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Like a typical Russian woman, "Kharkovchanka" ATV can do everything and a little bit more.

2021-07-27T12:51:33.897Z

Seek and you will find

What do you think is the biggest problem of the Antarctic? All year round below-zero temperatures? But people live in rather severe conditions and have even got used to it. A few more layers of insulation really help, after all. No, the real problem of the Antarctic is the absence of any infrastructure. There are twenty-five permanent research stations and twenty more function as seasonal seasonal bases. Four of them are located in the depths of the continent. They need to be provided with provisions and fuel. And there is only one ‘highway’ in the Antarctic. McMurdo – South Pole highway, which connects McMurdo Station (the unofficial capital of the Antarctic) and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It can be called ‘highway’ only by a long shot. It is just a track where snow is somewhat packed down. Every other road or track here appear ‘by accident’. Not many vehicles can operate in such conditions.

Machinery and vehicles used in the Antarctic face three major problems. First, low temperatures that wouldn’t allow to start an engine. Either lubricating oils freeze or fuel doesn’t inflame. The second problem is a layer of ice couple of meters high. It causes engines to choke. And the last problem for vehicles in the Antarctic is the snow. This was the reason why the famous American “Snow cruiser” fell through. Both, literally and figuratively.

In the 50’s The Soviet Union was preparing their First Antarctic Expedition. A few years earlier, the US tried to create a vehicle suitable for the Antarctic conditions. That’s how “Snow cruiser” was born. Nevertheless, being innovative and bold, “Snow cruiser” had too many flaws and the project fell through.

Therefore, the USSR had to start their own project almost from scratch. The expedition needed a vehicle that would be passable and workable in the most challenging conditions. As it is said in the Bible, “seek and you will find”. The solution was found in a form of AT-T, heavy artillery tractor, whose platform was used as a base for the new ATV.

In 1955 during preparations for the First Soviet Antarctic Expedition, scientists turned to the Soviet Army with a request to construct a vehicle that would be able to overcome the above-mentioned challenges. And the Soviet Army had a few aces up their sleeve.

The base

AT-T was an ace in a sleeve indeed, an engineering marvel of the Soviet Army. It weighed 20 tons and had a 5 tons loading capacity. Twenty-five more tons could be loaded on a camper. The vehicle’s maximum speed was about 35km/h in any climate conditions.

It was practically asking for a survival test in the Antarctic. AT-T took part in the Second Soviet Antarctic Expedition (1956) and passed its test with ease. They passed approximately 1000km through the Antarctic desert and founded Vostok Station.

To modernize, or not to modernize that is a question

Being a tractor, AT-T was not quite comfortable for the crew, so polar explorers asked to modernize it. “Ask, and it will be given to you”. United expertise from Kharkov transport Engineering Plant and Kharkov Aviation Plant (obviously, both plants were located in a city of Kharkov in Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic) took up the project. In three months, a new machine was ready. It was called “Manufacture 404C” with an unofficial name “Kharkovchanka”.

The new body allowed to perform Polar marches with decent level of comfort. “Kharkovchanka” was equipped with everything a polar explorer might need in a field and everything to make expeditions in harsh Antarctic conditions as comfortable as possible: a bedroom for 6 people, a kitchen, a radio room, an insulated restroom, a working compartment and even a drying compartment. To fill all of this, the chassis was lengthened by two rollers. “Kharkovchanka” was 9metres longer than the original AT-T. A new engine was installed as well. Instead of 455hp now there were 995hp! To make maintenance easier engineers made the engine accessible from the cabin. The new 1 meter wide caterpillar tracks were installed on “Kharkovchanka”.

As a result, the modernized vehicle weighed 35tons and could carry 70 more tons of load, easily overcoming snow slopes on maximum speed of 35km/h. The engine was accessible from the inside; there was no need to get out into the cold. To top it all off the Soviet engineers made “Kharkovchanka” able to swim (unlike original AT-T).

The expedition

On January 10, 1959 three “Kharkovchankas” set off on an expedition from Mirny Station to the South Pole. They visited “Vostok” station and “Komsomolskaya” research station (which is now shut down).

That expedition was rather challenging for both, machinery and people. For example, it turned out that repairing an engine from the inside was not as convenient as it seemed at the start. Not having to get out into the cold – good. Breathing in exhaust fumes – not that good at all. Huge caterpillar tracks also proved to be a mistake. They often broke down due to their width. A gearbox broke down twice as well. Caravan went at a speed not more than 5km/h. The first speed of the gearbox wore down more than the rest of them. On one of the vehicles the gearbox was changed right on the spot. While the vehicle had to be unloaded, so it could drive around on the second speed to prevent further damage of the gearbox.

