UAZ-452 in Siberia

Search for a Family Camper: UAZ-452

We added our 1994 Toyota Land Cruiser before we knew that Kid 4.0 was on the way. Now that she’s here, we’re not getting rid of the Land Cruiser, but we are searching for some roomier options that include some decent cargo capacity.

I will always look at a Pinzgauer first. It’s huge, 6×6, and looks like it will survive the apocalypse. But it’s out of our price range.

UAZ 452 River

The UAZ-452 is another option. Think of a VW bus, mount the engine between the front two seats, and build it in Russia. Production of the UAZ-452 began in 1965 and continues today. Most of the variants have accumulated nicknames like “loaf” or “pill” and they are very fitting.

Size Matters

The interior arrangements can be varied seating a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 11. The most common setups seat eight passengers.

UAZ-452 Interior

The engine is a 2.7L inline four-cylinder that creates 112 horsepower and 153 lb-ft of torque. The powerplant is located between the driver and front passenger seat. Part of me wonders if the engine location helps heat the passenger compartment through radiant heat, but I couldn’t find anything to prove this as a fact.

The 112 horses are connected to a five-speed manual transmission and all variants have a two-speed transfer case. The 452 has a top speed of 78 mph. The owner of the UAZ pictured from Reddit below says his likes to cruise at 110 km/h or 68 mph. That’s not bad. The 6×6 Pinzgauer’s top speed is 62 mph.

That is a lot of lube

One of the knocks against the UAZ-452 is that there are over 20 lubrication points underneath.  And you have to use a syringe to do it.

Lube points on UAZ-452

This one is traveling Russia currently.

Teriberka, Russian North… Heading to the Arctic ocean from r/overlanding

Fits in the Budget

One of the benefits of the UAZ-452 is that purchasing a decent example is cheap. A downside is that buying one will involve shipping. UAZ’s corporate website lists one North American distributor and it’s in Miami. The distributor’s website is full of lifted pickups with zero references to any 452’s. Totally not sketchy.

The UAZ would be a capable off-roader. It has 8.6 inches of ground clearance. The 452’s are 171.4 inches long, which is 0.2 inches shorter than a 2018 Ford Focus Hatchback. The wheelbase of the UAZ is 100 inches, or four inches shorter than the Focus. It really is a capable, compact off-roader.

I don’t think the UAZ will work as our family camper, but it was fun to see how others around the world are using them to travel the world.

UAZ-452 in Mongolia

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18 responses to “Search for a Family Camper: UAZ-452”

  1. crank_case Avatar
    crank_case

    Paging Sjalabais to the front desk…

    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Ha, this one had to make it to the editorial office eventually. 🙂

      Even though the Buchanka starts at 8700$ in Russia – a major price hike due to a stabilizing ruble – it’s German import with a few improvements and everything thoroughly checked to see if it works, is an eyewatering 20k€.

      And then it’s still that somewhat ungainly, maintenance heavy, tipsy, 1958-lack-of-safety-standards van which UAZ has finally started offering in two tone paint due to a wave of nostalgia.

      https://i.auto-bild.de/ir_img/2/2/4/0/7/9/3/UAZ-452-Buchanka-1200×800-8c126519b8cc1724.jpg

      Having one in the US is possible because of the 25 year rule, but does that apply to new vehicles, too? Imho, this would be an amazing expedition vehicle. I’d love one to get my firewood in. But all the owner’s forums are clear: You need to be mechanically inclined, despite only needing three tools: A 17 and 19 millimeter wrench, and a hammer. No sickle needed.

      1. wunno sev Avatar
        wunno sev

        it does not. the car you import needs to have been built 25 years ago.

    2. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      Ha, this one had to make it to the editorial office eventually. 🙂

      Even though the Buchanka starts at 8700$ in Russia – a major price hike due to a stabilizing ruble – it’s German import with a few improvements and everything thoroughly checked to see if it works, is an eyewatering 20k€.

