Working off the beaten track is an everyday occurrence for Hubert Wimmer, in his job as head of the motor pool for the RWE Dueren works company. Not so normal however was the relocation of the world’s two largest bucket wheel excavators in the Garzweiler coalfields. Each colossus weighs 13,000 tons, is 240 metres long and 96 metres high and can shift over 200,000 tons of coal a day. Large but slow, these giants move at a mere snail’s pace, needing nearly three weeks to move a distance of 22 kilometres. The biggest obstacles were crossing the A 61 motorway, the Erft river, a railway line and several roads. Besides using Unimogs, Hubert also employed Sprinters for the big move.

A brand new member of his motor pool: a Sprinter panel van. Thanks to the engageable all-wheel drive and differential lock, the van proved more than a match for even the most difficult situations. The RWE could find only one fault: due to the urgent schedule, there was no time to put the RWE Logo on the Sprinter – a problem that has since been rectified.