“Kharkovchankas” worked through all the obstacles on their way and reached the final destination, Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station.

Modern days

Discovered flaws and shortcomings were supposed to be fixed in the new project, “Kharkovchanka-2”. In the second version, the engine was placed underneath the hood of the vehicle. By polar explorer’s demand the new “Kharkovchanka” obtained panes for ventilation. “Krakovchanka-2” arrived at the Antarctic in 1975. Vehicles of both generations (“Kharkovchanka” and “Kharkovchanka-2”) were used to provide a link between the Soviet – and then the Russian – polar stations. Few of these vehicles are still in use. Three of them are at “Vostok” station along with four arctic AT-Ts.

Russia produces 90% of all ATVs on the market. There are so many outstanding machines that deserve a mention, that we thought we need to introduce them to you.

2021-07-23T14:46:13.559Z

All-terrain vehicle “Trecol”

Ancestors of "Trecol" ATV are Karakats, three-wheel motorcycles on low pressure tires. Karakats were created in the 60s and some of them are still on the go. From this, the story of “Trecol” ATV goes to the debris of Russian (and not only Russian) marshes and remote villages.

Originally, this ATV was created for the northern regions of Russia, which are covered in deep snow, marshes and lots of water obstacles. It goes without saying, that all these factors are quite challenging for heavy machinery. But “Trecol” has an advantage, which makes it maneuverable: it is rather lightweight and has big wheels.

The base

These vehicles are produced on base of UAZ. They are equipped with motors of two types: either ZMZ petrol engines with a four-step gearbox, or 2,5l Hyundai turbo diesel with a five-step gearbox. Axels are taken from UAZ as well. Depending on the model, engines from a military vehicle or from a civilian one can be used. Sometimes Trecol can be equipped with a combination of details from both, a military vehicle and a civilian one. There are models mounted on the same chassis, but with an original body made from fiberglass sandwich panel. The ATV model row consists of 5 models: 39041, 39445, 39292, 39294 и 39295.

The production.

The very first step of production is the production of the body. The afore-mentioned fiberglass bodies are made at a plant in Kolomna. During assembly the most attention goes towards the details that are prone to excessive wear. They are reinforced by powder painting, which protects details and units from mechanical damage and increases their lifetime. A sewing department is also located in Kolomna. Here seats and sofas for the future all-terrain vehicle are produced.

The next stop on the way of an all-terrain vehicle is a wheel assembly line on a plant in Lyubertsy. Power transfer units, engines, gearboxes are also produced here. On top of that, frames, luggage compartments, ladders are also manufactured here. Axles and their work pieces are manufactured in a separate workshop.

The main manufacturing includes three sections.

I) Chassis assembly section:

Here a carcass of a vehicle starts gaining muscle, so to say: axles and power units are installed on an ATV, along with an electric units and fuel supply system.

II) Luggage compartment assembly section

III) Final tests section:

Here an ATV’s body is mounted on a chassis. Then work capacity of all the systems is examined. Future ATV is being prepared for technical control. When vehicle passes all these “dry tests”, it is taken for driving tests on a tank polygon. ATV must pass 500km in 3 days.

Driving tests follow the scheme: 200km without load on the first day, 200km with 50% load on the second day and 100km on a dirt road with water obstacles. After passing all the tests, ATV’s units are checked once again.

Trecol are off-road all-terrain vehicles. The model row includes the following options: “Lesnik”, “Lesnik-M”, “Lesnik-M Sever”. They are able to operate in different conditions, not only off-road. Trecol can be very useful in ice and snow covered terrains. Mashes and riverbeds are also easily passable for these vehicles. They are maneuverable and capacious with a decent load capacity. They have become popular amongst hunters and anglers. Trecol ATVs are not only passable and maneuverable, but also quite comfortable. You can even set a tent on their roof and pass the night. That option is appreciated by life-savers and geologists.

They can be used by professionals and enthusiasts, for fun and for serious business, in the water and in the snow. Maybe you should consider giving it a test-drive one day?

An excessively great mistake: a story of “Snow cruiser” ATV

2021-07-20T12:55:34.485Z

A wardroom with comfortable armchairs, a sleeping quarter for 5 people, a kitchen with a sink and a cooker, a welding workshop, a darkroom, a storage facility for gear and provisions. Sounds almost like a description of a luxurious hotel or something of this kind. But no, that has nothing to do with a hotel. This is what one all-terrain vehicle was equipped with. The history remembers this machine as a “Snow cruiser”. “Snow cruiser” had enough space and supplies to provide a crew of 5 people an autonomous life for 12 months in the most extreme of conditions.

