Communication vehicles on a gas chassis aaa. GAZ-AAA: history, description, specifications

12.08.2019

Transmission

The production of trucks in Nizhny Novgorod (then Gorky) was not an accident, as was the development of production legendary GAZ AA. None of the other industrialized cities had the full sum of the advantages of the Volga industrial center. There already existed a strong industry with a large number of experienced workers. The Volga provided abundant water and energy resources, and made it possible to transport goods in the cheapest way. There was also a powerful freight railway station.

It looks like a GAZ AA truck

Turning to the services of the Ford concern in organizing the plant and developing the first trucks was quite natural. The domestic automobile industry had not yet experienced such large-scale work, and not a single foreign company could compare with the Detroit Automobile Plant. GAZ-A was copied from the American prototype. For its time, this machine was very powerful and of high quality.

The engine on the truck and on the passenger version was unified, it was controlled by a four-speed manual transmission.

Some difference from the car was only reinforced grip. GAZ-AA had a very low fuel compression ratio. This allowed the use of widespread low-grade fuels (naphtha, low-octane gasoline, lighting kerosene). The release of truly high-quality petroleum products was yet to come.

The equipped truck had a construction mass of just over 1.8 tons, in normal mode it could take a load of up to 1500 kg (this is where the famous expression “one and a half” came from). Nevertheless, the acute shortage of a truck fleet forced the use of vehicles as intensively as possible, often in GAZ-AA body transported 3 tons of cargo at the same time.

The production of a full cycle of components in the USSR began in 1933, at the same time, GAZ spare parts began to be made exclusively within the country. From next year, the truck was equipped with a metal cab (early versions were made of wood and cardboard). Modernization in 1938 led to the appearance of the GAZ-MM version. From the usual "one and a half" this car is outwardly indistinguishable, but it had a 50-horsepower engine.

It is not difficult to distinguish the engine on modifications AA and MM, you just need to check the shape of the flange. In the first case, it was rectangular, and in the second, it was triangular (accordingly, the number of fixing points also varied).

Gaz MM truck design

However, the modernization work did not stop there. We were constantly looking for opportunities to improve the truck and its motor part. For those who understand engineering, it will not be difficult to distinguish between 1938 and 1941 lorries.

After the USSR entered the war, thin steel was in demand in incredible quantities, there was no longer any left for it. The enterprise was forced to start assembling the GAZ-MMV. The differences of this machine are very significant: instead of doors - side partitions (in some cases, folding doors made of tarpaulin); wings were made of roofing sheet iron. The front wheels were not equipped with brakes. They left only one headlight and made the sides non-reclining.
Only in 1944 was it possible to return to the traditional solution - a wooden-metal case.

In 1947, the release of the MM modification was mastered by UAZ, which finished producing this car, judging by information from some sources, only in 1956. If the calculations are correct, then the total number of GAZ-AA cars produced, together with all modifications and versions, is approaching a million units .

Just in time of war, the lorry revealed its potential to the fullest. Of course, in comparison with the vehicles of foreign armies, it was not very perfect, inconvenient to drive, and the possibility of transporting goods was limited. But all these shortcomings are justified by one circumstance, namely, that foreign trucks were not suitable for use in harsh climatic conditions.

Chassis drawing Gas MM

In addition, low traffic, complicated repairs and the need to use spare parts in a huge assortment made the practical use of foreign trucks very difficult, especially in conditions of relatively low qualifications of drivers and mechanics. GAZ AA was devoid of these shortcomings.

The 4-stroke gasoline engine of the car belonged to the lower valve type and had 4 working cylinders. Drive - rear, front suspension - dependent, - non-synchronized. The motor develops 2200 revolutions per minute. The top speed is 70 km/h, fuel consumption is about 20 liters per 100 km, and the tank capacity is enough for about 200 km without refueling.

Modifications of the GAZ-AA truck

From 1934 to 1943, the GAZ-AAA was produced, the prototype of which was the 1931 Ford Timken. As a result of the modernization of 1937, a 50-horsepower engine appeared on the truck, and some other components were also updated. The wheel formula is 6x4, 2 tons of cargo is normally placed in the back. This car served as the basis for the GAZ-05-193, for several modifications of the BA armored car, among which were both mass-produced and experimental floating ones. In addition, on the basis of GAZ-AAA, they created a chemical armored vehicle and an ambulance armored personnel carrier.

Imported triaxial

In the 1920s and 1930s, trucks with three axles became popular in a number of countries. Such trucks were often used as army vehicles. The USSR imported three-axle machines from France and Great Britain for operation in Central Asia.

The base car "Ford AA" had a modification with two rear axles, manufactured by Timken, which was a supplier of chassis elements for Ford factories. Thanks to the third axle, the carrying capacity of the machine was increased to 2-2.5 tons.

As early as 1930, the Soviet Union purchased sets of parts for the assembly of one thousand Ford Timken trucks. In the USSR, on the basis of these chassis, armored vehicles BAI and BA-3 were developed and mass-produced.

