MAZ-5551

The MAZ-5551 is a Soviet and Belarusian large-capacity lorry built at the Minsk Automobile Plant from 1985 to 2019. It was made on the base of the MAZ-5337 and was sold as a tipper and as a bare chassis on which other specialised equipment could be mounted. Its new cab resembled the cab of the MAZ-5432 tractor unit but had no sleeping berth, and it differed sharply from the earlier MAZ-500 family and the MAZ-5335: the body panels were rounded, the headlamps and radiator grille were reshaped, a modern panoramic windscreen replaced the old split flat one, a spoiler appeared on the roof, and the interior, controls and steering wheel were reworked. The first prototypes were built in 1973, but production began only in 1985, when just 32 trucks were made, followed by 1,701 in 1986, and series production of the dump truck started in 1988. From 1985 to 1990 the MAZ-5551 and the MAZ-5549 were built side by side at the plant. From 1998 the tipper was built with an updated cab and a grille that opens access to the service points of the whole front panel, and that cab was built until 2019.