Unimog

The Unimog (pronunciation in American English: YOU-nuh-mog; British English: YOU-knee-mog;^[1] German: [ˈʊnɪmɔk], listen^ⓘ) is a line of multi-purpose tractors, trucks and lorries that has been produced by Boehringer from 1948 until 1951, and by Daimler Truck (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler AG) since 1951.

Unimog production started in 1948 at Boehringer [de] in Göppingen. Daimler-Benz took over manufacture of the Unimog in 1951, and first produced it in their Gaggenau plant. From 1951, the Unimog was sold under the Mercedes-Benz brand. However, the first Unimog to feature the three-pointed Mercedes-Benz star was only introduced in 1953. Since 2002, the Unimog has been built in the Mercedes-Benz truck plant in Wörth am Rhein in Germany.^[2] The Mercedes-Benz Türk A.Ş. plant assembles Unimogs in Aksaray, Turkey.^[3] Unimogs were also built in Argentina (first ever country to do so outside Germany) by Mercedes-Benz Argentina S.A. under licence from 1968 until 1983 (with some extra units built until 1991 off the assembly line from parts in stock) in the González Catán factory near the city of Buenos Aires, as stated in the book "El Unimog en el Ejército Argentino", by Argentine author and historian Gaston Javier Garcia Loperena in 2015.^{[4]: 141 [5]: 122}

The first model was designed by Albert Friedrich and Heinrich Rößler shortly after World War II to be used in agriculture as a self-propelled machine providing a power take-off to operate saws in forests or harvesting machines on fields. It was designed with rear-wheel drive and switchable front-wheel drive, with equal-size wheels, in order to be driven on roads at higher speeds than standard farm tractors. With their very high ground clearance and a flexible frame that is essentially a part of the suspension, Unimogs are not designed to carry as much load as regular trucks.^[6]: 7

Due to their off-road capabilities, Unimogs can be found in jungles, mountains and deserts as military vehicles, fire fighters, expedition campers, and even in competitions like truck trials and Dakar Rally rally raids. In Western Europe, they are commonly used as snowploughs, municipal equipment carriers, agricultural implements, forest ranger vehicles, construction equipment or road–rail vehicles and as army personnel or equipment carriers (in its armoured military version). New Unimogs can be purchased in one of two series: medium series 405, also known as the UGN ("Geräteträger" or equipment carrier),^[7]: 4 and heavy series 437, also known as the UHN ("Hochgeländegängig" or highly mobile cross country).^[8]