At long last, 2 of the six direct ex-German army U1300Ls which we bought landed at AV in the New Year. Here they are, lined up and looking grand on our forecourt and the second picture shows the proud new owner of the one of them. He came to up to meet the mog earlier this week and after helping to service it with one of our mechanics, he drove it home to Gloucestershire in just 4 hours.

His plans for the mog involve adding a camper body onto the back and then travelling around the United States. Lucky guy! The other mog pictured here has also now sold to a man in Australia so it'll be off for a life in the sun.

If your heart sunk at the news these two had sold, then don't fear as the next of the six U1300Ls is due in any day now and the remainder in several weeks time. We'll keep you posted.

We had a double shipment of Unimogs leave here just before Christmas for the same customer. The load included this massive U2150L38 with a big chip body, another long wheelbase U1250 with a 3 metre long dropside body on the back and an ex-military Arrows trailer. The full lorry left here bound for Tilbury Docks and from there the mogs are heading to Africa to work for a mining company.

One of our customers is taking part in the 2012 Intercontinental Rally from Spain to Senegal at the end of this month and his team want all the support they can get. However, things are looking good as only 3 vehicles have entered in their category so they are guaranteed a spot on the podium!

AV are sponsoring the team which is called Team Portside so they'll be wearing AV overalls at the finish and the mog will be adorned with our stickers. We can't wait for the photos!

Follow their progress and lend your support by 'liking' their page on Facebook. Full information about the event can be seen on the website shown on the logo above. Good luck Team Portside!!

One of our tree surgery customers bought this shiny 'new' U1600 mog off us late last year to add to his collection of one other mog, a long wheelbase U1650. His second one came into the workshop this week to have a replacement cab fitted as it was in a much sorrier state than this one shown here. Mogs may leave us looking great but they live a hard life and come in here looking cosmetically bedraggled on most occasions!!

Only the mogs which people keep for a hobby are kept looking pristine. If your working mog is still looking its best, we'd love to be proven wrong so send your pictures to me now.

This U1600 is fully Ag spec and has a fancy high top cab. Also fitted with AV intercooler, stainless steel exhaust stack and our pick-up hitch...

This customer bought a TC1 with road-going brakes from us 18 months ago and he recently sent us this photo of it working hard carrying some logs behind his small tractor.

Our Timber Dragon trailers are ideal for managing loads of wood on small holdings, farms and woodland areas. They are towed by various vehicles - small tractor, quad bike or 4x4 - and can come with road-legal brakes, flatbed body and/or tipper to suit individual needs. The trailer has a payload of 2 tonnes and the crane can lift 500kg at 1m reach.

This U1300L looks great on the snow in the picturesque Highlands of Scotland. The photo was taken a couple of years ago when there was more snow fall, it has been a bit limited so far this winter! The mog is more than capable of ploughing through snow that is much deeper than this but it spends most of its time as a site vehicle for a good customer of ours.

The same machine is shown on the left in the second picture, alongside a mog which is part U1100/416 and part railway tamper (a machine which makes railway tracks flat and level). It was bought by a volunteer at the preserved railway at Brechin but needed a few tweaks to get it to run smoothly and our customer was only too happy to help out! He mentioned that when he started work, the exhaust was held together by thousands of jubilee clips!

If you're working on your Unimog we can supply you with a workshop manual and with any parts you might need.

This is how an ex-military U1300L can look in just a few months and this one left our yard recently to start a new life doing tree surgery in the south of England, an addition to our customers exisiting fleet of 1 other Unimog and some different vehicles.

The mog was fully demilitarised and serviced, given a new tipping chipbox and a heavy duty tow hitch before going for a full respray in burgundy. The big chipbox gives the mog a much larger capacity than other vehicles used for tree surgery and the mog is much better equipped for continuing to work in adverse weather conditions.

We think it looks great! It left here looking like this but it will be labelled up with its companies logo and signage which will be added onto the chipbox afterwards.

We sold this U1000 Unimog to a customer in Southport, Lancashire recently and here it is working hard on the beach towing a trailer laden with cockles. The cockling industry based around the Ribble Estuary (which meets the sea at Southport) have recently been in the local news, as groups of unlicensed cockle pickers had to be rescued by the RNLI and amidst fears that numbers of adult cockles are dwindling from over fishing.

This mog is doing a very worthy job in helping to reseed the ailing cockle beds by implanting adult cockles from other areas where there are greater numbers in order to boost the breeding population and restore the bed to its former glory.

Work is in full swing on the group of eight U1100s which are all being mechanically overhauled one by one before starting their new life as peace keeping vehicles overseas. As well as making sure they leave us in a good working condition, one of the jobs they came here for was to remove the top half of the cabs in order to make room for an armoured body.

