Crawler sprocket drive guard
OwnerErnie Freemaninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A guard for off road vehicles to protect the final drive area from debris which otherwise causes destructive abrasion and seal failure and particularly suited for the final drive of a track chain sprocket on a crawler. The guard encloses the space surrounding the final drive spindle housing and seal between the housing and a hub on which the sprocket is mounted. The guard can be safely installed on existing machines without disassembly of major parts of the final drive.
Claims75
A track mounted vehicle including a frame carried on a pair of endless tracks, each track being mounted on at least two relatively large wheels, one of said wheels being a drive sprocket, each track having ground engaging shoe surfaces on its outside and having surfaces on its inside including sprocket engaging surfaces, the drive sprocket having a hub rotationally supported on a non-rotating spindle that is cantilevered from the frame of the vehicle, a seal between the spindle and the sprocket hub, and a guard having a hollow interior and extending in a zone between the sprocket and the spindle, the guard being generally circular and encircling the seal, the guard having a relatively large diameter that is relatively close to a diameter of a path of the inside surfaces of the track as it moves over the drive sprocket whereby the track is able to dislodge material tending to accumulate on the guard and the relatively large diameter of the guard inhibits the wrapping of strands of material around the guard.
A track mounted vehicle including a frame, the frame having on each side a non-rotating spindle assembly secured to the frame by bolts, a drive including a sprocket hub on the spindle assembly outboard of the spindle assembly for rotation about an axis, a sprocket secured to the hub by bolts, a seal between the spindle and the sprocket hub, a guard surrounding and protecting the seal from debris including strands otherwise tending to wrap the area of the seal, the guard being retained in position around said seal by at least some of said bolts.
A kit for installing a guard on a drive sprocket of a track mounted vehicle comprising a plurality of threaded bolts selected from one of the sets with the following nominal, approximate dimensions (in inches):
- set 1 having a shank diameter of 6.75, a head length of 0.31 and an overall length of 2.272;
- set 2 having a shank diameter of 0.675, a head length of 0.31 and an overall length of 2.437;
- set 3 having a shank diameter of 0.801, a head length of 0.31 and an overall length of 2.875;
- set 4 having a shank diameter of 0.801, a head length of 0.31 and an overall length of 3.062;
- set 5 having a shank diameter of 0.937, a head length of 0.31 and an overall length of 3.312;
- set 6 having a shank diameter of 0.930, a head length of 0.437 and an overall length of 3.50;
- set 7 having a shank diameter of 1.056, a head length of 0.375 and an overall length of 3.875;
- and
- set 8 having a shank diameter of 1.18, a head length of 0.410 and an overall length of 4.28.
A track mounted vehicle including a frame carried on a pair of endless tracks, each track being mounted on at least two relatively large wheels, one of said wheels being a drive sprocket, each track having ground engaging shoe surfaces on its outside and having surfaces on its inside including sprocket engaging surfaces, the drive sprocket having a hub rotationally supported on a non-rotating spindle that is cantilevered from the frame of the vehicle, a seal between the sprocket hub and the spindle, and a guard having a hollow interior and extending in a zone between the sprocket and the spindle, the guard being generally circular and arranged to encircle and protect the seal, the guard being constructed and arranged to avoid a direct radial path for entrance of debris into the interior of the guard and the area of the seal where it could otherwise accumulate and result in destruction of the seal.
A track mounted vehicle including a frame carried on a pair of endless tracks, each track being mounted on at least two relatively large wheels, one of said wheels being a drive sprocket, each track having ground engaging shoe surfaces on its outside and having surfaces on its inside including sprocket engaging surfaces, the drive sprocket having a hub rotationally supported on a non-rotating spindle that is cantilevered from the frame of the vehicle, a seal between the sprocket hub and the spindle, at least one of said sprocket and spindle components being bolted to the frame or sprocket hub, respectively, and a guard having a hollow interior and extending in a zone between the sprocket and the spindle, the guard being generally circular and encircling the seal to protect it from damage caused by debris carried by rotating parts associated with the sprocket or track, the guard being mounted in place by bolts serving to fix one of said spindle or sprocket in place on the frame or sprocket hub.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.