GB725686A - Improvements in and relating to track laying vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

725,686. Steering vehicles by declutching and braking. GAUTHIER, R. Feb. 10, 1953 [June 10, 1952], No. 3764/53. Classes 79(2) and 79(5). In an endless track vehicle, forward and reverse gearing interposed between the engine and the tracks is controlled by servomotors supplied from a hydraulic or pneumatic pressure source which also supplies servomotors controlling declutching of the tracks and effected by displacement of brake pedals for the tracks. In the preferred embodiment the engine (not shown) separately drives a power take-off shaft 13 and a shaft 16, the shaft 16 being connected through the forward and reverse gearing 17, change speed gearing 12, a shaft 11 and bevel gearing 10, 9 to a shaft 6. The shaft 6 carries at each end by means of keyways the driving portion 7 of a steering friction clutch, the driven portion 4 of which is integral with a track sprocket 2 and a brake drum 3. The steering clutches and the forward and reverse control levers 18, 19 of the gearing 17 are controlled through the fluid pressure servomotors and the brakes 14, 14<SP>1</SP> co-operating with the drums 3 are controlled directly by the pedals 15. The servomotors are supplied from the reservoir 30 charged by a compressor 31, the cylinders 20, 22 for the levers 18, 19 being supplied through a manually operated valve 27 and the cylinders 33 for the clutches being controlled by valves 36, 36<SP>1</SP>. The valves 36, 361 carry levers 37, 37<SP>1</SP> connected to cylinders 39 ; within each cylinder is a spring 41 abutting a piston 40 connected to the brake pedal 15, the arrangement being such that the pedal 15 first disengages the clutch and then applies the brake. After the pedal's initial movement the lever 37 engages a stop 42, subsequent pedal movement being accommodated by the spring 41.