I am going to mount a Russian 85mm AA gun model 1939 in the bed of a Ural 4320 from Syria as seen in some pictures. My question to all the structural engineers out there is how would you mount it? The actual truck mounts a 57mm gun but I cannot find a model of that particular gun. So if you found yourself having to mount this would you weld the entire platform to the bed? is the bed metal to begin with? Or would you mount the bottom of the pedastal by weld or bolt or both?Thanks in advance.
" BORDER="0">
" BORDER="0">

Hi Timothy,

Firstly I am no enginner so my advice is just what I think would be most practical...IMHO

1) To save weight I would just mount the turn table & not the arms, which also saves the possibility of tripping over the support arms as you moved around the truck bed traversing the gun & loading ammo.

2)I think that there would be more structual strength if it was welded to a steel floor over a wooden one, But if you had no spare steel then bolting it to the wooden floor would work, so you could do either,the wooden floor would allow you to show a "different" texture in the painting though.

Would you be able to post the picture..it is something i would love to see, as I am really into the werid & wonderful home stuff in all the civil wars.

Chhers Mike

Thanks Mike, here is the pic
" BORDER="0">

Not a structural engineer either but ...
If there was sufficient distance between the base of the turntable and the working parts of the gun I would do this:
1. Thickish metal plate, square or rectangle, a bit larger than the base and sized to reach over a few of the beams under the load bed unless the bed is so solid that it doesn't have any transversal beams (right angles to the length of the truck).
2. Cut out a hole in the loadbed
3. Weld the plate to the beams
4. Bolt the turntable to the plate.

/ Robin

Thx Robin. Does anyone know for sure what the bed of the Ural is composed of, is it wood or metal?

Metal and wood



Full size

H.P.

More views of the same gun truck :





H.P.

Maybe it is possible to guess/estimate how far below the lower edge of the shield that the base of the "turntable" could be ?
Level with the loadbed or below ??
Could it even be as far down as the chassis frame or if there is a subframe for the loadbed ??
/ Robin

Thx Frenchy for the bed pic, that answers that question. I think I will bolt/weld the pedastal to the deck. Its what I think they did in the original although a smaller calibre gun. I had those other pics of the gun Frenchy and a couple additional. I justthink its different for the 4320 typically its the ZSU or rocket pod etc. Thx everyone.