Tracked vehicle, in particular construction machine, more particularly road construction machine, with a track tensioning apparatus, and method for operating a tracked vehicle with a track tensioning apparatus

A tracked vehicle comprising:

• at least one drive motor and a travel pump of a travel drive hydraulic circuit, which is driven by the drive motor, for generating a drive pressure;
• at least one track unit, the track unit comprising:
• a drive wheel driven via the travel drive hydraulic circuit, at least one guide wheel, a track endlessly running around the drive wheel and the guide wheel, as well as a track tensioning apparatus for tensioning the track, the track tensioning apparatus comprising:
• an adjusting device with a track tensioning hydraulic cylinder with which the distance between two wheels of the track unit is adjustable for tensioning the track, the track tensioning hydraulic cylinder being connected via a hydraulic tensioning line to a hydraulic pretensioning source via which it can be loaded with an initial pretensioning pressure;
• and
• a damping device with a spring for damping pressure peaks in the adjusting device, wherein the damping device includes an auxiliary tensioning device which is configured such that it varies the initial pretensioning pressure independently of the pretensioning source depending on the drive pressure in the travel drive hydraulic circuit towards a pretensioning pressure inside the track tensioning hydraulic cylinder which correlates with a change in the drive pressure, and that the auxiliary tensioning device comprises an auxiliary tensioning hydraulic cylinder with a hydraulic cylinder and a cylinder piston adjustably mounted therein, which divides the interior space of the auxiliary tensioning hydraulic cylinder into a piston space and a piston rod space, wherein the auxiliary tensioning hydraulic cylinder is loaded by the spring of the damping device with an adjusting force on the piston rod side.