JPH06255557A - Light-duty - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a shock from being transmitted to a body frame at the time of speed change operation in a light-duty vehicle, and simplify the battery supporting frame of the light-duty vehicle. CONSTITUTION:A power unit 24 formed of a prime mover and a transmission gear is mounted to a wing arm 22 with the front part thereof pivotally fixed to a body frame, and the power unit 24 is provided with a rear axle 27. In a light-duty vehicle of such constitution, the power unit 24 is fitted to the swing arm 22 through front and rear connecting links 50, 51 forming substantially parallel links together with the power unit 24 and the swing arm 22, and a rear cushion 28 is disposed between a body frame and the rear axle 27 position of the power unit 24. The prime mover is to be a motor, and a battery supporting frame 17 for supporting a battery 78 for the motor is disposed above the power unit 24, integrally with the body frame. A horizontal lateral rod 82 is connected between a left connecting rod 79 hanging down from the battery supporting frame 17, and a right protruding part 80 protruding from the rear end of the power unit 24, through a ball joint 83.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a small vehicle having a swing arm equipped with a power unit.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a small vehicle such as a motorcycle or a motorcycle, it is common to support a rear wheel by a swing arm pivotally supported by a body frame. Some have a power unit in which a driving engine and a transmission are integrated.

Such a three-wheeled motor vehicle is actually developed in 60-60
This is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 9525. In this motorcycle, a power unit in which an engine and a transmission case are integrated is mounted on a rear fork (swing arm) whose front portion is pivotally attached to a body frame, and a rear wheel drive shaft is provided at a rear portion of the power unit. It is provided.

In the above power unit, the front portion is connected to the rear fork via a support piece pivotally supported on the rear fork and a mount rubber, and a bracket vertically extending from the rear end portion of the rear fork is connected via the support shaft. A rear portion is pivotally supported, and a front portion is vertically movably coupled to a rear fork via the support shaft.

A lower end of a shock absorber (rear cushion) having an upper end connected to an upper rear portion of the vehicle body frame is connected to the rear fork.

[0006]

In a small-sized vehicle as described above, if the transmission gear is changed while the vehicle is running, the number of revolutions changes almost instantaneously, and this is transmitted to the rear wheels as impact torque, which results in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body. Driving force is generated. Then, this driving force is applied to the power unit as a shock.

By the way, as described above, in the conventional structure in which the power unit is pivotally supported at the rear portion on the rear fork and the front portion is connected to the rear fork via the mount rubber so as to be movable up and down, the high frequency engine vibration is absorbed. Is sufficient, but not enough to absorb the shock at the time of mission gear change as described above. Therefore, this shock is transmitted to the vehicle body frame via the rear fork, and causes a control unit or the like attached to the vehicle body frame, which is sensitive to vibration, to vibrate or gives a driver a feeling of vibration.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in the present invention of claim 1, a prime mover is a swing arm whose front portion is pivotally attached to a vehicle body frame. In a small-sized vehicle equipped with a power unit composed of a transmission and a transmission, and a rear axle provided on the power unit, the power unit is provided on the swing arm and connecting links before and after forming a substantially parallel link with the power unit and the swing arm. Install through.

According to the present invention, the driving force in the front-rear direction generated by the impact torque caused by the instantaneous fluctuation of the rotational speed during the gear shifting operation is such that the power unit moves in the front-rear direction relative to the swing unit by the parallel link. Absorbed by. That is, since the shock due to the driving force is attenuated at the swing arm portion and is hardly transmitted to the body frame, it does not affect the control unit or the driver.

According to the present invention of claim 2, in the compact vehicle of claim 1, a rear cushion is disposed between the rear axle position of the power unit and the vehicle body frame.

According to the present invention, the vehicle body load is not transmitted from the rear cushion to the rear wheel via the swing arm and the power unit, but is transmitted from the rear cushion directly to the rear wheel via the power unit. A large load does not act between them. Therefore, the degree of freedom of movement of the power unit with respect to the swing arm is increased, and the shock (vibration) prevention effect is further improved.

In a third aspect of the present invention, the small vehicle of the first aspect is an electric vehicle by using the prime mover as an electric motor. A battery support frame that supports the battery for the electric motor is disposed integrally with the vehicle body frame above the power unit, and both ends of the battery support frame and the power unit are ball jointed to the battery support frame and the power unit, respectively. And a lateral rod extending in the width direction of the vehicle body.