Creation of a domestic version

Soon at the NATI Institute, relying on Constructive decisions"Ford-Timken", created domestic version three-axle truck, called GAZ-AAA. Compared to the American counterpart, the track has slightly expanded rear wheels and the base of the rear bogie has been reduced. The design of the bogie suspension has changed.

Serial production began at the very end of 1934 and continued until the summer of 1943. However, individual vehicles were assembled until the very beginning of 1944 from the available backlog of parts. In total, almost 37.4 thousand onboard machines and a number of chassis for armored vehicles and buses. A photo of GAZ-AAA from the early series is presented below.

The truck chassis was used in the construction of the GAZ 05-193 bus and the BA-6 and BA-10 medium armored vehicles.

Design features

The main difference chassis GAZ-AA And there was a rear balancing trolley. The design of the bogie included two bridges with a worm gear through passage and four springs in the shape of a half ellipse. The transmission consisted of a four-speed gearbox and an additional two-speed gearbox. The gearbox had direct and downshifts.

Thanks to the transmission, it was possible to expand the traction range and improve off-road performance GAZ-AAA. Positive influence the wheels of the additional axle also had a cross-country ability.

The frame of a three-axle car had its spars. To cool a more heat-loaded engine, a radiator with an increased heat exchanger area was used. The increase in area was achieved by additional rows of tubes. The engine fan was also changed - instead of the simplest two-bladed version, a more productive one with four blades was used.

Spare wheels were placed under the wooden platform of the body. To provide more wheel travel for the rear bogie, the platform had transverse retaining bars increased by 100 mm. Since the load capacity of the machine was 2 tons, these bars were made from thicker boards. A large tool box, which passed through the entire width of the car.

Machine upgrade

The cars of the first years of production were equipped with a 40-horsepower carburetor engine. To improve the technical characteristics of the GAZ-AAA, since 1937, they began to equip it with a modernized 50-horsepower engine with a carburetor from an M1 passenger car. There was a unification of the steering gearbox for all GAZ vehicles.

The car was equipped parking brake disk type, located on the output shaft of the transfer case.

As an experiment, they tried to install an additional 60-liter fuel tank under the platform of the modernized GAZ-AAA vehicles. Fuel from it was pumped by a pump into the main tank. There were prototypes of an extended platform with a reinforced frame. Cars with such a set of improvements had the semi-official designation GAZ 30. Further development experiments were not received.

Serial changes 1938-41

In the prewar years, changes and improvements were constantly made to the design of the GAZ-AAA. So, since 1940, the cars received a unified towing device on the rear cross member of the frame.

Around the same time, the spare wheels were moved from the places under the platform to the pockets on the front fenders. By this time, the introduction of front towing hooks mounted on the side members of the frame also applies.

Simplified model

After the start of the Great Patriotic War the situation with the supply of high-quality steel sheet, which is necessary for stamping wings and a number of other parts, began to deteriorate sharply. Therefore, the plant designers have developed a simplified version of the truck cab. For the manufacture of cabins, ordinary roofing iron was used. All wartime changes were introduced gradually, as the supply of parts was used up.

The front wall of the cab, dashboard and engine hood remained unchanged. The rear wall of the cab was slightly higher than the back of the driver's seat and had a tubular reinforcement along the outer edge. The rest of the rear wall was made of canvas and attached to the amplifier and to the wooden roof frame. The roof was also made of tarpaulin. The visor was not placed over the windshield.

Instead of doors, there were triangular plywood inserts on the sides of the seat. The rest of the opening could be closed with two canvas panels connected with leather straps. Stamped steps were replaced with wooden ones made of 2-3 boards. The footrests served as a support for the wings and had an additional mounting bracket. General form Salon GAZ-A AA is pictured below.

Wings got rectangular shape and had several welding points in the corners. Cars were equipped with one headlight on the driver's side. The windshield of the cab consisted of two parts and could be easily replaced. Ordinary window glass could be used for replacement.

Toward the end of 1942, the cars began to be equipped with wooden doors with sliding glazing. In 1943, they began to use two headlights from the off-road GAZ-67. The canvas back of the cab was used on one and a half ton trucks GAZ AA after the war, until the end of production in 1949.

Exploitation

Many built GAZ-AAA vehicles were supplied to the Red Army. On them, instead of the onboard platform, various repair shops were often installed. The chassis was used to install oil filling (model M3-38) and gas filling (B3-38) tanks.

Another area of application of the machine was the creation of mobile radio stations, early warning systems for targets RUS-2. In the mid-30s, the Su-12 self-propelled unit was created on the basis of the truck, which was actively used in battles on Lake Khasan, the Khalkhin-Gol River and during the war with Finland. Already during the war, a system was installed on the GAZ-AAA chassis salvo fire BM-13 "Katyusha".

The GAZ 05-193 bus has been produced since 1939 for the needs of the army. It was used as a staff and ambulance transport, as a chassis for the manufacture of mobile laboratories (hygienic, bacteriological, etc.).

Part of the GAZ-AAA cars also ended up in the civil service, but with the outbreak of war it was mobilized into the army. The surviving machines were used in the national economy for quite a long time. different quality. For the removal of logs, GAZ-AAA timber trucks were used, which worked with dissolution.

