Rough terrain vehicles
AssigneeMinister of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, in Her Britanic Majesty's Government of the U.K. of Great Britain & N. Ireland
InventorRoderick Buchan Ross
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A wheeled vehicle of good stability and high manoeuvreability is disclosed. The vehicle is hydraulically driven and skid-steerable by rotation upon one only, transverse pair of wheels, herein called the pivot wheels, all other wheels being allowed to slide laterally into each new position; and is provided with automatic loading means operative upon the pivot wheels to ensure that ground pressure at these two wheels is always greater, under all drive conditions, than at any other of the wheels. The wheels are articulated to the vehicle frame to absorb irregularities in terrain and provision is also made for adjusting the fore and aft angle of the frame with respect to the wheels for hill climbing or descending.
Claims8
A vehicle comprising a rigid frame supported upon a plurality of wheels and skid-steerable by rotation upon a transverse pair of said wheels, each wheel of said transverse pair being called herein a pivot wheel, an operator-commandable transmission control system, hydraulic drive motors under the control of fluid transmission lines from said control system for independently driving at least the two pivot wheels, and hydraulic loading means downwardly operative upon each pivot wheel, each of said hydraulic loading means being in fluid connection with the fluid transmission line of one of said hydraulic drive motors and so constructed and arranged that fluid pressure developed within said one hydraulic drive motor by rotational resistance at its driven wheel acts via the hydraulic, loading means to increase ground pressure at the said pivot wheel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.