New U500s

[charlieaarons]

There are four newish U500s (long wheelbase) for sale on Ebay, 1-7000 miles, $70-82K. Very good prices. Last chance to get the best USA legal chassis for a large expedition camper till 2010. No problems with overloading, like certain other chassis.

Charlie

[Scott Brady]

Those trucks are impressive in person. Huge actually. I believe Unicat used one for a build recently.

I would really enjoy a long weekend test with one, after that, I would be wanting more

[charlieaarons]

Yes, Unicat did use one to build a camper. I own it. It is currently in Palo Alto Calif; we are going to Baja in April and will be driving it to Alaska in May. You can inspect it on the unicatamericas website.
Charlie

[hinoranger]

Anyone know what the status of the North American UNIMOG is?

Most recent updates on the official site are about a year old & I havn't seen one at the Minneapolis dealer in quite a bit longer than that.

[charlieaarons]

There are still 2006 and earlier U500s for sale and allegedly they brought quite a few in prior to 2007. 2007-2009 models will not be imported due to 2007 EPA emissions but when Euro 5 comes into effect in 2010 they will start bringing them in again, Since Euro 5 exceeeds 2010 EPA. But, as mentioned, new or near new U500s can be found and the earlier ones are (relatively) cheap. $70-80K is a great price for an almost new U500. None of the 4 on Ebay had CTIS; only one had the electro-automatic shifting (which works great on mine). Those two options are worth about $11K. All had working gears (5.77 low range) and one had the heated windshield, all have at least basic hydraulics. The cheapest one is just a cab-chassis, the aluminum bed is pretty expensive and of course un-necessary to build a camper.

Charlie

[hinoranger]

Thanks- not that I'm actually in the market for one but I know a few people who are kind of interested.

That sounds like essentially what I'd heard awhile ago but couldn't remember details or a source.