GB916857A - Improved axle units for vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

916,857. Road vehicles. LAUSTER, E. March 24, 1961, No. 10836/61. Classes 79(1), 79(2), 79(3) and 79(4). [Also in Group XXXII] An automotive vehicle supported o n traction wheels is provided with auxiliary traction means in the form of a hollow roller or drum interposed between t h e traction wheels which are driven by means located within the roller or drum. Bearing sleeves 23 and 24 are carried by the vehicle frame members 27 and 28, and 25 and 26, respectively, the auxiliary wheel or drum 33, which may have grippers 34, being carried on the sleeves by a bearing 32a and a gear casing 14, to which it is attached b y a flange 32. mounted on bearings 30 and 31. Driving shafts 12 and 13, to which are attached driving pinions 16 and 15, are carried in the bearing sleeves 24 and 23 by bearings 20 and 22, the outer parts of the bearing sleeves being connected to the driving wheels 10 and 11. Planet pinions 17 and 18 are carried by the casing 14 and mesh with the pinions 15 and 16. The drum 33 is provided with an internal gear portion 35 which is engaged by a driving pinion 37 of an electric or hydraulic motor 38 suspended at 39 from the sleeve 23, and the electric supply cables 41, 42, or pressure oil supply lines, for which are led through the frame 27 and sleeve 23, the road wheels being driven by the motor 38 through the gears 37, 35, casing 33 and 34, and pinions 17, 18, 15 and 16 which form a differential gear. When the wheels 10 and 11 sink into soft ground or the tyres thereof are deflated, the wheel or drum 34 becomes the load bearing and driving wheel. The motor 38 may be an internal combustion engine. Power for an electric motor may be supplied by a diesel-electric unit carried by the vehicle. A low pressure pneumatic tyre, or tyre of solid rubber construction, may be carried by the drum 33. In a modification, Fig. 3, the pneumatic tyred road wheels 110 and 111 are carried by shafts 112, 113 mounted in bearings 120, 122 carried in blocks 112a, 113a (Fig. 6) mounted for vertical sliding movement in a stirrup-like member 128 of the vehicle frame, guiding cylinders 125b and 126b being fitted and the blocks being attached to hydraulic jacks 125c, 126c whereby the vertical position of the wheels may be adjusted. Air cushions 127 are fitted in the jacks so that the stirrups serve as suspension members. Bearing sleeves 123 and 124 are attached to the stirrups and rotatably support the auxiliary drum 133 as before, the differential gear case 114 being mounted on bearings 130 and 131 and the differential gear pinions 117 and 118 being connected to the wheel shafts 112 and 113 through bevels 115 and 116, and cardan shafts 113c, 113b and 112c, 112b respectively. The wheels 110 and 111 may be retracted to a position whereby the load is shared with the auxiliary wheel or drum 133 or is wholly taken thereby.