A Russian big rig endures extensive NVH testing.
It’s always good fun to watch an extreme off-roading video from a Russian site in spite of (or sometimes because of) the language barrier. This film popped up on Instagram from an account with plenty of posts geotagged in Moscow.
After tackling what looks like a series of concrete or wooden 4×4 posts laid out on the ground, the big rig proceeds to maul its way over a field of tires sticking vertically up out of the surface. The heavy truck has little issue plowing through this obstacle, with the rubber hoops bending and folding faster than a cheap tent.
The next portion of the course, however, looks as if it is lined with broken golf balls discarded in a wayward fashion by the Jolly Green Giant. These enormous half-spheres pitch the Russian rig into a frenzy of angles not approved by most road safety handbooks. At some point, every one of the tires on all three axles leaves the ground. This seems to faze the driver not one whit, as they seem to accelerate through the obstacle.
A quick Google search reveals this place is sometimes used for testing of military vehicles.
Perhaps this will help all of us who try to make the case to our passengers that ‘going faster’ over a bump actually smooths things out. Okay, considering the terrifying rolling motions exhibited by the truck shown above, maybe not. If you try this line on your spouse, let us know and we will award you 10 Off-Road points which are, naturally, completely worthless.
In comparison, the water and mud pit at the end of this course seems to be a relative piece of cake. The video goes on to show a Montero Sport sized rig tackling the obstacles, with the notable difference that those outrageous half-sphere bumps are moved out of the way. This is a good thing since, given how hard they pitched around the big rig, they might have sent the smaller machine into a low orbit.