Getting off track

The man, who constructed it, didn’t intend to create a gigantic all-terrain machine. There were tracked tractors and they did their job pretty well. American, Thomas Poulter, a 40-year-old physicist and South Pole researcher was pretty much satisfied with that fact. Until he had to save a life of a researcher, who was locked out on a remote station. Because tracked tractors, that Poulter used for this rescue operation, could not deal with severe arctic conditions and, most of all, they were useless on arctic terrain. They simply could not cope with snow-cowered cracks in the ice cover of the continent. He had to change his route 3 times!

«The station was located amongst total lifelessness and it seemed like I had been transported to immemorial times of Ice Age. My eyes could only see one invariable landscape – a mantle of ice merging with the horizon at a distance».

All-terrain tracked vehicles weren’t very big. They could transport people or cargo but they weren’t equipped for trips inland. The complex ice-cover of the Antarctic was cut with wide cracks hidden underneath the layer of snow or firn. And that was the most dangerous thing for researchers in the Antarctic. Poulter put his life at great risk trying to overcome these obstacles in an ordinary vehicle.

The “Snow cruiser” project

Although that expedition turned out to be quite tough, Poulter started preparations for the next one. He was planning to go to the Antarctic with his own all-terrain vehicle. According to his plan, that machine was supposed to change an approach to arctic exploration. He invented a vehicle, whose length helped it to overcome those evil cracks. It simple was enormously long and its overhangs were so large that its nose would overcome the crack by the time the front wheel fell into it.

That is how the "Snow cruiser" was supposed to overcome ice cracks

However, the biggest of all problems were not ice cracks and not severe arctic winds but a lack of finances.

Thomas Poulter worked as research supervisor at the Research Foundation of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. While he was working on his new ambitious project, American economics was working its way through tough times of Depression. Despite major financial problems, the Government decided to support Poulter’s project and provided the necessary funds. Poulter had already been working on it for over 2 years. The Government gave him money and set him strict time limits – the project must be finished in 11 weeks. Because in 11 weeks a ship was setting off on an expedition to the South Pole from Boston port. So, the construction of the unheard of all-terrain vehicle began on August 8th 1939.

The vehicle was given a framework that weighed 13,5 tonn and was made from extra strong steel. And also two diesel generators and four electric motors for each of the wheels. Wheelhouse and inner compartments were constructed to be comfortable enough for the crew to stay and live on board of “Snow cruiser”. Tires were the burning question of the construction. Finding a tire with huge diameter seemed like a nightmare. Fortunately, Poulter found what he needed at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Goodyear produced the tires of a suitable diameter for march buggies, which rode at Louisiana marshes.

Goodyear tires on "Snow Cruiser"

Into the Antarctic white

After few short tests, “Snow cruiser” started its expedition on October 24th 1939. The first part of the route, 1400km from Chicago to Boston, was on general use roads. They were easy to drive on, expect bridges due to the vehicle’s width and weight. Therefore, the crew decided to go straight through the water obstacles to detour from the bridges on their way. That was the only sort of the «field tests» that “Snow cruiser” had had before the actual expedition. They arrived to the port in time. In a couple of days, the crew built a gigantic platform ramp, using which Poulter drove the Cruiser on board of the ship.

Conditions in the area of expedition were truly severe: cold waters, enormous drifting icebergs and unceasing Antarctic winds. The ship with the huge “Snow cruiser” on board was slowly approaching the last stop before the big journey into the white of the Antarctic. The last checkpoint before the conquest of the inhospitable Antarctic terrains was Little America exploration base.

The very start of the movement of “Snow cruiser” was the very start of a long train of mistakes and mishaps that accompanied its expedition. The ATV turned out to be way too heavy (30 tons are not a joke) and it almost broke the platform ramp it was driven down. But being excessively heavy, “Snow cruiser” started sinking into the snow and would stop only being a meter deep.

At the start that fact didn’t concern the crew at all. However, Poulter quickly realized that he had made a ton of mistakes constructing that 30tons ATV. Excessive heaviness of “Snow cruiser” was only the tip of the iceberg. The construction had only two axels. Moreover, tires of the ATV were smooth and narrow. And this was not the end of the ‘construction miscalculations’ list. Even a choice of motors proved to be wrong! They overheated quickly.

"Snow cruiser's" appearance turned out to be the only excessively great thing about it

Poulter tried his best to solve the surfaced problems and paper over the cracks. Firstly, he suggested attaching spare tires to the front in order to expand the contact patch. Unfortunately, that didn’t help much. There were some chains on board of “Snow cruiser” and they drew the crew’s attention. They decided to use them on the back wheels. Finally, “Snow cruiser” started moving through the Antarctic. Nevertheless, it was moving backwards. The ATV managed to drive only a tiny part of the planned distance – 148km out of 8000 planned.

