Land vehicles – Wheeled – Two-wheel
Patent
1995-01-09
1997-03-04
Johnson, Brian L.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Two-wheel
280 47131, B62C 108
Patent
active
056071701
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a sulky comprising two wheels, individually fastened, but located along the same rotational axis, to a common frame provided with a driver's seat and shafts leading towards the draught animal.
DESCRIPTION OF RELEVANT ART
Sulkies of this type are used for trotting races and the most important requirements are that they have a lightweight construction, that they are easy-running, and that they are strongly built to endure the specific strain during excercise and competitions.
To obtain constructions of a sufficiently stiff and stable structure and at the same time of lowest possible weight, sulkies so far have been manufactured as welded steel constructions as this has led to the most lightweight construction combined with sufficient strength.
Certainly there have earlier been attempts to build sulkies of aluminium, however such sulkies have got a rather bad reputation due to poor strength qualities.
A conventional sulky has its shafts fastened approximately 10 cms inside of the wheels. This fact leads to a construction well adapted for welded steel pipes, but it is unsuitable when light metals are used because the construction then requires welding. This is probably the reason why earlier attempts using aluminium have failed, as the design then has been similar to the conventional steel constructions requiring a welding process. It is a fact that aluminium and other light metals are difficult to weld, in particular weaknesses in the metal can not be allowed at, or close to, the welding points.
Storing and transportation of conventional sulkies has led to difficulties due to the sulkies having an awkward shape. The manufacturing process has also been expensive and much handwork has been required. Sulkies having even less weight have always been desirable, even if specialists in this field of technique have been convinced that still lighter sulkies could not be manufactured without a corresponding strength reduction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a new sulky construction having such a design that it may be manufactured of light metal and other lightweight and yet durable materials.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a sulky which may be assembled easily by a user himself, from substantially flat elements requiring only a small space during storage and transportation, said elements being easily dispatched in a flat package.
Still a further object of the present invention is to build up a sulky from inexpensive semi-produced components as casted elements and extruded profiles.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a sulky having a stable construction as the shafts as well as the crossbar transfer substantially all the load to the wheel planes only.
Finally it may be mentioned that an object of the present invention is to provide a sulky which easily may be assembled by the user himself by means of ordinary hand tool, and where all the connections become secure, without any play, even if the single components are produced with ordinary manufacturing tolerances.
It should be mentioned that the new sulky construction having shafts fastened to the frame in the planes of the wheels results in the possibility of avoiding the traditional manual manufacturing process including welding of each individual sulky and instead using casting and mass production with corresponding low expenses. By changing to a casting process many of the details required in connection with the wheel suspension, the fastening of the shafts and the crossbar to the frame, may be integrated in the casting process without any additional expenditures. A design of the end frames as stated in connection with the present invention is also required to obtain a structure being well suited for box packaging and do-it-yourself kits based on simple threaded connections.
There is also obtained a weight reduction of approximately 40% for the complete sulky which has a total weight of approximately 18 kg in a
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Capjon Jan
Nygaardsvik Atle
Johnson Brian L.
Volotech AS
Yu Min
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