These pictures show the appearance of the new look cab (pre body). If anyone needs a rusty cab roof patching up then we've got a few good condition spare ones lying around!! See our spares section to see we've got in at the moment. All the best stuff literally flies off the shelves so you've got to be quick!!

This month we've sold our very first TC1 to France and the company who've bought it are going to use it in a very charming way. The company 'A Faire a Cheval' which means 'to do with a horse', farm and maintain the land using a number of traditional methods and rather than high powered machinery they use horses to do all the hard work.

The small and compact size of our timber trailers makes them very suitable for anyone with some land that needs regular upkeep and maintenance but that doesn't justify a full menagerie of vehicles, machines and trailers. They come with a crane capable of lifting 2 tonnes and can be towed by quad, tractor or 4x4 as well as horses, which is the case here!

If you think a TC1 timber trailer could help you out in your life then check out the full spec on our Timber Dragon website.

This big chassis Unimog U2100 has been custom modified to make it perfect for tree work in Ireland. It has a remote controlled, long reach 16 tonne crane on the back with an impressive reach of 16 metres up and 12.5 metres across. This is useful for grabbing branches that are ready for removal rather than rigging them down with ropes (a much harder task).

In addition to the grab arm, the crane has a man basket attachment which increases the Unimog's efficiency by creating an advantageous elevated work platform for getting in hard to reach places. As well as this crane the mog is fitted with an AV pick-up hitch for towing a number of different sized trailers, keeping the mog flexible for working on both large and small jobs.

Our specially adapted Unimog accessories are designed to enable you to make the most of the Unimog's capabilities. If you're in need of a hitch or something different check out our Accessories page.

We sold this Unimog U1600 to a customer in West Sussex recently and it's straight away been put to good use in various tasks across the county. See it here on the left with a front mounted mole plough which is used to create trenches for laying pipelines and on the right towing a low loader with a 4 ton digger.

These machines all help in the maintenance of West Sussex's old landfill sites and the versatility of the mog means it can jump from one job to another very easily. If you've got a mog-worthy job starting and want to own one like this have a look at our latest stock list.

This month we've seen a number of huge Unimog fire trucks gracing the AV front court. The one on the left is in the workshop having a few mechanical repairs done as well as a number of cosmetic improvements including rust, body repairs and a full respray.

It will carry on life as a fire engine when it leaves here as it takes up residence at a public school and estate. The other double cabbed mog drove to us from Germany and we fitted it with a turbo and intercooler kit and made and fitted it with a bespoke pair of diesel tanks complete with a step for enabling passengers to climb into the rear of the cab.

This is going to travel the world once its been fitted with a camper back body. Just before going to press, a third Fire Mog arrived here from Holland…more on that next time! If your mog needs work, we're the ones to do it for you. Get in touch and discuss your needs today!

First things first, winter is coming (for all of us in the western hemisphere anyway) and that means preparations must be made. If your mog isn't kitted out like this lime green number on the left then you don't want to be caught short when bad weather comes.

Here in the UK we don't ever see really extreme weather but any sudden changes in temperature can affect a Unimog just as they affect other vehicles. We know time out of action costs you money so take heed our words of wisdom!! Unimogs can be expensive if they are not effectively maintained. We have some excellent winter deals to take advantage of which can be seen on our Deals page.

The couple had driven over hundreds of identical bridges during their travels, but although this one looked secure it turned out it was termite ridden and severely weakened on the inside. The picture on the right is how the Unimog looked once it was on its feet again.

Once back in Manaus the mog went to a Mercedes workshop there and has been undergoing repair work since. After a few problems Bruce was tempted to send the Unimog back to us here to have work completed but unfortunately shipping costs proved too expensive.

After completing the most essential work the Unimog will be fit for driving away and continuing on its travels down to Venezuela. It will return to the UK at a later date for full repairs.

We are very pleased to mention that we had a large Unimog order in recently for eight U1100/U416s. They are all ex Belgian army and have arrived here for minor repairs in our workshop before they are to be converted into peace keeping vehicles for use overseas.

They will eventually look like the vehicle on the right. We are going to cut off the top half of the cab to make room for the new panels which will be placed over the top. The work is being carried out on behalf of the United Nations Security Council which deploys considerable numbers of peace keeping units to global areas suffering from domestic and political strife.

We're glad to be contributing to good causes and we think they made the right choice in deciding to use Unimogs for this purpose. We can source Unimogs according to individual requirements if you can't see what you want on our stocklist.

This impressive little Unimog is part of a new and growing trend. Named 'The Taigawolf' this model mog competes in circuit courses and trial races where full off-road tracks in miniature have been created to push the machines to their limit.