Since an electric vehicle requires a battery with a large capacity and a large weight, a battery supporting frame for supporting the battery becomes a rigid and sturdy one, and it is difficult to provide such a battery supporting frame in a small vehicle. However, according to the present invention, by connecting the battery supporting frame to the power unit via the lateral rod, it is possible to suppress the rolling of the battery supporting frame, so that the battery supporting frame itself has a low rigidity,
It can be small and simple, and thus the electrification of small vehicles becomes easy.

Since both ends of the lateral rod are respectively connected to the battery supporting frame and the power unit via ball joints, the lateral rod of the lateral rod can reasonably follow the forward and backward movements of the power unit while sufficiently suppressing the rolling of the battery supporting frame. be able to.

[0015]

FIG. 1 is an overall side view of a small vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention. This vehicle is a scooter-type electric tricycle having one front wheel 1 and a pair of left and right rear wheels, and a seat 3
A rear vehicle body 4 having a steering wheel 5 and a front vehicle body 6 having a steering head 5 are connected by a low floor portion 7. The outer periphery of the vehicle body is covered with a vehicle body cover 8, and a roof 9 is provided from the front part to above the seat 3.
A storage box 10 for storing articles is provided above the rear part of the vehicle body.

From the front head pipe 11 to the body frame 12
Extends downward and branches into two at the lower end, then extends rearward under the floor 7 and then obliquely upward rearward, the rear end reaching the lower surface position of the storage box 10. The frame 12 forms the skeleton of the vehicle body. The front wheel 1 is suspended by a head pipe 11 via a front fork 13 pivotally supported by the head pipe 11, and is steered by a handle 14.

A bracket 15 is fixedly mounted on a rising portion of the vehicle body frame 12 behind the floor portion 7 and projects rearward, and a rolling joint 16 is coupled to the bracket 15. A battery support frame 17 is fixed to the rolling joint 16 and extends rearward above the rear wheel 2. As shown in FIG. 2, the battery support frame 17 has a loop-like shape and has legs 17a, 17 opened at the front.
b. The bases of the leg portions 17a and 17b are arranged so that the pair of connecting pieces 18,
They are connected by 18, and the connecting piece 18 is fixed to the rolling joint 16.

A boss portion 20 having a shaft hole 19 at the rear end of the connecting piece 18.
And a front end of a swing arm 22 is pivotally supported by the boss portion 20 via a pivot shaft 21 (FIG. 1). As shown in FIG. 3, the swing arm 22 has a fork shape, and a bearing tube 23 is formed at a front end protruding portion. Swing arm
22 is a battery support frame by inserting the bearing tube 23 between the left and right boss portions 20 and passing the pivot shaft 21 therethrough.
It is swingably pivoted on 17.

A power unit 24 is mounted on the swing arm 22. The swing arm 22 is configured by integrally providing an electric motor 26 on a front side portion of a mission case 25 extending in the front-rear direction, and a rear axle 27 is directly supported by a rear portion of the mission case 25. A rear cushion 28 is provided between the position immediately above the rear axle 27 of the swing arm 22 and the battery support frame 17. A battery box 30 is attached to the battery support frame 17 via a damper device 29.
Are suspended and supported, and a battery for driving the electric motor 26 is housed inside. The battery support frame 17 and the battery box 30 are entirely covered with a rear vehicle body cover 8a.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view of the power unit 24. The mission case 25 and the electric motor 26 are arranged side by side in the width direction of the vehicle body and are integrally connected. A gear transmission 33 having a main shaft 31 and a counter shaft 32 is housed in the mission case 25. The main shaft 31 is arranged on the same axis as the rotary shaft 34 of the electric motor 26, and the opposite ends of both shafts are connected via a damper rubber 35. Therefore, the rotating shaft 34
The rotation of is transmitted to the main shaft 31 through the damper rubber 35.
The gear transmission 33 changes gears by sliding the shift pieces 36a and 36b, which are spline-engaged with the main shaft 31 and the counter shaft 32, in the axial direction to counter the rotation of the main shaft 31 at a desired gear ratio. It is a conventional gear transmission that transmits to the shaft 32.

The shift pieces 36a and 36b are respectively engaged with the shifters 37a and 37b of the shift device shown in FIG.
The shifters 37a and 37b are guided by the grooves on the peripheral surface of the shift drum 38 and slide left and right in accordance with the rotation of the shift drum 38, so that the shift pieces 36a and 36b slide to perform a gear change. Be seen.