To date, only three three-axle vehicles have survived, which are in various museums in Russia.

Soviet GAZ-AA trucks were an exact copy of Ford AA cars of the 1930 model, the only difference was in the emblem on the radiator grille. The first cars that fully complied with the technical documentation Ford motor Company began rolling off the assembly line at the end of 1932. Almost at the same time, in honor of the writer Maxim Gorky, Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky. Accordingly, the automobile plant began to be called Gorky, and the produced NAZ-AA trucks received the name GAZ-AA. At that time, the plant assembled about a thousand trucks a month from domestic parts and continued to increase production volumes. During the first year of operation, 7,477 trucks were manufactured at the main plant, while car assembly plants, on the contrary, reduced the pace of assembly. Very soon lorry GAZ-AA became the most massive truck in the USSR. Most of the cars of the first releases, with flatbed bodies, entered the Red Army: just at that time the course for its motorization was proclaimed. The rest of the trucks were used in various sectors of the economy. Along with on-board vehicles, the GAZ-AA chassis was also produced, which became the basis for various specialized vehicles, mainly sanitary and firefighters - these machines were especially lacking in the country. In addition, lorries were adapted for special van bodies for transporting products in big cities.

all pictures (17)
specifications

PMG-1" 1932–38

PMG-1 ( fire engine GAZ model No. 1) on the GAZ-AA chassis, produced at the Miussky plant. The prerequisites for the creation of this car date back to 1930, when articles began to appear in the press about the need to create a light fire truck. The PMG-1 was equipped with the same centrifugal pump and other fire equipment similar to the PMZ-1 (based on the ZiS truck). On the left side, behind the cab, a stander was installed on the car - a device for connecting to the city water supply network. A fire brigade of 6 people was located on the side seats of the body, and the driver and team leader were in the cab.

Fire fighting equipment

GAZ-AAA "1932–43 37,373 units produced

Three-axle off-road truck based on GAZ-AA. The GAZ-AAA chassis was widely used for various special machines: armored vehicles, radio stations, anti-aircraft installations. The car had a two-stage demultiplier in the transmission, worm gears, 2 gas tanks with a total capacity of 105 liters. From the middle of 1942, the GAZ-AAA was produced with a simplified cabin and wings. It had no fender, right headlight, front wheel brakes, and the sides did not fold down; two spare wheels were placed on the sides of the engine hood.

all pictures (27)
specifications

GAZ-03-30 "1937–10.1950 14,809 units produced

A bus for local communication and official use on the GAZ-AA chassis, the most massive bus of the pre-war period. After analyzing the design of the experimental models GAZ-2 and GAZ-3, a bus was created at the car factory, which borrowed from each of them all the best and most progressive. The body of the GAZ-3 was taken as the basis, but the height of the roof was increased, making it more convex, as on the GAZ-2. This made it possible, without violating the basic proportions of the low body, to increase the height of the ceiling in the cabin - so that it was possible to move inside the bus without bending down. Since the factory itself was not enough production areas, the former Automobile Assembly Plant in Kanavino was adapted for the production of buses, which by that time had become a training branch of GAZ. In 1937, the bus underwent a slight revision - it back shortened by 15 cm to increase body rigidity and reduce weight.

all pictures (5)
specifications

GAZ-55" 1938–50 12,224 units produced

Sanitary van on GAZ-MM chassis. The body is a wooden frame sheathed with metal, a double-leaf rear door. The salon could be transformed for the transportation of bedridden or seated sick and wounded. Heated with heat from exhaust gases. The suspension was with extended rear axle springs and six hydraulic shock absorbers from GAZ-M1. In the period 1941-43. a simplified version was produced with the usual cargo suspension, curved L-shaped wings and one headlight. However, from the end of 1943, the model returned to the pre-war configuration, with the exception of the wings.

specifications
Medical services technology
Army ambulance vehicles

GAZ-MM "1938–50 419,823 units produced

An upgraded version of the GAZ-AA truck with a 50-horsepower GAZ-M1 engine, improved front suspension and steering. During the Great Patriotic War, GAZ-MM cars and its modifications were produced in a simplified form - since 1942, the plant switched to the production of cabins with canvas roofs and canvas flaps instead of doors (in 1943, the right solid door was returned again). Stamped wings were replaced with bent L-shaped sheets of roofing iron. Front brakes not installed right headlight. Most cars did not have a reverse gear. The truck was produced in Gorky until 1946, after which production was continued in Ulyanovsk (UlZiS).

all pictures (11)
specifications

GAZ-44 "1939 Produced 130 units

LPG modification GAZ-MM. The stock of natural gas (methane) compressed to 200 atmospheres was contained in six cylinders weighing 65 kg each, as a result of which the carrying capacity decreased to 1100 kg. When the engine was switched from gasoline to gas, its power was reduced from 50 to 42 hp, and the maximum speed did not exceed 65 km / h.

specifications

GAZ-60 "1939–40 2,015 units produced

In the early 1930s, a group of specialists from the Scientific Automotive and Tractor Institute (NATI), led by G. Sonkin, began work on half-tracked vehicles. Prototypes of such a NATI-3 vehicle based on the GAZ-AA truck were already tested in 1932. In serial production, the car received the designation GAZ-60. The basis of the mover was a rubber caterpillar. The transmission to the front and rear drive rollers of each side was carried out from the rear drive axle by two chains.

