Land vehicles – Wheeled – Two-wheel
Patent
1995-11-14
1999-07-13
Johnson, Brian L.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Two-wheel
280 65, B62C 108
Patent
active
059215658
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to sulkies.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Sulkies are very light carriages which are used in trotting races, where the driver sits on a very light-weight two-wheeled carriage. The driver therefore sits with his centre of gravity over and slightly behind the wheel mounting, with the result that when he swings or stretches his legs, this causes a kind of up and down rocking movement, thus influencing the horse. Impulses of this kind are intended to give the horse added inspiration, thus contributing to the attainment of maximum speed.
From DE-A-3 313 694 (corresponding to SE-B-449 202) it is known a sulky construction with shafts which are provided with arm members extending downwardly from each shaft. The shaft itself extends to the beam section of the sulky, so that the main function of the arm members extending downwardly in direction to the wheels is to be supporting elements. After having made all adjustments necessary for using the sulky the arm members will maily act as a stiff connection. In the known embodiment it is in the lower part no pivotal connection to the rear part of the shaft. By the construction according to the German publication it is an object with simple means being able to displace the wheels in the length direction of the sulky. The sulky has therefore been provided with a wheel mounting which makes it possible to displace the position of the wheels in the length direction of the sulky in order to control and change the vertical load on the wheels according to the hardness of the road, without having to change wheels. In order to reduce the rolling, friction on the soft tracks the wheels should be positioned more backwardly in relation to the driving direction. Such a change of the positioning of the wheels will have influence on the forces exerted on the horse in the direction vertical to the direction of movement, it is, however, not achieved any forces on the horse in the moving direction, i.e. no horisontal forces are established.
Even though a swinging movement of this kind will influence the horse, it will only exert an up and down momentum on the horse and due to the rigid design of the sulky this will also cause relatively hard jolting movements.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns an improvement for a sulky having two shafts and a frame member comprising two lateral arms linked by a central horizontal beam section, said beam section supporting a seat section and having a mechanical connection to said shafts each of said lateral arms supporting towards its distal end a wheel by means of a wheel mounting, whereby a rear arm member extends downwardly from each shaft at an angel thereto, faces the respective wheel and is pivotally attached at its other end to a fulcrum point on the receptive lateral arm at a distance from the wheel mounting.
An object of the present invention is to provide a sulky which permits a more favourable influence to be exerted on the horse via the shaft, based on the movements of the driver on his seat. Thus it is an object of the invention to provide a device which enables the horse to be not only influenced by forces in the upward and downward direction, i.e. vertically directed forces, but also by a force which acts in the forward direction in the horse's direction of travel, i.e. a horizontal force component.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improvement which makes this movement as comfortable as possible, thus achieving a kind of shock absorption, while at the same time the influence on the horse is maintained. Thus it is also desirable to provide a sulky which permits at least a reduction in the shaking when driving on an uneven course.
These objects are achieved with a sulky of the type mentioned in the introduction, which is characterized in that the rear arm member forms a rigid continuation of the respective shaft, the fulcrum point is preferably lower than the wheel mounting, and the mechanical connection between said beam section and said shafts is an elastic co
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Cohen Lawrence S.
Johnson Brian L.
Yu Min
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