Tatra 81

The Tatra 81 was a heavy-duty truck made by the Czech manufacturer Tatra between 1940 and 1942. The German government ordered its development after the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, and it was completed the same year; it was used mainly in Germany by the Ordnungspolizei, with a few ferrying supplies for the Wehrmacht. The truck had an eight-cylinder diesel engine of 12,467 cc rated at 117.8 kW, four forward gears and one reverse, a chassis based on the Tatra backbone concept with an empty weight of 5,700 kg and a payload rating of 6,500 kg, and a top speed of 65 km/h. The civilian Tatra 81H and 81HB were fitted with a wood gas generator and a 14,726 cc engine of 110.4 kW that ran on wood gas, with the pistons enlarged by 10 mm to avoid a drastic loss of power.