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specifications
Tracked

GAZ-42" 03. 1939–46 31,956 units produced

Serial gas generator truck based on GAZ-MM with gas generator unit NATI-G-14. In the absence of prepared coal, the installation could also work on wood chocks and peat briquettes. The nominal consumption of solid fuel was 35 kg / 100 km. The maximum speed is 50 km/h.

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specifications

GAZ-65" 02–03. 1940 1,754 units produced

Half-track truck based on GAZ-MM. In fact, this is an illustration of the idea of creating a caterpillar that is completely interchangeable with the drive wheels of a serial truck. It is believed that the idea of using such a kit was put forward in September 1939 by N.S. Khrushchev - he then headed the Communist Party of Ukraine and went to the army during the annexation of the eastern part of Poland to Ukraine. Army trucks in rainy weather, which stood in those places, got stuck on muddy dirt roads. Khrushchev's order was quickly implemented and the half-track GAZ-65 appeared. The idea underlying the design of the GAZ-65 was as follows: a set of rollers, rollers and their axles was attached to the frame. Between the twin rear wheels (they played the role of the main road wheel), a chain gear was fixedly installed, from which the chain transmitted rotation to the drive sprocket suspended from behind under the frame. She, in turn, was connected by a chain engagement with a small-sized metal caterpillar. Off-road, a caterpillar was used, and on the road the car moved on wheels - the caterpillar was removed and the caterpillar carriage was fixed in the raised position. It is noteworthy that in practice the cross-country ability of this car has not changed much compared to the base model. The design was unsuccessful and they never returned to it. The experience of designing, testing and operating such vehicles has shown that the creation of half-tracks based on standard cars led to their extremely low durability, since when installing the caterpillar, all other units remained unchanged, and due to the increase in the bearing capacity of the mover, they worked with large overloads. Frequent breakdowns and design failures were typical of half-track operation. Of the 1754 vehicles built in 1940, 8 vehicles agreed to accept the military representative of the ABTU RKKA, 24 copies were taken by military builders, 10 units went to the Glavspetsgidrostroy of the NKVD, the main customer rejected the rest of the vehicles "as completely unsuitable for operation." The remaining vehicles were dismantled and delivered to the army as ordinary GAZ-MM.

City of the future

The first five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR for 1928-1932 marked the beginning of a grand industrialization program. The plan provided for the construction of more than one and a half thousand large facilities - hydroelectric power plants, metallurgical plants, automobile and tractor factories. All these projects required transport, so one of the strategic objectives was to organize mass production trucks. By the end of the 20s, trucks in the USSR were mass-produced by two automobile plants: the Moscow First State car factory(former AMO) and Yaroslavl Third State Automobile Plant. However, their capacities were sorely lacking, since both enterprises were created on the basis of pre-revolutionary industries. So, by the time the first five-year plan was launched, there were only about one and a half thousand cars in the whole country. It is not surprising that already in the mid-1920s, the Soviet government planned the construction of the country's first auto giant, the production capacity of which would allow the production of 100,000 cars a year. In the absence of the necessary experience and technological resources, it was advisable to purchase production abroad. And the eyes of the Kremlin experts rushed across the ocean, in the first place - to Detroit. This North American city was presented to the builders of socialism as an exemplary "autocity", a metropolis of the future, in which people live and work, obeying a single functional plan. It was in this format that they dreamed of building the Soviet auto giant. Next to the workshops, it was supposed to build residential quarters for workers and create all the related infrastructure. As a result of negotiations Company General Motors refused to participate in the project, and Ford remained the only partner candidate, which suited the Soviet side quite well. First, the name of Henry Ford and his automotive empire associated with manufacturability and rationalism; secondly, this brand was quite well known in our country (small in volume, but stable export of Ford cars to Russia began in 1909); and thirdly, the models of the new Ford platform, which replaced the outdated T family in 1927-1928, were the best suited for the needs of the USSR. Passenger car ford-a and the one and a half ton truck Ford-AA were simple, unpretentious, inexpensive and, most importantly, largely unified structurally with each other.

Dreams and reality

The technical agreement with Ford was signed on May 31, 1929. It was planned to build an auto city not far from Nizhny Novgorod, near the village of Monastyrka, at the confluence of navigable rivers - the Oka and the Volga. The Soviet side signed a contract for the construction of a plant and a camp for workers with the Cleveland firm Austin Company.

