Can I Daily Drive a Mercedes Unimog? Here's What It's Like!

On this episode, I want to find out what it's like to daily drive a Mercedes Unimog. What is it? Well, it's a giant military-based truck, and it's right here. So let me open the garage first, show it to you, and then I need to drive it about 60 miles over to Couch Off-Road Proving Grounds. So come along. This garage door is about 9 1⁄2 feet high, which is very important because the truck is almost 9 1⁄2 feet high. So come on the side and let me show it to you. This truck is built up and outfitted by Couch Off-Road Engineering. You can check them out using the link below. Jay let me actually borrow this for actually a couple of months. It's been here at the ranch, but now I need to drive it back. This puppy is rolling on 46-inch tall tires, and it's way in the air. What I want to find out, is it capable on-road, and what is it like to drive? The key is actually pretty standard. I plug it into the column. It's kind of hidden down here. Let's see. Let me power it up. I think the glow plug has to run for a little while. Oh, it came to life! I think the glow plug's finally cycled enough. I have a tire inflation system, CTIS, Central Tire Inflation System, and I can actually make sure all my tires are at proper pressures. And I have, let me show you, I have my pressure readout right there. So that's the rear axle and the front, and that's a little bit behind, so it's not the ultimate exact reading, but I'll be able to air it up and get going. All right guys, so let me explain really quick what I had to do to actually get it out of the garage. So one of the things, like you saw, I was raising the tire pressures. I need to get it ready for the highway. This will go about 70 or 75 miles per hour top speed, but the pressures have to be appropriate, probably near 60 PSI. So let me show you around. But the parking brake is also air operated, so I had to wait for the pressure to build up, not just for the tires, but also for the parking brake. But here you can see kind of the setup of this truck. Giant coil springs, giant shocks, and of course, Couch Off-Road does a lot of custom work, including this bumper in the front with lots of clearance. So this is a Giant Beast. It weighs about 14,500 pounds, starts life as a military vehicle, sometimes also fire departments use them in Europe. And of course, it was also sold for a couple years officially here in the United States, but now you can import some of the older ones like this and actually get them roadworthy. It has a winch up front, straight-six diesel under here. And so right now, I'm almost up to pressure. The parking brake is all good, can be released, has enough pressure. The brakes are hydraulic on this one. So now I can get in the cab and get on the highway. I'm leaving Tumbleweed Branch, and I'm on my way to Jay's place. I'll tell you about the manual transmission in a second, because I have 24 gears. Well, actually, I have eight gears, and I'll be using six of them. The other gears are for slow-speed crawling, really kind of off-road use or working gears. So right now, I'm on a side road approaching one of the main highways, 287, and I have a stoplight coming up. And I'm in top gear. I'm in eighth gear, but with overdrive. So I'm going to go out of overdrive, start applying my brake, and then I can also use my gearing to help me slow down a little bit as well. So it's really like driving a big semi-truck, except a little different. So here I'm starting off in third gear, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and now the power kicks in, eighth, and then I can use overdrive. Click. Yeah. The RPM drops, and I can go fast. I'll show you how fast when I get to I-25. But yeah, so you need to be kind of used to it. You need to be familiar with a manual transmission. And after a few minutes, you can actually become one with the truck and actually take it by the scruff, or actually not take it by the scruff. You can just drive it normally the way you want it. And right now, I'm rolling at 55, really nice and easy. All right, so I really wanted to be over there where the big boys, where the semi-trucks are, but they lowered their diesel price so much, it's really crowded. So I couldn't get in there. So, but hey, this is a daily life for the Unimog, and I'm here at the regular fueling station. And for the Unimog, even though the nozzle is huge, it will take a regular pump. And the fuel tank in this case is on the passenger side. So I had to pull up on the passenger side. That's all right. So now just top off, get a snack to eat, and keep moving on. All right, so just about 10 gallons. That should be plenty. I think this gets about, what, 9, 10 mpg? I mean, depending on how much weight you're carrying. So, okay, good. Good to go. All right, so I'm entering the main highway. My red line is at like 2200 RPM. And this engine is very powerful. J couch turned it up. So that's 7th gear. 8th gear. And when the turbocharger hits, I can really feel it. It's pulling like a freight train. And then I'm going to use my overdrive. There. I think you can hear that. The RPM changes, and I go to my highway gear. And now, I don't know if you can see this, but I'm going 55, 60. The speed limit here is 65. There I am. I'm at 65. Oh, yeah. Nice. Ooh, yes. So, my journey is done. So, what have I learned after driving the Unimog? Well, kind of on a daily drive. Well, a couple things. It's pretty slow to get going. You really kind of have to be one with the machine. Maybe start with a higher gear. And be very precise in how you're shifting gears. But once you're on the highway, as you saw, it just loves speed. You put that overdrive, flick it in 8th gear. The RPM drops a little bit. And then you can accelerate. And it's actually fairly comfy for a huge truck like this. So, of course, it depends on how much cargo you're carrying. I was pretty much empty today. It depends on many things. But I think if you can get used to that shifting, I think this will be a little bit tough to commute in, if you're in traffic all the time. But on a cross-country journey, I think it's a pretty easy truck to live with. Thank you for joining me. I'll see you next time. And check out OTFL.com for everything automotive, one place, right there.