Big wheels for the Russian Army
We can do heavy things
The ability to build giant all-terrain vehicles has always been the hallmark of the domestic industry. Suffice it to recall the legendary ZIL-135 and the wide range of Minsk heavy trucks. Two key design bureaus - SKB in Moscow (ZiL) and Minsk (MAZ) became the founders of all Soviet off-road vehicles.
Suffice it to say that the Bryansk Automobile Plant is considered the brainchild of the Likhachev Plant. The Kurgan Wheel Tractor Plant, which died not so long ago, traces its ancestry to the Minsk Automobile Plant. “Urals” and KamAZs were, to one degree or another, developed in Moscow, and only then they were transferred to Miass and Naberezhnye Chelny. Heavy “rogues” were always needed by everyone.
At one time, it was much easier to build a four-axle all-wheel drive vehicle than to build roads in conditions of chronic waterlogging. The road network in Russia is gradually expanding, but the need for passable vehicles does not weaken. First of all, due to global warming, which makes the Far North not so extreme.
The Northern Sea Route is thawing, and with it the coast. Geologists, builders, oil and gas production companies require a lot of equipment. The Arctic and the Far North are revealing unprecedented mineral reserves. Protecting the “thawed out” borders of the Motherland is becoming a more urgent task than ever - too many countries are sharpening their teeth on Russian mineral resources.
The specific conditions of the Far North require specific equipment. For example, the army DT-30 “Vityaz” in the Arctic version. But, like any tracked vehicle, especially in an articulated version, the vehicle is very expensive. Although it has outstanding maneuverability and seaworthiness.
The Russian Army does not provide anything in the segment of relatively inexpensive wheeled all-terrain vehicles for the Arctic. All heavy all-terrain vehicles, for example, four-axle Mustangs from KamAZ, are characterized by too high pressure on the underlying surface. This is acceptable in temperate latitudes, but where there is winter all year round, it will be difficult for cars.
To withstand low temperatures, domestic engineers have long come up with solutions - double glazing, capacious batteries, powerful heat guns, electric heating of the fuel system, insulated cabins and engine compartments. But structurally, the vehicles remain only variants of conventional trucks. For example, Ural-4320-31 from the “Motovoz-1” series in the HL version (cold climate). You can’t go far on this one – only along strictly defined routes with hard road surfaces.
The solution to the problem is seen in creating a car with so-called “superballoons” and with voluminous bodies capable of long-term autonomous operation. And such machines have already been built. True, they are still in the rank of exotic exhibits.
For wild frosts
It’s worth mentioning right away that the trucks described formally belong to the category of civilian equipment. But even the eye of an amateur will notice the clearly dual purpose of such products - primarily for the FSB Border Service.
The first in line is Ural-Arctic from Miass. As is usual in the domestic automotive industry, the car has a fierce index - 425702. The giant is famous for the fact that it was recently exhibited at Army 2023, and this clearly hints at the military future of the car.
The main purpose of the Arctic “Ural” is to transport people along winter roads and weak-bearing soils at extremely low temperatures. Engineers from Miass assure that the rotation truck is designed to operate at temperatures down to minus 50 degrees.
The car has a completely Russian diesel YaMZ-536 with a power of 310 hp. With. and the same home-grown nine-speed gearbox. An unprecedented thing - the bridges are also our own from Miass. At Ural, they finally learned how to independently build bridges that were previously in short supply. To do this, we had to organize our own production and use two billion rubles from the Industrial Development Fund. Now there are no “Chinese” HanDes on the assembly line.
By the way, work on sovereign nodes in Miass began even before the special operation. When designed for the Ural-Arctic, the bridges are capable of operating at temperatures down to minus 65 degrees. The traditional “northern package” includes double glazing, multi-layer sandwich body panels, 60 cm ground clearance and simply gigantic wheels. Rear – 800/65 R32, front – 800/65 R32. “Super cylinders” are manufactured in Barnaul.
