Praga RV
| Praga | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| RV | |
| Manufacturer: | Praga (company) |
| Production period: | 1935-1940 |
| Previous model: | Praga RN |
| Successor: | none |
| Technical specifications | |
| Designs: | Cot |
| Engines: | Praga SV engine 3.4 l 50 kW |
| Perm. Total weight: | 5.8 t |
The Praga RV (V = vojensky = military) was an all-terrain version (6x4) of the Praga RN intended for the Czech military.
history
At the end of the 1920s, light six-wheel trucks with two driven rear axles were developed in all European countries. It was hoped that these vehicles would provide greater cross-country mobility, as the vehicle weight was distributed over six instead of four wheels. All-wheel drive vehicles, on the other hand, had the problem that separate joints were required to drive the steered front axle, which were exposed to particular wear, the production of which was complicated and specially tempered steels were required. The forefather of these vehicles was the French Renault MH from 1924, of which only relatively few were built for the armies of France and Poland until 1929. In the 1930s there were the Mercedes G3, Magirus M206, Büssing NAG G31 and Krupp L2H43 Protze in Germany, the Crossley IGL and various models from Morris Commercial in Great Britain, the Steyr 640 in Austria, the Fiat-SPA 611 Dovunque in Italy Russia GAZ-AAA and GAZ-MMM and in Japan the Isuzu Type 94. They all had the 6x4 drive, and most of them were derived from normal four-wheel trucks (4x2) with a payload of approx. 1.5 tons by using the chassis had added another rear axle.
In the end, these vehicles were relatively expensive due to their three axles, so that at the end of the 1930s, light trucks were generally switched to four-wheel drive vehicles, which had about the same off-road capabilities at a lower price - in addition, the articulated construction of the driven front axle was now halfway in get a grip.
In 1935, the six-wheel truck (6x4) Praga RV (V = vojensky = military), derived in the same way from the light truck Praga R, appeared. According to the chassis numbers 1935: 50 pieces, 1936: 1,895 pieces, 1937; 27 pieces, 1938: 342 pieces, 1939: 974 pieces, 1940: 2 pieces. 1,638 of these went to the Czechoslovak Army, the rest to various other countries: Romania, Iran, Sweden, Switzerland, Peru (12), Poland and Turkey are named. According to a Polish source, the Praga RVs intended for Poland were manufactured there under license from July 1939. This seems unlikely, especially since the Praga plant in Auschwitz Oświęcim-Praga only had about 30 employees, i.e. it was a better repair shop that was by no means able to produce complex off-road trucks in series. Rather, it was about trucks that the German Reich delivered in 1939 as a transit fee for using the Polish railways: East Prussia had been separated from the Reich since 1919. In order to reach it overland, one had to use railways leading through the Polish corridor, and for this the Reich had to pay annual transit fees (similar to how the Federal Republic paid corresponding transit fees for the use of the motorways to West Berlin until 1989). After the German Reich had abandoned the gold standard, the Germans sought to deliver goods, mostly highly specialized finished products, instead of foreign exchange. In the thirties, too, a number of Krupp “Protze” trucks that were used in Herer, Poland, may have reached Poland. In 1939, after the occupation of the rest of the Czech Republic, the German Reich came into possession of numerous Praga RVs, with which one really did not know what to do with: If they were added to the ranks of the Wehrmacht, the demand for spare parts increased, and they probably did not correspond entirely German quality standard (divisions equipped with Czech equipment were never entirely happy with their equipment). So a delivery to Poland was an obvious option, and the only question left is the extent to which the delivery actually took place (a maximum of approx. 300 vehicles is mentioned). What is certain is that the delivery was made in large numbers: in the more or less fully motorized Polish 10th Cavalry Brigade, the vehicles were used in large numbers to transport motorized infantry.
When Czechoslovakia disintegrated in March 1939, the equipment of the Czechoslovak Army came partly to Germany, partly to Slovakia, the trucks that had not yet been delivered were delivered directly to the German Reich, which then used them in the Wehrmacht, partly also to Romania ( and to Poland, see above). In the Wehrmacht it was used as a light all-terrain truck (radio and telephone vehicles Kfz. 19, Kfz.21, Kfz.23, and also as Kfz.61 / 62/63/64).
A variant of the Praga RV was the Praga RVR (Type R, Vojensky Radio), a Praga RV with a box body for radio purposes. Of these, 16 were made in 1936, 28 in 1938 and 15 in 1939, for a total of 59.
After the war, in 1948, Praga again manufactured 15 pieces for the Czech army under the name RVM, which did not differ from the pre-war designs.
The Praga RV is not to be confused with the Praga AV : Although both had the same engine and a 6 x 4 drive, the AV was a six-seater car and accordingly lighter than the RV.
Technical specifications
The vehicle weighed 2,920 kg empty and had a payload of 1.5 to 2 tons, was 5.69 m long and 2 m wide. The wheelbase was 3.10 + 0.92 m. The six-cylinder petrol engine, which with the same cylinder dimensions was also used in the Praga RN truck and the Praga Golden and Praga AV car types, had a bore of 80 mm and a stroke of 115 mm, resulting in a cubic capacity of 3,468 ³cm, it developed 68 hp and helped the vehicle to a top speed of 70 km / h. The transmission had 8 forward and two reverse gears. The new price of the vehicle in 1936 without tires was 92,000 crowns. The consumption was between 30 and 40 liters of petrol / 100 km.
Web links
- Praga RV on kfzderwehrmacht.de
Remarks
- ↑ a b c d Emil Príhoda: Devadesat let vyroby automobilu . Prague 1998, p. 379ff.
- ^ Walter J. Spielberger: The Panzerkampfwagen 35 (t) and 38 (t) and their varieties. Stuttgart 1980, p. 45.
- ↑ Adam Jonca: Pojazdy mechaniczne Wojska Polskiego 1939 p 48
- ↑ Adam Jonca: Pojazdy mechaniczne Wojska Polskiego 1939 p 78
- ^ Walter E. Seifert: The vehicle numbers of the German Wehrmacht. Riesa 2010