There’s a fantastic-looking, 1985 Unimog U1700L/38 DoKa for sale near Seattle at the moment. This truck and its square-jawed brethren represent my favorite iteration of the Unimog concept. They look more purposeful than their round-nosed, 70s-era forebearers, and not as tall and ungainly as Unimog’s most recent offerings. The “L/38” means it’s a long-wheelbase version and “DoKa” is, of course, what Mercedes-Benz engineers like to call a crew cab.
This particular one, an ex-Swedish-Fire-Brigade truck — that’s “Räddningstjänsten” to all of you Nordic types — has just about every feature you could ask for: front and rear locking differentials, front and rear hydraulic winches (a 12,000 lb. Warn in front and a 20,000 lb. Braden in the back), a rear high-speed PTO, two-piece beadlock wheels, and an 5.7L turbo-diesel engine. Payload capacity? Over 3 tons—more than you can haul in three F350s combined!