Praga V
| Praga | |
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 A Praga V, photographed in 1916
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| Praga V | |
| Manufacturer: | Praga |
| Production period: | 1912-1924 |
| Previous model: | none |
| Successor: | Praga N |
| Technical specifications | |
| Engines: | Four-cylinder gasoline engine |
| Power: | 29 kW |
| Length: | 5900 mm |
| Width: | 1950 mm |
| Wheelbase: | 4000 mm |
| Payload: | 5 t |
| Perm. Total weight: | approx. 8.5 t |
The Praga V (the V possibly stands for Vojenský = military truck) was a truck that was developed in 1911 on the basis of a tender by the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry for a 5-ton subsidy truck . The truck was one of the first designs by the engineer Franz Kec (1883-1971), who later designed several other types of vehicles for the Praga company . The truck went into series production from 1912 and was built more or less unchanged until 1918 in steadily increasing numbers: According to the chassis numbers assigned, there were 3 units in 1911, 1912: 10, 1913: 14, 1914: 75, 1915: 72, 1916: 180 , 1917: 250, 1918: 332 pieces. Customers were private companies until the summer of 1914, for which the Austrian state subsidized the purchase with a certain sum of money; from the outbreak of war (July 28, 1914) the Austro-Hungarian state , which used the vehicles for supply purposes. A two-axle trailer with an empty weight of 1.6 t and a payload of 3 t was delivered to each truck (curb weight approx. 3.5 t). From 1920 to 1922 another 390 units of the same truck were built by Praga, which differed only insignificantly (different carburetors) from the war model. The car cost around 18,000 kroner in 1911/12.
Since the production capacities at Praga were insufficient when the war broke out in 1914, a license was granted to the Raba company in Raab (Györ in Hungarian), where around 480 more Praga Vs were built between 1914 and 1931, 292 of which were made by 1918. The Praga V became 1915 The Praga N was developed, which had a more powerful engine with the same payload and was built parallel to the Praga V from 1917. In 1924, a Praga N with a new engine replaced the Praga V in production.
According to one source, several Praga Vs are said to have been manufactured under license by various Austro-Hungarian automobile factories in the last years of the war: 500 each from Austro-Daimler- and Austro-Fiat, 400 from Laurin & Klement and 350 from the Nesselsdorfer Waggonfabrik. Likewise, the German companies Benz, NAG, Büssing and Krupp are said to have each built 1000 units under license at the same time. All of these licensed constructions cannot be traced back to the existing chronicles and are not mentioned anywhere else.
technical description
The truck had an empty weight of approx. 3.5 tons and a payload of 5 tons, 3 tons in the field. The wheelbase was 4000 mm, the entire truck was 5.90 m long and 1.95 m wide. It was powered by a water-cooled four-cylinder four-stroke gasoline engine with a 110 mm bore and 180 mm stroke, resulting in a cubic capacity of 6840 cm³. The engine developed 40 HP (29 kW) at 800 rpm and helped the truck to a speed of up to 20 km / h. The engine was started by hand with a crank. The fuel consumption was 53 liters / 100 km. The transmission had four forward and one reverse gears. The four-wheeled trailer had a wheelbase of 3.30 m, was 5.48 m long, 1.75 m wide, weighed approx. 1.6 tons and carried up to 3 tons of payload.