Wheel substitutes for land vehicles – Combined or convertible
Patent
1988-08-16
1990-06-26
Stormer, Russell D.
Wheel substitutes for land vehicles
Combined or convertible
305 16, 305 24, 180 944, B62D 5530
Patent
active
049366394
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to improving the stability of a turning-track track-laying vehicle such as a snowmobile, in which vehicle such a track belt is used whose one edge can be stretched and whose other edge contracted by turning the end roll or rolls which guide the track belt so that the track belt can be bent to a curved position in order to steer the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,934,664; 4,046,429; 3,938,607; 4,051,914; 4,119,356; and 4,188,076 and Finnish Patent Nos. 46708 and 51308 to the inventor describe turning-track track-laying vehicles and track belts used in such vehicles.
The object of the present invention is to further develop the turning-track vehicle known from patents mentioned above.
A turning-track vehicle is superior to snowmobiles or similar equipped with skis in that it is able to move in off-the-road conditions in the summer as well as in the winter.
A drawback of a turning-track vehicle has, when driving in soft snow, been that the vehicle is sideways unstable and unsteady, because it presses (treads) snow under its track in an obliquely upward direction, which means that, particularly at higher speeds, the variations in the properties of snow and various dynamic forces make the vehicle run unstably and particularly rock sideways. The first idea that may occur in order to avoid this drawback is that the center of gravity is placed as far front as possible. The results of this arrangement are not satisfying in practice, as the vehicle will dive into the snow even in the smallest mound. The same will happen when slowing down the vehicle.
In the known snowmobiles equipped and steered with skis said problems have been avoided by suitably locating and weighting the skis.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to afford an improvement to drawbacks listed above.
In order to attain the aforedescribed objects and other hereinafter set forth, the principal characteristic feature of the invention is that the bottom run of the track belt loop is, in front of the crosswise gravity center plane seen in the principal driving direction of vehicle, pressed or weighted against the driving surface, particularly against soft snow, in such a way that, due to and in the region of said weighting, such a limited area of surface pressure higher than the average is created in which the maximum surface pressure is substantially higher than the average surface pressure in the rear section of the bottom run of the track belt.
A turning-track vehicle in accordance with the invention moves more steadily in snow, particularly in very soft snow; particularly the lateral stability is better due to the fact that in the front section of the track belt there is a region which is relatively strongly weighted by a weighting or treading roll assembly in accordance with the invention, which treads into snow a sufficiently deep track, along which the rear end of the track belt moves essentially without sinking at all.
A typical feature of how a turning-track vehicle in accordance with the invention moves is that in snow, even in very soft snow, its front end does not rise detrimentally higher than the other sections, which is caused by the more intensively weighted front section, and by the following section of the carrying surface of the track belt, located in front of the gravity center plane of the vehicle, to which a relatively small surface pressure is typical.
Regardless of whether one uses the invention or a track arrangement of the Prior Art, it is typical to both that how the track behaves on soft snow depends on the speed of the vehicle, because the effects of the inertial forces and lags related to treading vary depending on the velocity. It should also be emphasized that weighting in accordance with the invention can also be used in varying degrees, so that within the framework of the invention it is not always necessary to use a "full" weighting.
A weighting in accordance with the invention is mainly intended to be used in turning-track vehicles. In
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patent: 4188076 (1980-02-01), Pohjola
patent: 4325443 (1982-04-01), Fischer et al.
patent: 4453611 (1984-06-01), Stacy, Jr.
patent: 4501452 (1985-02-01), Huang
Reta-Myynti Ky
Stormer Russell D.
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