User:CosXZ/Tatra 85

The Tatra 85 was a medium off-road truck with 6×4 axles, manufactured by Závody Ringhoffer-Tatra a.s. in Kopřivnice. The vehicle was created at the request of ČSLA, which used it as an aerial tanker and a flatbed (artillery tractor). A T85/91 model with a diesel engine and a trambus cab was produced in smaller quantities.

History and variants
On the basis of an MNO order from 1935, the Tatra company produced a prototype of the Tatra 85 six-wheel medium truck. The vehicle had a useful weight of 3,000 to 4,000 kg and the ability to tow a trailer weighing 5,000 kg. The Czechoslovak army tested the delivered prototype from September 1935. After a positive test result, the army ordered 50 Tatra 85 flatbed trucks in the spring of 1936. By the end of December 1936, it had received 48 vehicles, which were to serve as trucks or as artillery tractors. The cars were equipped with a winch. The army received two more flatbed trucks in June 1937. Other orders followed in 1937 and 1938, but they were not fulfilled until the Munich crisis.

One chassis from the first series received a tank superstructure for transporting fuel. In 1936, the army ordered 168 of these tanks with the designated aviation automobile tank vz. 37, all of which they took over. They allowed the transportation of 4400 liters of fuel, i.e. gasoline, benzene, alcohol or their mixtures (BiBoLi). The liquid was transported by a Wikov pump, the measuring and filtering equipment came from Hejduk and Faix. Unlike flatbed trucks, tanks did not have a winch. The tank truck was capable of towing a trailer weighing 7,000 kg. Subsequently, Tatra developed the T110 towing tank, with a capacity of 3,000 liters of fuel. It was equipped with a two-seat operator's cabin at the front. Its development was not completed until 1938 and the Czechoslovak Army did not take over any T110s. 24 car tanks and the same number of towed tanks were received by the Romanian Army on the basis of an order from 1937, the cars were delivered in the early 1940s. After the German occupation, the tanks were seized by the German army, and later served under the designation Kfz. 348 as air tankers in the ranks of the Luftwaffe, allegedly in the number of 220 pieces.

In 1937, a prototype of a chemical supply car vz. 38 (CHZA vz. 38), which was built by Chema Lutín. For the construction of this version, the Czechoslovak Army ordered 54 Tatra 85 chassis in 1938, and managed to take over 40 of them before the Munich crisis. After installing the superstructures, these cars were to be used to supply spraying cars vz. 38 (RA vz. 38) with combat poisons (fouling) or sanitation solution (fouling). Sets with towing vehicle vz. 38 were marked CHZAVV vz. 38. The order was completed in November 1939, the kits being handed over by the "Ministry of National Defense in Liquidation" to the German Army.

In 1939, the Tatra 85A variant was created, which was distinguished mainly by the trambus cabin. The truck was produced until 1941. Another version was the Tatra 85/91, with a six-cylinder Tatra 91 diesel engine and also a trambus cab. In 1939, 50 flatbed trucks and two buses were allegedly produced.

A total of 416 Tatra 85 cars and 52 Tatra 85/91 cars were allegedly produced. A smaller number of cars, mainly as chassis, were purchased by civilian customers, on which they had their own superstructures (buses, etc.)

Preserved cars

 * Tatra 85 flatbed truck in the Tatra Truck Museum


 * Tatra 85/91 bus, one of two produced. In 2015, the car was reconstructed to running condition from a wreck found in 1995, used as an apiary. Instead of the unpreserved original engine, it is fitted with a four-cylinder Zetor.