The shift drum 38 is rotationally driven by a small motor 39 and controlled to a desired rotational position. That is, the Geneva driven gear 40 coaxially fixed to one end of the shift drum 38 is engaged with the Geneva drive gear 41 pivotally supported by the mission case 25, and the Geneva drive gear 41 is a small motor via the gear train 42. It is driven to rotate by 39. A mesh groove 43 is radially cut in the peripheral surface of the Geneva driven gear 40 at an angle interval of a predetermined angle, for example, 60 ° (Fig. 6), and the mesh pin 44 is formed every time the Geneva drive gear 41 makes one rotation. Is engaged with the meshing groove 43 to generate the geneva driven gear.
40 Therefore, the shift drum 38 is intermittently rotated by the predetermined angle. Then, a predetermined gear change is performed according to each rotational position of the shift drum 38. Reference numeral 88 is a Geneva gear rotation sensor, and 89 is a shift drum position sensor.

As shown in FIG. 4, a drive gear 45 is fixed to the outer end portion of the counter shaft 32 of the gear transmission 33, and a driven gear 46 meshes with the drive gear 45. Driven gear 46 is drive gear 45
A first piece 46a having teeth that mesh with the second piece 46b and a second piece 46b extending along the first piece 46a.
A damper spring 47 is inserted in the direction of rotation between
The rotation of the piece 46a is transmitted via the damper spring 47 to the piece 46a.
b. The piece 46b is a differential gear unit pivotally supported by the mission case 25 via a bearing 48.
It is attached to the input unit 49a of 49.

The left and right rear axles are provided on the output side of the differential gear unit 49.
27L and 27R are respectively connected. These rear axles
27L and 27R penetrate the power unit 24 in the left-right direction,
The rear wheels 2 are attached to the outer ends protruding from the power unit 24, respectively. Therefore, the driving force (propulsion force) in the front-rear direction generated by the rear wheel 2 rolling on the ground is transmitted to the vehicle body via the power unit 24.

FIG. 7 shows the battery supporting frame in FIG.
17 is an enlarged view of the vicinity of 17 and the swing arm 22 in more detail. The power unit 24 is connected to the swing arm 22 via front and rear connection links 50 and 51. For this reason, a pair of left and right mounting portions 52 for mounting the connection links 50 project from the lower portion of the front end of the power unit 24, and rubber bushes 53 are respectively fitted in the holes provided in these mounting portions 52 ( (Fig. 4).

As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the connecting link 50 connects the upper ends of a pair of left and right link plates 54 with a tubular piece 55, and connects the lower ends with a connecting pipe 56.
It is configured by connecting. Circular holes 57 are formed in the link plate 54 at positions where both ends of the tubular portion 55 come into contact with each other. On the other hand, an eccentric collar 59 is fitted on the rubber bush 53 on the power unit 24 side, and the upper end of the link plate 54 is inserted between the eccentric collars 59 on both sides to form an eccentric collar 59, a circular hole 57 and a tubular shape. By inserting a long pivot bolt 58 through the piece 55 and tightening it with a nut 60, the upper end of the connection link 50 is pivotally supported by the power unit 24.

Since the outer diameter of the eccentric collar 59 is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the rubber bush 53, the eccentric collar 59
A gap 61 is formed between 59 and the rubber bush 53 (Fig. 8).

An inner pipe 63 is coaxially provided in the connecting pipe 56 of the connection link 50 via a rubber bush 62.
63 is pivotally attached to a support shaft 64 (FIG. 7) provided on the swing arm 22. The support shaft 64 is supported by the swing arm 22 via brackets 64a, 64a (FIG. 3) extending rearward and downward from the lateral member 22a of the swing arm 22.

The tubular piece 55 is formed integrally with the stopper holding member 65 by winding the wide upper end of the stopper holding member 65 into a tubular shape. The stopper holding member 65 is fixedly supported by the connecting pipe 56 and extends vertically in front of the middle portion of the left and right link plates 54.
And a portion 65b that protrudes substantially horizontally from the connecting pipe 56 to the front, and stopper rubbers 66a and 66b are fixed to the portions 65a and 65b by projecting forward and upward, respectively.

A stopper 67 protruding rearward is provided at the center of the lateral member 22a in front of the fork-shaped swing arm 22 (FIG. 3), and a stopper rubber 66a is provided.
The stopper rubber 66 abuts on the rear end surface of the stopper 67 and the lower surface of the stopper 67 perpendicular to the rear end surface (FIG. 7). That is, the connecting link 50 is the stopper rubber 66.
The stopper 67 is held at a predetermined angular position by sandwiching the stopper 67 from the rear side and the lower side via a and 66b.
The contact surfaces of the stopper rubbers 66a and 66b are uneven surfaces, and the connecting links 50 can be rotated around the support shaft 64 to some extent by compressing and deforming the uneven surfaces.