In addition to the construction of the auto giant, the agreement with Ford provided for the operational construction of two car assembly plants - in Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow, where it was planned to assemble Ford cars from ready-made car kits (according to the agreement, the USSR undertook to purchase 72,000 car kits). These assembly lines made it possible to start producing cars before the construction of the Nizhny Novgorod plant was completed and served as a kind of industrial training facility for workers. For the construction and equipping of branches, the American side attracted the construction company Albert Kahn, Inc., already well-known in our country. In 1929, part of the area of the Gudok Oktyabrya plant of agricultural machines, located in the town of Kanavin near Nizhny Novgorod, was assigned to the creation of the First Automobile Assembly Plant. In February 1930, the assembly of the first Ford-AA trucks from American car kits began there. On November 6, 1930, both cars and trucks "Fords" began to roll off the main assembly line of the Moscow Second Automobile Assembly Plant (since December 26, 1930 - the State Automobile Assembly Plant named after KIM). the estimate turned out to be more modest than expected, and secondly, the labor enthusiasm of the performers was surprisingly combined with the sloppiness and inconsistency of the actions of numerous management structures. Europe's largest car factory was built on time, but the results were far from utopian visions of an industrial city of the future. The new building near Monastyrka was secretly called Sotsgorod, and in 1932 it received the official status of the Avtozavodsky district of Nizhny Novgorod. In the second half of January 1932, at the plant, which was about to be launched to its design capacity, they mastered the production of a cylinder block, crankshaft, frame spars and a number of other parts. Having failed to achieve regular deliveries of components from subcontractors (in particular, sheet steel), the cabins of "pre-production" trucks were assembled from plywood, and on January 29, 1932, the first NAZ-AA vehicles rolled off the assembly line of the Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Plant. On October 7, Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky, the factory abbreviation also changed, and lorries with chassis serial numbers above “3800” already had the GAZ brand. By the end of 1932, the production of trucks at the Gorky Automobile Plant reached 60 vehicles per day.

Almost the same

Gorky trucks differed slightly from the overseas prototype. Differences can be divided into forced, caused by a shortage of materials or negligence of subcontractors, and made intentionally, which was due to the need to adapt the design to difficult conditions operation. The former include, for example, a cabin made of wood and pressed cardboard, which until 1934 periodically “replaced” a regular metal cabin with a leatherette insert in the roof on the conveyor. The second - strengthening the clutch housing, improving the steering mechanism, equipment intake system engine with an air filter and a gasoline sump, as well as mounting the motor to the frame on rubber shock absorber gaskets. The new onboard platform was designed by Gorky engineers back in 1930.

basis designs GAZ-AA a steel stamped ladder-type spar frame served. The front axle beam was suspended from it with the help of one transverse semi-elliptical spring. The rear axle was attached by means of two longitudinal cantilever-type springs, that is, the rear end of the spring was pivotally attached to the axle beam, and in the middle part and the second end it was connected to the frame (through a swinging earring). Such a design rear suspension did not allow to fully transfer the pushing force, so this mission was assigned to a hollow pipe in which it was enclosed cardan shaft. At one end, this pipe was rigidly attached to the main gear, and at the other, through a ball joint, it rested against the frame cross member. The front end of the push tube and the axle housings were connected by oblique braces, designed to evenly distribute dynamic forces. In the front suspension, the mission of transferring the longitudinal load to the frame was carried out by a V-shaped thrust fork. Only the front suspension was equipped with single-acting hydraulic shock absorbers. service brake with mechanical drive acted on the pads of all four wheels; The "handbrake" had a tape mechanism and blocked only rear wheels. power unit machine consisted of an in-line four-cylinder lower valve carburetor engine with a working volume of 3285 cm 3 and a power of 42 liters. With. and four-stage (as opposed to three-stage on GAZ-A) mechanical box gears without synchromesh.

The low compression ratio (4.2) made it possible to use in the heat not only low-octane grades of gasoline, but also combustible substances that were not originally intended for internal combustion engines - for example, kerosene or alcohol. Fuel entered the carburetor by gravity, since the gas tank was located at the top of the front wall of the cab, hanging over the knees of the driver and passenger. This arrangement made it possible to use a “live” fuel level sensor, which was an ordinary float visible from the cab in a special graduated window on dashboard. In addition to the fuel "window" on dashboard located the ignition switch, ammeter and speedometer. A common external light bulb at the top of the panel served to illuminate the instruments. But the driver's workplace was equipped with numerous controls for power and ignition systems. Under the dashboard there was a tap that shut off the fuel supply from the tank. Nearby was a "start button" - a rod for adjusting the enrichment of the working mixture. Directly behind the “steering wheel” on the steering column, a “manual gas” lever was installed on the right, which regulates the position of the throttle. The same lever on the left made it possible to adjust the ignition timing. In addition, on the steering wheel hub there was a “flag” for turning on the evening light (headlights and a lone taillight on the left side) and a horn button.

The starter was started by a foot trigger above the brake pedal, and next to the accelerator pedal, a mushroom-shaped footrest protruded from the floor, which could also be mistaken for a pedal. A double all-metal cabin with a leatherette insert in the ceiling, nothing but the absence of door trim, which did not differ from the front half of the GAZ-A cabin, made the truck more comfortable than its open passenger counterpart. The spare wheel was attached under the frame for rear axle.

