New addition to the Götz family.

The Götz family from Lampertheim in southern Hesse is a real hands-on family: father, mother and son – all three are involved in the family business. They named their company "Schaufelwerk". They specialize in excavation work as well as gardening and landscaping. Their clients are predominantly private customers. There's plenty of digging to be done all year round around Lampertheim.

The curious thing is: the Götz family runs their business entirely as a sideline.

Whenever an order comes in, father Holger and his son Tom coordinate who can do the job. Tom Götz is studying mechanical engineering at TU Darmstadt. His father is the construction manager.

"That works really well. We've been running the business since 2019. We can carry out the jobs in the afternoons, at weekends or during the day as usual — always according to urgency and workload," explains junior boss Tom Götz.

Feedback on the financial situation comes from mother Katja Götz, who handles the office work. After all, the men have to do the digging and drive the Unimog.

They sold off the 2001 Unimog U 400 to make room for a more powerful Unimog U 435 – the flagship model of the Unimog implement carrier family. The workhorse is fitted with a flatbed from AS Baugeräte. The clever feature of the longer and wider load bed is that the sideboards can be folded down vertically. This saves space and protects the load.

At the rear it has four double-acting control valves and a power hydraulic system. In addition to the rear power take-off, the Götz family has also added a multifunctional Scharmüller attachment sled with a tow eye and a K80 coupling.

The Mitas agricultural tyres are indispensable for making progress in difficult terrain. “We compared agricultural tractors and Unimog very intensively. But the Unimog, with its 89 km/h, its manoeuvrability, its payload of 5.5 t and the hydraulics, is the clear winner for us,” enthuses Tom Götz. “That gets us into every farm entrance.”

And if it takes a little longer, that does not detract from the work with the universal motor vehicle: “We ordered all the LED lighting the factory offers.” That means it's still possible to work into the late evening hours. On the roof bar there are – as you might expect – additional driving and work lights fitted.

With the Unimog U 435, father and son Götz tow a Humbaur 3-axle low-loader with a permissible gross vehicle weight of 30 t. Large construction machines and their attachments are transported with it. With the practical hook lift trailer from Toplift-HTB, roll-off containers are picked up and bulk materials transported.

And the phone rings — father Holger is on the line: "Tom, can you carry out an excavator assignment tomorrow after your lecture?"
"Sure," he replies and is already looking forward to driving the Unimog.

Project implemented with Unimog general representative KBM Motorfahrzeuge GmbH & Co. KG