Soviet KrAZ trucks need no introduction. Those who communicated closely with these machines should remember that in the first series, the cabin was made of wooden beams. There were such trucks until 1993. The question arises why KrAZ had a wooden cab, while the rest of the Soviet trucks had a metal one?
The steel cabin at KrAZ appeared in 1978 on the 250th model. Despite this, cars with wooden cabins sheathed in metal continued to be produced anyway. There is a beautiful legend that since most of these trucks went to work in Siberia, they had a wooden cabin in case of an emergency stop in a harsh climate. Allegedly, the cabin could be dismantled for firewood and burned to heat itself and the car engine in order to hold out until help arrived. The main problem with this legend is that there is not much firewood from the cabin if you need to hold out, say, for a day.
In fact, the reason is simple - banal savings. By itself, a wooden cab for a truck is not something surprising. Absolutely all early trucks had wooden cabs, the Soviet ones were no exception in this regard. And then the question of re-equipment of production arises. When the line is in operation, it is not so easy to upgrade it, and most importantly, it is not cheap, even if we are talking about such a trifle as a cabin.
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In fairness, it should be noted that the development of the latter is not so simple. For example, specialists and designers from other Soviet enterprises were invited to work on the development of the cabin of the 250th KrAZ, since the plant did not have its own at that time. In the future, it was necessary to re-equip the production line with new dies. The latter for the plant were also made by specialists from other enterprises, as evidenced by the story of the head of the COE cabin bureau Evgeny Shirshonkov. According to him, the new cabin was created very painfully.
In continuation of the topic, read about Top 10 Rarest Cars in Japan, which are not found on Russian roads.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/301221/61709/