Trial by War

In terms of reliability and endurance, the GAZ-AA was somewhat inferior to its only real competitor in the domestic market - the Moscow three-ton ZIS-5, but the Gorky Automobile Plant significantly surpassed the ZIS in production capacity, so it was the lorry that was to become " universal soldier"national economy, and Gorky's designers - to create all kinds of "peaceful" and "military" modifications and improve the basic model. It is for the purpose of identifying weaknesses designs in December 1932, the trucks took part in a test run from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow and back, and in the summer of 1933 - in the extreme "Karakum" raid. Most of the typical breakdowns were due to the poor quality of components supplied by subcontractors. In 1933, the Moscow and Gorky car assembly plants finally ran out of American car kits and switched to assembling cars from domestically produced parts.

In 1936, the Gorky residents mastered the production of a new GAZ-M engine - boosted to 50 hp. With. version of the GAZ-A engine. Lorries began to be equipped with this unit in 1938. At the same time, a new steering mechanism unified with the “emka” appeared and the mount was reinforced rear springs. This modification received the designation "GAZ-MM" (contrary to popular belief, the pre-war "MM" outwardly did not differ from the serial "AA"). Since October 1940, GAZ-MM began to install a reinforced towing device and fittings for attaching a spare wheel of a new design.

The plumage of the lorry changed with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The metal was saved, so the front end gradually lost all elements that were not considered vital: the angular wings were bent from roofing iron, and the roof and doors were made of tarpaulin. The headlight and wiper were installed only on the driver's side, and the front brakes, muffler and bumper were completely absent. From 1943, the canvas flaps of the cab sides gave way to wide wooden doors.

A simplified modification of the GAZ-MM continued to be produced even after the end of the war, however, full-fledged metal doors, a silencer, front brakes, a bumper and two headlights were returned to the cars, and a rectangular window appeared in the tarpaulin of the rear wall of the cab. At GAZ, the last lorry was assembled on October 10, 1949, and at the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant (UlZIS), which had been assembling GAZ-MM since 1947, the production of these trucks was stopped only by 1951. From 1932 until the start of the war, GAZ, the KIM plant and the car assembly plant in Rostov-on-Don produced a total of more than 800 thousand one and a half AA and MM models. During the war, the Gorky Automobile Plant assembled 102,300 trucks.

distant relatives

Ford Model AA(1927-1932). If our GAZ-AA was created as a full-fledged truck for the national economy and the army, then its American Ford-AA prototype was more like a commercial car on the Ford-A platform, which replaced the Ford-T platform in 1927. That is why, until 1930, a one- and two-ton (depending on the wheelbase) truck managed with spoked wheels, and the rear ones were single-sided. An adapter for installing twin rear wheels appeared only in 1931. For the sake of increasing the maximum speed, the “mighty” worm final drive used in the early versions was later replaced with a helical bevel gear, and the three-speed gearbox gave way to a four-speed one. Since 1929, the cab design of the Ford-AA has been completely unified with the passenger version. In the same year, joint experiments with Timken began to create a three-axle version. The first samples were chain drive rear axle from the leading middle. Later, the triaxial idea was completely abandoned.

Bedford W-type(1933-1939). The expansion to Europe was carried out by the American corporation General Motors, among other things, using the British Chevrolet brand - under this brand trucks were sold, since 1929, produced in the English county of Bedfordshire. Then, in honor of the county, the cars were named Chevrolet Bedford, and in 1931 they decided to remove the word Chevrolet from the name. Thus began the history of English Bedford trucks. In November 1933, the company introduced a new three-ton model, series no. Trucks were equipped with 80-horsepower overhead valve 6-cylinder Chevrolet engines. There were two versions of the car - on a short and long wheelbase, which made it possible to build all kinds of specialized versions on this platform: from passenger buses and vans to fire trucks (pictured).

Specifications GAZ-AA
Number of places
load capacity
Max speed
Fuel consumption at full load (when driving on the highway)	18.5 l/100 km
electrical equipment
Accumulator battery
Generator

Tire size

Weight, kg
equipped (without load)
complete, including:
to the front axle
on the rear axle

Ground clearance, mm
under the front axle
under the rear axle

The smallest turning radius, m
along the track of the outer front wheel

Steering gear - worm and double roller, gear ratio - 16.6

Suspensions (front and rear) dependent, front with transverse leaf spring, rear with two longitudinal; hydraulic shock absorbers, rotary type

Brakes - foot - shoe, with a mechanical drive, acts on all wheels manual - band, with a mechanical drive, acts on the rear wheels

Gearbox - mechanical, three-way, with four gears forward and one back

Clutch - single disc, dry

Gear ratios - I - 6.4; II - 3.09; III - 1.69; IV - 1.0; reverse - 7.82

Main gear - bevel gears with spiral teeth; gear ratio - 6.6 or 6.67

Engine

GAZ-A, in-line, carburetor, four-stroke, four-cylinder, bottom-valve, water-cooled
Cylinder diameter, mm
Piston stroke, mm
Working volume, cm 3
Compression ratio
The order of operation of the cylinders

Carburetor

"Ford Zenith"

