CarBrandLogos archive · Kamaz · 1981

KamazKamAZ-4310

The Soviet Army's standard 6x6, from a purpose-built truck city on the Kama.

Photo: Milhouse35 · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Kamaz history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the KamAZ-4310, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Kamaz's plant at Naberezhnye Chelny was built in the 1970s as a complete truck city, and the 4310 was among its most important products. Introduced in 1981, it is a bonneted three-axle all-wheel-drive truck of around six tonnes payload, designed for the Soviet armed forces and for civilian work in places without roads — forestry, oilfields, construction across Siberia.

Kamaz-based off-road truck, 2010 · Ssppeeeeddyy (Einar Fredriksen) · CC BY-SA 2.0

Design and engineering

Its virtues were the ones that mattered in that context: a diesel that would start in deep cold, a driveline with locking differentials and central tyre inflation, and mechanical simplicity that let conscript crews maintain it in the field. It was built in large numbers until 1995, when the 43114 took over, and many remain in service across the former Soviet Union.

35N6 Kasta radar · Vitaly V. Kuzmin · CC BY-SA 4.0

At a glance