Why do so many Americans hate European trucks?

this is always problem with imported machinery, from unimog people i get information that unimog was too expensive for usa market

 

Two lines of unimog now, UGE and UHE, old model of unimog (UGN and UHN) just went out of production and now new unimog would be available for export markets too.

UGE means unimog geräteträger evolution -english implement carrier
UHE means unimog high mobility evolution -english extreme mobility ( which is bit confusing)

UGE have models from u216, u218 (u20 dont exist anymore), u318, u323 ( new one) , u423, u427, u430, u527, u530

u500 series can get up to 36400lbs

UHE have two models u4023 and u5023 , 5023 for fire service is avavailable in 32000lbs version , normal ones are 28700, also version 31000 exists


it is most capable off road truck, french firefighter class is as S3 , which means it is only vehicle capable for fires in mountains it can carry 6000L of water...

also dingo use its chassis

as shunting it can pull 1000 only on straight places, normally it is 800t, but there is solution to hook two of them via can bus, and both work on remote controler so you have just one man at end of composition and nobody in cabs

 

Don't get me wrong, when we did get the odd call for it on a job it worked pretty good. We had big mud tires on it so it could drive over the frozen muskeg. Biggest problem was we were quoted $5k to replace the windshield (I believe, this was about 7 years ago. Memory is a bit foggy). They didn't want to spend that kind of money so it had to be trailered everywhere because it wouldn't pass a CVI with it cracked.

 

I think 98989 already gave an excellent answer on your question.

However there is another point, visibility. From the cab of a 'small' Unimog you have an excellent view of what your machinery is doing, on a farm tractor you sit much higher, and much further away. To emphasize how important this was when the 'small' Unimog was designed, they made it possible to to shift the steering wheel and the pedals from the left side of the cab to the right side, so that the driver has an even better view on his work.

 

well many of people are using them because they are cheaper but if you equip tractor good you get in about 70% of price for unimog, unimog have wider possible combination.

in unimog you can get about 10000kg of payload it you remove tipper, that means 6.5m3 of salt during winter, tractor can carry about 2m3 of salt

unimog can adopt 3 moving machines, sweeper machine , vacuum cleaner,sewage, wheel loader, i saw even concrete pump, can be used in forest, can pull grain out of fields with 55mph but far more capable on terrain than trucks, some are using unimog as railway fire truck , for repairing rail lines, pulling broken trains or trams.....
you can mount crane on it and be usable in energy sector, i know for unimogs with 30mt cranes

few here are used as buses pulling 2 trailers with both steering axles , so trailers are following tracks of unimog, total length 92ft , have torque convetor so they can go on steep and narrow paths

 

i dont get you wrong , i understand what are you talking about, but i wonder how it is possible that such vehicle dont exist in your part of world ( from domestic manufacturers), since it is well recognized world wide,

 

unimog have turning circle same as passenger MB car, there is even option of 4wheel steering

as shunting machine unimog spend 10 times less fuel than shunting locomotive

 

Normally we just sit on the fender...lol

 

We do sort of have similar vehicles. Navistar and Freightliner both make a 4x4 medium duty truck (as well as 6x6 and 8x8 for really heavy stuff). A few posts back I posted a video clip of a Marcep Intruder, which is a custom built oilfield truck made right here in Alberta, Canada. Those are pretty neat off road units.

 

I guess the Americans didn't really appreciate the versatility of the machine, nor its life expectancy. Over 60% of all Unimogs ever produced is still driving around.

Some nice videoclips: