I was also driving this car in the Army. In fact it is "ascetic", but really useful for the military. Unfortunately I haven’t got a chance to drive off roads, so I haven’t seen its basic functions. Probably another one legendary cars for the citizen was "LUNOKHOD". Let's read together the history of the GAZ-66.
November 2, 1963, at the Gorky Automobile Plant a pilot batch of truck all-terrain vehicles GAZ-66. The history of "sixty-six" confirms the well-known idea that big fortunes are always side by side with big failures.
That's how it was:
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At that time Gorky Automobile Plant has successfully completed the state tests of GAZ-62 -airborne wheel drive all-terrain vehicle with carrying capacity of 1.1 tons, is designed to carry 12 people and tow a trailer weighing 1 ton. It seemed that the fate of "sixty-second" was resolved. It even got into a well-known book "Domestic automobiles" of V.I.Anohin, for chiefs fleets.
However, the plant was able to release a total of 69 all-terrain vehicles GAZ-62. The main customer - the Ministry of Defence - abandoned this car. Changes were associated with the change of the Commander of the Army. In 1960 Vasily Chuikov was appointed to this post, Marshal with rich combat experience. However, GAZ-62 repeated the same fate as other equipment received by the army. These years were generous with all sorts of changes in our country's history. It is enough to say that in 1959, the legendary commander of the Airborne Forces V.F.Margelov was removed from this post, and in 1961 - re-appointed. The logic of war, as we know, is different from the logic of the civilians - it takes into account factors that are hidden from the uninitiated people. Airborne Forces preferred a bigger truck because at the time there were new means of delivery - roomy military transport aircraft and helicopters, lifting airborne platforms.
Gorky Automobile Plant was planning a broad family of the truck with a cab over the engine. Among other was developed all-wheel drive truck GAZ-68 with a V8 engine for the national economy (the leading designer Rostislav Grigorievich Zavorotny). After the fiasco of the GAZ-62 attention was concentrated on it. The car was given the index of 66, that was used before on an experimental four-wheel drive truck with bonnet composition. GAZ-66 looks like a slightly enlarged GAZ-62, with which it was created at the same time.
Mercedes-Benz Unimog of 1948 sample. Later, it twice increased in size, forcing designers of other countries to dream of the same capacity and permeability of their cars.
There was a lot in common in machine design - hypoid main gear with limited slip differential, steering pair - three crest roller, three-way four-speed transmission with synchronizer on the third and fourth gears. When the military ordered air transportable modification of GAZ-66, the cockpit from the GAZ-62 with a folding fabric top was established on it.
The all-metal cab that was gotten in 1958-1959, prototypes of GAZ-66, different panoramic windows with curved side windshield sections. In preparation for production of the cockpit, its shape has changed a bit. This, however, does not change the main thing. The regular cab is welded from large forged parts, which give it rigidity. But the cab of GAZ-66 was created in such a way that instead of an all-metal top a light top could be installed. And then the usual approaches were not good.
GAZ-66 cockpit frame was welded with rods of the box and angular profile and from stoned stamped sheet metal panels 0.5-3 mm thick. All scientist of the country cursed such a structure, because when any noticeable damage (which is not uncommon in the parks), its repair turned to be a real headache.
Again, the logic of the main customer prevailed. For transferring of the vehicle through the air a lot of things were sacrificed. Nobody thought about how to get out of the cab after the car will drive into the belly of the aircraft. To get a great compactness they sacrificed ease of operation - to the gear lever, the connection of the front axle and a shift stage you had to drag back. But the design was calculated to withstand overload up to 9g and landing speed of 10 m / s during the parachuting on a special platform. Such platform was developed by design bureau of the plant № 468 "Universal" under the leadership of A.I.Privalov. Subcontractors didn’t like Gorky's cabin. They, in particular, did not agree that in the folded state the windshield, canopy, and part of the door could cling to the parachute and damage strands. As a result, the construction of the airborne version was passed to the Pilot Plant № 38 MO in Bronnitsy city, and the release of serial GAZ-66B was assigned to one of the Ministry of Defence repair factories. However, with the adoption of new types of aircraft, such as IL-76, the need in strict observance of dimensions disappeared. Costly production of low silhouette GAZ-66B will be completed, and normal cab trucks will be passed to the Airborne Troops.
As a result of engineering experiments in July 1964 first serial 66th came from the GAZ factory, endowed with a 2-ton lifting capacity and a balanced center of gravity.
At the same base as the GAZ-63, "sixty-sixth " became 226 mm shorter. Although its body was much longer - 3330 vs. 2940 mm. The body was a versatile all-metal cargo platform. Its lattice board reclined, becoming benches for 18 men.
Comparing with "sixty-six" GAZ-63 represented a major step forward. Instead of composite beam bridge used a one-piece "banjo" construction was used, not cast as on the GAZ-63, but extruded and therefore lighter. They managed to achieve half the weight distribution along the axes, which is unusual for a car with a "cab over engine" composition. Since the two bridges of GAS-66 were loaded approximately equally in the front and rear suspension spring devices of the same construction were used.
As cross-axle differentials in the car were used self-locking cam mechanisms. For the first time, scientists talked about the "self-braking differentials" on another famous meeting in February 1943, when they talked about the future of the automotive industry in the post-war years.
In this way, Germans increased the permeability of their ATVs. Technique attracted by the fact that it doesn’t require the driver participation, and, moreover, it is compact and has got high strength. Having studied the trophy technique, and later – after a series of joint ventures with German engineers of scientific researchers, Soviet designers have significantly improved cam differential. In particular, they got rid of such disadvantage, as the inequality of block coefficients during the delay of one and the other axis. For this purpose, in the differential of the GAS construction (acting as satellites) placed in two rows. By the way, through this node, GAZ-66 was unified with wheeled armored vehicles manufactured by the Gorky Automobile Plant.
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