First look: Unimog Kruiser

Many of us sleep under canvas in one form or another and keep gear to a minimum when travelling in remote Outback areas. But imagine being able to drive deep into tough 4WD country – in a motorhome, no less – with air-conditioning, a shower and a toilet on board...

If your pockets are deep enough, you can have all these luxuries out on the expedition trail with the arrival of the new Unimog Kruiser.

This stylish, 4WD truck-based motorhome is the result of a collaboration between Queensland-based expedition vehicle specialist Unidan and well-known RV manufacturer Kimberley Kampers.

The way it works is this: you supply Unidan a used Mercedes-Benz Unimog cab-chassis (or Unidan can source either a new or used one for you) and then Unidan and Kimberley Kampers do the rest.

There are more Unimogs around than you might think: the Australian Defence Forces began off-loading their Unimog fleet a couple of years ago, and there are still more to be auctioned off (through Australian Frontline Machinery).

If you choose a used Unimog sourced by Unidan, the starting price is $250,000, or you can have a brand-new Unimog for an extra $100,000. There are also numerous options that’ll ramp up the bill, some of which were fitted to the demonstration model you see here.

With these options, the cost of this particular vehicle is $269,000 (drive-away).

The full refurb includes stripping and repainting the Unimog in your choice of solid colour (metallic paint costs extra), new window glass and rubbers, new door cards, re-trimmed seats, new headliner and new door handles/locks.

The chassis is degreased and repainted in black (or any solid colour you choose). The powertrain is serviced, and the tyres replaced. Extra touches include air-conditioning in the cab, remote reservoir shocks, Unidan roof rack, LED driving light on the front bumper and new mudflaps. You don’t get sound though – an audio system is optional.

The motorhome body (bolted onto a special sub-frame which then bolts to the Unimog) is a full-height, separate fibreglass unit based on Kimberley’s Kruiser S-Class caravan, with plenty of trick gear to keep you remote bush camping in comfort until the food runs out.

There’s also a Unidan heavy-duty roof rack on top of the cab, which houses the spare wheel (which is a fairly common arrangement with expedition trucks). How do you get the wheel off? Simple, a crane is supplied that slides into the roof rack to get the wheel to the ground. It also serves as a utility crane if needed.

Instead of a locker on the nearside rear, the demo unit had the optional external kitchen that slides out of the nearside rear locker (as standard this locker is a 185 litre storage compartment). It has heap of bench space, a two burner stove/grill, two drawers and a small sink and tap.

You walk in from the nearside front and on your left, at the front of the fit-out, is the sofa/bed; then the kitchen on the offside and dinette on the nearside, followed by the bathroom at the rear.

The fit-out doesn’t feel cramped, although it’s fair to say that it does pack in a fair bit of gear in a relatively small space.

By early afternoon on a warm, clear 25-degree autumn day the camper still felt cool inside, thanks no doubt to the insulating properties of fibreglass and the tropical roof. Kimberley’s tropical roof is an aluminium ‘second skin’ that sits about 25mm above the fibreglass moulded composite body.

The sofa bed folds down into a queen-size bed at the press of a button. It’s a bit slow doing this and it’s also a bit awkward getting around the bed or when exiting the camper.

While there isn’t a lot of cupboard space in the kitchen, the convection cooktop appears simple to use and easy to clean. The fridge/freezer is fitted as two components: the main fridge/freezer unit sits below the kitchen bench while a smaller drawer fridge is fitted in the dinette seat base. There are a few cupboards/drawers below the kitchen bench and three small lockers above.

The single bench dinette will sit three comfortably (and can serve as a single bed) but only two will have the table directly in front of them. There’s storage above in two small lockers, an LED TV and a soundbar with internal and external speakers.

The bathroom is not as tight for space as you might expect, and the waterless toilet relieves the worry about using smelly chemicals and disposing of the waste. The end product, so to speak, is environmentally friend and and can even be used as compost.

The shower cubicle is compact but not so tight that you’ll be hitting elbows all the time. The bonus on chilly mornings is the bathrooms’s diesel heater (which comes as part of the base package).

Hot water is via an instantaneous system, while the two 200ah Kimberley Bluetooth lithium batteries and 375watt/140watt solar panels should keep you in enough power to stay off the grid for weeks.

You need to have a Medium Rigid truck licence to drive the Unimog, as it has a GVM of 12,000kg. As I don't have such a licence, it was down to riding shotgun and watching what goes on behind the wheel of the big ‘Mog.

You’ve got two steps to climb up to the cab but the view up there is excellent. The Unimog feels big and imposing but you’re really high up and can see for miles – as well as close around the vehicle.

Ride quality was firm but not as brittle and truck-like as you might think. The low-back seats didn’t provide much support but seemed comfortable for the short period we were perched on them at least. Air suspension seats are available on the options list.

With a massive ground clearance (460mm, thanks to portal diffs and tall tyres) the Unimog can drive over tree stumps that would stop a normal 4WD in its tracks. The axles – especially the rear – have excellent articulation with the torque tube suspension and a chassis that's designed to flex.

The Unimog also has diff locks front and rear, and with its 1.2-metre fording depth can negotiate water crossings that’d have a LandCruiser floating downstream.

The Unimog has a single-range manual transmission with eight gears (forwards and backwards!). The first three gears are crawler gears (first gear has an overall ratio of 88:1). So when moving off from a standstill on the road, you’d take off in fourth gear. You can, in theory, go as fast going backwards as forwards, as there are eight reverse ratios too.

The only thing that would stop the Unimog Kruiser off road is narrow bush tracks. At 2350mm wide and 3400mm tall, a narrow track snaking through large trees would be a no-go zone for the Kruiser

But if you want the ultimate, money-no-object truck to get across the desert – with a luxury fit-out as part of the deal – the Unimog Kruiser certainly fits the bill.