KamAZ-4310

KamAZ-4310 at a glance

The KamAZ-4310 is the all-wheel-drive member of the first KamAZ truck generation: a cab-over 6×6 for heavy loads on poor roads and off-road tracks. KamAZ itself was founded in 1969, so the 4310 belongs to the company's first model range rather than to a later expansion.

Three things set it apart from the road-going models. Drive goes permanently to all three axles, every wheel runs a single tyre instead of twin rear tyres, and the axles, cab and engine were arranged for ground clearance rather than load-floor height. The army was its main user, and the chassis also carried tanks, cranes and other special equipment. For the wider picture of the plant and its products, see KamAZ: cars of the era.

Development and production history

The KamAZ-4310 spent ten years between its first public prototype and full series production. The prototype was presented in 1971 and already had the features of the later truck: a tilting cab, single tyres all round, permanent all-wheel drive and the KamAZ-740 engine.

From 1972 to 1978 KamAZ built the truck as a pre-series in four types, the 4310, 43101, 43102 and 43103, which differed mainly in cab and body layout. Series production started in 1981. The main change against the 1971 prototype was a payload raised by one tonne, to 6,000 kg (13,228 lb). In 1989 the truck received a more powerful version of its engine, and the modernised KamAZ-43101 and KamAZ-43106 were built until 1995, when the KamAZ-43114 took over.

The 4310 was not developed in isolation. Its series design is very close to that of the non-all-wheel-drive KamAZ-5320, so the off-road truck and the road truck share much of their basic engineering.

Design and engineering

The KamAZ-4310 is a cab-over-engine truck on three axles, with the cab tilting forward for access to the V8 below it. That layout gives a longer load area for a given overall length than a bonneted truck would have.

The drivetrain is the heart of the design. Drive goes to all six wheels all the time, not only when the driver selects it, so the truck has no separate two-wheel-drive mode for road use. A five-speed manual gearbox feeds a two-stage transfer case, which gives a road range and a low range for steep or soft ground. The single tyres on all axles let the front, middle and rear wheels run in the same tracks, which matters in mud and snow, where twin rear tyres would have to cut their own ruts.

Ground clearance is reported as 365 mm (14.4 in), and the track is 2,100 mm (82.7 in) at both front and rear. The rear axles form a tandem 1,320 mm (52.0 in) apart, behind a 3,340 mm (131.5 in) main wheelbase.

Shared design with the KamAZ-5320

The KamAZ-4310 and the KamAZ-5320 are close relatives, and their series designs are very similar. The 5320 is a 6×4 road truck with drive to the two rear axles only, while the 4310 adds a driven front axle, single tyres and the transfer case.

Engine and drivetrain

The KamAZ-4310 is powered by the KamAZ-740, a four-stroke V8 diesel with a displacement of 10,850 cc (662 cu in). Bore and stroke are both 120 mm (4.72 in), and the compression ratio is reported as 17:1.

Before 1989 the engine was rated at 154 kW (210 PS); from 1989 it delivered 162 kW (220 PS). Published torque figures for the KamAZ-740 in this truck disagree, so none is quoted here. The same engine family was not exclusive to KamAZ trucks: the KamAZ-740.10 had been fitted to the Ural-4320 from 1977, four years before the 4310 itself reached series production.

The five-speed manual gearbox and the two-stage transfer case are described above. Reported performance figures are modest, as befits a heavy 6×6 of the period: a top speed of 85 km/h (53 mph), and a 0–60 km/h (0–37 mph) time of 35 seconds. Fuel consumption is given as 31 L/100 km (7.6 mpg US) at a steady 60 km/h, rising to 40 L/100 km (5.9 mpg US) with a trailer. The fuel tank holds 250 L (66.0 US gal).

KamAZ-4310 specifications

The table covers the series KamAZ-4310 with the standard cargo body. Most figures come from a single family of reference works, so treat them as reported values rather than factory certificates.

