Once we had picked up our Unimog in Tacoma, we drove it in convoy (with our 300 SDL) back to Spokane. The trip was uneventful, but slow. And loud, as expected. The shooting muffs I wore the entire time helped make the trip more comfortable. As did the gardening gloves to reduce the vibration in my hands. (They got tingly, like from my old Honda motorcycle.) Maybe the gas ones are quieter, but probably not by much. There is quite a lot of gear noise and tire roar at speed. We stopped a lot, for a variety of reasons. This helps.

I had rigged a CB in both vehicles so we could communicate. In the case of the Mog, I tapped into the dome light with alligator clips, and hung it from one of the headliner (which is missing) brackets with a sheet metal screw. By hanging just over my head, and with it cranked up, I could hear my wife even over the Mog's roar and through the muffs. Amazingly enough, she could also hear me over the noise in the cab.

The Mog made pretty good time, 50–55 MPH most times. My foot got pretty fatigued, though, because the throttle spring is very heavy at the end of its travel, and the hand throttle wouldn't hold at that speed. Going up passes (Tiger Mt., Snoqualmie, and climbing out of the Vantage hole) it dropped to about 30 MPH. Our Mog weighs 12,000+ lbs (according to the shipping company), and only has 110 HP (assuming it's got them all). I estimate I got as much as 10 MPG, though that might be a little high. I did not check it accurately, I guess I didn't really want to know! It showed an appetite for oil, I might have added 1/2 gallon of it since I picked it up. But with hard running it's to be expected to drink some. And I don't really expect to do this again. That's a rough ride.

I had a lot of trouble getting started at times, because I would accidentally get into gears 1&2, the grannies, without wanting to. And it takes me some time to get back to the 3–6 range, the shifter is decidedly odd. (I spend some little time out in the middle of intersections fighting the shifter.) But I got better with time.

The Mog's crane works, and I've lifted my cousin with it. I hope to do more serious work with it in time. I drew quite a crowd of engineers when I brought it to work. Waggled the crane around a bit, and ran the bed. Fun!

It doesn't seem to leak much oil, which is good. It'll always be parked over dirt, though, and I'll just make sure to keep its fluids topped off. The first time I tried to fuel it I nearly put diesel into the crane's hydraulic oil tank! Only the fact that the two tanks were notably different stopped me. What a maroon!

I may even get to keep it, because my wife said it was a lot cuter than she expected. It'll look even better once it's painted.

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