Out of the Antarctic white

Despite of trying his best, Poulter had to admit that “Snow cruiser” was not suitable for the Antarctic. For the next 12 months, the vehicle was used as a temporary base.

Expedition returned home, but “Snow cruiser” did not. The approaching war and lack of finances decided “Snow cruiser’s” fate. The ATV never came back home into Chicago hangar. It was left there, in the cold emptiness of the Antarctic. Only few times people would remember about the ever so great “Snow cruiser”. It is thought, that the area where “Snow cruiser” was left, has become an iceberg by now and “Snow cruiser” might have drowned with all its excessive greatness.

The best rescue all-terrain vehicle of the USSR a.k.a. the “Blue bird”

2021-07-19T10:53:10.218Z

The best rescue all-terrain vehicle in USSR

Italian engineers managed to copy the construction of this unique amphibian only by year 2007. While in the USSR this rescue complex was at service of cosmonautics and other extreme industries since 1975. There was only a small number of it produced though and only few of them are still on the go. The amphibian was named “Blue bird”. This article is about the flight of this mighty bird.

Amphibian “Blue bird” — one of the best rescue and evacuation complexes. Its modifications allowedevacuating both, people and machinery. Initially this amphibious vehicle was constructed for rescuing spaceships and their crews, who landed in wild impassable debris of Russia. So, it’s safe to say, it was meant to be used in the most extreme of conditions.

How it started

It all started with an accident, a dangerous one: imagine a planned-through mission go wrong in almost any way possible. Spacecraft «Voskhod-2» with cosmonauts P. Belyayev and A. Leonov on board was returning back to Earth, when its automatic systems broke down. Belyayev had to direct the spacecraft manually because the situation required immediate actions. Of course, all the scheduled courses and planned landing spots were rejected and forgotten. Belyayev managed this situation brilliantly. Yet, when cosmonauts left the spacecraft, they saw not what they expected to see. Instead of Kazakhstan steppe they found themselves in the midst of the taiga. In March, when that space mission took place, a chest-deep snow was still covering the ground, as well as any traces of human inhabitance. There was nothing to help the cosmonauts to get out of there. It took the crew 2 days to get to a clearing, where they were found and picked up by a helicopter.

"Blue bird" in the wild

The solution

After this accident, Korolev addressed V. Grachev, the director of AMO ZiL, asking him to help them construct a vehicle that would be able to wade through anything if similar mishaps take place during next space missions. Through literally anything: through the taiga, through a swamp, through a chest-deep snow or any other untrodden lands. Korolev was sure that the only one, who could create such a machine, was Grachev and his engineers. Since late 50s they had been working on worldwide delivery of ballistic rockets and by that time, they had already had a unique experience in construction of all-terrain vehicles.

“Blue bird” took the first attempt to fly in June 1975. Two modifications of the project were drafted: cargo version ZiL-4906 and passenger version ZiL-49061.

Cargo version ZiL-4906 had a hydraulic crane and was used for transportation of subsidiary screw-propelled vehicles. The second modification was meant to be used for passenger transportation. Its cabin was powered with medical equipment, provision modules, a modernized air conditioning unit and was able to provide a 3-day long autonomous survival for people.

ZiL-49061 as a museum exhibit

Both these modifications and the screw-propelled vehicle formed a search and evacuation complex PEK-490. The complex was given an unofficial name “Blue bird”.

"The mighty “Blue bird“

ZiL-4906/49061 was equipped with a 150hp time-tested engine ZiL-130 and a 10-speed manual transmission (including rear speeds). All 3 axis were given an independent torsion suspension and disk brake mechanisms. “Blue bird’s” maneuverability is also worth mentioning. “Blue bird” had a hydrostatic steering unit, which provided lag in turning of the rear wheels and an automatic correction of this lag. To move on water instead of a water-jet “Blue bird” used a pair of screw propellers. The speed of the vehicle afloat reached 8km/h, while on the ground – about 75km/h. Maximum fuel consumption was 75L/100km. The fuel was stored in 2 tanks, 260L each. Constructors fitted “Blue bird” into the smallest frame possible so it would be easily transported by military cargo planes and helicopters.

So, it’s clear to see, that engineers did their best to make “Blue bird” able to easily overcome any obstacles on its way. This project turned out to be an outstanding and unique in many ways. It is simple to service and repair it. Some of the “Blue birds” are still flying a.k.a. they still do their job of providing help saving people’s lives.