Damn ruskies:) Fucking brilliant with something so simple!
A Truck the Russians Make for $50K
61–70 of 72 posts
Re: A Truck the Russians Make for $50K
#62"The Russians Make The Best Truck In The Universe For $50K" I bet author have not ever owned Russian car.
I've known a few people who've owned older Lada Nivas (aka VAZ-2121), New Zealand traded milk powder for Ladas for a while in the 80's.
The engine is horrible, and the interior is what you'd expect, but they are built like a brick shithouse. You can literally barrel roll one down a hill and it will be fine. They're probably resistant to light small arms fire too.
Re: A Truck the Russians Make for $50K
#63Nice. For snow and thin ice, that's the right tool for the job. There's a long history of big-tire off road vehicles.
For some reason, car-sized ones are rare. There are lots of little open ATVs that can float, but they're for marshes, not Siberia. There are bigger amphibious trucks, sized for military and oil operations. This one is conveniently car sized.
It's skid-steer, so on-road driving won't be great and corners must be taken slowly.
Re: A Truck the Russians Make for $50K
#64Just watched a piece on it on local TV. The inventor says the machine uses 44 horse power 1.5L engine, a Japanese one. Which is interesting because it it's on par with regular consumer ATVs. Wheel are very light, 800 liters each, hence it's floating capabilities.
In Russia, these are called "шишкотряс" - cone shakers. Hand-crafted small garage ATVs.
Re: A Truck the Russians Make for $50K
#65Reminds me a bit of this crazy screw-propelled tank which is also Russian made: https://youtu.be/RbDe5dEu07I?t=34
Which reminds me of the Fordson Snow Machine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn5jkXEFTZ4
There's a long history of screw-drive vehicles like that. They work well on snow and mud, and work badly on roads. Useful for special purposes only.
Re: A Truck the Russians Make for $50K
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Kamaz is certainly up there with Tatra. When I was still following the Paris-Dakar rally (back when it was still taking place in Africa) I seem to remember that Kamaz trucks absolutely dominated the truck competition.
in West Siberia Kamaz trucks relegated to only in-village or where at least some kind of road is supposed to be. Anywhere else, where still possible for wheeled vehicles, the workhorse of USSR/Russian military is used - KrAZ (AWD, higher mount). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KrAZ#/media/File:Kraz255b.jpg
Yeah, forgot about those (was also on mobile and couldn't search easily). We also have one of them in my city, Bucharest, is employed by the local transport authority to help pull trolley-buses or even tramways whenever they break. Here's an image of it sometime in winter: http://tramclub.org/files/iarna_in_bucuresti_6_februarie_009... . It's a pretty intimidating machine, to be honest, but cool as hell!
Re: A Truck the Russians Make for $50K
#67Only in Mother Russia... :)
Re: A Truck the Russians Make for $50K
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
This was my thought as well. I had a roommate in college that was a mechanic and engineer. He LOVED these cars, but said, "Fuck all if they're not the hardest car to get to parts for and they're right expensive as shit." The only upside is their engines are incredibly reliable.
Hah you clearly don't watch Formula 1
What the championship where they won for four years in recent years?
Re: A Truck the Russians Make for $50K
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Extremes do absolutely exist everywhere, but Russian roads are still well-known to be some of the worst in the developed world. That isn't to say that it's entirely a problem rooted in lack of funding, though; as it turns out, building roads across permafrost is extremely difficult and Russia has a ton of that across its eleven time zones. And, even in areas that do periodically thaw, if there's a major river nearby…
Well, nobody expects the Russian roads to be up to German and Austrian level, but then, in many other countries, including US, they are not up to that level either. That video was from Rostov - and Rostov has actually fine roads. The Ukrainian side is in much worse conditions (and it is not due to the war; it was worse before the war in Donbass too). Of course, going through Siberia has it's problems. Just few days a…
You're comparing US roads with Russian roads?
Really?
Re: A Truck the Russians Make for $50K
#70"The Russians Make The Best Truck In The Universe For $50K" I bet author have not ever owned Russian car.
I've known a few people who've owned older Lada Nivas (aka VAZ-2121), New Zealand traded milk powder for Ladas for a while in the 80's. The engine is horrible, and the interior is what you'd expect, but they are built like a brick shithouse. You can literally barrel roll one down a hill and it will be fine. They're probably resistant to light small arms fire too.
> The engine is horrible, and the interior is what you'd expect, but they are built like a brick shithouse
So why buy a brick shithouse with horrible engine, if you've actually wanted a car?