From Russia, but Not with Love! #FlashbackFriday

Our American friend and undisputed heavy machinery enthusiast, Anthony Lucibello has developed a real knack for unearthing old equipment in real life, but also discovering rarities on the internet. This particular one caught my eye recently.

Russian earthmoving equipment always has a somewhat primitive look to it, and much of it seems to be derived from military vehicles that have been adapted.

This brutal looking tracked loading shovel was built by Chetra and designated as the ChZPT TP330. The machine was based on the T-330 dozer which the company first launched in 1975. The company state on their website that by the beginning of the 1990’s there were 10,000 T-330 units in operation, and some are still running to this day.  

As Anthony stated in his social media post, details on this machine are somewhat sketchy, so if anyone has any further information, we would love to hear from you. What we do know is that it was the largest tracked loader built, sporting a 6.45 cubic yard bucket, and tipped the scales at somewhere around 52-tonnes.

It is believed that the beast of a machine wasn’t a success and never made it past the protype stage.

Checkout this video of a T-330 dozer that was the foundation platform for the shovel.