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What is KUNG?
"Urals" with insulated booths have become one of the most recognizable images in Russian automotive history and modern times. However, the interpretation of the abbreviation KUNG is still different. Let's try to deviate a little from the main theme of the cycle and understand the history of this object, whose roots go back to the post-war period.
At the end of the 40s, a need arose in the USSR for automobile bodies adapted to European railways. As you know, at that time half of Europe was under Soviet control and the issue of safe movement on railway platforms was paramount. The Russian and later Soviet railway network is based on the 1520 mm track gauge, which is wide for the rest of the world. Let us remind you that the "Stephenson" gauge of 1435 mm is now more widespread in the West. The domestic gauge for the 1520 mm track is considered 1T in all systems, so there was no necessary designation for the new narrow European gauge. Only zero came up. That is why KUNG stands for “universal body of zero size”. But … This is not the only correct definition! The aforementioned "Stephenson's" European gauge even in the pre-war period bore the name of the normal gauge. That is, the second reading of the abbreviation KUNG - "a universal body of normal size" will also be correct.
The first Soviet KUNGs appeared in the Soviet Union after 1953, when the Council of Ministers instructed the paper and woodworking industry to create a special unit just for the development and production of new bodies of zero (normal) dimensions. Until 1968, special enterprises created a family of universal bodies: KUNG-1 for ZIS-150 and ZIL-164, KUNG-1M for ZIS-151 and ZIL-157, KUNG-1MM for ZIL-131, KUNG-2 for GAZ-63, KUNG-2M - for GAZ-66, KUNG-P6M - for heavy MAZ - 5207V, finally, KUNG-P10 - for MAZ-5224V. The first manufacturer of the KUNG series was the Shumerlinsky Furniture Factory, designed to assemble up to 5 thousand universal bodies per year.
If we talk about the history of the Ural-4320 vehicles, the K-4320 became the most common inhabited universal body. It was a pressurized (echo of a possible nuclear war) compartment mounted on a special chassis 43203, sheathed on the outside with duralumin or steel, and inside with plywood or plastic. The chassis "Ural-43203" differed from the basic versions by a frame extended in the rear overhang, at the end of which a spare wheel was mounted. There were a total of three modifications of vans, differing in the location of windows and doors. With a mass of 1460 kilograms, the body made it possible to load about 4.5 tons - this was enough for most repair vehicles and mobile headquarters. Later, in the early 1980s, the KM-4320 frame-metal structure appeared, the main advantage of which was the ability to mount heavy equipment on the roof. It was on these bodies that various radio communications, intelligence and control devices were mounted.
The two-axle Ural-43206, which appeared in the 90s, which was discussed in the previous part of the cycle, turned out to be an excellent base for transferring universal bodies from the decommissioned ZIL-131 chassis. For example, the P161 radio stations, which had previously worked on the chassis of the Likhachev Moscow Automobile Plant, were transferred to these machines.
A special place among the inhabited bodies of cars of the Ural-4320 family is occupied by an active road train consisting of a 44201 truck tractor and a Ural-862A semi-trailer, on which a KM-862 van body was installed. Such a multi-piece structure was produced at the Chelyabinsk Machine-Building Plant of Automobile and Tractor Trailers (ChMZAP) in small volumes from 1975 to 1990. The main body of the semitrailer had an internal length of 9 meters, was equipped with 12 light windows, two FVUA-100N filtering units and two OV-65 heaters. The van was designed at the All-Union Design and Technological Institute of Furniture, and the assembly was carried out at the Shumerlinsky Combine of Vans in Chuvashia. In such machines, for example, the R-362M "Orekh" radio communication points with a radio relay station and a set of antennas were placed. In addition, the active road train was used as the base of the air-transportable mobile resuscitation-operational complex of modular design. Four of these medical vans formed a single medical center with 22 medical workers and a capacity of 100 people per day.
Engineers
Of course, the Ural-4320 series is far from the machines of the Kremenchug plant in terms of demand in the engineering troops, but even here trucks from Miass have firmly taken their place in their weight category.
Weight and traction-coupling capabilities made it possible to develop light tow trucks capable of towing equipment weighing up to 12 tons. This was the KT-L or TK6A-04, produced by the Leningrad auto repair plant No. 57. Outwardly, the machine practically does not differ from the usual onboard 4320, but a towing device was attached to the rear overhang to the frame, which made it possible to move the equipment by the semi-loading method.
The next in the list of ranks of rescuers from Miass is KET-L - a light wheeled evacuation tractor equipped with a one and a half ton boom crane and a pulling force of 15 tf. These vehicles are part of the evacuation groups and have already managed to fight a lot. In Grozny, during a counter-terrorist operation for three months, a group of one BREM, BTS and two KET-Ls was able to evacuate 98 units of damaged armored vehicles without loss.
