American roots on Ukrainian soil
In the previous part of the material about the KrAZ-214, it was mentioned that the roots of the design of the three-axle giant go back to the American lend-lease machines. In the comments of readers, one can find regrets about the partial or even complete borrowing of overseas engineering solutions. Indeed, before the winners of the Second World War lay the technological potential of half of Europe, only Germany and Czechoslovakia could share almost the most advanced designs in the world. The Czechs willingly shared with the German industry in their time. Nevertheless, the choice of precisely American approaches for the Soviet military (and not only) automobile industry is more than justified.
First, Soviet troops, with excellent Studebaker and others like him, forged victory in the war. The machines were respected for their reliability and unpretentiousness. The technical solutions of American wheeled vehicles were tested in the most severe front-line conditions. Secondly, borrowing German engineering ideas, for all their perfection and elegance, would be a blatant disregard for the opinion of the people who won the war. In addition, the high technical culture of production at factories, for example, Mercedes-Benz and Krupp, did not allow quickly and painlessly mastering assembly in the USSR - the country was in ruins. And with all due respect to the German engineering school in the conditions of the Eastern Front, technology did not always show its best side - the excessive complexity and high cost of solutions affected. Although the unpretentious German Opel Kadett K38 was nevertheless requisitioned, as a result of which the MZMA received an impetus for development for many years. Thirdly, the American auto industry had long-standing close ties with Soviet Russia - the gigantic plant in Gorky was built according to Ford's patterns, and this is far from the only example. And government limousines were developed with an eye on overseas cars almost until the very end of the Soviet Union. That is why we see echoes of American ideas at the heart of many models of domestic army vehicles. So it was with the ZIL-157, so it happened with the KrAZ-214.
The all-wheel drive KrAZ was not the firstborn of the Kremenchug automobile plant. On April 10, 1959, a dump truck with the index 222 and its own name "Dnepr" came out of the gates of the enterprise. This was the first and last model among heavy Ukrainian trucks, which was given a name at birth. In the future, KrAZ vehicles received exclusively popular nicknames. About how in Kremenchug they mastered the production of previously uncharacteristic products (let me remind you that heavy trucks came to Ukraine from Yaroslavl), the head of the assembly shop A. S. Danilenko characteristically tells:
“Let's get under the car with the assembler and the deputy head of the shop, Comrade Goryainov, and try to connect the units. Either the nut does not fit, then the cotter pin does not go … The engine was installed on the frame initially for a day and a half, and now we install it in three minutes."
Over time, KrAZ switched from a slipway assembly to a conveyor assembly - a 260-meter production line was prepared for this.
A feature of the army operation of the KrAZ was the use of special units and platforms designed exclusively for these heavy vehicles - they simply did not fit on the rest. Actually, the appearance of the KrAZ-214 allowed the Soviet Army to create a class of heavy engineering vehicles - excavators, pontoon and heavy mechanized bridges. At the same time, during the entire production period of the 214th version, only two modifications were issued at the plant - 214B and 214M. In the first case, it was a modernized car with a 24-volt on-board electrical system, a reinforced front axle and a main gear unified with both rear axles. KrAZ-214M was equipped with shielded equipment.
Machine of engineers and pontoons
While still under the "brand" YaAZ-214, the hero of our story tried on the rare role of a weapon carrier. The most famous was the 2K5 Korshun complex, which was produced for some time at the very beginning of the conveyor life of the machine. Behind the cabin of the YaAZ (later KrAZ) there were six guides with 250 mm ZR-7 missiles with a firing range of 55 km. We can say that at that time it was the heaviest MLRS in the USSR, which, however, did not satisfy the military with low accuracy and was eventually removed from service. One of the few surviving Korshuns is kept in the St. Petersburg Artillery Museum, although the late KrAZ-214 is the carrier of the weapon. In the book by Evgeny Kochnev "Cars of the Soviet Army 1946-1991." data are given that tactical missile systems "Vikhr" (range up to 90 km) and even two ballistic missiles of model "034" (range up to 60 km) were mounted on the base of the Yaroslavl vehicle. Experimental work was carried out to install the missile of the 2K6 "Luna" complex on the machine, but still such a massive structure was excessive even for the giant KrAZ, and it gave way to the four-axle ZIL-135B (ZIL-135L).
The engineering career of YaAZ and later KrAZ in the Soviet Army began in 1957, when the E-305 military excavator-crane was built at the Kalinin excavator plant, and two years later, at the plant No. 38 near Moscow, a wheeled evacuation transporter TK-1 with a PS-1 semi-trailer was developed. designed for the transportation of damaged equipment weighing up to 20 tons. The excavator-crane based on an all-wheel drive machine was a long-awaited machine for the army and the national economy, which had no analogues before - all previous machines were characterized by low mobility and maneuverability.
Initially, the E-305 was equipped with a "forward" or "back shovel" with a capacity of 0.3 m3 and a lifting capacity of 400 kg, as well as a ten-meter lattice boom in crane configuration. However, the very first tests showed that with such a long boom it would be necessary to postpone - the outriggers were not provided on the machine and at the maximum load on the boom the wheels with low pressure deformed, the body heeled and was ready to roll over at any moment. In addition, it was inconvenient to carry such long boom trusses by car, and the idea was abandoned. They also had to abandon the clamshell equipment, which makes it possible to make the E-305 a truly universal machine. As a result, the crane with a lifting capacity of 5 tons was still left in the structure - for this they used standard excavator mechanics. To drive the excavator and crane equipment, a 48-liter YuMZ diesel engine was installed behind the operator's cab. with. This was enough to dig 4-5 shelters for military equipment or one 4-meter deep pit in 1 hour. The E-305 excavator was adopted by not only engineering, but also other types of troops, as well as units of the USSR Navy (order of the Minister of Defense No. 24 of February 20, 1960). In the future, the evolution of KrAZ excavator equipment was associated with a new model with the 255B index and the transition from a cable drive of the units to a hydraulic one.
