Agricultural vehicle
OwnerIan Pieterse, Nicolaas Snyman +1inventors
InventorsIan Pieterse, Nicolaas Snyman, Andre Minne
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A high crop agricultural vehicle has a chassis supported at an elevated position on front and rear sets of wheels. The front wheels are turnable through an arc of greater than 90.degree. so that they can be turned to a lateral travel position which is perpendicular to the direction of normal forward travel. In that lateral travel position the vehicle can be driven sideways. This allows the vehicle to be easily manoeuvred as well as facilitating the mounting of agricultural implements into the space between the front and rear wheels. The rear wheels are preferably momented in a castor-type mounting assembly.
Claims8
A high crop agricultural vehicle comprising, a chassis on which is mounted a drive unit and a drivers cab with steering and drive controls, a pair of front wheels mounted to the chassis and spaced apart from each other in linked parallel relationship, a pair of rear wheels mounted to the chassis and spaced apart from each other, said front and rear wheels pairs defining a space between them, the wheels supporting the chassis at an elevated position such that in use, the vehicle can be driven over relatively high crops, drive means linking the drive unit to the front wheels, steering means controllable by the steering controls which is capable of steering the vehicle to the left and right of a normal forward travel direction, the front wheels being turnable to at least through 90.degree. either to the left or right of said normal forward travel direction so that the front wheels adopt a lateral travel position, the vehicle being capable of being driven in a lateral direction when the front wheels are in said lateral travel position, said front wheels being steerable by the steering means when in the lateral travel position.
A vehicle according to claim 3 wherein the rear wheels are lockable in a forward travel direction.
A high crop agricultural vehicle comprising a chassis on which is mounted a drive unit and a drivers cab with steering and drive controls, a pair of front wheels mounted to the chassis and spaced apart from each other in linked parallel relationship, a pair of rear wheels mounted to the chassis and spaced apart from each other, said front and rear wheel pairs defining a space between them, the wheels supporting the chassis at an elevated position such that, in use, the vehicle can be driven over relatively high crops, drive means linking the drive unit to the front wheels, steering means controllable by the steering controls which is capable of steering the vehicle to the left and right of a normal forward travel direction, the front wheels being turnable to at least through 90.degree. either to the left or right of said normal forward travel direction so that the front wheels adopt a lateral travel position, the vehicle being capable of being driven in a lateral direction when the front wheels are in said lateral travel position, said front wheels being steerable by the steering means when in the lateral travel position, wherein the drive unit encompasses an internal combustion engine which in turn drives a hydraulic pump, and each of the front wheels houses a hydraulic motor adapted to be driven by pressurised fluid from the hydraulic pump, and wherein the front wheels are steerable both by independently controlling the drive to the respective hydraulic motors in each of the wheels, and by said steering means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.