Vehicle steering system
AssigneeLewis Equipment Limited
InventorIan William Lewis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A land vehicle has four wheels (10) by which the vehicle is driven and steered and the wheels are driven by hydraulic motors (11). In one arrangement the vehicle is steered by at least one pair of steerable wheels and supply of fluid to the motors is arranged to reduce the speed of a wheel or wheels at one side of the vehicle during turning. The vehicle can also be operated in the skid steer mode with the wheels locked in a straight ahead position.
Claims6
A land vehicle having at least two pairs of wheels by which the vehicle is driven and steered, wheels in each pair lying at opposite sides of the vehicle, at least one of the pairs of wheels having a hydraulically operated motor associated with each wheel within the pair by which the associated wheel is driveable in each direction, the wheels being selectively steerable to enable the vehicle to travel in the desired direction, and control means whereby hydraulic fluid is fed through the motors to enable the wheel speeds of the wheels in said pair to be adjusted according to the selected direction of travel of the vehicle to rotate the wheels at different speeds, wherein the motors are arranged to have variable speed by adjusting the flow of fluid thereto, the wheels being steerable by a mechanical linkage movement of which controls the flow of fluid to the associated motors by the use of fluid flow dividers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.