Vertically adjustable stern drive for watercraft
AssigneeYamaha Hatsudoki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorYukiharu Hosoi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A marine stern drive includes a tilt/trim and lift adjustment mechanism which raises and lowers the drive while maintaining an established trim angle. The adjustment mechanism includes a parallelogram linkage system. An upper lever of the linkage system is defined in part by a pair of tilt and trim actuators which vary the length of the upper linkage to adjust the trim position of the stern drive and for tilt up. A lower lever of the linkage system is defined between two flexible couplings of a propulsion drive train. One of the flexible couplings is coupled to a lower drive unit of the stern drive which permits the lower lever to rotate without changing the trim angle of the lower drive unit.
Claims39
An adjustable stern drive for a watercraft comprising a propulsion device arranged to lie at least partially below a surface of a body of water in which the watercraft is operated, said propulsion device adapted to produce a thrust along a thrust vector which defines a thrust angle relative to the water surface, and a position control mechanism attached to said propulsion device, said position control mechanism adapted to move said propulsion device between a lowered position, in which said propulsion device lies at a first distance from the water surface, to a raised position, in which said propulsion device lies at a second distance from the water surface, without substantially changing the thrust angle between said thrust vector and the water surface.
A stern drive for a watercraft comprising an output shaft adapted to be rotationally driven by a motor and connected to an input shaft of a propulsion drive train by a first flexible coupling, a first drive transfer mechanism connecting said input shaft to an upper drive shaft of said drive train, said upper drive shaft being skewed or normal to said input shaft, a second flexible coupling connecting said upper drive shaft to a lower drive shaft of said propulsion drive train, and a second drive transfer mechanism which selectively couples said lower drive shaft to at least one propulsion shaft which drives at least one propulsion device of said stern drive.
A position control mechanism for supporting a marine outboard drive comprising a linkage system formed by at least first and second members, each member extending between a front pivot point and a rear pivot point, a first lever line being defined between the front and rear pivot points of the first member and a second lever line being defined between the front and rear pivot points of the seconal member, the pivot points of the first and second members being arranged such that first and second lever lines are parallel to each other, a link line being defined between the rear pivot points of the first and second members, said first member being adjustable in length so as to change an angle between said link line and the second lever line.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.