Bellow are some photos that illustrate how much the U500 articulates. I own a U500 and while I don't do any serious off-roading have been to a number of off-road areas and have driven a U500 at the Unimog test track just outide of Gaggenau Germany through the same track that the SBU's and UGX's are tested and the U500 was more than capable of negotiating the same course.

Having seen one of the test track drivers drive a SBU followed by a U500 I would guestimate that the U500 is about 95% of a comparable SBU (i.e. of similar dimensions, GVW, ...). While the U500 sometimes would lift 1 wheel where the SBU wouldn't it nevertheless accomplished the task.

Note, the U500 is not as much a rock crawler as the SBU as it has a few more bits exposed underneath and on the front and sides. These issues would have to be addressed before a U500 could do the most serious off-roading.

Here are the photos (from the Salt Lake US test track in Salt Lake City), enjoy: