mph.
Problem is…. the biggest bozos on the road are the ones driving the huge pickups and SUVs. They don’t squash so easy.
Add pusher bars on the front for those bigger problems. Low speed but total torque available can relocate almost anything in front of you.
Are these any good in snow?
Among the countless uses is snowplowing with the Unimog throughout the mountains in Europe.
The neighbors driveway used to be plowed by a guy with one. It had a plow on the front and on the rear.
Why didn’t I take a video of it?????
For me I’d mount a plow on the front and instantly it becomes justifiable and useful 😎 I’d love to own this one!