Special Feature: The ZIL-135 Family

ZIL-135MP truck

In the late fifties the Soviet Army wanted to develop a serie of mobile heavy weapon systems on a wheeled chassis aand it was recommended to create several new models with increased capabilities, as none of the classic 6x6 or 4x6 trucks that existed at that time were suitable for ten tonnes payloads. The platform would be useful also for large hardware modules and other uses. The technical data of the vehicles being created were a function of the mass and dimensional characteristics of the equipment that was supposed to be installed on their chassis. One of the first proposals came from the Special Design Bureau of the Moscow Automobile Plant Likhachev. This was the four-axle vehicles ZIL-135. The prototypes were unique, designed as super-lightweight machines capable of a 1/1 payload ratio and devois (at first) of suspensions.

The first produced model was the ZIL-135K (1961) which setup the four driving axles pattern and counted on the tire's pressure to provide shock absorption. Only the first and fourth axles were steerable. Thanks to this solution, the vehicle had a high maneuverability when turning and had a centralized tire pressure control system to regulate its drive over all terrains. The power plant was original also with two ZIL-375Ya diesels with carburetor similar to those installed on the Ural-375D trucks, placed behind the forward control cabin. Eache drove wheels on an entire side through an hydromechanical transmission. The 135K was mass-produced at the Bryansk Automobile Plant (BAZ) like all following models, despute they were studied at ZIL. The first TEL had a S-5 anti-ship missile.

The ZIL-135L (1962) was the second major breakthrough vehicle, which unlike the ZIL-135K, had a shortened wheelbase, but now independent torsion bar suspension on the first and fourth axles. The wheel diameter was increased as well and its layout of changed as the engines were mounted between the first and second axles, whereas the fiberglass cabin was of a different design. This was further evolved into the ZIL-135LM and ZIL-135LTM sharing a mechanical transmission (no longer hydromechanical) and they were also mass-produced by late 1963 at BAZ. One was the support truck for the famous 9K52 "Luna-M" (PU 9P113/TZM 9T29) and the other the basis for the MLRS 9K57 "Uragan" (PU 9P140 and TZM 9T452) rocker launcher. The 1980s last evolution was called the ZIL-135LMP.

In 1965 the ZIL-135L was used also to create a heavy amphibious truck, called ZIL-135P with a whole fiberglass body. Production was limited however but it replaced the now obsolete BAV-485 (1952) derived from the WW2 DUKW. A small number of ZIL-135L derived BAZ-135L4 flatbed trucks were also produced from 1968. The BAZ floating four-axle vehicle served as the basis for a self-propelled pontoon in the 1970s.

In between from the ZIL-135K the paired ZIL-375 engines were replazced by a single YaMZ-238N diesel with a transfer case with nter-side differential and larger cabin as ZIL-135MB, produced as the BAZ-135MB, TEL for the the Redut anti-ship missile system and Reis air reconnaissance system as well as the BAZ-135MBK flatbed truck.