This model recently won the 2011 European Championships in Germany so it rides amongst kings in the mini trial leagues. The model is based on a 442 chassis. There is a new model planned for 2012 which is going to be based on a Unimog U300 - we can't wait to see it.

To view the winning model in action there is a YouTube video which is well worth a watch. Just type TAIGAWOLF 442 into YouTube.

We all know that the Unimog is a supreme implement carrier, which is what makes it suitable for so many different kinds of jobs. This Unimog gritter is also fitted with a front mounted snow plough and its owners came to us to make some adaptations so the plough didn't drag along the floor and damage the ground surface as it was being used.

We added these wheels which are positioned so that the plough glides 12mm above the ground. It is now much more efficient at moving forward and moves snow out the way just as well as it used to. If you've got an implement which isn't operating to its optimum level we are able to make adjustments and improvements to ensure it does what it should or to just make it more user friendly.

Just to remind all UK customers that our mobile mechanic Michael is ready for action at short notice if you've got a Unimog emergency or you can't get your vehicle up to us here. He can visit you at your own premises at a time convenient to you or come and get you at the roadside if you're really stuck.

Luckily with Unimogs, anything that could go wrong doesn't normally mean the vehicle isn't able to drive home there and then. He will come fully equipped to help you with any problems you are having an will aim to get things done as quickly as possible.

It's also worth knowing that if there is someone else in your area who is requiring Michael's expertise you will see a reduced price as transport costs are shared between the two parties. Give us a ring to find out about bookings in your area.

These pictures of a 1956 Unimog 401 (making it 55 years old!) were sent in to us by a customer this month. Although it's missing a headlamp the one eyed mog proves it's still got what it takes by working the fields with a Ransome trailed plough on the left and an even older 1952 Salopian baler on the right.

It's good to see vintage machinery being used in the traditional way, as sadly, many of the old pieces of equipment have suffered at the hands of the scrap metal yard. It's even better to see one of the true original Unimogs still hard at work and the doggy passenger looks like he's enjoying himself too.

We love pictures like these so if you've got any of your Unimog being put to good use please send them in soon.

The South African Unimog Club which is a brand new division of the German Unimog Freunde is organised by Willem Burger from Samog and the club is proving very popular, with memberships growing by the day.

If you live in the area and want to get involved, the group have regular get-togethers where they bring along their mogs and families and meet like-minded Unimog people. They also organise activities and provide support to other owners of Unimogs in the club.

The club has a Facebook presence so search for them on there or contact Willem Burger directly by emailing samoge@mweb.co.za

The Ommemog was bought to fulfil a contract that the company won and throughout this time it ran perfectly - proving crucial to day-to-day operations. It is now hired out to another firm which use it to access power cables in hard to reach locations.

This mog is fully equipped to serve its purpose with CTIS (central tyre inflation system), front mounted PTO, detachable basket; no less than 4 fuel tanks and various diff lock settings for when on boggy ground. View our 'Accessories' page to look at the AV additions which can improve your Unimog today.

In a former life this mog did some special work on Brighton Pier after the fire in early 2003 which destroyed a large area of the remaining sections of the derelict West Pier. The mog was capable of a salvage job on the pier which had previously been considered too dangerous to attempt by other means. There were precious artefacts remaining on the original pier structure which were close to falling off. This mog managed to save some classic arcitectural features and in doing so has helped to preserve Brighton's cultural heritage.

This miniature model of a Unimog arrived in the post this month from Tokyo in Japan and it was our customers way of demonstrating exactly what he wanted us to do to his mog, what colour he wanted it painted and what the finished product should look like.

The mog is going to be used as a transporter to carry off-road bikes and equipment up into the mountains. We appreciate the effort he has gone to in producing this model and it makes sure that we are all working from the same page which makes the whole process much easier for all involved!

We have many customers who convert their Unimogs into campervans and bring them to our workshop to have work carried out or who pop by to say hello if they're ever in the area.

We were very shocked when some old customers of ours were shown all over the national news earlier this month - the last time we had heard from them was before they started their journey over 5 years ago! They bought their Unicat mog elsewhere and then brought it to us to have vital work done on it.

We think that although it was the weight of the Unimog which caused the bridge to give way, it was also the sturdiness of the vehicle which saw the couple escape unharmed, despite a 30ft drop! They are currently trying to extract the mog from the ravine, a task which will be no easy feat as it will require a heavier machine than the mog itself. Good luck Bruce and Lesley!!

We were asked by a customer to design and custom make a set of steps for his Unimog which would make the mog more user-friendly and allow shooting party visitors to climb up almost 4 feet into the back of the mog in order to be transported to different areas of the estate to wherever the shoot is taking place.

We're always open to ideas for new modifications and we can do pretty much anything you require when it comes to Unimogs so get in touch with us today - see our Contact page for details.