Two numbers in older descriptions of the truck need care. A kerb weight of 8,410 kg and a gross weight of 15,000 kg also circulate, and some texts give smaller dimensions; the values above follow the German and English reference works. Claims that 316 kW (430 hp) engines were fitted later have no support in any source checked.

Variants and derivatives

The KamAZ-4310 family splits into pre-series types, two series models and two modernised models, plus bodies built on the chassis by other makers.

The repeated name causes most of the confusion. "KamAZ-43101" means a pre-series truck with drop sides when it refers to the 1970s, and the modernised 220 PS successor of the basic 4310 when it refers to 1989–1995. The 43105 and 43106 form the heavier line, rated for 7,000 kg (15,432 lb).

Shelter bodies and special equipment

The chassis was also fitted with closed shelter bodies of the KUNG type, such as the K4320D, which armies used for specialist equipment. In East Germany the 4310 family carried tank and box bodies, described in the next section. These conversions explain why surviving trucks often look very different from the flatbed in the factory specification.

In service: operation, reliability and legacy

The KamAZ-4310 was a standard heavy 6×6 transport chassis of the Soviet Army from the mid-1980s and is often described as its most common six-wheel all-wheel-drive truck of that decade. Its service history outside the USSR is best documented for East Germany.

The East German army, the NVA, received the type from 1987, and only with box-type special bodies and as tank trucks, not as flatbeds. The main version was the AC-7-4310 TO tank truck: the "7" stands for a nominal 7,000 L (1,849 US gal) tank and "4310" for the chassis. About 240 were imported until 1990, and after the NVA was dissolved the Bundeswehr kept them for a short time. In 1989–1990, VEB Maschinenbau Karl Marx Babelsberg also built 17 truck cranes, the Autodrehkran 100 with a 10-tonne lifting capacity, on the KamAZ-43105 chassis.

Reliability is harder to pin down. No reliable service statistics or verified owner surveys were found, so this page makes no claims about durability. What the record does show is a series production life of almost 15 years, followed by a direct successor, the KamAZ-43114.

KamAZ-4310 against the Ural-4320

The two Soviet 6×6 trucks are close in purpose and payload but differ in layout. The Ural-4320 from the Ural plant entered series production in 1977 with the KamAZ-740.10 V8, the same engine family as the 4310, and carries 5,000–6,000 kg (11,023–13,228 lb) depending on version. It keeps a bonneted layout with the engine ahead of the cab and runs on 14.00-20 tyres with central tyre inflation. The KamAZ-4310 has its cab above the engine, is longer overall at 7,895 mm (310.8 in) against 7,366 mm (290.0 in), and arrived four years later.

Motorsport

KamAZ's motorsport name comes from the same period. The KamAZ-Master team was founded in 1988 and first started the Rally Paris–Tripoli–Dakar in 1990. Early rally trucks are sometimes linked to the 4310 family, but the evidence for that link is thin, and the competition trucks were heavily modified vehicles rather than series 4310s.

Preservation and collecting today

Identifying the exact version is the first job for anyone restoring a KamAZ-4310, because model indices were reused and many chassis were rebodied. The production record gives a few useful checks:

• The model index: 4310 and 43105 point to 1981–1989, while 43101 and 43106 can mean the 1989–1995 modernised trucks.
• A 43101 needs a second look, because the same index was used for a 1972–1978 pre-series type.
• The engine rating: 162 kW (220 PS) indicates a truck from 1989 or later.
• The payload plate: 7,000 kg points to the 43105 or 43106 line.

Many trucks carry shelter bodies or tanks rather than the original cargo bed, so the body may be younger or older than the chassis. The 4310 also has a following among scale modellers, with 1:35 kits from ICM and Trumpeter, and browsing other Soviet classic vehicles or classic cars of the 1980s shows where it sits among its contemporaries. Related heavy-duty models appear in the trucks section, other all-wheel-drive vehicles are grouped separately, and the full range is listed under all KamAZ models.