New toy - Unimog 404 hardcab

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Posted on a local facebook group. My HOA would **** bricks or I would be on this like white on rice!

I saw that one on craigslist before that person bought it. Had all the fuerwehr stuff as it was just pulled out of the fleet. If I remember correctly it was half that price.


My neighbor has a 404 that's been under cover for prolly 10+ years. I've been meaning to talk to him to see if he'll part with it. Same guy has a pinzgauer...

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

On the Steel Soldiers forum, they seem to think they are not very good vehicles. Not ideal as a material handler, and not ideal as a truck.... too many compromises, they say.

Personally, I would take the forklift off the front and use it as a all terrain crane.

To your other question, no. I have kind of stopped running ads for a while, but should get back at it. There is a military vehicle show nearby next weekend that I will take it to. I now have a full set of new tires that will go with it to whomever wants to buy it.

I heard they also a pain in the butt to work on. Have to remove a lot of components to get to other stuff. You'll see the disassembled ones go for really cheap on GP/IP, but then again you would want to go out and inspect it before you bid on those units...

[cashflyer]

I'll give this a try again.
Mercedes 4x4 truck / pickup - vintage collector item

I've lowered the price by $1k, and I'm throwing in a full set of tires to go with it.
The new Michelins have similiar thread to what Widebody has on his 'Mog.

[widebody911]

What I like about your truck is that it's complete, original, unmolested and hasn't been "improved" - the only mod I see is the civilian ignition conversion, which I just did to mine. I have since found that if you get the right wires, you can do the pertronix upgrade and keep the sealed distributor cap; that's actually what mine had, but the wires and cap were shot.

Originally Posted by cashflyer

I'll give this a try again.
Mercedes 4x4 truck / pickup - vintage collector item

I've lowered the price by $1k, and I'm throwing in a full set of tires to go with it.
The new Michelins have similiar thread to what Widebody has on his 'Mog.

[cashflyer]

A previous owner repainted it in an incorrect shade of green.

Here is a nice example.... and it's only $40,000



http://www.alphacars.com/web/vehicle_photos/10487003/



Although.... this one seems to be the same color as mine.
I wonder if the paint "chalks out" that badly, or if they were giving them a cheap spray before they came to the US ?

[widebody911]

The color looked ok from here; is the color a "Swiss" thing?

Originally Posted by cashflyer

A previous owner repainted it in an incorrect shade of green.

Here is a nice example.... and it's only $40,000



AlphaCars and Ural of New England | Pre-owned Dealer | Boxborough, Massachusetts

[cashflyer]

Originally Posted by widebody911

The color looked ok from here; is the color a "Swiss" thing?

I think it was just a "military" thing.

In person, you can tell that mine has been resprayed. Not only does the interior not match the exterior, but the exterior also shows where some scratches in the original paint were painted over with no sanding.


Originally, the military Unimogs (and Pinzgauers) would have been "NATO Green".

The RAL color code for this is supposedly 6014
RAL Color Chart | www.RALcolor.com

And the Fed-Std-595 color is supposedly 14050.

[vonsmog]

Some photos of the MassMog trail ride this past weekend.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58246344@N05/sets/72157656570164593/

[DonDavis]

^^ Linky no worky...

[vonsmog]

Sorry, try this link

https://www.flickr.com/gp/58246344@N05/G7rEi2

[DonDavis]

Great pics! Looks like it was a blast.

[VincentVega]

Too cool, thanks for sharing the photos

[cashflyer]

Originally Posted by widebody911

What I like about your truck is that it's complete, original, unmolested and hasn't been "improved" - the only mod I see is the civilian ignition conversion, which I just did to mine.

Well Thom, mine is sold.
As of yesterday, it is in Florida and now belongs to one of our fellow Pelicans.
I'll not drop any names, and will leave it to him to discuss if he desires.

I hope he has a lot of fun with it!

[Esel Mann]

Hey there CashFlyer!

I've been putting around in it as time permits. The cool thing is many neighbors drive a Mercedes. The look on their faces when I tell them I too have a Mercedes now is priceless.

It's a pretty neat machine!

Trying to get it insured has been an interesting journey. I gave State Farm a shot at it. They covered it only to inform me a week later that they are dropping it (would not give a definitive reason why). I've got about a month and so am looking at Allstate.

I did run into an issue with the other rims. I'm still waiting for benzworld approval to post over there. Perhaps some mog gurus over here can chime in on my post which follows this.

[cashflyer]

Sending you a PM about insurance....

[Esel Mann]

So fellow Moggers, does anyone have experience with outfitting a '68 Swiss 404 with rims from a newer model and slightly wider tires?

Yesterday, I pulled the the original rims (which had Armstrong/Fidelity 11.00-20 military tires and replaced them with rims which are different and I'm guessing come from a newer model mog. On these newer rims are MichelinX 12.5R20XL tires.

With the newer rims/tires, I can at best veer but not steer. The there is interference with the fronts, a rubbing/binding/cogging when I try to steer in either direction. Unfortunately, this occurs when I pull out of my driveway and onto the road and my neighbors would not take kindly to me blocking traffic while I got underneath to have a look see if it is rubber/metal (which I think it is) or metal/metal.

My guess is there is an incompatibility with either the newer rim offset, or the wider tire, or both? What are your thoughts?

Below, first pic is that of what was originally on the mog, second pic is the newer rim/tire combo on the mog.

[cashflyer]

Here is a photo of a 404 Unimog wearing a 12.5 x 20 Michelin XL.
Beside it is a 14 x 20.



I think the problem is the rim, not the tire.
Looking at your photos, I can see that there is an offset difference. I don't know why I never noticed it before, but it looks pretty obvious now that it is on the truck.

When I bought the tires and rims, I was told "they will bolt right on". I guess I should have asked if they would work properly once bolted on.
This Pirate 4x4 thread says that the wheels from a Mog with disc brakes has the wrong backspacing for a 404. And for what it's worth, these wheels were for a 406/416/419 series Unimog.


Maybe sell the (6) rims that are the wrong offset and use the money to buy (4) that are correct?
Google found this guy that advertises the 419 rims for $95 each. Sell yours at $75 each. lol.

Contact Vonsmog here on Pelican. He may be interested in the rims. He may even know of some cheap 404 rims for you.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by Esel Mann

Hey there CashFlyer!

I've been putting around in it as time permits. The cool thing is many neighbors drive a Mercedes. The look on their faces when I tell them I too have a Mercedes now is priceless.

Not just a Mercedes, but a vintage, two-door, Mercedes convertible.

[Esel Mann]

Widebody, it gets even better, to handle the lug torques, none of my torques wrenches went that high. So I bought a 3/4" drive breaker bar and 3/4" drive torque wrench. Each being 4ft long and about 35lbs. Needless to say between wielding the breaker bar and torque wrench around the mog, I'm only a couple of tats short of being voted neighborhood bad-azz for November 2015. The neat thing is I've been putting off replacing the CVs on the Porsches due to lacking a torque wrench that can handle the outboard axle nuts. Well I now have one more key piece to that puzzle!

Cashflyer, I got your PM, thanks. What I think I'll do is get new rubber/tubes put on the original rims (I'll use that 'new' tube from one of the originals to get the spare done too). That will allow me to put around safely and search for another set of original rims that can be cleaned up and powder-coated and swap the rubber. Then I can decide what to do with the spares at my leisure.

[cashflyer]

Sorry for the headaches.

Those disc-brake wheels are $325 if purchased brand new.
Disc Brake Wheel - 11x20