Trucking milestones: 1974 – traversing Iceland with a Unimog

What is basically perfectly suited for a research trip through the raw nature of Iceland? Geologist Ulrich Münzer and his team did not need long to think about this question in the early 1970s: although it was primarily used in construction, agriculture and forestry, it had to be the vehicle whose name is truly fitting – the Universal-Motor-Gerät (universal motorised device), or Unimog for short.

To be precise, the scientists chose an Unimog 404 S to be shipped from Munich to the island in the North Atlantic. Certainly not without some preparation because, at this time, the vehicle already had 11 years under its belt. So it underwent refurbishment from “A” for alternator to “W” for windscreen – and rebuilt so that the team of five researchers in total could use it for sleeping and shelter if the conditions were bad.