Who said that articulated tractors are a thing of the past?

Kirovets – a Russian brand of tractors – was among a plethora of ‘foreign’ manufacturers at the recent Agritechnica show.

The tractor maker brought its 435hp K-743 articulated (pivot-steer) model to the event (pictured above). This is a beefy tractor; it weighs over 16t. It stands 4m high (to the top of the cab).

The Russian entity also brought its new K-424 tractor along; this 240hp model weighs just over 11t. It is also built on a pivot-steer chassis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4pvGwaZDkk

JSC Peterburgsky Traktorny Zavod – of which Kirovets is a brand-name – is a subsidiary of JSC Kirovsky Zavod, which can trace its history to Putilovsky Zavod – founded in the capital of the Russian Empire way back in 1801.

Records at the tractor manufacturing plant go back to 1924, when the first Fordson-Putilovets tractor was produced there.

In 1962, the plant assembled the first K-700 (Kirovets) tractor. In 1975, the first K-701 (300hp) rolled off the line. In 2000, the K-744 arrived.

In 2007, prototypes of a K-3060 loading shovel (with a 6t lift capacity) arrived on the scene.

2014 saw a revamp of the existing K-744P tractor; this ushered in a host of mod-cons.

To date, over 600,000 tractors have rolled off the factory’s assembly lines.

In recent years, the workforce has grown to in excess of 2,200 people.

The company doesn’t just build agricultural tractors; Kirovets-branded products include oddities such as all-terrain, mobile welders – built on tractor ‘platforms’.

Other machines in the line-up include dump trucks, loaders, bulldozers and even machines intended solely for snow removal – not surprising considering the climate in parts of Russia.

Kirovets was just one of several Russian brands present at the recent Agritechnica show. It, like its stablemates, is pushing ‘west’.