GAZ 44

In the early 70s, GAZ made another attempt to enter the category of heavy AWD army trucks, creating a whole range of floating two-, three- and four-axle army vehicles with a payload from 2 to 5 tonnes under the name “Universal-1”. The base models in this range was a 5-ton four-axle flatbed truck GAZ-44 (8×8). It had an original design, not based on any of serial chassis.

In fact, it was an intermediate stage between trucks and armored personnel carriers. It had a sealed frame base, moved forward cabin with a hatch, located behind the cab engine, and all-metal cargo platform. The only prototype of GAZ-44 was successfully passed factory and military tests, but could not competed with similar products of the Minsk Automobile Plant.