Unimog

Martin Flammer of the
Unimog sales
department directed the
“star parade” and
presented the
demonstrations in the
Ötigheim gravel pit
skilfully (left)
Only the realistic work
demonstrations were
more spectacular than
the “star parade” of
working and rescue
vehicles (strip at the
bottom)
combat fires quickly. In France alone, more
than 1,000 Unimogs equipped for this purpose
are in use; each of them can carry up to
5,000 litres of water.
ing out repairs after floods, storms and
earthquakes or in post-accident rescuing
operations.
In addition to extensive information on
the Unimog’s technology and application options,
practice-oriented talks by Lt. Col. Didier
Besson (head of the firefighting centre
in Royan, South-West France) and Helmut
Moser (four-wheel-drive training teacher and
publisher/editor-in-chief of the “4 Wheel
Drive” magazine, from Wels, Austria)
aroused lots of interest. “We would have
been helpless in many situations without
our Unimog” – this statement by Mr. Besson
made it clear to the experts in attendance
how important the “appropriate equipment”
is when fighting fires and other catastrophes.
Besson, who in the summer months is
often busy fighting severe forest fires, emphasized
“his” Unimog working vehicles’
technical concept, their reliability and the
ability of the Unimog models U 3000 to
U 5000 to be driven directly into the fires
with their solid steel driver’s cab and special
self-protection equipment, thus creating fire
lanes. These Unimog units equipped with an
extinguishing water tank are mainly used to
The demonstrations in the Ötigheim
gravel pit convinced firemen and catastrophy
prevention staff of the merits of the new
highly mobile Unimog chassis U 3000 -
U 5000. The real-life working presentations
of the U 300, U 400 and U 500 off-road implement
carriers, too, were very impressive
to watch – as a tank vehicle for emergency
supplies of drinking water, as a hose tender,
with a crane and/or winch, as a forest fire
extinguishing vehicle, as a high-pressure
cleaning unit or equipped with an excavatorloader
or a special sand sack filling machine
for flood disaster control.
■
Unimog 2|2003 21