Talk:BA-64

Opentopped turret?

Really???? What the source?--Nixer 20:16, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

BA-64 was open-topped, BA-64B had a turret, but I don't know how the turret roof was configured. I suspect the original wording was confusing the two models. —Michael Z. 2005-12-22 17:16 Z

Yes, seems so.--Nixer 18:54, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

Have a look at the photos in the external links; it appears the turret was open-topped. —Michael Z. 2005-12-22 19:47 Z

I may have misunderstood; I thought the early BA-64-125 had the same open-top turret as the later BA-64B, but on a narrower wheelbase. DMorpheus 15:57, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

The BA64 in all turreted configurations had an open top. I have examined all aspects of this vehicle, I have been in them , I have driven the only two replicas in the US. They are both parked in my front yard. There were several variations of the car that never saw production. Two versions of the car for rail, two versions that had an open top including one example of a staff car, and a snow mobile. One of two snow mobiles which I researched was wrecked during trials.

Several cars were fitted with various weapons by the factory and never adopted. Some were fitted by the soldiers in the field but only one firearm was standard and the most common. The 7.62 DT Machine Gun.

>99% survived combat

Over 9,000 made but "At least 76 BA-64s and BA-64Bs were destroyed, abandoned, or otherwise reported lost during the war." I note the at least, but suspect it is something of an understatement. ϢereSpielChequers 04:56, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

We can confirm 76 specific vehicles with serial numbers as lost or destroyed during the war. The numbers may very well run into the hundreds, but there is no way we can verify that without a credible source. --Katangais (talk) 12:36, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

russian wiki claims ~3.3k armored cars of all types, majority BA-64, survived WW2 (backed by a book ref) so the sentence we use here is entirely misleading and should be adjusted or removed. --Denniss (talk) 12:58, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

I find it difficult to believe either extreme. While 76 is definitely too low, the idea that 6,000+ were destroyed in the war is, quite frankly, preposterous. The book sources cited in this article - namely Kinnear - state very explicitly that the Soviets still had an overabundance of BA-64s after the war and the immediate postwar decade, and we can assume that most of the production run for the last two years survived the war. --Katangais (talk) 14:48, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

Wartime production was ~8k, still a high loss rate + some probably already given to other nations. High vehicle loss rates were not uncommon in Red army, Red army recon cars were probably not as carefully used as the german doctrine specified for their own vehicles.--Denniss (talk) 15:30, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

Transfer case

"A BA-64's gearbox initially had one reverse and three forward gears on a two-speed transfer case, although a few models appear to have one reverse and four forward gears and no transfer case"

So what, they made a 2WD version of it? If it's 4WD it has a transfer case, that's what splits the power between front and rear axles. It might have a single gear ratio and so no second shift lever, but it has a transfer case. If not it would have to have some special transmission with output to the front and rear axles, like many AWD cars use. If it did have a drivetrain that significantly different, either with different transmission or old 2WD I would argue it was really a different vehicle at that point, not just a model.

Also very typical for production numbers to be very small for the first nominal year of production, since you rarely get a full year. It to start in November of 1942, you only get a couple months of production before it's 1943, on top of the production lines ramping up production and resolving issues that arise. Idumea47b (talk) 17:10, 17 March 2024 (UTC)