Axle driving apparatus

An axle driving apparatus for a vehicle having a prime mover and a belt driven stepless transmission, said belt driven transmission including:

• a first belt which receives power of said prime mover;
• a first idler pulley over which said first belt is looped for variation of a tension of said first belt;
• an accelerator operatively connected to said first idler pulley;
• a second belt;
• a variator pulley over which said first and second belts are looped so as to allow a driving speed ratio of said second belt to said first belt to vary according to variation of the tension of said first belt by operation of said accelerator;
• and
• a second idler pulley over which said second belt is looped for absorbing variation of tension of said second belt,
• wherein said axle driving apparatus comprises:
• a pair of axles connected to respective drive wheels;
• a propelling transmission mechanism for rotating said axles together at various speeds in a common direction selected from two opposite directions for forward and backward traveling of said vehicle;
• a propelling input pulley serving as an input pulley of said propelling transmission mechanism, wherein said second belt is looped over said propelling input pulley;
• a steering transmission mechanism for differentially rotating said axles at various differences of rotational speed between said axles;
• a steering operation device operatively connected to said steering transmission mechanism;
• and
• a steering input pulley serving as an input pulley of said steering transmission, wherein said first belt is looped over said steering input pulley.

An axle driving apparatus for a vehicle having a prime mover and a belt driven stepless transmission, said belt driven transmission including:

• a first belt;
• a first idler pulley over which said first belt is looped for variation of a tension of said first belt;
• an accelerator operatively connected to said first idler pulley,
• a second belt;
• a variator pulley over which said first and second belts are looped so as to allow a driving speed ratio of said second belt to said first belt to vary according to variation of the tension of said first belt by operation of said accelerator;
• and
• second idler pulley over which said second belt is looped for absorbing variation of tension of said second belt,
• wherein said axle driving apparatus comprises:
• a pair of axles connected to respective drive wheels;
• a switching device for selecting forward or backward traveling of said vehicle;
• a propelling transmission mechanism for rotating said axles together at various speeds in a common direction corresponding to the selected output rotational direction of said switching device for forward or backward traveling of said vehicle;
• a propelling input pulley serving as an input pulley of said propelling transmission mechanism, wherein said second belt is looped over said propelling input pulley;
• a steering transmission mechanism for differentially rotating said axles at various differences of rotational speed between said axles;
• a steering operation device operatively connected to said steering transmission mechanism;
• and
• a common input mechanism for receiving power of said prime mover, wherein the output of said common input device is shared between said steering transmission mechanism and said first belt of said belt driven stepless transmission.

An axle driving apparatus for a vehicle having a prime mover and a belt driven stepless transmission, said belt driven transmission including:

• a first belt which receives power of said prime mover;
• a first idler pulley over which said first belt is looped for variation of a tension of said first belt,
• an accelerator operatively connected to said first idler pulley;
• a second belt;
• a variator pulley over which said first and second belts are looped so as to allow a driving speed ratio of said second belt to said first belt to vary according to variation of the tension of said first belt by operation of said accelerator;
• and
• a second idler pulley over which said second belt is looped for absorbing variation of tension of said second belt,
• wherein said axle driving apparatus comprises:
• a pair of axles connected to respective drive wheels;
• a steering transmission mechanism for differentially rotating said axles at various differences of rotational speed between said axles;
• a steering operation device operatively connected to said steering transmission mechanism;
• a first input pulley over which said first belt is looped, said first input pulley serving as an input pulley of said steering transmission;
• a second input pulley over which said second belt is looped;
• and
• a propelling transmission mechanism which differentially connects said first and second input pulleys to each other and transmits a resultant rotation of said first and second input pulleys to both said axles so as to rotate said axles together at various speeds in a common direction corresponding to the direction of said resultant rotation for forward or backward traveling of said vehicle.