GAZ-AAA. Contrary to popular belief, the three-axle truck GAZ-AAA was not included in the line of finished Ford models purchased for production in Nizhny Novgorod. Moreover, the three-axle Ford-AAA simply did not exist! Only in 1929, Timken, which specialized in the production of transmission units, developed a two-axle rear bogie for Ford-AA trucks, but this scheme did not take root in the United States due to lack of demand. Since the USSR, on the contrary, was in dire need of off-road vehicles and carrying capacity, at the end of 1930 a contract was signed to supply Nizhny Novgorod with thousands of sets of modified Ford-AA chassis and Timken rear axles with worm final drives. In June 1931, the assembly of three-axle trucks of a non-existent brand, Ford-Timketi, began at the First Automobile Assembly Plant. It was a temporary measure - Nizhny Novgorod did not plan to master the production of American designs. Their own version of a three-axle truck - Ford-AA-NATI-ZO, which differed significantly from the overseas counterpart in the design of the rear axle drive and bogie suspension - was created by Soviet engineers in 1929. It was this prototype that, after state tests, was transferred to GAZ, where it was brought to the design bureau of special vehicles under the leadership of Vitaly Andreevich Grachev. Serial production of GAZ-AAA began in 1934 and continued until 1943. A total of 37,373 vehicles were produced.

GAZ-S1 (GAZ-410). A truck, for the unloading of which it was not necessary to attract labor, that is, a dump truck, was needed by both builders and the military. Produced metal structures Gorky plant them. Sverdlov, and assembled cars at the First Automobile Assembly. The loaded body of these dump trucks was held in a horizontal position by special trunnions. To unload, it was enough for the driver to release these trunnions with a lever on the left side, after which the body, under the weight of the load, first rolled back along the guides, and then overturned around the horizontal axis. The return springs of the mechanism were compressed and returned the empty body to its original position, and the driver had only to re-fix the trunnions. Since the mass of the tipping mechanism was 270 kg, the load capacity of the dump truck did not exceed 1300 kg. Dump trucks GAZ-S1, later designated GAZ-410, were produced until 1946.

GAZ-42. In the 1930s, in many regions of the country, the fuel problem could not be solved even with the help of the “omnivorous” GAZ-A engine. Alternative fuels were charcoal and firewood. The development of gas generating plants (symbiosis of the "furnace" with the internal combustion engine) has been carried out since the mid-20s. If the first installations could only work on charcoal, then later designs - on "calibrated" wooden chocks. Based on the design of gas generators tested on the GAZ-AA chassis in the mid-30s, the Gorky Automobile Plant developed a unit that, since 1939, was equipped with some of the lorries that received the GAZ-42 index. Paired with a gas generator engine GAZ-A developed 30 liters. e., GAZ-M - 37 l. With. The maximum speed of the gas-generating lorry, nicknamed “gasgen” by the drivers, decreased to VO km / h, the carrying capacity was up to 1.2 tons. Until 1946, 33,840 GAZ-42 trucks were produced.

Although the USSR undertook the active construction of new roads and the repair of old existing roads in the late 1920s, by the beginning of the 1930s there were almost no paved roads in the country, which caused not only cars to suffer and wear out quickly, but also the economy suffered great losses Soviet Union. The solution to combat off-road at that time was the cheapest and most affordable way - an increase in the number of axles on trucks.

When developing your own three-axle truck, despite the validity of the contract on technical assistance with Ford Motor Company, Soviet specialists did not have the opportunity to use the help of an American company. The fact is that Ford Motor Company factories produced only base cars, and all special modifications were built by third-party workshops. In particular, three-axle trucks were built by the American companies Hollister, Duel-Duty, Hi-Lo, etc. Basically, the design of such vehicles was aimed not at increasing cross-country ability, but at increasing carrying capacity. The three-axle trucks had a 6x2 wheel formula, with each company using axles of its own design, which had nothing to do with Ford products.

Until the Soviet industry mastered the production of three-axle vehicles, the USSR purchased vehicle kits from Timken and Hollister companies in the USA and converted standard trucks into three-axle and. Ford Timken turned out to be the most suitable for Soviet operating conditions. However, the American company used Timken used worm gear axles, while the Gorky Automobile Plant was switching to the production of more modern drive motors with bevel final drive. Such disunification did not suit the military, and they tried to order the development of a three-axle truck with tapered drive axles from Ford Motor Company. American specialists developed such a truck, which was called the Ford Dearborn, but its production by the Soviet industry was not mastered due to the many design and technological shortcomings of the three-axle vehicle and the too complex design for production at domestic enterprises.

The Scientific and Research Automotive and Tractor Institute (NATI) was connected to the development of the Soviet three-axle truck, which built a three-axle vehicle with a worm final drive and a bevel final drive NAZ-NATI-30K. After testing these cars for a year, the choice of a three-axle for mass production was made in favor of the GAZ-NATI-30: axles with a bevel gear did not provide proper unification with the serial one and in tests proved to be worse than axles with a worm gear.

By May 1, 1935, the first batch of 50 triaxial onboard vehicles GAZ-AAA, based on GAZ-NATI-30. From standard GAZ-AA new the triaxle was distinguished by its own reinforced frame, a two-stage demultiplier, new drive axles with main worm gears, a rear balancing suspension with semi-elliptical springs, a new radiator (six-row instead of a four-row), a new cargo platform and increased to 2 tons carrying capacity.

