Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite - View Single Post

tennmogger · 09-18-2008, 20:06

Kyle, I'll elaborate a little on the ex-French 404 Unimog because I know the gang on here loves a good story. This truck was stationed with French NATO forces in Germany all it's life, was sold in 1991 to a large German company (Vebeg) along with 300 others, but failed to function and was sent to a storage lot. Those 404's which ran good were resold. A good friend of mine from Germany bought the whole storage lot full of mogs and offered me this one. Possibly as a result of living in Germany it was is much better condition than I even expected. I bought it sight unseen, from one picture, from that junk yard in Germany. Got it shipped over intending it to be a 'set of spare parts' for my other 404, and a project to learn how these trucks were put together. But when I got it, and did a complete tear down, I found the only failure was a bad clutch. The engine was good (a 1979 replacement) and even the axles and tranny had been replaced recently. The brakes had new linings and the drums mic'ed out as never been turned. So, I sand blasted everything, painted it, rebuilt all the small parts, and put it back together along with a custom flat bed with mid-mounted winch (which feeds front and rear). That was done in 1998 and 1999 and the truck has had little need for anything but routine maintenance since then. My family and I drove it from Denver to Moab this summer and wheeled it for a week on the best/worst Moab could throw at us (except the 5 rated trails because I don't want to "hurt" it, but it has been there in the past). Not bad for a 50 year old truck!