      And then it’s still that somewhat ungainly, maintenance heavy, tipsy, 1958-lack-of-safety-standards van which UAZ has finally started offering in two tone paint due to a wave of nostalgia.

      https://i.auto-bild.de/ir_img/2/2/4/0/7/9/3/UAZ-452-Buchanka-1200×800-8c126519b8cc1724.jpg

      Having one in the US is possible because of the 25 year rule, but does that apply to new vehicles, too? Imho, this would be an amazing expedition vehicle. I’d love one to get my firewood in. But all the owner’s forums are clear: You need to be mechanically inclined, despite only needing three tools: A 17 and 19 millimeter wrench, and a hammer. No sickle needed.

  2. mdharrell Avatar

    Or you can pick up this Econoline for $3500. It’s already had most of the sketchiness stripped out of its interior, in that it’s had most of the interior stripped out of its interior:

    https://images.craigslist.org/00S0S_fxFjMlRnfhC_600x450.jpg

    https://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/d/darrington-super-rare-1966-ford-falcon/6841523369.html

    1. Vairship Avatar
      Vairship

      Hmm. Cutting away the roof on a unitbody always worries me a bit, especially because the square cornered vents and windows don’t exactly help relieve stress concentrations. But maybe the stickers make up for structural deficiencies?

      1. mdharrell Avatar

        Between the upgraded stickers and wheels I’m sure it’s fine.

        I see the listing has just expired anyway.

  3. neight428 Avatar
    neight428

    I’m game to use any life event as an excuse to buy another car, but having four kids and a Russian minivan seems like you just enjoy chaos.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a2f46d573d0425a47d00e9c1cff63be97693792e3255c551ec60f1cf2a01c83.jpg

    1. neight428 Avatar
      neight428

      *Hmm, that edit didn’t take, oh wait, it did*

    2. Vairship Avatar
      Vairship

      On the contrary, it puts him smack-dab in the middle of the marketing of:
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a65eec0564f88b52e467ae24e5f5456fb346d6a3eb56a6598a507fa8fe33b587.jpg

  4. Fuhrman16 Avatar
    Fuhrman16

    Did UAZ actually try to import these, as well as their little jeep thing, to the U.S. back in the 90’s?

  5. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    A roof box and aftermarket bumper that allows for storage for the Landcruiser sounds like a much better idea.

  6. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    Wow, I’ve never seen even a picture of one of these before. I absolutely love it.

  7. SlowJoeCrow Avatar
    SlowJoeCrow

    In the US the most reasonable option is probably a 4×4 converted Ford Econoline, or a grey import Mitsubishi Delica. As cool as the UAZ-452 seems it’s still slow noisy and hard to maintain without fluent Russian and a friend overseas. OTOH a Quigley converted Econoline has all the manuals in English, all of its parts at the local Ford dealer or NAPA and the company is in Pennsylvania with an 800 nuumber.

  8. Manic_King Avatar
    Manic_King

    Uhm, have you been in UAZ? Mind numbing vibration. Unspeakably noisy contraption without much movement to show for it. It’s lower-tech than say the Beetle. There’s no comfort whatsoever. Could you really live with this kind of agricultural machinery for longer time? I doubt.

  9. Bryan Gilbreath Avatar
    Bryan Gilbreath

    I’m in the process of getting a UAZ 452 at the moment, and importing it to the US. I found one relatively inexpensive and I have a contact in Russia that is taking it around to shops for me to have work done. I’m going in knowing that it is slow, noisy and will be a pain in the ass to get parts for. I actually enjoy tinkering on stuff and making things work. I grew up working on air-cooled VW’s and Porsches, so I miss the simpler machines. I’ve done plenty of modified cars for more power, better aesthetics, etc. and I just want a simple- (ish) toy. In the end, I’ll have less invested into it than many people spend for top of the line mountain bikes and it’ll be something that you don’t see out in the hills too often. I know I’ve never seen one in the wild, here in the States.

  10. Andreas Avatar
    Andreas

    Great summary about the UAZ minibuses. These are awesome cars!

    We actually drive one already many years as a family camper. We have a whole fleet of them, converted to offroad-campers which we rent to international tourists to explore the best places in southern Russian.
    Check out http://www.dagestan.reise for pictures and more info.

    Cheers,
    Andreas