BelAZ-549

By the second half of the 1960s, the Belarusian Automobile Plant had mastered the production of a line of mining dump trucks with a carrying capacity of 27 tons ( BelAZ-540A ) and 40 tons (BelAZ-548). Meanwhile, the adopted production program required the creation and development of more lifting and productive machines with a prospective carrying capacity of 65, 100 and 120 tons. Initially, the dump truck was part of a BelAZ-548V truck tractor and a BelAZ-5272 semi-trailer as a 65-ton truck. However, according to test results, this car was not very successful, with large dimensions, which made its operation in quarries, in the cramped space problematic.

Therefore, it was decided to develop a new mining truck with a carrying capacity of 65-75 tons. Such a car required a more complex structure, which consisted, in particular, in the presence of an electromechanical transmission which transmitted the engine's energy to the drive wheels. Electric motors (motor-wheel) were built into the wheel gearboxes; the dump truck had an independent suspension for all wheels. The brake system consisted of a pneumatic-hydraulic drive, which also included a permanently closed-type parking brake and a spare brake.

The first prototype BelAZ-549 was manufactured at the end of December 1968 for the 50th anniversary of the Byelorussian SSR . In the next few years, the testing and refinement of the future dump truck began. Parallel to this, the plant was building new workshops in which it was possible to produce new types of dump trucks. All this delayed the start of production of the 549th model, until 1976 . Together with the base model, a number of modifications were built, most of which remained prototypes. For example, the BELAZ-549V-5275 road train with a carrying capacity of 120 tons, on which the TV-2-117 gas turbine engine with a capacity of 1200 hp was used in experience. A prototype of the modification of the BelAZ-549S in the northern version was also built.

BelAZ-549 was a numerous participant in various exhibitions, including at the Exhibition of National Economy Achievements in Moscow and Minsk. He was often written about in the Soviet press. Its production continued until 1988 , when it was replaced by a more advanced model, the BelAZ-7549, with a lifting capacity of 80 tons.

The BelAZ-549 became the first Soviet mining dump truck on which the motor-wheel scheme was applied, that is, the drive wheels of which had electric motors, the energy to which, by means of an electric transmission, came from an internal combustion engine. The 549th became very necessary and more productive machine, in comparison with the "younger brothers", however the beginning of its production was significantly delayed, almost by the one and a half five-year period. In the world, by this time, more productive career-carrying trucks with a lifting capacity of 180 tons had already appeared, and BelAZ still had to work on it .

• BelAZ-549 - the base model
• BelAZ-549V-5275 - an experienced dump truck
• BelAZ-549S - an experimental modification for the far north

• Belarusian Automobile Plant

• BelAZ-549 Belarusian auto industry
• BelAZ-549 Archive "At the wheel"