Jet drive assist for off-road vehicle with flotation

#1. Field of the Invention

#This invention relates generally to mechanical drives for vehicles and more particularly to a combination internal combustion engine and jet drive system for an off-road vehicle.

#2. Description of Related Art

#The accompanying drawings illustrate the present invention. In such drawings:

#FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the invention;

#FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of a power system thereof; and

#The above-described drawing figures illustrate the invention in at least one of its preferred embodiments, which is further defined in detail in the following description.

#The present invention is an off-road vehicle 10 having both a conventional engine such as an internal combustion engine drive system 20 and a liquid propulsion jet drive system or turbine 30 jointly functional in a single engine case 40 as best seen in FIG. 2 of the drawing set. The conventional engine system may be a four-stroke or a two-stroke engine as is well known, or a fuel cell engine, etc. as is known in the art. The vehicle 10, as for instance that shown in FIG. 1, is preferably of the four-wheel all terrain type that is very well known and in broad use, or may also be of the three-wheel type. Both of these vehicles are well defined in the incorporated references. These vehicles are usually driven by an IC reciprocating engine for enabling forward motion of the vehicle through rear wheel drive. In the present invention, a means for engaging and disengaging 42 of the jet drive system 30 for its functional operation along with the internal combustion engine drive system 20 is provided, and FIGS. 3 and 4 define one way of accomplishing this. A detailed description is provided below. Clearly, the jet drive system 30 may be coupled to the IC engine in several well-known ways including the use of conventional clutches. An outrigger floatation means 50 is engaged with the off-road vehicle 10, as shown in FIG. 1, and is adapted for adjustment between a stored attitude, shown on the right, and a deployed attitude, shown on the left, for use when the vehicle wades across a body of water too deep for the vehicle. Such floatation devices may be moved or steered to allow change of direction of the vehicle when it is floating.

#Preferably, the internal combustion engine drive system 20 includes a four-stroke engine and a drive train coupling the engine to a drive axle 22 of the all terrain vehicle as is very well known in the art. The liquid propulsion jet drive system 30 is a variable speed turbine of any type well known in the art, as for instance those used in personal watercraft and is driven by the IC engine directly.