Ural-375

Ural-375 at a glance

The Ural-375 is a Soviet heavy military truck with civilian offshoots, designed for cargo and troop transport across rough terrain and later used as a carrier for special bodies. It came from UralAZ in Miass, a plant whose earlier history is covered in our history of the Ural plant. In Soviet Army service it replaced the lighter ZIL-157 as the standard heavy off-road truck.

A short note on the name: "Ural" on a classic-vehicle listing can mean two unrelated makers. The trucks come from UralAZ in Miass, while the sidecar motorcycles sold as Ural are built by IMZ-Ural in Irbit. This page covers only the truck.

Development and production history

Work on the Ural-375 started with a military requirement issued in 1953. The first prototypes were not designed in Miass at all but at the NAMI research institute, under the name NAMI-020. NAMI built the family until 1956 in several forms, from 4×4 and 6×6 to eight-wheeled 8×8 trucks, and only the three-axle version was approved for further work.

NAMI completed its testing in 1958, and the project then passed to the Ural plant. Revised prototypes, among them a version called the Ural-375T, were tested in the spring of 1959. Series production is usually dated to November 1960, and the first ten complete trucks left the plant on 31 January 1961.

From canvas cab to steel cab

The original Ural-375 had a cab with a removable canvas roof. It was built until 1964 or 1965, depending on the source. The Ural-375D of 1964 replaced it with an all-steel cab and became the most produced version by a wide margin. In 1982 the modernised Ural-375DM took over and stayed in production until 1991.

UralAZ also improved durability while the truck was in series. During the 1960s the plant's figure for off-road distance to the first general overhaul is reported to have risen from 60,000 km (37,300 mi) to 150,000 km (93,200 mi), and every truck is said to have had a 50 km (31 mi) test drive before delivery.

Production timeline

Sources disagree on when the last trucks of the family were built. One reference gives 1993, another says production was cut back in the early 1990s and ended later than planned, so "the early 1990s" is the safest summary. No reliable total production figure has been published.

Design and engineering

The Ural-375 is a conventional bonneted truck on a ladder frame, with three rigid axles that are all permanently driven. The front axle sits on leaf springs, and the two rear axles share a balanced bogie, which lets them follow uneven ground while keeping load on all four rear wheels. Many chassis components were taken from the MAZ-200 rather than designed from scratch.

Three features defined its off-road ability:

• Central tyre inflation. The driver could change the pressure in the 14.00-20 tyres while driving, between 49 and 314 kPa (7–46 psi). Low pressure widens the contact patch on sand, snow or mud; high pressure reduces wear and fuel use on hard roads.
• Ground clearance. At 400 mm (15.7 in), it is high for a truck of this size.
• Fording depth. The truck could wade through 1.5 m (4.9 ft) of water.

Brakes are pneumatic drums. An optional rear winch carried 65 m (213 ft) of 17.5 mm rope and is usually quoted with a maximum pull of 70 kN.

Engine and drivetrain

The engine is the ZIL-375Ya, a 7.0-litre (6,962 cc, 425 cu in) petrol V8 with pushrod valves and a four-barrel carburettor. It is a bored-out relative of the V8 in the ZIL-130 medium truck: the stroke stays at 95 mm (3.74 in), while the bore grows to 108 mm (4.25 in). The nominal output is 132 kW (180 PS), with some references rounding to 130 kW. Trucks for the East German army were set to 128 kW (175 PS). No published source we could verify quotes a torque figure, so none is given here.

Power reaches all six wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox and a two-speed transfer case that can be locked, giving ten forward ratios in total. That spread of gears let the truck crawl in low range with a full load and still reach 75 km/h (47 mph) on the road.

The fuel problem

Petrol consumption was the Ural-375's weak point. On paved roads at a steady 60 km/h (37 mph), the usual figure is 45–50 L/100 km (5.6–6.3 mpg UK), and off-road it could roughly double. A 300-litre (66 UK gal) main tank and an optional 60-litre (13 UK gal) extra tank gave a road range of about 500–550 km (311–342 mi). This thirst is the main reason UralAZ moved to a diesel: the Ural-4320 kept the basic design but used the KAMAZ-740 diesel V8 instead.

Ural-375 specifications

The table covers the Ural-375D cargo truck, the most common version. Imperial values are converted from the metric figures.

Two figures need care. Some references print the width as 2,960 mm, which looks like a transposed 2,690 mm. The turning circle is given as 21 m in one source and 22 m in another (69–72 ft), so it is left out of the table.

Variants and derivatives

The Ural-375 family includes the canvas-cab original, the steel-cab 375D and 375DM, a body chassis, a tractor unit, a recovery vehicle and a civilian 6×4 truck.

The Ural-377 matters for anyone reading old specifications. Because it is a 6×4 without a driven front axle, data for it is easily mixed up with the 6×6 military trucks, which may explain some of the conflicting wheelbase figures printed for "the Ural-375".

Beyond these factory versions, the 375D chassis carried fuel tankers, cranes, mobile command posts and other special bodies. The best-known application is the original BM-21 Grad launcher, which entered service in 1963 on the Ural-375 chassis before later moving to the Ural-4320.

In service: operation, reliability and legacy

The Ural-375 became the backbone of heavy transport in the Soviet Army and was supplied to the armies of the Warsaw Pact and other countries. East Germany is the best-documented export user: deliveries came officially from 1969, with some trucks earlier, and on 3 October 1990 the East German army (NVA) still had just over 12,600 of them. In China, the Shaanxi SX250 followed the same basic concept.

The civilian Ural-377 took the same engineering to work that did not need front-wheel drive, and the 375D chassis was adapted for a long list of special bodies. The rising overhaul interval reported for the 1960s shows that the early trucks were still being developed while already in service.

The diesel Ural-4320 arrived in 1977 and gradually took over, but the 375D and then the 375DM stayed in production alongside it until 1991. Seen from today, the Ural-375 is the design that established the later Ural truck range: the three-axle layout, the rear bogie, the tyre-inflation system and the 300-litre tank all carried over to the 4320. It belongs among the most important Soviet classic vehicles of its decade, alongside other classic cars of the 1960s.

Preservation and collecting today

The Ural-375 is collectable, but it is a project for specialists rather than a casual purchase. A European classic-vehicle marketplace lists the Ural-375D but publishes no price guide, describing the market as too small and varied, so no value range is given here.

Its buying guidance focuses on a short list of checks:

1. Identity. Match the chassis number with the documents and the data plate.
2. Frame. Inspect the side rails, cross-members and spring hangers first; this is where expensive faults hide.
3. Engine. Check cold starting, idle quality, carburation and ignition, fuel lines and tanks, cooling and the exhaust manifolds. Perished hoses, a smell of fuel or contaminated coolant are warning signs.
4. Air brakes. Pressure should build up properly and the system should hold it without leaks.
5. Tyres. Check their age, not only the tread.
6. Paperwork. A foreign registration document does not guarantee that the truck can be registered at home, so check the local route before buying.
7. Space and recovery. Plan for storage height, turning room and a recovery firm that can move a heavy 6×6.

Running costs follow from the engine. With road consumption of 45–50 L/100 km, the Ural-375 suits show events and occasional use better than regular driving. For other heavy load carriers, see our overview of trucks.