CHEVROLET NIVA test drive since 2002 SUV

Dear white

The North of Russia is an excellent testing landlog. Vladimir Arbuzov, Evgeny Mikhalkevich, Andrey Sidorov and Peter Torichny went to the Podolar city of Pechora in Zimnik. Photo: Valery Novikov.
 
Who argues - travel best to the first class. Heat, satisfying, does not shake and amenities are always ready. But how much will you see a bus, train or plane from the window? Only what millions saw. Behind the exclusive - please your legs. But you won’t go far on foot. If only because, as usual, there is not enough time. It was a thousand years ago that a man could afford to travel at the speed of the slowest camel in the caravan. Yes, and not to the face of the motorist to measure the land with steps - for this there is an odometer. And if he is on an all -around, then the routes can be chosen the most daring. Until those where Makar did not drive calves - in the summer there are impenetrable swamps, and in winter - well, who drives them in the winter!
So, we are going north, to Pechora, to where the roads live from December to March, while the frost holds them. The rest of the year, the connection with the large land by rail, rivers or an airplane.
Patriot and Shevy -Niva - the most common modern domestic all -wheel drivers - will go to them. We leave Moscow on the second working day after the New Year and Christmas holidays. The leisure days are over, and the traffic police annoying in the present work seemed to undertook to catch up and slows down our spark almost every half hour. For a thousand with a little kilometers passed on the first day, the documents were checked about thirty times! The last picket, already deep after midnight, studied papers for half an hour, but he never gave us the reason for the stop. Well, from the side of Cheboksar, a suspicious car to Moscow will not just break into.
Both cars are thoroughly loaded. Loading, with the exception of canister and tools, light, but voluminous. In Shevy -Niva, due to a small car, she is neatly packed in bags, and in a spacious patriot lies in the trunk a slightly less neat pile - but everything is in sight and easily accessible. However, by the end of the day, this method of Uspuri showed its weaknesses. The property was divided by specific density - the heavy lay down to the bottom, the lung - on the surface. And it was worth opening the back door - almost fell on the road. For the future, you should pull the grid in front of the door.
Patriot is the first blood
The icon on the instrument panel, warning about the abandon of ABS, lit up, barely drove away from Moscow, but did not return - a bad sign. In the end, they did without ABS all their lives, live and another week. The portable scanner prompted - a cliff in the chain of the right rear wheel sensor, but visually as if everything was in order. Looking ahead, let's say that upon returning, we found another vulnerable place in the system. This puncture is purely component - with the full course of the compression of the rear suspension, the wire of the same sensor, fixed on the frame, is crushed by the stepladder of the springs! In other words, ABS was doomed even when designing a machine.
The second day, the course is strictly north. Overboard is still -25s. The engine of the patriot, although it eats gasoline with might and main, does not reach the thermal regime. The radiator was completely closed by cardboard - somehow it scored 80C. It got warmer in the cabin, but it is worth drowning out the motor, as it immediately disappears. Yes, and the climate in UAZ is sharply continental: the leg on the gas pedal is fried, the other is freezing. And you can’t reduce the speed of the stove fan - side glasses freeze. Both legs are freezing at the front passenger. And if he is without a hat, then both ears. The wind is to blame for everything - he whistles around the perimeter of the glass of the front door, no matter how it is closed. Yes, from under the levers of the KP and the distributions blowing off - the covers from them now and then fly.
In the field is warmer and more comfortable, and it is much easier to go. No wonder they say that everything is known in comparison: a long trip on the patriot is a good reason to love the field. However, there is a remark to it - the driver’s right leg is warming up, as in UAZ.
Yaransk is the kingdom of ice. It seems that all water pipes burst in the city at once and water flooded the streets. The slightest rise becomes a serious obstacle to UAZ (he, unlike the field, is tires without spikes). How the locals go - a mystery.
Icing ended immediately outside the city. Further quite normal road.
It darkens in these parts two hours earlier than in Moscow - the time zone is the same, but in fact we climbed quite far to the northeast. The patriot’s light is magnificent, and thanks to a high landing, the road is clearly visible. On the Niva, one after another burned downhill lamps burned. Yesterday they noticed that in the transmission mode of the radio, light on the field became much brighter than the norm. It turns out that this effect is well signed by experienced radio amateurs - the voltage relay goes crazy and lifts the voltage of the generator.
Without going into the physics of the process, we just draw your attention to this. In the meantime, we lower the headlights to the stop, so as not to blind the headlight of the oncoming ones, and continue to move through the frosty snowstorm.
It is at night, we are sitting on a gas station. UAZ, as usual, takes on board his lion's share of gasoline, Niva is content with a stingy ration. It's time to look under the hoods: what's there with butter, antifreeze and in general, is everything in place. Niva has a continuous snowdrift. Snow, to our surprise, does not melt, but it does not interfere with the motor at all - let everything remain. Patriot again confirmed the reputation of a merryman - this one does not let you get bored! The cooling system has lost about one and a half liters of antifreeze - leaked through the joints of the pipes. But the clamps before the trip were carefully checked and pulled out. However, this is a trifle. They pulled them up again, added - does not flow. The clutch was gone - the liquid from the tank of the main cylinder has left. I did not want to look for the reason in the darkness, so they simply added the tank to the top and pumped it - it should be enough for the night. But the main discovery turned out to be much more interesting: from under the fitting connecting the gas pipeline with the ramp, a thin stream of gasoline poured onto the generator - just on the collection unit cover. Here it is - the real reason for the exorbitant appetite of the machine and the smell in the cabin. Well, at least they did not burn along the road: the collector, sometimes, sparkles but, apparently, the god of patriots loves, pardoned this time.
