Mercedes Unimog S 404.1 Ambulance. £4950ono Please click on the pictures to scroll through them. Very original with M180 2.2L straight six petrol engine. If you are looking at this then you probably don't need me to tell you too much about what a unimog is! It's quite rare to find them in original military condition like this. She is a 1969 Belgian army ambulance, with only around 6000 miles on the clock, and was imported and registered in the UK about 4 years ago. She was shown at Goodwood a bit, and then we bought her 2 years ago with the intention of driving her to Australia. We drove her back across Britain in deep snow, passing long lines of stuck traffic, with no problems and parked her up whilst we got ready to leave. Since then Syria, Iran, Pakistan and Tibet have all got a bit rubbish, so we are making other plans and sadly have to let her go. She could easily be converted to a camper without damaging her, by unbolting the stretchers and fitting an interior to the tracks that run all along the side panels and ceiling. She can be driven on a normal car licence if you got it before the restrictions changed from 7.5 to 3.5 tonnes. If not she can be downrated to 3.5 tonnes for just the price of some paperwork and you still legally have 750kg carrying capacity. They are actually rated to take nearly 2 tonnes off road, so you don't need to worry about overloading her. She is currently located near Bristol. The little Ford Prefect in the background of some of the pictures must also go if you're interested..

Call or email Marcus on (+44) 07929 986935 or marcus.jennings@yahoo.co.uk

Transmission Unimog 404.1's have 6 forward (2 are low ratio - on the road you start in 3rd) and 2 reverse gears. Selectable 4x4, and front, rear and centre diff locks. Everything can be selected whilst on the move. Portal axles give huge ground clearance even below the diffs. The gearbox is good and has had a recent oil change, the front and rear diff lockers are stiff and probably need to be pushed directly on the diff a few times to free them up - I haven't tried because she's on concrete and i don't want to get her stuck going in a straight line if i can't release them again!

Engine The M180 engine is a low compression version of a common Mercedes car engine making most parts easy to find around the world, and being low compression they run easily on very low octane petrol. The engine is 2.2 litres, giving 82hp in low compression and a top speed of 59 mph (which to be honest feels a bit fast! 50mph is a nicer cruising speed). Fitting a car type high compression head gives another 10bhp if you want. They do around 15mpg, which seems scary until you realise what most vans do anyway. Many people convert them to LPG which could halve your fuel costs - the kit is about £300, there is plenty of room on the chassis for a tank, and LPG is surprisingly common and used around the world. (surprising if you live in the UK). She has a standard wading depth of 80cm with sealed spark plugs/dynamo etc. without a snorkel - you could fit one if you want to get really wet. We've bought a civilian spark plug conversion with electronic ignition, as these plugs are easier to find around the world, and one of the original military HT leads is cracked, so the engine can only run on 5 cylinders at the moment. The compression is good on all six cylinders though so all will be fine once the kit is put on. You could keep the the original waterproof leads and plugs of course, but a new set is pretty expensive. There is an American website that shows you how to make new ones for about £3 though.. The rear pipe of the exhaust has a few holes and would probably need repairing or replacing.

The ambulance box is 3m x 2m by around 4 and a half feet high, and sits on a four point flexible mounting, as the chassis is designed to twist by 20cm over rough ground. It is insulated and has one side door and the back doors. I've been in a few that have pop-tops fitted to give standing headroom - apparently a standard VW camper top fits the curve of the roof but we felt a bit guilty about cutting holes in her until we were sure she'd be our home. She has original equipment in the box including;

Seating with seatbelts for 7 in the back, this can fold away for up to 4 stretcher cases or both can be folded away to give a large open space. 2 of the four stretchers are Belgian army and 2 are presumeably unoriginal as they are US army but exactly the same pattern, just a different stencil. There are alarm buttons fitted next to each stretcher bearer, which sound a buzzer in the cab, which is really annoying with a bunch of friends in the back... A petrol fired heater (petrol line disconnected at the moment) is above the cab and provides heat to the box. Steel blast covers for all the box windows are stored on the rear doors. 2 opening skylights. The blue light has been removed for UK road registration but the illuminated red cross above the cab is still present and working, as are the two tone sirens, though these have been disconnected. The windows have fitted roller blinds. The bench seat at the front of the box has an opening lid with storage under and a folding seat to the side. All upholstery in the truck is perfect.

