Praga v3s: Who did not read the newspaper in winter did not start it

Praga V3S drivers mostly became avid newspaper readers in the bitter cold. In the winter, "letting a woodcock read a newspaper" meant stuffing burning printed matter into the intake so that it could be started at all. "But then again, it shouldn't burn too much, so that it doesn't take away all the oxygen," explains one of the military experts who took us through the V3S in the military museum in Lešany.

There are many similar stories about how to bring a military special to life. But the fact is that when they started this old lady in Lešany after three years in temperatures slightly below zero, all she had to do was add diesel. "It will still work in another thirty years," laughs the mechanic of the military museum. And he's probably right.

For the whole man

Push and turn the key called "bosak" on the simple board, then set the hand throttle, push the starter lever down and the six-cylinder coughs thunderously. I take off the hand gas, oddly enough shift into second gear (first gear is only used in extreme terrain) and let go of the clutch for a long time. Still nothing, but it wants to add "full boiler" and we're on our way.

We're going off-road, I've got a sharp left turn, I want to downshift from third to second, so first I have to depress the clutch, add a lot of gas to even out the revs (the car's transmission, built in 1956, doesn't have synchromesh), and off I go two!

A sharp turn gives me a lesson. I don't turn enough, the weather vane has such a turn that you have to start turning maybe ten meters before the turn. So I take it across the wet lawn... On the asphalt, I finally get going at full speed, I'm going 40 on the four. The inside rattles like it's a hundred, and every transverse pothole in the road kicks my hands through the steering wheel, which is buried somewhere in my stomach.

The car shakes and crashes, but still works perfectly after years. I'm driving, I "jump" the engine again with the hand throttle and jump out to stretch.

The legend celebrates

A simple and incredibly durable off-road truck is probably really immortal. Legends are told about what goes through, where it scrambles and what survives. No one makes a tougher and more durable car. However, it still serves in the army today, and it was manufactured in just five months in the early 1950s. It glides at 60 at most, but it can drive everything like a tank. Soldiers from foreign missions could also tell their stories.

The military special, which belongs to the legends of Czech motoring, is celebrating its anniversary this year. Sixty years ago, exactly on February 18, 1952, the first prototype was launched. Although he really drove, but not very far, witnesses recall that the connecting shaft bearing broke already in the yard. No one can count exactly how many were finally produced. The figure is about 130 thousand.

Pragovka received an air-cooled six-cylinder engine, derived from the engine of the Tatra 111 heavy truck. It can be said that the 7.5-liter engine was created by simply halving the fork twelve-cylinder from the "one hundred and eleven". The engine with direct fuel injection and OHV valve train has a power of 98 hp and can also run on gasoline with minor modifications. Consumption is 30 liters of diesel per 100 km, the fuel tank holds 120 liters. The minimum speed is 1.3 km/h, the maximum she was able to drive under load was less than sixty. But there are also rumors of higher speeds...

It doesn't start, it doesn't brake, it doesn't turn... it's great

There is no question of comfort in the cabin of the famous prago. It doesn't heat up in winter, it's warm in summer. The gearbox has no synchronization and especially winter starting can be compared to a shamanic ceremony and driving requires a lot of strength, experience and courage.

"It doesn't spring, it doesn't brake, it doesn't turn," says one of the drivers who still drives with it today. And yet he loves her. But some of her mannerisms would not be tolerated by today's spoiled chauffeur. Can you imagine getting up early on cold winter days and warming up the engine for up to half an hour, as the manual advises?

The in-line six-cylinder was created by cutting the Tatra 12-cylinder in half. Part of the engine was accessible after opening the short front hood. During major repairs, the central tunnel in the cabin had to be uncovered. The entire cabin could also be folded forward, which was already more difficult.

Fables are told about starting. We have already talked about reading newspapers. At minus ten degrees, the manufacturer recommended heating the cylinder heads with a special flight lamp (so-called self-igniting gasoline lamp), which together with the heating nozzle was attached to the opening behind the fan. At minus twenty, it was already recommended to heat the oil pan under the engine. Some drivers made special heating elements.