A 4-speed gearbox (four speeds forward and one speed back) and a gasoline, in-line, four-cylinder, lower-valve engine with aluminum cylinder pistons with a volume of 3.28 liters and a power of 40 hp were attached to a reinforced stamped steel ladder-type frame in the front part. . at 2200 rpm. In 1937, the truck received a more powerful 50 hp engine from a passenger car. A water-cooled radiator was mounted in front of the engine. To transmit torque, a single-disk, dry clutch served. A two-stage demultiplier was installed at the gearbox, which increased the number of gears to 8 (eight speeds forward and two back). The tank was located above the knees of the driver and passenger behind the dashboard, and gasoline from it flowed by gravity into the carburetor. Some cars were equipped with an additional 60-liter gas tank mounted on a frame behind the cab, the fuel from which also came by gravity. The electrical equipment was 6 volts, and an electric starter served to start the truck.

The front axle of the GAZ-AAA truck was suspended from the frame on one transverse semi-elliptical spring and lever hydraulic shock absorbers single-acting, and the rear axles were mounted on a balancing suspension with semi-elliptical springs. The rear drive axles had a worm gear and were connected to the gearbox using cardan shaft, which was enclosed in a pipe and rigidly attached to the crankcase main gear. Disc wheels with rubber tires of size 6.50-20 were attached to the front axle of the car, and dual-slope disc wheels with rubber tires of size 6.50-20 were attached to the rear axles. The mechanical service brake acted through cable drive on all wheels, and tape hand brake blocked only the rear wheels.

A double metal cabin was installed on the chassis in front. To facilitate access to engine compartment opening sidewalls were provided on each side of the cab. The roof of the car was made with a wooden insert covered with tarpaulin, since at that time the Soviet industry did not have the ability to manufacture an all-metal sheet of this size. The doors were hung on front hinges. The whole windshield rotated in the frame and was fixed with winglets. To protect from the sun, a visor was installed over the windshield. A single wiper was attached to the upper frame of the windshield in front of the driver's face to facilitate visibility in bad weather. The wiper had a vacuum drive, the hose of which was connected to the carburetor inlet manifold. A rear-view mirror was attached to the left pillar of the cab. To protect the body from minor damage served front bumper from two elastic steel strips. At night, the road was illuminated by two electric headlights mounted on a cross member between the front fenders, to which a sound signal was also attached. Under the cargo platform, a single rear marker lamp with stop sign. To facilitate landing in the cabin, steps were used, which were connected to the front fenders.

In the cockpit on the dashboard there was a shield with three sensors: on the left - the ignition switch, at the top in the center - an optical fuel gauge, on the right - an ammeter and at the bottom - a speedometer, in which the numbers printed on the drum replaced each other in the fixed window of the device, informing the driver about the speed . A common external light bulb installed at the top of the panel served to illuminate the instruments. The steering gear with globoidal worm and double roller had a gear ratio of 16.6. The steering wheel was four-spoke, in the center of which was a light switch and a horn button. Behind the steering wheel hub were two levers: the left one was designed to manually adjust the ignition timing, and the right one to fix the position of the carburetor throttle. The starter was actuated by a trigger located above the gas pedal, and a support for the driver's right foot was mounted just below and to the right of the gas pedal itself.

Behind the cab to the frame on wooden logs was attached cargo platform with folding sides. The folding side boards consisted of four boards, which were bolted together with four metal crossbars and hung to the platform on four loops. The rear board consisted of four boards, which were bolted together with three metal crossbars and hung to the platform on three loops. In the closed position, the boards were fixed with special locks. A spare wheel was attached under the side platform behind the rear axle, and a towing device for trailers and artillery pieces was attached to the last cross member of the frame.

Cargo car GAZ-AAA could develop top speed up to 60 km / h, while fuel consumption was 35 liters per 100 kilometers.

The overall dimensions and weight of the truck were:

length - 5335 mm;
width - 2030 mm;
height - 1935 mm;
wheelbase - 3200 + 940 mm;
curb weight - 2500 kg;
load capacity - 2000 kg.

During the Great Patriotic War from 1942 to 1945, in order to save money, a simplified version of the GAZ-AAA was produced with a canvas roof and canvas valves instead of doors, without a muffler, bumper and front brakes, the wings were made by bending from low-grade (roofing) iron, and the cargo the platform was equipped only with a rear folding side.

GAZ-AAA was produced at the Gorky Automobile Plant from 1935 to 1943. During this period, 37373 three-axle trucks (of which chassis) were manufactured: 1935 - 122 units, 1936 - 1401 (604) units, 1937 - 4581 (429) units, 1938 - 6134 (1233) units. 1939 - 7911 (3273) units, 1940 - 7319 (3692) units, 1941 - 7805 (4075) units, 1942 - 1079 (817) units, 1943 - 783 (341) units.

A large number of onboard vehicles and GAZ-AAA chassis entered the Red Army, where tankers, radio stations and armored vehicles were mounted on them.

Freight car GAZ-AAA served as the basis for the creation of a number of modifications and special vehicles: