All passenger cars of the Volga brand were produced by the Gorky Automobile Plant with sedan and station wagon bodies. At the same time, there was a significant demand for pickup trucks that were more convenient for transportation. The deficit of such machines was partly made up for by the numerous repair plants that manufactured such models from machines that had been outdated.
Development
In the early 2000s, the GAZ plant tried to expand the range of products offered by creating a freight Volga. In 2004, the first pickup models appeared, shown at the Autoforum 2004 exhibition under the name Ivanitch. The car was developed by specialists from the design bureau of the GAZ plant.
At the end of 2004, an agreement was signed between GAZ and the Gidroprivod small car repair company located in the city of Kimovsk (Tula Region). According to the agreement, the Kimov plant was supposed to organize the production of pickups using components and parts supplied by GAZ. Machine assembly began in January 2005. At the exhibition "ComTrans 2005" cars with the trade name GAZ-17310 "Trofim" were presented to the general public.
There is no consensus on the nature of the origin of the brand of the machine. The main version is the assumption that one of the creators of the pickup had a relative named Trofim.
Pickup concept
The design of the machine was the front of the standard Volga model 3110 or 31029 and the back of the original design. In the "Trofim" used nodes from various machines of the Gorky plant. As the rear part of the passenger cabin, the trimmed rear wall of the cabin from the GAZ 3307 truck was installed. Two standard windows remain in the rear wall. The bracket and the spare wheel holder were borrowed from the Gazelle-2705 model. For the side parts of the cab behind the doors, the trimmed external panels of the Volga standard rear doors were used. In the photo “Trofim”, made on the basis of “Volga-31029”.
Finished Volga bodies arrived in Kimovsk in assembled and painted form. For this, bodies of various models could be used, starting from 31029 and ending with 31105. Directly at the factory, they were cut to the required length, new elements of the rear part of the cab and cargo platform were painted over. The painted pickup truck body was assembled on a tiny assembly line from several stationary posts. Factory treatment with anticorrosion compounds allowed a slight increase in corrosion resistance.
A frame with a spatial structure is used as the base of the loading platform. It provides transverse amplifiers. The use of the frame allowed to increase the wheelbase of the GAZ-17310 to 3190 mm, which positively affected the size of the cargo compartment. The increased base significantly improved the directional stability of the machine.
Technical details
To complete the GAZ-17310, diesel and gasoline engines with a capacity of 95 to 130 liters were used. from. There was only one transmission option - a five-speed manual gearbox and rear-wheel drive with a driveshaft. Due to the elongated base, Trofimakh uses an original longer drive shaft.
Many technical characteristics of the GAZ-17310 did not differ from the Volga parameters. The brake system was similar - disc mechanisms in front and drum mechanisms in the rear. The cars had a braking force regulator with the parameters of a regular Volga. Reinforced springs were used in the suspension of the Trofim rear axle. In the early samples of the car, they tried to establish a standard one, but it did not allow transporting more than 500 kg of cargo. The design of the rear axle had a stabilizer bar.
The review of the GAZ-17310 car will be incomplete, without a description of the cargo platform. Due to the overall length of the platform 2.12 m with a width of 1.8 m, the car could transport quite large items. The wheel arches were located below the platform floor level, so the Trofim had a large loading height. The maximum load of the GAZ-17310 reached 900 kg.
Mass production
Serial production of utility vehicles began in 2005. By this time, GAZ began production of the next restyled version of the Volga-31105. Accordingly, the index of the Trofim pickup truck changed - it was designated GAZ-17310A. In addition to this, the car factory offered a closed van of a similar design to the GAZ-17310V model. Production cars had a tailgate with the stamped TROFIM inscription.
All cars passed the necessary certification and had a "Type approval of a vehicle." As test specimens were "Trofimy" with an installed isothermal booth. They were supplied to the plant by third-party manufacturers. Such machines did not have a separate index. One of the surviving isothermal "Trofimov" is shown in the photo.
Box version
The official name of the van version sounds a bit unusual. The vehicle index is 17310V. The target customers of the van version were various small retailers. The carrying capacity of the van was 800 kg, i.e. was slightly lower than the pickup. When fully loaded, the mass of the machine was about 2700 kg. This allowed the use of the van in the central areas of cities where vehicle weight restrictions apply. The booth had a volume of about 5-6 cubic meters. In the photo, the Trofim van is standing in the backyard of the motor depot.
The machine is equipped with a cowl on the roof of the cab.
The equipment of the car depended on the equipment of the original donor car. Therefore, sometimes there are "Trofimy" equipped with power steering. The van could be equipped with both GAZ-560 or 5601 diesel engines, and ZMZ gasoline engines. The latter could be equipped with a carburetor (engines of the ZMZ 402 family) or a fuel injection system (new family of ZMZ 406). Some engines had a catalytic converter in the exhaust system. The maximum speed of the most powerful "Trofim" did not exceed 112-115 km / h with a very leisurely dynamics.
Gasoline engines did not differ in low fuel consumption. For example, the variant with the ZMZ 4062 engine (with electronic fuel injection system) spent almost 14.5 liters of gasoline in urban conditions. To reduce this figure, many owners installed home-made fairings on the roof of the passenger compartment.
"Trofimy" today
At the time of their appearance, cars were very popular. The main advantage was the low price and the absence of a ban on entry into the central areas of several cities. The main competitor of the car, the cargo Gazelle, was subject to such bans.
But the semi-handicraft assembly, harsh operating conditions and the general low resistance to corrosion of Volga bodies led to the rapid failure of Trofimov. Great competition for the car began to make cheaper pickups IL and VAZ. Therefore, the release of “Trofimov” was quickly stopped - the last cars were assembled around 2007.
To date, very few models have survived. The usual technical condition of Trofim is easy to understand from the photo.