No end to Unimog’s versatility

A unique creation with a personal touch, Sami Repo’s self-built food truck is perfectly suited to the endless Finnish forests – thanks to the off-road capabilities of the Unimog U318 serving as its base, but also because of the rustic “do-it-yourself” body.

The Finn explains that he toyed with buying a Unimog U20 around seven years ago. “It was purely for personal use, but I didn’t really have much of an idea what I was going to use the vehicle for!”

Repo had lived for a while in the United States and it was there that he came up with the idea of a food truck. “It was in Austin, Texas, which is like a Mecca for street food. I just had to do something like that.”

The body was tailor-made to his specifications over the course of several months. “I drilled every single hole myself,” explains Repo. “The truck was everything all rolled into one: a blueprint, a test vehicle and even the finished product.”

The centrepiece of the truck is a 400 kg special barbecue oven from Spain. Around the oven there is a wash basin, a gas stove, work surfaces, a copper water boiler and various cooking utensils. The outer skin of the body, meanwhile, is made of old wooden panels, which Repo waterproofed using “tarvia” (natural tar). The material is also well-loved in Finland as a sauna infusion.

The food truck is used for company events, birthday parties and public events. These also take place off-road and in the thick of the winter.

“A Unimog is a truck for life! I bought the U318 with all 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,” Repo says.