The Tatra T 163 Jamal (named after the

Yamal Peninsula The Yamal Peninsula () is located in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of northwest Siberia, Russia. It extends roughly 700 km (435 mi) and is bordered principally by the Kara Sea and its Baydaratskaya Bay on the west, and by the G ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) is a heavy truck made by the Czech company Tatra. It uses the traditional Tatra concept of a rigid backbone tube and swinging half-axles giving independent suspension. The vehicles are available primarily in

6x6 Six-wheel drive (6WD or 6×6) is an all-wheel drive drivetrain configuration of three axles with at least two wheels on each axle capable of being driven simultaneously by the vehicle's engine. Unlike four-wheel drive drivetrains, the config ...

and alternatively also

4x4 A four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, is a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case provi ...

variants. It is marketed either as a road-legal heavy truck (tipper or semi-trailer truck) or as a working machine (e.g. for use in mines). The T163 is a continuation of the tradition started with the Tatra T 111, which played a crucial role in the effort to rebuild Central and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

after the Second World War as well as in conquering the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

History

At the beginning of the 1980s both the conventional Tatra T 148 and COE Tatra T 813s were succeeded by the single line of COE Tatra T 815s. However, Tatra aimed to develop a conventional heavy

dump truck A dump truck, known also as a dumping truck, dump lorry or dumper lorry or a dumper for short, is used for transporting materials (such as dirt, gravel, or demolition waste) for construction as well as coal. A typical dump truck is equipped ...

for use in the hardest of conditions (i.e. mines). This led to the Tatra T 162 prototype, which wasn't introduced into serial production. Later in 1995 the first prototype of the upcoming T 163 line was constructed, though it was designated as T-815-24BSK8. The traditional design offers higher safety for the driver and easier access to the engine. The bonnet is made from a light laminate and it folds forward. A truck with conventional setting of cabin was demanded especially by Tatra's customers from Russian Siberia, where Tatra's air-cooled engines require less maintenance compared to water-cooled ones. The main reason why the conventional cab is preferred is that the driver may warm up in the cabin even during a potential on-road engine repair, as the cabin has independent heating. During 1995-1998 a number of prototypes were manufactured. In 1997 a prototype was tested in Arctic Siberia, later to be handed over to a gas drilling company. In 1998 the bonnet was shortened by 295 mm to comply with directives concerning the maximum length of truck and trailer. In 1999 the truck was certified for use on the roads of the Czech Republic,

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

and

and later the same year full production began.

References

External links

official Tatra Jamal page
{{Tatra models T163 All-wheel-drive vehicles Trucks of the Czech Republic Vehicles introduced in 1999