Brakes The brakes are a single line hydraulic, drums all around. Mechanical handbrake. The master cylinder has been reconditioned by the previous owner. I haven't had the drums off to check the slave cylinders. Some Unimogs were fitted with air over hydraulic, some with a brake servo, and some with neither. When we bought her she had neither, which makes them pretty heavy but they're effective. I think this was the same for all of the Belgian and maybe Swiss army Unimogs? We bought and fitted a new servo to help out my 6 stone girlfriend - but that (annoyingly!) is leaking (probably from being sat around in a Belgian warehouse for 30 years) so needs to be taken out again and the seals reconditioned before she can be driven for more than a few miles, so her current MOT has now lapsed. We could bypass the servo again if you want to try to get her to an MOT station to drive home. We live an hour and a half drive away from where she is stored though, so for us, working on her to get an MOT involves a three hour round trip. She is surprisingly small so could be trailered relatively easily, though she is 2750kg unladen. She is shorter than a 110 Landrover with the same wheelbase 2900mm, and 2140mm wide.

Chassis The chassis is sound all round. It could do with a rub back and a new coat of paint to get rid of the rust you can see in the photos. We've fitted new mounting bolts in places where they were missing. There is masses of space to fit extra storage or tanks etc if desired.

 

There are two 60L fuel tanks. Only one is connected up at the moment (presumeably to bypass the notoriously leaky fuel changeover switch) We've cleaned this out and undercoated the outside (inside was fine, no peeling paint), hence it's current silver colour. We have new flexible fuel lines, a new changeover switch, new filter housing, fuel tank seals and rubbers from Westfield 4x4 Unimog specialists, included but not yet fully fitted. Removeable fuel strainer in the large filler neck - designed to be used with Jerrys.

 

She is fitted with a preheater under the radiator which can be seen in the photos. This provides heat to the engine block and batteries, though i'm not sure whether it should have some sort of disposeable NATO cartridge or whether you just bite the bullet and light a fire in there?! Either way, she started fine in -10 degrees C so it would have to be pretty damn cold before you needed it!

 

There are 3 storage boxes on the chassis, the battery box needs repairing or replacing as the hinges have broken. There are also 3 Jerry cans in racks, and mountings for pioneer tools, though these are missing. 2 wheel chocks in mountings.

 

The spare tyre is good and fits under the chassis, when it's removed (as in most of the photos) it gives really great access to the gearbox, fuel lines, tanks, servo etc. Actually, being so high off the ground makes her ridiculously easy to work on, and everything seems to have been made to be easily replaceable in the field.

 

The other tyres are all good. There is a heavy duty hitch (NATO hitch? I can't remember) on the rear, a pin hitch on the front. A working convoy light. Radio interference suppression earth straps everywhere.

 

Cab The cab is a soft top with side screens and the front screen can fold down. The canvas soft top has started to rot, but we have a new non canvas one and new side screens included, also a spare windscreen assembly. The cab is mostly good but could do with a bit of welding on the drivers side rear corner as shown in the pictures. With the engine cover removed there is very easy access to the engine. In the pictures the gear lever gaiters are removed from when i was fitting the servo, but they are all fine and included and shown in one of the pictures. There is also sound and heat insulation for the engine and header tank. There is a small opening window for communication between the cab and the box. A small lockable box is hidden under the passenger seat, accessible when the seat is removed. Cab heater. Hand throttle, original complete first aid kit on drivers door.

 

Electrics The electrics are 24 volt run by a waterproof dynamo, with the batteries in a box under the chassis. She is fitted with convoy lights and blackout lights front and rear, plus the illuminated red cross light on the roof. She has short range radio interference suppression should you happen to get caught in a nuclear blast. The fuse box covers which aren't shown in the pictures are here.

 

Extra bits She has everything that I think she should have, except the pioneer tools. She has all manuals (which were expensive to get hold of) plus i have a digital copy of the complete workshop maintainence manual. Anything you can't see in the pictures that you think should be there is probably just in the workshop. Plus, we have bought around £600 worth of spares and upgrades, many of which haven't yet been fitted.