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Now usually a camper is seen resting on a truck bed, but not here. It’s actually laying inside the bed of this giant Unimog RV. This one belongs/belonged to a fellow named Daniel Bass. It’s a Unimog U1300L Four Wheel Camper unit that can go pretty much anywhere.
According to Bass, “As a teenager growing up in Germany, my family went tent camping in Italy and Yugoslavia near the Mediterranean. When I was 18, I bought an ex-German Postal delivery truck, a Mercedes 407D and changed it into a camper. I used the Mercedes to travel to Greece three years in a row during summer vacations. In the winter I used it to go skiing in the Austrian Alps. I moved to the United States in 1983. During the first few years after I moved, I went camping with a friend who had a truck and cabover camper. Being from Europe where you don’t see cabover campers, I liked the concept. It lets you use your truck for hauling or work during the week, and for camping on the weekend.”
And here’s what he had to say about performance of this RV: “Unimogs are are not very fast, but they are very nimble. It goes about 55 miles per hour but, with overdrive, mine can go 65 miles per hour. The fire truck is a turbo version as well. Going uphill, it’s like a semi truck. … My Unimog has 16 gears, but normally they have 8 gears. I wouldn’t use the first three or four gears on the road. I start in fourth gear. In four wheel drive mode, I can put it in first or second gear, and crawl. The Unimog is the German version of a Humvee, so it has much taller wheels. I can go over big rocks and drive in sand because I can lower the pressure in the tires. This truck can go at about 45 degrees approach angle and a 50 degree departure angle, which is almost scary. I haven’t done that yet with the camper on the truck.
You can see our gallery for this one below. All the images on our website expand when you click them, so you can get a better look.
For more from Truck Camper Magazine, find them indexed in our vehicles, trucking and RVing directory. You can search for the company’s name and look for suppliers and dealers in an area near you by looking at our regional headers. And to see more RVs, click here.
