The world’s largest dump truck risks remaining a single project, not a mass-produced machine

The pride of all Belarusian officials of different ranks is BelAZ dump trucks. For nine years now, they have been considered world champions in terms of carrying capacity among mining trucks. BelAZ-75710 was shown to the world in the fall of 2013, and a few months later it took on a record 503.5 tons of cargo. For comparison: the gold reserves of Belarus amount to 53.44 tons of gold – that is, the BelAZ body is enough to take out the reserves of almost ten Belaruss.

So far, three copies have been released, work is underway on the fourth. All of them are designed to work in the Russian coal pits of Kuzbass. But now the program is in jeopardy: such a record-breaking giant cannot be built without the help of other countries, including the main ideological opponents of small but proud Belarus: the USA and Europe.

Two diesel engines with a total capacity of almost 5,000 liters. With. manufactured by MTU Detroit Diesel (a German-American company). If they can replace the main diesel engine, then also with engines from “unfriendly” brands: Caterpillar (USA), Cummins (USA), Komatsu (Japan-USA).

A traction unit with electric motors manufactured by Siemens (Germany) is powered by diesel engines. The hydropneumatic installation is supplied by the German concern Bosch. Import substitution of these main nodes is unlikely to succeed. And although there are talks about replacing “Siemensk” electric motors with the installations of the St. Petersburg company “Power Machines”, this is still just talk.

The frame of the dump truck is made of high-alloy Swedish steel Weldox-800: in Belarus there is neither such steel nor machines capable of processing it. So the frame blanks were made in Sweden and brought to Belarus, where they were already welded together.

Tires for BelAZ-75710 are supplied by two companies: French Michelin or Japanese Bridgestone. In this part of Belarus, Belarus managed to replace imported products: Belshina produced a set of tires of the required size and sent them to Kuzbass for testing. But this is perhaps the only such success.

Due to sanctions, the entire production run of BelAZ-75710 dump trucks runs the risk of stopping at four units. After that, the cars in Kuzbass can expect the fate of Boeings in Russia: “cannibalization” – dismantling one car for spare parts for another.