JPH05286460A - Steered crawler vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a crawler consisting of a caterpillar, wheels and arms supporting these caterpillar and wheels to travel safely and comfortably even on the muddy ground, a field and further a frozen road by providing a mechanism capable of fixedly rotating the arm about an axle. CONSTITUTION:An arm 5 is provided with 12 fixing holes 23, and an angle made by the arms 4, 5 can be changed at intervals of 30 deg. by changing the fixing hole 23 into which a pin of a stopper 10 is inserted. The arm 4 is provided with 10 fixing holes 22 and a plate 21 is provided with 12 fixing holes 22 so that the angle made by the arm 4 and arm 5 can be changed at intervals of 30 deg.. The shape of an crawler can be fixedly changed by this mechanism.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a steerable crawler vehicle having a variable shape, and is particularly suitable for running on steep terrain crawler vehicles not only on general roads but also on muddy ground, snowy areas, and wilderness areas. The present invention relates to a steerable crawler vehicle having a variable shape, which has a mechanism for imparting various crawler shapes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
There is a so-called integrated crawler wheel described in 50-154940, or a three-wheel type endless track device described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-246882, but the shape of the crawler is fixed, and the shape is changed. It has no mechanism.

[0003]

Since the above-mentioned integrated crawler vehicle utilizes the speed difference between the left and right crawlers when turning, when the ground contact length of the crawler is long, the turning resistance is large and the maneuvering is not easy. You can only drive at low speeds.

Further, the three-wheel type endless track device is
Since the crawler part does not come into contact with the ground, it does not function at all, and it is necessary to remove the device to prevent damage on rough roads with severe unevenness.

Further, the steering crawler vehicle, like the three-wheeled crawler device, cannot change the ground contact length, so that the crawler device must be removed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism capable of rotating an arm supporting two rolling wheels around a wheel shaft and fixing the arm.
By changing the shape of the crawler, the optimum grounding condition is formed even on general roads, snowy areas, muddy areas, wildfields, and frozen roads.
It is an object to provide a steerable crawler vehicle with a variable shape that can travel safely and comfortably.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a front wheel shaft and a rear wheel shaft having a crawler mounted thereon, the crawler including a crawler belt and wheels, and two rolling wheels and supporting them. The arm has a function of changing the shape of the crawler by providing a mechanism capable of rotating around the wheel shaft and fixing the arm.

[0008]

With the function of rotating the arm supporting the two rollers of the crawler about the wheel shaft and fixing it at an arbitrary position,
It is possible to obtain a crawler shape suitable for various road surface conditions such as snowy areas and muddy areas, and to obtain an appropriate ground contact condition.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 is a side view of the crawler vehicle, FIG. 2 is a side view of the crawler when the shape of the crawler is changed by rotating an arm, FIG. 3 is a side view of the crawler, and FIG. 4 is a line AA of FIG. FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG.
It is sectional drawing which follows the line.

In the figure, the crawlers 2 are mounted on the front and rear wheel shafts of the vehicle body 1 via the drum 13. Drum 13
The attachment 9 is fixed by using four wheel nuts 8, and the arms 4 and 5 are attached via the bearing 16 and the bearing case 17. The bearing 16 fixes the bearing cover with the bolt 11.
The arm 4 and the arm 5 cover the cover 18 with three bolts 19
Fix it so that it will not come off. Arm 4 and arm 5
Is inserted into the shaft 14 and attached. The arm 4 and the arm 5 are attached to the shaft 14 with a V-shaped opening as shown in FIG. 5, and the shaft 14 is also machined into a circular cross section as shown in the figure to form an engaging mechanism and to be attached to the wheel shaft. The mechanism will be removable only from the vertical direction.

The arms 4 and 5 have a mechanism capable of fixing their relative positions by stoppers 10 and 12. The stopper 10 shown in FIG. 4 is attached to the arm 4, and has a mechanism for pressing the spring by pulling the pin to the right to release the connection with the arm 5. The stopper 12 is attached to the arm 5 and It has a mechanism for pressing the spring by pulling it to the left to release the connection between the arm 5, the arm 4, and the plate 21. As shown in FIG.
The arm 5 has twelve fixing holes 23. By changing the fixing hole 23 into which the pin of the stopper 10 is inserted, the angle formed by the arms 4 and 5 can be changed at intervals of 30 °. As shown in FIG. 5, the arm 4 has ten fixing holes 22 and the plate 21 has one fixing hole 22.
Two are open, and the angle between arm 4 and arm 30 is 30 °.
It can be changed at intervals. With this mechanism, the shape of the crawler can be changed and fixed.

FIG. 2 shows a modified example of the crawler. (A) shows the shape of the crawler when a low ground contact pressure is required on muddy ground, frozen roads, etc. (B) shows the shape of the crawler when traveling on a relatively loose road surface such as a snowy area or a paddy field.
(C) shows the shape of the crawler when traveling on a relatively hard road surface such as a paved road or a sandy road.

[0013]

According to the present invention, it is possible to easily change the shape of the crawler by operating two stoppers without attaching or detaching the roller. Thus, a steerable crawler vehicle with a variable shape that can form an appropriate grounding condition on a frozen road can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the crawler whose shape is changed according to the road surface condition.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the crawler.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... crawler belt, 3, 6 ... rolling wheel, 4, 5 ... arm, 7 ... rubber tire, 10, 12 ... stopper.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A steerable crawler vehicle comprising a front wheel shaft and a rear wheel shaft, which are equipped with crawlers, and which steer the front wheels equipped with the crawlers to change the traveling direction. Rubber tires that drive the
A steering type comprising two rolling wheels that roll together with the crawler belt, and a rolling wheel support arm capable of changing the shape of the crawler and freely adjusting the ground contact length by freely adjusting the positions of the rolling wheels. Crawler car.