The Ural presented at Army 2023 is the third of its kind. The first appeared at the turn of 2021–2022 as a result of the state program “Socio-economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation.” The car was just an insulated hooded shift vehicle with a frame-panel cabin from the military Tornado.
Later, a second version appeared on “superballoons”, but with the same two-volume body. This is very inconvenient - the driver and co-driver are forced to go out into the bitter cold just to get into the back of the car with the passengers. And the wheels of the second prototype were “only” size 28.
The third Ural-Arctic, presented at Army 2023, has a single cabin and passenger compartment space for 21 seats. Among the amenities there is a vacuum toilet in the rear of the body.
There is only one question regarding operation - how to change a punctured tire in the field?
KamAZ-Arctic. Photos – autoreview.ru and gruzovikpress.ru
If the prospects with the Ural-Arctic are quite real and understandable, then with the second car for the Far North not everything is so simple.
We are talking about KamAZ-Arctic, created with the participation of specialists from Moscow State Technical University. N. E. Bauman.
On the one hand, the car is luxurious - eight driven wheels, a 500-horsepower engine and an automatic transmission. For greater maneuverability, engineers proposed an articulated, bending frame, otherwise it would have been impossible to ensure satisfactory steering for the giant.
But then the difficulties begin.
The engine, it turns out, was assembled in collaboration with the German-Swiss Liebherr, with an American Allison gearbox. The list of imports in KamAZ could be continued indefinitely, which automatically put an end to the military career of the unique truck.
It is interesting that work on a machine for the Far North at KamAZ began much earlier than the above-mentioned state program “Socio-economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation” of 2021. The first prototypes of the Arctic appeared in 2017 and were a disproportionately tall three-axle vehicle. The unusual proportions of the all-terrain vehicle on large but narrow wheels were explained by the requirements to fit into the width of a standard roadway.
On the subsequent prototype, they no longer thought about public roads - each of the eight wheels was a meter wide and had a radius of 86 cm. However, they provided for the “Gabarit” option with the same narrow wheels and tolerance for hard surfaces. After the start of the special operation, the Arctic project from Naberezhnye Chelny was forgotten for some time. With such imported minced meat inside, it’s no wonder.
But in August 2023, in Naberezhnye Chelny, two cars were sent out for testing at once - the first three-axle and the second eight-wheel all-wheel drive prototype. According to KamAZ PJSC, the vehicle can be equipped with a six- or eight-cylinder engine and an automatic transmission.
There is an obvious problem with the last unit - in Russia, hydromechanics of this class do not do it themselves. This means that the cars have boxes from old stocks, or the factory workers managed to adapt a certain Chinese “automatic machine”. If cars with Fast Gear hydromechanical transmissions have been built in Minsk for a long time, then why not in Naberezhnye Chelny? However, this automatically puts the car outside the defense order, which means we are not talking about a large series.
The TREKOL company from Lyubertsy near Moscow plays in the same league with the big sharks of the domestic auto industry. Not so long ago, the company’s arsenal included only light and medium-sized two- and three-axle vehicles, but now there is an 8x8 “Arctic” model.
Unlike the high-tech KamAZ, TREKOL engineers did without a breakable frame. Yes, it’s not easy to find a turning area for an 8,74-meter giant, but the final cost is not mind-boggling – about 15 million rubles. For comparison: “Ural-Arctic” costs 20 million, and it’s hard to even imagine how much the import-substituted KamAZ costs.
An obvious disadvantage of TREKOL is that it has a two-volume body with 21 seats, which does not contribute to comfort and energy saving.
But the four-axle RUSAK can provide the customer with a single space for the driver and passengers. The engine is provided by Cummins (probably Chinese) and automatic transmission. RUSAK can swim and, depending on the design, can carry up to 20 people.
As a result, we see that with few restrictions, the Russian Army has where and from whom to buy wheeled vehicles for Arctic conditions. Further melting of the ice will make this process inevitable; all that remains is to bring the equipment up to standard and get rid of imported components.
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