Mercedes UNIMOG review - it's the most badass German truck!
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TechTranscript
00:00Hi everyone, how y'all doing? It's me. It's Matt. Matt Watson. Yeah, I need to wear a mask because of Covid.
00:05Anyway, I'm sat in a Mercedes-Benz Unimog. Got my driver Daniel from Mercedes-Benz and my cameraman Ollie in the back.
00:12We're gonna go off-road. Extreme off-road because that's what this vehicle is all about. Go on then Daniel, fire her up.
00:20Away we go.
00:23So this thing has suspension in its seat.
00:26Which is handy when you're going extreme off-roading. It's a bit like an HGV in that way.
00:32There's lots of clunking going on. Blimey, it's like being in a boat on a choppy sea.
00:37I've just whacked my arm off this centre console here. It really hurt.
00:42Now Mercedes has been building the Unimog since
00:461951 and it's essentially the same chassis and they change it all around for different purposes.
00:52They didn't even do a convertible version. This is like a pickup truck. It's designed to go pretty much anywhere.
01:01We're gonna go on an off-road course that is more extreme than you'd take something like a G-Wagon for instance.
01:06It's got insane chassis articulation,
01:09massive tyres, big knobbly grips on them as well. It's not the most powerful thing.
01:15I actually thought it'd have a huge engine. It's actually just a 4.8 litre diesel with four cylinders.
01:21It puts out 218 horsepower, which isn't all that much really, but it doesn't need that much.
01:27Top speed is 90 kilometres an hour, which is just over 55 miles an hour.
01:32But really when you're off-roading, what you want is that low down pulling power, which this gives you.
01:37Taking us up that hill? Yes. Oh, we're going up this massive hill. Do you know what the ground clearance is on this, Daniel?
01:45Yes, we can lock the forward drive. Yeah. We can lock to the transaxle in the rear and the middle.
01:51We have a gear shift with 18 gears. 18 gears? Yes. That's quite a lot of gears. A lot of gears.
01:58This is a special kind of wrecking crew inside. This? It's a picture of a donkey.
02:02It's a donkey, yes. The first eight gears to 40 kilometres an hour. Switch to forward drive.
02:09The second gear
02:11goes up to the hill. Well, let's donkey it.
02:15Do you ever get a bit seasick driving this?
02:21It's quite old tech, isn't it, this? So you can see all your wheels rather than digital cameras with screens.
02:27And they work just as well. Plus they're less expensive.
02:30And we have a tyre pressure control system inside.
02:33We can make the tyre pressure from 0.2 to 6 bar.
02:37So while you're driving you can deflate it,
02:39so you've got lots of traction, and then when you get back on the road, you can pump it up again.
02:43Yes, it's a special kind of tyre pressure control system in the Unimog. That's really good.
02:49So you have rear wheel steering as well. Yes. Yeah, kill the plants. They're weeds, they are anyway.
02:56It's amazing that it made it round there.
03:00Is it hard work on the steering? Big tyres, that's the problem.
03:04This is one of two Unimogs that hold the altitude world record. One of them is 6,694 metres.
03:12So someone drove this at a height of 6,694 metres.
03:17Where? This is the book to the story. We have a book, which you can buy from Mercedes-Benz online,
03:24no doubt, if you want to find out about Unimogs. This was one of them that went up
03:29very high, over 6,000 metres. Where is this place? The Atacama Desert in Chile.
03:36Yes, this is the Atacama Desert in Chile. This car in the rear is this one. That one, the one at the back?
03:42Yes, that one, yes. I'm not so interested, it's in the back. Rubbish. Well, where are we going now? Up here? Yes.
03:48Yeah, this looks serious.
03:51Go on, I'll get you in now.
03:53Third gear. Third gear. And four-wheel drive. This bit looks difficult. It's dry, it's no problem. When it's wet, it's very slippery.
04:01So you're constantly changing between lock differentials when you're driving? Yes, when I drive to the corner, I lock.
04:07Do you sometimes use this Unimog to rescue the other 4x4s? Yes.
04:13This is good, I like this round here.
04:18Hello.
04:19Are we returning to base?
04:22Yes.
04:23Can you do any, like,
04:25walking over obstacles or stone, like rocks? Or maybe is there something, like, quite extreme?
04:31Where is the perfect place? I don't know, you show me something that's, like, really extreme.
04:35The most extreme thing that you can do here with this. I mean, that was pretty extreme.
04:39I want more extreme! Give me more, Daniel! More extreme. I'm not that impressed, mate. I want more.
04:46You're not saying anything.
04:48I'm upsetting Daniel. Sorry, Daniel.
04:50Can we just rampage over that bit there?
04:53I would totally run amok in this thing.
04:56We're getting more extreme, people. If you don't ask, you don't get.
05:00Yes, this is what it's all about. Not following a trail. It's just going, I'm in a Unimog. I'm going where I want to go.
05:07Are we going to go over these? No way!
05:09No way!
05:15Yes!
05:16It didn't care!
05:17That is what the Unimog's about. It's about cross-country-ing
05:21without a care that you're going to get stuck, because you won't. Where can we go next?
05:28Can we go in there?
05:30Are we going to get this thing stuck?
05:32No, but it's a problem with the nature. Nature? Nature, yeah. There's nothing in there. It's just weeds.
05:40I'm just about to wipe out a load of German voles. Sorry, voles. You set up home in the wrong place.
05:48I do like nature. Whoa, this is nuts.
05:51We're like just cross-country-ing the off-road course. The mug rules.
06:00Now this feels quite scary when you're this high.
06:04Whoa, it's so good, this is.
06:07Oh, yeah. We'll just do the side of this obstacle instead, because we can
06:13basically drive all the bits that you shouldn't do. Oh my gosh. They'll go over this.
06:19We're going to frighten some rabbits out of their warrens.
06:24This really does just go anywhere. Can you go over those logs?
06:30If I want to. I definitely want to.
06:34Here comes the logs. Log, schmog. We don't care about no log.
06:49You have to see that. It's what a unimog does to you.
06:52So we're just on the off-road course, doing it as we please. Will it go up that one?
07:05No way. Let's do it. Let's get up here. That is so steep. Come on, the mug.
07:13This thing is wicked. Oh, oh. The ground is too slippery. Come on, mug.
07:23I suggest you apply more power.
07:31Look at the hole we made. The mug has been defeated.
07:36Yeah, up the side there, over the rock. Come on, mug. Redeem yourself.
07:39Yes.
07:56Where should we go next?
08:02Oh, nicely done.
08:04Let's go up over that way, and then we'll go over the shaky bit. Technical term, the shaky bit.
08:10Oh, no, no. This is not the part for the unimog. That isn't? It's too small for the unimog.
08:16We need for the drag longer. Oh. Do you reckon we could get up there?
08:25There is the nature. Have we killed too much nature? Okay, we'll stop with the nature. I think
08:31I think we've done a good job. Thank you very much, Daniel. I really enjoyed that. I'm sorry
08:35to all the plants or the insects and all the small mammals that we may have just
08:40annihilated, but I had a hell of a good time. Thank you. Thank you very much.
08:47I hope you all enjoyed the video. If you did, please give it a like. Now, I want to make
08:50something very, very clear. No animals, nor endangered plants, nor insects were harmed in
08:56the filming of that unimog video. We're actually driving it at Mercedes-Benz dedicated off-road
09:01facility at a place called Immerdingen in southern Germany, and we were driving exactly
09:06where we were allowed to be driving. Daniel and I were just having a little bit of a joke,
09:11just having things up for the cameras. Please don't think that I nor he can don't
09:17or go around damaging ecosystems. We absolutely don't. Now, I'm sat in my new Suzuki Jimny,
09:25and what you can't see from this camera angle is that I've actually made loads of modifications to
09:29it. I'm going to be uploading a video about all of those very, very soon. To make sure you don't
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09:47of some other videos you'd like me to do here on this channel. Thanks for watching.