The transportation of acid melange for missiles was one of the possible options for using the remarkable potential of the KrAZ-214 in military operation. For this, a special AKTs-4-214M tank was used for 4000 liters, and for especially large consignments of rocket fuel, a truck tractor with a huge TZ-16 tanker worked.
Pontoon-bridge parks (PMP) and heavy mechanized bridges (TMM) were the real visiting card of military KrAZ trucks. The legendary PMP, which has become an object of shameless copying for many foreign countries, first took up combat duty on the basis of the KrAZ-214. A unit of military pontoon engineers, armed with 36 KrAZ trucks, in half an hour threw a 227-meter bridge, designed for 60-ton vehicles, over a water barrier. The TMM was the first of its kind in the Soviet Army and was intended to install a double-track bridge, also designed for 60 tons of load. The bridge consisted of four spans (in the longest version) and allowed to overcome obstacles up to 40 meters wide.
Machine No. 253
With all due respect to the KrAZ products of the initial period, it should be noted that the entire production line by the beginning of the 60s was outdated both morally and technically. At that time, the all-wheel drive KrAZ-214, the KrAZ-222 Dnepr dump truck, the KrAZ-219 flatbed truck and the KrAZ-221 truck tractor were leaving the gates of the Kremenchug plant. All these cars, to one degree or another, became legendary in their niche simply because they had no analogues in the Soviet Union, but they strongly demanded, if not replacement, then at least modernization. Naturally, the interests of the Ministry of Defense were taken into account first in this queue, which already in 1961 formulated the requirements for a new family of cars, consisting of two variations: an 8-ton 6x6 flatbed truck and a 15-ton road train with an 8x8 wheel arrangement and an active semitrailer.
This promising family was planned to be actively involved in work with strategic weapons, air defense systems and other important state tasks, therefore all developments in the program were strictly secret. In 1962, two special design bureaus were created in Kremenchug at once - the first was engaged in the refinement of serial machines, and in the second, they just began to implement new ideas of the military. As we understand, the most famous KrAZ-255B was born from the first SKB, which, moreover, became the most popular. But if the developments of SKB # 2 were embodied in a series, then cabover trucks would become our usual KrAZ trucks. Work on the new car in SKB # 2 went quickly and at first did not even have time to create its own cabin, located above the engine - they borrowed it from the Minsk MAZ-500. The design that was proposed in Kremenchuk is respectable even now. The cabover layout freed up a lot of space for the cargo compartment, which favorably distinguished the car, which received the name KrAZ-E253B, from its nosed serial counterparts.
The latest Yaroslavl 240-horsepower four-stroke diesel YaMZ-238 was used as a motor, and the gearbox was generally an automatic 5-speed. The car accelerated to 60 km / h and consumed up to 45 liters of diesel fuel per 100 kilometers. In accordance with the assignment of the Ministry of Defense, at the same time work was underway on a vehicle with an active semitrailer - the road train was named KrAZ-E259B and could take on board up to 15 tons of cargo. Progress on the project reached the top already by 1964, when the onboard KrAZ-E253 and the four-wheel drive five-axle active road train with the long name KrAZ-E259-E834 were created. There was a new angular cab, centralized wheel pumping, a YaMZ-238N turbodiesel with a capacity of 310 liters. with. and a more reliable 8-speed manual transmission. The emergence of a hydraulic booster instead of the archaic pneumatic was important. The update made it possible to raise the maximum carrying capacity of the onboard vehicle to 9 tons, and the top speed to 71 km / h.
Within eight months, both experimental trucks passed about 64 thousand kilometers as part of the tests. In many ways, they turned out to be successful machines. After a number of improvements, they returned to testing in 1967, while the KrAZ-214B were chosen as the sparring partners, only the experimental KrAZ-255B that appeared and the Miass car of a class lower than the Ural-375D. The cabover KrAZ with a margin bypassed everyone on the ground and hard road surface, and the state commission wrote in the conclusion:
"The KrAZ-E253 vehicle, in comparison with the serial KrAZ-214B and the prototype KrAZ-255B, has higher traction and dynamic characteristics, better cross-country ability, high fuel efficiency and, in terms of its parameters, is at the level of the best army vehicles of foreign countries."
But in 1967, the KrAZ-255B entered the assembly line in Kremenchug, which in many ways was only an improved version of the 214th machine and survived in production until 1993. In 1968, SKB-2 made the last attempt and provided the final iteration of the cabover KrAZ, the cabin of which was now similar to the GAZ-66. The flatbed truck was named KrAZ-2E253, the road train - KrAZ-2E259-2E834. In many ways, the breakthrough project was closed with the wording of the State Committee for Defense Technology:
“To stop all work on KrAZ-253. Seal the design documentation and deposit it."
The reason was simple: the cost of the car was 60% higher than the usual bonnet KrAZ, and the production of many truck units would have to be mastered with great difficulties - the subcontractors were often not ready for this.
Be that as it may, the work on the 253rd machine was the first of its kind for the Kremenchug plant, they made it possible to form a design headquarters, to prove engineering independence, and many years later to use the developments in the Otkrytie family. It, however, also ended in nothing.
