With the index "D"
If we compare the circulation of the Ural with a gasoline engine with other army trucks, it turns out that "only" 110 thousand vehicles came out of the gates of the Miass plant. This is really not so much: ZIL-131 and GAZ-66 have sold almost a million copies. There are several explanations for this.
First, the Ministry of Defense took the lion's share of all Urals. Civilian structures did not get so many modifications, their appetites were more modest. Until 1967, the 375th "Urals" did not go to the sector of peaceful life at all, as they were equipped with built-in blackout. But in the village and in the transport department they did not particularly grieve about this. The 180-horsepower (initially 175-horsepower) gasoline engine ZIL-375 was good for everything, except for its excessive fuel consumption - this economic factor could not but be taken into account in the national economy. And secondly, the cost of even a basic onboard vehicle was rather big, not to mention the numerous modifications. Some sources say that the total number of Ural-375 variations exceeded two hundred. At the same time, of course, the Ural plant did not produce even a small part of all this variety, transferring orders to third-party offices.
As already mentioned in the first part of the story, the Ural with a carburetor engine got to the conveyor not brought to mind. In particular, even after a 25,000 run in the framework of state tests and the elimination of the most serious shortcomings, the truck's "portfolio" had weak clutch, cooling system, transfer case, cardan gear, front suspension, steering, wheels with tires and pneumatic hydraulics of the brake drive. Nevertheless, the "Ural-375" with a rag-roofed cockpit was assembled and sent to the troops. It is noteworthy that on the serial machines the carrying capacity was higher than the calculated one by 500 kg and reached 5 tons. The winch reduced it to 4500 kilograms.
As soon as the troops had accumulated a sufficient number of vehicles, it turned out that it was inconvenient to operate a heavy truck, designed to work both in hot and cold weather, with a tarpaulin "cap" instead of a roof. It blew in this cabin from all the cracks, the heater could not even cope with the fogging of the windows, and the operation of the BM-21 multiple launch rocket system could generally cause a fire. And the appearance of the car with bodies, the profile of which exceeded the height of the cab (KUNG KP-375), was absurd. It was like this: the body is insulated from severe frosts with reinforced foam, and the driver's cab has a rag roof. Therefore, in 1963, the military instructed Miass to supply an all-metal cabin.
This is how the most massive truck of the 300 series "Ural-375D" appeared, which, together with the "DM" version, was produced intermittently until 1991. Cars with the index "D" received, in addition to the new cab, a simplified transfer case, providing the car with only four-wheel drive, as well as a powerful cab heater. By the way, a somewhat paradoxical story happened with the disconnected front axle on the first Ural-375 vehicles. Initially, it was thought that the axle without a drive would reduce fuel consumption (after all, Miass thought about it), but the opposite happened: the front wheels lost torque, and the gluttony increased. The case turned out to be in the front tires, which, when traction was applied, increased the dynamic radius, and the rolling resistance decreased. As a result, at the Ural-375D, the transmission scheme was simplified, which increased reliability and increased efficiency.
In addition to the "D" version, Miass also produced the "Ural-375A" version, intended for the installation of a K-375 type body. It was distinguished by a spare wheel located vertically on the rear overhang of the frame. By the way, the rear overhang for modification "A" was lengthened to accommodate the overall box by 355 mm, and the total carrying capacity decreased to 4.7 tons. For countries and regions with hot climates, there was a modification of the 375DU, and for the northern latitudes, a version of the Ural-375K was developed.
The trucks were brightly painted to contrast more in the snow, and were fitted with an insulated cab, a battery cover, double glazing and an additional heater in the cab. The factory workers assured that the car could be operated even at minus 60 degrees.
Narrow specialization
In parallel with the launch into serial production of the basic version, a cargo platform with a two-axle drive was attached to the Ural. For this purpose, the 375C tractor was suitable, which was also originally in the production range. As a result, in the early 1960s, the Ural-380 appeared with a mechanical drive on the axle of a 12-meter Ural-862 semi-trailer with a 10x10 wheel arrangement. At the same time, the bridges on the semi-trailer were unified with the "Ural" ones and were also equipped with pumping. This monster road train, named "Ural-380-862", had a total mass of more than 25 tons, could accelerate to 67 km / h and in difficult road conditions consumed more than 100 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers. The drive to the active semitrailer was switchable to save fuel and resource.
In early articles about the remarkable military automobile industry of the USSR, there was already a mention of the experimental program "Perimeter", which, in particular, included the ZIL-131. It was attachments for self-digging, theoretical studies of which were carried out by the military in the 60s within the framework of the Okop research and development project. Military all-wheel drive vehicles should have been able to dig a full-profile cover for themselves, without involving engineering units for this. But the ZIL-131 surrendered quickly - the transmission could not withstand shock overloads, after all, the units were largely from the civilian 130th. But the newcomer "Ural" was originally developed under the stringent requirements of military operation and, in the opinion of the military, had to endure the hardships of the "Perimeter".
An experimental machine with specific scraper equipment even received its own name - 375DP, but also could not withstand the difficult self-entrenching procedures. In total, it took the military almost ten years of testing ZILs, "Uralovs" and KrAZs with "Perimeters" in order to understand the inability of machine units to such work. Working with a scraper hitch led to active wear of the gears of the gearbox and cardan gears, destruction of the transfer case bearings, breakdown of the main gearboxes, and twisting of the axle shafts. When we calculated the costs of premature repair of equipment, as well as the specific consumption per one cubic meter of soil, it turned out that it is much more efficient to dig trenches with military excavators or even earth-moving machines.
Among the "Urals" there were many exotic modifications. Perhaps one of the most unusual was the floating prototype. This happened in the wake of search projects of the 70s, when the Ministry of Defense demanded the supply of a wide range of amphibious vehicles, as much as possible unified with serial land analogues. In the supplement to the "Ural-375", NAMI tried to seal it along the "waterline" and equipped it with removable polyurethane foam floats. ROC received the name "Float", and the car - the corresponding index "P". But it was not possible to make the Ural's cabin hermetically sealed without a complete redrawing, and the driver had to put on a rubberized L-1 suit to overcome the water barrier. This could be understood in the warm season, but what was the driver to do in the autumn-spring period? For speed and controllability, the floating truck was equipped with a 55-centimeter-diameter propeller, the drive for which was pulled from the input shaft of the transfer case. On the Klyazma River in 1976, "Float" only with the help of rotating wheels was able to reach 2, 8 km / h, when using only the propeller, the speed of movement increased to 7, 95 km / h. Interestingly, the wheel pressure control system was adapted to forcing air into the chassis and transmission assemblies in order to avoid water penetration. Also, a powerful pump was installed in the back to remove seawater.
Previously, work on floating trucks was carried out with experimental three-axle vehicles "Ural-379A", "Ural-379B" and four-axle "Ural-395". These were search options for the modernization of traditional "Urals", they had a cabover and the so-called half-hood configuration. These cars remained in the category of experienced ones, which saved many lives of soldiers - the long hood of the Ural often became a lifesaver in the event of a fatal collision with a mine.
