"Service" in the desert It is well known that neither professionals nor amateurs have much chance of getting through a desert rally without help and servicing. At the 1988 Pharaoh's Rally, therefore, a Mercedes-Benz Unimog was on hand to provide fast and reliable assistance. Its job was to help the team win by carrying tires, spare parts, fuel and tools. Having done its job exemplarily for 12 days, even to the extent of towing one vehicle 300 km through the desert, the service Unimog embarked on a race to catch up with the field, and almost by the by, came fourth in its own class.

A win and two good placings for the Unimog
The 1985 Paris-Dakar Rally - 14,000 gruelling kilometres through the sand and rock deserts of the Sahara - ended with an exciting win for the Unimog in the overall truck class. During the final stage, through tropical forests, the winning team made full use of the superior engineering in their 170 horsepower, 125 kg/h Unimog to advance in roughterrain from second to first place. This great victory was made all the more impressive by the fact that the winning team's accompanying vehicle came third overall, and the accompanying vehicle of another team fourth - in both cases a Unimog 1300 L.

"Tourist Special" with the Unimog.
In Italy a U 1550 L with a 20-seater bus body takes tourists up to the crater of Mt. Etna.

In Australia, a Unimog with high off-road mobility is the only "tourist bus" that can keep to its routes on schedule in the rainy season. This particular model makes it possible to offer passengers maximum comfort while carrying them safely through the hardest of country. This means that certain sights can be enjoyed all year round, e.g. King's Canyon and Palm Valley, where you have to drive 20 km right along a river bed.

Travelling in the "Noah's Ark" on wheels Expedition vehicles have to be laboratories, "fortresses", food depots, parts stores and home all at once. All of this is made possible by the right box body. Convenient and practical. From experienced equipment specialists. Yet a vehicle like this also has to be able to move at over 100 km/h on roads; get through the deserts of Africa, with four-wheel drive; creep at minimum speeds with locked differentials over near-impassable rocks and through swampy areas; or ford water courses and flooded river banks on the way to virgin forest. Explorer Heiko Bleher decided in favour of a Mercedes-Benz Unimog years ago. With its 3,000 kilos of expedition kit, it remains firmly "on the ground" even in critical situations and with heavy bodies mounted; and it is looked after by a reliable service network all over the work.

Unimog - A friend in need Emergency and rescue organizations play a vital part in community life. The most varied of requirements have to be met, and areas of operation have to be reached quickly and reliably. The Mercedes-Benz Unimog concept has successfully demonstrated that it meets the special body mounting requirements of fire brigades, police forces, the Red Cross and other organizations all over the world. In many countries, the Unimog's design features make it irreplaceable when help is needed fast. On the Mediterranean coast, over 1,000 Unimogs are in the service of fire brigades, mainly for fighting forest fires. As a fire tender with about 3,000 litres of water and a powerful pump, the Unimog is a highly efficient unit. In areas hit by severe storms, for instance, technical assistance teams often use Unimogs to clear the streets of blown-down trees or to restore power by means of emergency generators. In Switzerland a U 1750 L has been equipped as a tunnel rescue and recovery vehicle which is mainly designed to clear a path for other rescue vehicles, but which is also capable of carrying out rescue, recovery and clearance work on its own. In regions prone to earthquakes and other natural disasters, the Unimog can be among the first to bring help when fitted out as a large-body ambulance with a high cross-country capability. As well as a large amount of special medical equipment and several oxygen cylinders for treatment of victims on the spot, four built-in stretchers make it possible to transport the injured.

Unimog Ground Analysis Unimog - for locating and exploiting mineral resources.

Unimog Fuel Tanker Open-cast brown coal mining - where extreme terrain is routine.

Mining Applications The Unimog has provded itself to be unmatched in the hard business of open-cast mining. It is usually fitted with a crew cab, and often also with a loading crane. It's tasks include mobile conveyer supervision, transporting work teams to and from their places of work, and maintenance and repair work. Experts agree that they can rely on the Unimog. It gets through virtually anything without getting stuck.

Right across Asia in searing heat and icy cold.
In western China - which has an abundance of natural resources - working in mountainous regions or the Takla Makan desert makes the most rigorous demands of people and vehicles. In temperatures that vary from -35 degrees to above +50 degrees C, over 600 Unimogs are in operation as mobile drilling platforms and measuring stations, for transporting materials and personnel, as construction site equipment and crane vehicles, as mobile workshops in rough terrain and as water and diesel fuel tankers. To stop the extremely fine sand from getting into the axles and gearboxes, these are filled with compressed air - a feature to which the Unimog also owes it 120 cm fording depth. In this way, the Unimog is contributing to the economic growth of one of the oldest civilized countries in the world.

At Prakla-Seismos a fleet of Unimogs helps in the search for natural resources This internationally reputed firm has been engaged in geophysical activities in mineral exploration for many years - searching for oil, gas, ores, and thermal or ground water. The "workplaces" are usually in trackless terrain with difficult access. This means that a large number of easily manoeuvrable and reliable all-wheel-drive vehicles with cross-country capability are essential. Their Unimog fleet nowadays numbers around 900, the first one having been bought as early as 1952. They are used to carry measuring implements and water; for heavy-duty work when erecting drilling rigs wherever they are needed; with crewcabs for transporting both personnel and materials as dropsiders or mobile workshops; as cable-laying vehicles or recovery trucks fitted with winches - to name but a few of the main applications.

The Unimog for measuring and communications The Unimog for measuring and communications.

An excellent radio or locating vehicle The Unimog can help establish contact where it is needed most. Even where there are no cables, no ready-laid network, and often not even a track to drive on. The best place to take measurements or transmit from is decided by the driver. Then it's up to the Unimog to prove that it is not impressed by the terrain. The box-body containing the sensitive instruments is securely fastened at predetermined mounting points which help to minimize the effects of jolting and ensure a low centre of gravity even with very high bodies, at high speeds on winding roads and on trackless ground.

The Unimog - for transporting good and supplies Reliable and gentle transport in any terrain. Whether it is a question of supplying a depot in the heat of the desert or in the winter's snow, or of maintaining the equipment on a construction site, the Unimog's reliability in extreme conditions is a decisive factor for many customers. Uncompromising four-wheel drive combined with superb engineering gives these cross-country supply vehicles exactly the sort of characteristics that are so essential for work of this kind.