8x8
Fiodor Lapshin, Autoreview
Photos belong to the author
When we arranged with KAMAZ workers about our visit to see new delivery trucks, they promised to prepare “something interesting else”. This “something” turned out to be the largest vehicle in KAMAZ’s range – a four-axle all-terrain Mustang vehicle!
The Mustang (KAMAZ-6350 8x8) proved its name at the very beginning when I opened the door of its cab. In order to get inside, one should at first step on a flexible “stirrup” made of a rope, then pull himself up holding on to two handles… Hop! And I’m already in a “saddle” – almost two meters above the ground driving the Mustang.
It’s like at home here, everything is familiar: not including its high fit, Mustang’s interior almost doesn’t differ from a usual KAMAZ’s one. Only several details remind that the truck is not quite ordinary.
ÈA tire pressure regulator sticks out from under the front panel; there are imperceptible toggle switches of interaxle blocking and a 2-gear transfer case on the lower right side of the steering wheel. Of course, everything seems to be rather rough as if made by military (or Soviet?) men, but there is an interesting detail – signs on the front panel are in the English language. Obviously, it was specially made for export!
One of the switches on the instrumental panel activates a differential lock between wheels – though only a rear-axle differential. It’s strange because I thought Mustang had a differential lock for all axles!
Danis Valeev’s commentary:
The four-axle Mustang has a perfect cross-country ability anyway. Suffice it to say that it has never got stuck in the course of tests! Besides, the vehicle gets over a ford 1,750 mm deep. And we didn’t introduce a front axle lock because the vehicle becomes practically uncontrollable with all differentials locked.
A gearbox is orignal too. This is a 16-speed ZF transmission with a “double H” shift pattern. The shift pattern is in the form of the letter H – and besides, one should at first push a shifter from “neutral” to the right to shift higher gears (from 5th to 8th), and naturally push a shifter to the left returning to lower shifts.
“Start from the third one,” advises a KAMAZ driver. In spite of ten tonnes of ballast in the body, the Mustang swiftly starts running; after some more shifts the vehicle is already running on a snow-covered road at a speed of 80 km/h.
And what will happen if the smooth road changes into a dirt road with numerous turns? We turned to the bank of the Kama – there passes a route along which racers of the KAMAZ-master team drive. (They say that once a racing KAMAZ vehicle even overturned there having caught a wheel on a concrete slab at full speed. Belted up passengers were not injured.)
And off we went! Of course, the four-axle Mustang is not a Dakar racing car, and, to add to this, a sandy track covered with snow is not as impressive as in summer. But we enjoyed it very much!
The Mustang dashingly runs on bumpy roads at a rather high speed (up to 60 km/h), and its suspension cushions even the toughest pits and bumps. And you steer the vehicle with confidence: you turn a steering wheel at a certain angle, and the vehicle runs in this particular direction, though it’s four-axle.
It is interesting to note that a low-speed engine makes it possible to run the whole way at two highest gears (with a divider in the “minus” position, though). And it’s not noisy in the cab – at least, for such a “mastodon”…
I didn’t like only the way the transmission shift works. You can easily confuse not only gears, but also rows, until you get used to the gearbox. For example, you move the shift to the left in order to throw into the sixth gear, - bang! – and the engine growls like a beast: the gearbox has already moved to the lowest row, and instead of the sixth gear it shifted to the fourth one on the go…
Danis Valeev’s commentary:
Only preproduction prototypes of Mustang trucks were equipped with ZF transmissions. Now, we install a ZF gearbox only against a customer’s order and mainly on civil versions of this truck whereas the majority of Mustang vehicles are equipped with an original KAMAZ-161 8-speed gearbox with a demultiplicator.
As to inaccurate shifting, we faced this problem using a batch of KAMAZ-6520 dump trucks (they were also equipped with ZF gearboxes). Drivers “burnt” 20 gearboxes moving to a lower row on the run by accident! The gearbox can’t stand it: synchronizers “burn”…
It is caused by a weak spring of the shifting mechanism. ZF eliminated this defect at our request: the rows are shifted more accurately now.
Passing through snowbound forests on the all-terrain vehicle, I remembered that this vehicle was not at all new! Why then did the KAMAZ workers offer it us for tests? Perhaps, it’s hard to sell it, and the managers of the plant decided to stir up customers’ interest in this vehicle thanks to this publication in Autoreview?
Everything turned out to be much easier. In spite of the fact that the four-axle vehicle was designed already in the mid-90-ies, mass production of it was launched only… in 2003!
The KAMAZ employees didn’t explain why this excellent and rather up-to-date (with the exception of the cab, of course) model had been reserve for so many years. Most likely, the matter is that the Armed Forces haven’t got enough money for Mustang trucks until recently…
But when it was decided to resume development of the Mustang family (it included three models – 4x4, 6x6, 8x8), KAMAZ upgraded its all-terrain vehicles: thus, we drove the vehicle of the latest pattern.
Danis Valeev’s commentary:
Upgrading consisted in the following. First of all, Mustang vehicles are now equipped only with engines complying with Euro-2. The design of the vehicle was slightly changed: for example, it has a new transfer case. Besides, nowadays the Armed Forces require vehicles with container-type bodies, so it was necessary to improve chassis too. Additionally, the Mustang vehicles were the basis for development of a series of new modifications, including a four-axle truck tractor, and an all-welded armored version with a cab made by Astais Company.
By the way, as for armoring, there are numerous attachments on the container-type body of our all-terrain truck. Guess why? For armored panels!
As for components of the truck, its engine is the most powerful in KAMAZ’s range, 360 hp. The only import components in it are its Schwitzer turbocompressor and Bosch injector.
We have already mentioned gearboxes, but there is one more interesting version: a Mustang with a gearbox developed in NAMI (FEDERAL STATE UNITARY ENTERPRISE “CENTRAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AUTOMOBILE AND AUTOMOTIVE ENGINE INSTITUTE”) is currently being tested. A torque converter between an engine and a mechanical gearbox enables to increase torque 2.5 times at the start!
Mustang’s axles are the same as those of KAMAZ-43118. A steering booster is like on KAMAZ-4310 (but with a higher productive capacity); the vehicle is also equipped with hydraulic rams to operate the second axle wheels. In short, though four-axle Mustang trucks are unique, they have very much in common with production KAMAZ vehicles what the military actually require.
After I had tested the Mustang, I remembered how I had driven IVECO all-terrain vehicles through the Sahara desert two years before. At that time I managed to drive KAMAZ’s analogue – Italy’s four-axle Astra.
To tell the truth, in comparison with the small Astra a driver of which feels as if he is in a tank, the Mustang is much more comfortable!
And KAMAZ assures that this vehicle is the most powerful in the Russian army. So far, the military are not going to buy it: only seven sets of Mustang vehicles are built for the Ministry of Defense (each set consists of three trucks – 4x4, 6x6, 8x8).
In general, the four-axle KAMAZ-6350 is still a rare (and even unique!) vehicle. Apart from prototypes, about 30 specimens were built in all. Tatneftegeophysica is the major customer of these trucks as it uses off-road trucks for exploration seismology.
To date, the plant builds 79 four-axle trucks per month, not on its conveyor, but in its experimental shop. These off-road vehicles can be proud of their birthplace, as, side by side with them, racing trucks are being tested to participate in Dakar races…