Russian Built Viking ATV Could Be The Best Truck For Surviving The Apocalypse

When it comes to surviving the apocalypse, zombie invasion, or more realistically a natural disaster like a hurricane or flooding your going to want a badass vehicle. If you have money to burn you’re going to want something armored like a Knight XV that’ll cost you over $700,000. But even that won’t have the some of the capabilities of the oddly named Viking 29031 made by an R&D company out of Russian called Aton Impulse. From what we understand there are multiple variations of the Viking, hence the 29031, but for ease of operation we’re just going to refer to it as the Viking.

One of the first things we want to point out is that it’s claimed to be an amphibious vehicle, to the point of having a water propulsion unit as one of its available options. The most obvious feature will surely be the massive balloon tires that if I’ve done the conversion correctly measure out to be 51 inches tall, 23.6 inches wide on a 20.9 rim size. I’m not sure if that means it’s a 21-inch rim or not, but either way they are huge! They also have a central air pressure adjustment kit that’ll allow you to deflate the tires to help tackle rocks or even snow. A perfect example of this would be the Toyota Hilux Polar Trucks Jeremy Clarkson and James May used to drive to the North Pole on the old Top Gear.

The Viking is just over 17 feet long, again if those conversions are correct, roughly 8 feet wide and just under 9 feet tall. So it’s obviously a big vehicle but thanks to those massive tires the clearance is fantastic. From what we can see the only drawback to the Viking, and we’ll be honest it’s a big one, is the engine options. From what I could find the most powerful option available was a Ford DW10 2.0L diesel engine producing an estimated 160hp and 300lb-ft of torque. Now really it’s designed to be used as a rescue, work, or military vehicle so speed and power weren’t a priority. The torque was the important part to help you crawl up and over everything. The manufacturers claimed top speed is just 80kph which works out to be just under 50mph so don’t plan on winning any races. The centered driving position like you see on a Formula One car, or the iconic McLaren F1 is pretty cool though you have to admit.

It does, however, come with full locking front and rear differentials and pneumatic independent front and rear suspension system that is supposed to absorb just about anything you can throw at it, especially with those big old tires. The available options are where you can turn this thing into a whole other animal. As we mentioned before the water propulsion unit that can move the big old Viking at roughly 8 mph on the water. Thanks to the onboard air compressor there are options for air powered tools like sockets and impact guns. That is just a small little taste of what can be added to the Viking. As far as the interior there are just as many options with full multimedia systems, “round view cameras” and even a “hammock sleeper” whatever that is. Now as you can imagine when you start adding in those crazy options, you’re also looking at a crazy price. Finding actual pricing proved to be difficult, but from I could find the base price is estimated to be around $200,000.

 
So it’s not exactly cheap but when you look at its capabilities and potential life-saving qualities it might be worth that extra money. If you happen to live in an area where those capabilities could potentially save you and your loved ones in the event of some shit going down it would be worth its weight in gold. Especially in a flood situation, the south was pounded with flooding this year and having one of these Viking’s hanging around would be pretty handy don’t you think?

 
We have seen some pretty intense off-road vehicles come out of Russia, The SHERP ATV that utilized 63-inch tires and a tiny wheelbase to literally crawl over everything. But something about this Viking really grabbed our attention. All it would need is a motor swap and it would be perfect!