Lentity was explained simply - the sealing ring was flattened. There was no new one, the connection was tightened with metal on metal. The leak stopped, and the consumption came back to normal.
The farther to the north, the strange, warmer. Behind the side is already only -18s. The road to Syktyvkar is clean, well -groomed, carefully sprinkled with sand in the turns. Closer to Ukhta on the sidelines, logs come across now and then. To fly into this is the right way to tear off the bridge. And here is their sower - we catch up with the timber industry. A stack of logs bounces cheerfully on his horns - and look, they will fall on the road.
The roadsides here are insidious - the snowman’s plow cleans them with a margin, and a ditch may well be under cleared snow. Traces of frivolous stops in such places are quite common, and even the six himself, which had failed in a snowdrift, even had a chance to pull it on the asphalt.
The northern outskirts of Syktyvkar was remembered by a terrible stench: the locals say a stench exudes a cellulose-paper plant. They themselves do not show much anxiety - they are used to it. We, unprepared, rode a dozen kilometers, holding his noses.
Snouted in Ukhta. They also spent the next day - the cars demanded repairs. Charging disappeared on the field, but the malfunction was found quickly - the voltage regulator brushes hung. Cleaned, blowing - the generator earned as it should. With the patriot, they escorted until the evening. During the night, the clutch hydraulic drive was again empty. The reason is the side wear of the piston of the working cylinder. The cylinder is fixed on the clutch crankcase, and the fork walks along the arc. As a result, the lateral force presses the piston to one side, over time it becomes oval and can no longer correctly orient the cuff. The knot, as it turned out, is rare - they could not find in stores. But I did not want to go without clutch.
The piston was taped at the place of wear, adjusted the sandpaper in size and installed in place - it still does not flow. The repair of the switches of the swivel fists was laid until home returning - the lamp of the wheel relative to the vertical of about 15 mm, the exchange rate stability of the machine has deteriorated markedly, but rides in the very least. By the way, the owners of patriots know about this feature and are forced to change the bushings after 5-10 thousand kilometers.
We protrude from Ukhta, the stunted northern forest covers huge torches of oil workers. A glow in a half! Beautiful and majestically, only this central heating of the taiga looks very stupid. And the ecology suffers. Doesn't anyone need free warmth?
... and the river shines under the ice
The first crossing through Pechora is a pontoon bridge frozen in the ice. The sign of 60 tons confirms the seriousness of the structure. On the shore of a pair of vessels in a winter parking lot and a steam covered with snow. The second, behind Vuktyl - is real, ice, open, they say, three weeks ago. Its carrying capacity - 30 tons, width marked with hangers - 50 meters. It is interesting what the thickness of the ice is? We leave a hundred meters from the ice road, clear the snow and drill the hole. Faithful half a meter! And given that the crossing canvas is frozen additionally, it will be 70 cm under the wheels. It can withstand even the heavy technique of drills.
Further almost 200 kilometers of the winter road. The cleared canvas is quite wide, the speed can be kept under 90, but on average 40-50. Only you should not get involved in it. There are almost no places, there is almost no mobile communications, and the movement is two cars per hour, and there is no need to count on emergency assistance. In addition, the road runs along the swamps in some places, and moss and snow are excellent heat-distress. I drove a little to the side, you won’t get out without a tugboat: under the meter snowdrift, water. By the way, the snow here is very clean and tasty! Tea from it is especially good.
After a plentiful snowfall, a road brigade - two or three Kirovtsy leaves for a winter road. They clean the road, and pull out trucks from snowdrifts, so it is unlikely to freeze in the middle of the swamp. Moreover, they are abundant, and the punched tires are not thrown along the road - they put it vertically to be visible from under the snow.
There are no gas stations here, but the housing met only a couple of times: a rather large village half a kilometer from the road and the shift village of Gazoviks.
The third ice crossing through Pechora is near the city of the same name. It is solidly equipped: along the shores of the line of road signs regulating the rules of travel, in the middle of the piles of boards, stairs, even rescue circles on both sides of the piles. At times, the traffic police run in, looking at the movement. Only now the carrying capacity of only 10 tons. An interesting pattern - the farther to the north and thicker the ice, the less permitted weight at the crossing. This is confirmed by truckers on KAMAZ, traveling from Usinsk. There, they say, a sign is 5 tons. But nearby is a special car, and in it is a person. Dachshund - 1,500 rubles.
It's time to return. Ahead of more than two and a half thousand kilometers in the frost, only in the reverse sequence: the torches blazing among the forests in Polnoba, the ukhta with logs on the road (by the way, they were removed by that time), the fetid outskirts of Syktyvkar, Yaransk with ice roads, Cheboksary with a fantastic Night backlight and snowless, immersed in Moscow.
And the analysis of flights - combat losses helped identify weak places of cars and outline the work plan to eliminate them. Let's bring, write, check in the case. And we hope that the factory workers will listen to our proposals.
 

Source: The magazine "Driving"