The largest and the most useless: why did the USSR produce the K-700 tractor

The musician and popular blogger Mikhail Yezhov shared his memories of his experience of driving K-700, the "largest tractor in the world":

“In Soviet times, it was the pride of the tractor manufacturing. K-700 is the largest tractor in the world. And it's not a joke. The largest of tractors for agricultural use.

One problem is that it was unsuitable for agricultural use.

Its weight was such that, having walked along a furrow, he turned (due to pressure) this furrow into nothing. After its passage, the earth was rammed so that all living things instantly perished in it.

Lemekhov in 4 trunks (who knows - that in the know) as planned, it was not fasten to him. The attachment mechanisms broke. Therefore, to plow on it instead of four DT-75 did not work. And it was planned as a full replacement for 4 DT-75 tractors... It didn’t work...

In general, the relics of course, the designers gave. And they gave Brezhnev proud of the largest tractor in the world. But what's the point? They created this crap, and nobody knew what to do with it. Tractor designers, having stolen the blueprints from the "enemy", disappeared in the race for size.

T-150, T150K, T-700, T-701 - this was a triumph of tractor sizes and a triumph of their futility.

Huge tractors, of enormous power, and absolutely useless in the household, as if competing in their worthlessness. Cultivating is too heavy a colossus. After cultivation, the soil under his wheels required another 2 years of “steam”. Minimum.

Get stuck T-150s out of the field? And that is not it. Personally, I saw the K-700 stuck in the mud so that they decided to leave it, because there was nothing to pull it out of there.

His tank was designed for a solarium. For how many liters there. But, the frantic supply of fuel to the engine was set higher than the tank itself. There were still 20 liters of volume.

Water is heavier than the diesel oil...

I just died out in the village. I realized that it was a simple stupidity - there was not enough fuel.

I went down to the ditch, with a bucket, scooped up water in a bucket, and poured this water into the tank. He went down again and poured water into the tank again. Then, the water drained the diesel fuel from the tank, I calmly sat down and started the tractor...

As I started - the grandmothers screamed - that's it!!! Did you see this??? Brezhnev invented a tractor running on water...

I drove "on the water" to the garage. There, of course, the tank was washed and everything was removed. But grandmas seriously decided that in the USSR, tractors ride on the water!

They stood at one time on all collective farms and state farms, like monuments. The tractor is large, heavy, reliable, but you just do not need to touch it. And then it’s stuck somewhere in the mud. We will then pull out the whole city ...

And this is for me the triumph of the scoop. The largest and most unnecessary tractor in the world is the K-700 and K-701.

The announcers reported to us all the time in the news that the jubilee (hell knows which) K-700, the largest tractor in the world, had rolled off the assembly line !!!

The people in the USSR did not quite understand why they were needed at all, they were so big, but proud. Indeed, the largest ... The largest. The states do not do such ... "

In the comments, readers shared their impressions of this miracle of Soviet technology:

- We got used to making a loader (loader) out of it, hung a ramp and bucket of 1.8 cubic meters on it. But no more, otherwise the K-700 frame could not stand and went cracks ...

And he was very dangerous on the road: God forbid to turn him over, the cabin was crumpled like a paper from a cake - the inevitable death of the machine operator.

- So, do you think the USSR specifically designed the tractors? These are the tanks, only without the war cannons and turrets. For a tank such a size, weight and power - that’s all that is needed. All tank factories during the peacetime were called tractor factories. Of course, mowing and sowing the grass on a tank is not very convenient - but who cares. Finally you can send the students or scientists to the fields.

- The neighbor has one, he really bought it for nothing, when the collective farm fell apart, cheaper than the T-150, at the price of the scrap metal, he restored and works on it, twelve liters of diesel dope, when it starts, the crows fall from the trees because of the fright...

- It was designed as a saddle rocket tractor. But it did not meet the military interests and therefore it was given to the agriculture workers.