Firstly, the 255 used new and much more powerful engine - the YaMZ-238 (same used in MT-LB tracked APC), replacing the previously used and sensibly weaker YaAZ-206B which was used in 214.

It also featured new headlights (which were now, together with turn signals, located in their own housings mounted on the fenders) and, most notably, much wider tires (1300 x 530 x 533 in dimensions), which offered lighter ground pressure and thus, even greater off-road capabilities when compared to its predecessor.

Along with Ural, ZiL, Kamaz, GAZ and MAZ, the KrAZ once represented one of six models of cargo/towing trucks (in its basic version, the KrAZ-255B) used by the Soviet Armed Forces, as well as by many civilian organizations in the former Soviet Union (mainly by various construction plants), where it was also used as a logging (the KrAZ-255L/L1) and dump truck (the KrAZ-256[3]).

Since the KrAZ-255 was the heaviest (weighing 12 tons empty) and most powerful (using a 14,900 ccm engine, producing 240 hp/180 kw) of all Soviet three-axle (6 × 6) military cargo trucks, it was most often used for towing heavier artillery pieces (such as D-74, M-46 and 2A65 howitzers or T-12 anti-tank gun) and also for towing various aircraft from their hangars to runways, or vice versa (in tractor-unit version, the KrAZ-255V).

Furthermore, it was also used as a platform for control cabin and the antennas of PRV-9/1RL19 Naklon[4] (NATO reporting name: "Thin-Skin") and PRV-16/1RL132 Nadyozhnost[5] (NATO reporting name: "Odd-Pair") Soviet height-finding radars, as well as for various engineer duties in specially-designed versions (such as PMP collapsible ferryboat intended to be used as a pontoon bridge and TMM-3[6] mobile bridgelayer), which are still being used today by various military forces across the globe.