Wonderful 1961 footage from then Czechoslovakia, with the air-cooled swing-axle (well of course) Tatra 138 in its element, mastering the whole spectrum of off-road conditions. And with some marvelous scenery to boot.
Related Tatra viewing:
CC Video: 1961 Tatra 138 6×6 Swing Axle Trucks – Hard-Nosed And Beyond Heavy-Duty
– Posted on January 15, 2022
It would be fun to see the “bloopers and out-takes” reel 😉
Seriously, though: Great video!
Impressive trucks – thanks for sharing!
Hey they skipped the jacking the truck up and changing the tire part. I thought maybe there was some ingenious solution to that too.
It would be interesting to see the actual mechanical setup of all those swing axles. And how those air cooled engines work while underwater. And how the truck drove right over all those broken trees.
Manual transmission plus four push buttons. That’s a lot of buttons for just a two speed axle. Anyone know what they actually do? Are both rear axles driven?
The narrator says something about electro pneumatic *** differential. So I guess the buttons control the differential locks. And all three axles are driven, there might be a fourth lock somewhere in the drivetrain.
T138 underpinnings below, 6×6 drivetrain (that’s a chassis with 3 axles, all driven). Main transmission + auxiliary transmission + transfer case.
“Bow legs stance” when the truck was empty. These were sold in the Netherlands too, I remember the later T148 (an evolution of the T138) from the seventies really well. There were plenty of them.
Praneda in Papendrecht, a Czech owned state company, we sold Tatra 148 & the mighty 813 and Desta forklift trucks and of course other heavy equipment.
The Czech Boss drove a Tatra 613, in black of course comrades.
It was the best holiday job I ever had, today I believe Paccar have an interest in Tatra and they use the DAF cab now.
The typical howl of the air-cooled Diesels has long gone as have the air cooled Diesels.
If I’d be as rich as Jeff Bezos I’d certainly have both a 148 and an 813 dump truck, both in a palish communist orange.
The Tatras offered in the EU -the Phoenix model range- have a DAF cab and engine (Paccar MX11 and MX13) and a ZF transmission, mostly the TraXon AMT.
Anything you want, from a 4×4 tractor to a 10×10 truck chassis.
All axles are driven they are 6×6, I suspect those buttons are diff locking or cross locking the rear drive axles and probably the front driven axle also.
Wow, tough trucks .
I felt like a five year old watching this =8-) .
-Nate
Awesome trucks, Id love to have a turn in one where those two tippers were going in a regular 6 wheeler you simply cannot do that or even anywhere close to it, Ive been towed over much easier terrain than that simply because the truck ran out of traction before it got that severe.
Those mud pits made me think of the film “Wages of Fear,” where Yves Montand was hauling some nitroglycerine in a big truck and ran over his friend’s leg while he was guiding him through a large mud pit.
Those swing axles are neat to see on a big truck; it looks like those old Tatras can get through just about anything. All that, and they’re air cooled, too!
Thanks for posting this; I loved it. It makes a perfect companion to “Happy Journey”.
I have a real thing for swing axles…must some early imprinting from my childhood.
You have a thing for swing axles? Why, you have displayed a Kabuki-like mask about that, I was not aware….
Amazing video – those old Tatras were unstoppable. I raise a cold Pilsner Urquell to the driver.
Wonder how many times they had to get out the excavator to haul out the stuck dump truck when they filmed that lol
Also that air cooled diesel V8, were those 2 cycle like a Detriot?Sounded like a 4 stroke to my ears
Four-stroke alright, the Tatra 138 was powered by their 928 engine.
As a matter of fact, Tatra still offers an air-cooled, turbocharged and intercooled V8 diesel engine:
https://www.tatratrucks.com/why-tatra/tatra-vehicle-design/tatra-engine/
Marvellous stuff, Mr D.
And it looks like a bit of money spent on that film, probably in the endless (and needed) search to sell westwards and get some foreign currency.
As you can imagine, Tatra 6×6 dump trucks did very well on our thick-water-soil. Happy campers they were!
In my early years -the seventies- there was a wide range of conventional 6×6 trucks available on our market: Tatra (148-series), Mercedes-Benz (L-series), M.A.N. Diesel (Ponton Kurzhauber), Magirus-Deutz (Eckhauber, also air-cooled) and Hanomag-Henschel (H261 AK). Domestics: Ginaf and Terberg.
In reality most use of heavy duty trucks like this would primarily be on pavement.
Well that speaks for itself, when there are paved roads. The whole point is when you get OFF the pavement with gross (straight truck) weights up to 110,000 lbs.
Come over to my little -yet crowded- swamp country (with excellent roads, BTW) to see how heavy-duty 4×4, 6×6, 8×8 and 10×8 trucks are put to work. And given the subject, the first Tatra Phoenix 10×10 dump trucks have arrived here.
Loved the music. Reminded me of the band at my cousin’s wedding. Yes, his wife’s family was from Czechoslovakia.
Great video. That Tatra 138 is pretty much unstoppable and the drivers likely never forgot how much fun they had making this video. I likely set a new personal record falling down the internet rabbit hole with this video. So many videos of crazy trucks doing many things right and failing terribly at others.