Capital Equipment News June 2016

TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS

MERCEDES-BENZ UNIMOG U318 food truck

T he inhabitants of Finland have a rep- utation for being the somewhat un- conventional folk of northern Europe. Sauna championships or berry-picking competitions are just some of the unusual disciplines practised with great commit- ment. It is also in this part of northern Europe that Sami Repo built his own food truck, perfectly suited to the endless Finn- ish forests. Thanks partly to the off-road capabilities of the Unimog U 318 serving as its base, but also to the rustic 'do it yourself' body, It is a unique piece. Buying the Unimog was something of a personal affair for Sami Repo. The Finn ex- plains that he had first toyed with buying a Unimog U 20 around seven years ago. “It was purely for personal use, and I didn’t re- ally have much idea of what I was going to use the vehicle for.” Repo lived in the US for a while and it was there he came up with the idea of a food truck. “It was in Austin. The town is a Mecca for street food. I just had to do something like that.” The body was tailor-made to his own specifications over several months. “I drilled every single hole myself,” he ex- plains. His problem: “The truck was every- thing rolled into one: a blue print, a test ve- hicle and even the finished product.” The centrepiece is a 400 kg special bar- becue oven from Spain. Around the BBQ oven, the dab hand added a wash basin, a gas stove, work surfaces, a copper water boiler and various cooking utensils. The rear wall of the foodtruck is truly Finnish, on the inside and outside: hanging in the kitchen is an old school presentation board with pictures of various whales. The outer skin of the body, is made of old wooden pan- els which Repo waterproofed using ‘tarvia’ (natural tar). The material is used in Finland as a sauna infusion. The link between the native Finn and food isn’t something he plucked out of thin air. Repo has spent many of his working years as a photographer where he specialised in food photography. He spends approximate- ly half of the year in Helsinki, around four months in his small, over 100-year-old farm house in Simpele (Karelia, Eastern Finland) and, every now and then, a few weeks in the US for a change.

birthday parties or public events. These take place off-road and in the thick of winter, as was the case with a recent food exhibition in Rovaniemi. It’s possible that the mobile kitchen won’t be the only use he finds for the base vehicle. On his initial encounter with the Unimog all-rounder, Sami Repo was amazed by the limitless possibilities the vehicle could offer him: “A Unimog is a truck for life. I bought

the U 318 with all its hydraulic connections and many extras. At the moment, I’m dreaming about getting a crane for doing forestry work on my farm. And I also need to build myself a motor home body at some point.” b

The food truck is used for company events,

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JUNE 2016