During severe frosts in which the oil solidified, it was also recommended to dilute the engine oil with technical gasoline (1 liter was enough to minus 20) to improve starts. After driving 200 km, the gasoline evaporated. And one more trick: the engine could have received an original "injection" device for injecting an easily flammable mixture (ether) into the intake manifold. "It was especially important to have a good flashlight," says the driver, who enjoyed his time with the Prague woman.

Otherwise, the crank handle helped, but two burly men were needed to turn it. They taught military drivers another trick. Jan Neumann describes in his book about the V3S: "If a situation arose where it was necessary to start the engine quickly ... one car was crushed by the other." It was also assumed that a stationary car obstructing the road would be pushed aside in an emergency, perhaps even thrown off the bridge. The front bumper is therefore made from one piece and from the same material as the frame. It was said in the army that trees with trunks up to 12 centimeters in diameter are not even worth avoiding.

The off-road characteristics of the V3S can be matched by few newer means of transport. The main advantage is its low weight. "Vejtřaska" can carry five tons on a paved surface and three tons or 22 soldiers in the field, but in real operation it carried much more.

V3S can wade through almost a meter of water, even a vertical obstacle 40 centimeters high is no problem. Thanks to the original design of the axle gearboxes (the axles are located high above the axis of rotation of the wheels), it has a large clearance of the chassis.

Each axle is driven by its own cardan (pivot shaft) directly from the transmission, so if one axle broke, you made it with at least one axle. Versions with a winch have one more shaft to drive it, but it also drives, for example, the vacuum cleaner in the faecal trucks.

The drive of the front axle can be connected, both rear axles have differential locks. In the hands of a brave and experienced driver, almost anything can pass. "The performance of a vehicle does not depend only on the number of horses, but on the degree of understanding between man and vehicle," so begins the second edition of the Praga V3S workshop manual from 1958.

Praga V3S: Military versions very often had a winch, driven by another shaft directly from the gearbox.

Vejtráskologists can tell that Lešanská is one of the oldest by its large 80-liter air tank, which was later replaced by a smaller one with half the volume. The wipers were pneumatically operated. The roughest military versions were manually operated: the passenger had to wipe the driver using a lever in the middle of the windshield. Compressed air was mainly needed for the brakes. They were probably the biggest weakness of the weathervane. "They overheated, quickly faded and lost efficiency. It was enough to apply the brakes three times and it stopped slowing down," describes one of those who have experience with Prague.

Steering requires a "whole man"

You can also find this sentence in the technical manual: Steering with a globoid screw and roller makes the vehicle easy to control. Practice is and was a bit different. "When driving, you have to have all your fingers on the outside of the steering wheel, even your thumbs," says Petr Vodička, who has been driving the V3S every day for the past ten years. "If you hit a bump, it can snap your fingers. The steering wheel will turn immediately." Almost every driver can tell you how their fingers and palms hurt after several hours of driving.

The sentences that can be found a few lines down in the manual must also be taken with a grain of salt: "The floors and the transverse wall are sound and thermally insulated. There is a three-part removable engine cover between the two seats. It has double walls, it is well insulated, so it prevents heat from the engine." And practice? "If you don't notice the ambulance in the rearview mirror, you will only hear it when it passes you," adds Vodička. In any case, it is better to put headphones on your ears for the noise, which according to unverified data can reach up to 100 decibels.

Windbreakers also know their stuff about thermal insulation of the cabin and engine. "In the army it was said that the V3S will destroy both of your legs. Your right one will burn from the engine in the summer and the left one will freeze from the door in the winter," Vodička laughs. The summer hic was difficult to drive out of the cabin, although the windbreaker has hinged front windows and some versions also have a hatch in the roof, but try to make a draft like this at 40 (normal operating speed).

Another unimaginable operation for a modern driver is shifting. The four-speed transmission is not synchronized, so you have to depress the clutch twice when upshifting and add intermediate gas when downshifting.

"There are about fifty lubrication points. But the rear axle mounts that come off the most, which cannot be lubricated," describes Vodička. It is said to be the biggest technical weakness of V3S.

The army still operates "Vejtrak" to this day. The Czechoslovak People's Army was already looking for a successor, but the projects from the 1960s and 1980s ultimately did not make it into production. The change came only five years ago, since 2008 the Czech army has had the Tatra T810 in service. They go twice as fast as a windbreaker and have an air-conditioned cabin. Today, however, everyone would have sworn that the modern Tatra woodcock will survive...