More modern is the MTP-A2.1 repair and recovery vehicle with a hydraulic manipulator (carrying capacity up to 4 tons), as well as the ability to transport damaged equipment by semi-loading and towing. MTP-A2.1 is a very versatile engineering vehicle: its configuration includes a device for starting automobile engines, containers for transporting fuels and lubricants, a sledgehammer and even a vernier caliper ШЦ-11-250-0, 05. By the way, the full name of the chassis for this military tow truck is woven in the best traditions of the domestic automotive industry - "Ural-4320-1060-31". MTP-A2.1 can be based not only on bonneted off-road vehicles from Miass, but also on KamAZ trucks and cabover “Urals”.
Many types of engineering equipment came to diesel "Urals" from the previous chassis of the 375 series carburetor. This is how the military truck crane KS-2573 in the early 80s was slightly redesigned and installed on the Ural-43202 chassis. Later, the famous "Ivanovets" appeared in the army version of the KS-3574, capable of lifting a two-section telescopic boom up to 12, 5 tons. Also serving in the army is a giant from the Motovilikhinsky plant KS-5579.3, capable of lifting up to 22.5 tons. For such a machine, an extended Ural-4320-30 chassis had to be provided. Despite the fact that "Ural" is inferior in carrying capacity to KrAZ, it also got the burden in the form of sections of the heavy mechanized bridge TMM-3. Moreover, there is an option with the installation of bridge spans on two-axle semitrailers of the Ural-44202 truck tractor.
The glorious past of the domestic truck trial
If KamAZ sports pride, for which the entire car plant works, is the KamAZ-Master team, which has become the world leader among camions in rally-raids, then UralAZ also had its own sports icon. This is a truck trial, or four-wheel drive truck races on very rough terrain. The main task of the crew in this competition is not just to go through all the stages, leaving all the restrictions on the track intact, but also to meet the allotted time. Stopping for more than 3 seconds, restarting the engine, driving off the track are punishable by penalty points. The first such competitions were organized in France thirty years ago in the town of Steinburg. Prior to that, they were engaged in trial on bicycles, motorcycles, jeeps, but they could only think of releasing them into ravines and mud baths in 1990 in Europe.
Since then, spectacular competitions have been held in the Old World at various intervals, collecting dozens of thoroughly redesigned all-wheel drive trucks. What does the military theme have to do with it, ask? The thing is that in 1996 the truck-trial came to Russia, and one of the ideological inspirers and organizers was the 21st Research Institute of the GABTU of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Actually, the competitions were held at first at the training ground of the institute in Bronnitsy near Moscow. At the start in 1996, 17 cars came out, thoroughly modified in the factory workshops or simply by the hands of enthusiasts. There were prototypes - for example, GAZ-3937 and ZIL-390610, as well as vehicles of the 6x6 group from the army families of ZIL, Ural, KamAZ and MAZ. The 4x4 group was represented by GAZ-66, Sadko and KamAZ-4326. The competition was attended by the crews of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from the Ryazan Automobile Institute and the 21st Research Institute - this turned out to be an excellent school for both professional military drivers and army test engineers. The format of the article does not allow telling the long and thorny history of the domestic truck trial, therefore, we will focus only on the successes of the Ural cars in this difficult sport.
Work at the plant in this direction has been carried out in the Experimental and Research Production of the Scientific and Technical Center since 1990. The main workhorse in the truck trial was the two-axle Ural-43206 with a forced YaMZ-236BE with a capacity of 250 hp. But the heavy Ural-53232 also competed in the 8x8 class. Six-wheeled all-wheel drive vehicles were represented by the cabover Ural-6361.
Over the years of the existence of the domestic truck-trial, the team from Miass has become the most titled. KamAZ, in spite of its much more significant financial capabilities, was unable to achieve distinct success in these competitions. To the credit of the Ural factory workers, it should be noted that most of the units of trucks for the truck trial were produced in Russia. At least for the first few years. Now count how much of the original "KAMAZ" in the famous raid vehicles from Naberezhnye Chelny. "Urals" and in Europe competed on equal terms (and often won!) With such world leaders of the automotive industry as MAN and Mercedes. At the same time, sports trucks from the Urals traveled to the Europa Truck-Trial competition in Germany, Austria, Italy and France on their own. As a result, from the truck trial in the late 90s - early 2000s, the Urals never returned without prizes, and in 2002 in Europe they won 1st and 2nd places, at the championship of the Commonwealth of Russia and Belarus they received two first, two second and one third place. And now, not the last violins play in the European truck-trial rides "Urals". True, the racers are no longer from Russia, and the cars have nothing to do with Miass's factory teams.