The connection link 51 on the rear side of the swing arm 22
Are pivotally attached to support shafts 68 provided at the rear ends of the left and right arms of the robot through rubber bushes 69 and extend upward (FIG. 7). The upper end of the connection link 51 is pivotally attached to the power unit 24 via the support shaft 70 at a position directly below the rear axle 27. That is, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 11, a pair of bolt holes is formed in the tubular portion 71 surrounding the rear axle 27 of the power unit 24.
72 is provided, and the bolt is inserted into the bolt hole 72.
A support shaft 70 is provided on a bracket 74 fastened to the tubular portion 71 by 73. And this support shaft 70 has a rubber bush 75
The upper end of the connection link 51 is pivotally supported via.

A bracket 76 is fixed to the upper surface of the tubular portion 71 facing the bracket 74 by bolts 73 together with the bracket 74, and the lower end of the rear cushion 28 is pivotally attached to the bracket 76. That is, the rear cushion 28 is located at a position directly above the rear axle 27 and is located in the power unit.
It is connected to 24. The upper end of the rear cushion 28 is pivotally attached to the battery support frame 17 via a bracket 77.

Here, the operation of the power unit 24 configured as described above will be described. When a gear change of the gear transmission 33 is performed during acceleration (deceleration), the rotational speed of the electric motor 26 instantaneously changes, so that the impact torque due to the rotating mass is transmitted to the rear wheel 2. As a result, gear striking sound is generated due to gear backlash, and a shocking driving force in the front-rear direction acts on the entire power unit 24 as a reaction force from the rear wheel 2. The impact torque depends on the electric motor 26
The damper rubber 35 inserted between the rotary shaft 34 and the main shaft 31 of the gear transmission 33, and a damper spring 47 inserted into the driven gear 46 partially absorbs the stress, which is relaxed.
As a result, the gear hammering noise is reduced, but it is not relaxed enough to release the shocking driving force.

In order to absorb the shocking driving force, the power unit 24 is connected to the swing arm 22 by the front and rear connecting links 50 and 51 as described above. That is, the pivot bolt 58, which is a connecting point of the connecting links 50 and 51 to the power unit 24 and the swing arm 22, and the support shaft.
The power unit 24, the connection link 50, the swing arm 22, and the connection link are formed by the support shaft 70, the support shaft 68, and the support shaft 68 that form a substantially parallelogram and the gap 61 is provided at the connection point by the pivot support bolt 58. 51 operates as a substantially parallel link, and due to the shocking driving force, the power unit 24
Moves back and forth within the compression deformation range of the stopper rubber 66a or the stopper rubber 66b.

During normal traveling, the stopper rubber 66 abuts the stopper 67 in an appropriately compressed state and transmits the driving force from the rear wheel 2 to the vehicle body. It compressively deforms to absorb this driving force and prevent shock from being applied to the vehicle body. For this reason, the contact surface of the stopper rubber 66 is formed into an uneven surface as described above.

Further, the gap 61 in the connecting portion by the pivot bolt 58 allows the power unit 24 to swing in the vertical direction, and this swing is buffered by the rubber bush 53 to absorb the swinging force.

In this way, the shocking driving force applied to the power unit 24 at the time of gear change is
Since the stopper rubber 66 and the rubber bush 53 allow the 24 to move in the front-rear direction and swing in the up-down direction, the driving force is transmitted to the vehicle body frame as a shock, and the control unit provided in the vehicle body frame. It hardly affects parts and drivers sensitive to uniform vibration.

The vehicle body load does not pass through the swing arm 22, but the load from the battery support frame 17 to the rear cushion 2
8 、 Because it is transmitted to the rear wheel 2 via the power unit 24,
A large load does not act between the power unit 24 and the swing arm 22. Therefore, since the frictional force at each pivotal portion of the connecting links 50, 51 is small, the movement of the power unit 24 is smoothly performed, and effective cushioning and vibration damping effects are obtained.

Next, the battery supporting frame 17 and the battery box 30 suspended from it will be further described with reference to FIG. The battery box 30 is provided inside the loop-shaped battery support frame 17 over substantially the entire left and right width thereof, and is divided into two parts in the front and rear, three in the front battery box 30, and one in the rear battery box. Two batteries 78 are stored in 30. Each battery box 30 includes a battery support frame with two damper devices 29 on each side of each battery 78.
Suspended and supported by 17.

From the portion of the vertical portion on the left side of the battery support frame 17 that is above the rear of the power unit 24, 1
A connecting rod 79 of the book hangs down (see FIG. 2). On the other hand, the rear end of the power unit 24 is provided with a protrusion 80 protruding rearward (FIG. 4), and the right end of a lateral rod 82 is connected to the protrusion 80 via a ball joint 81. The lateral rod 82 extends horizontally behind the power unit 24 in the horizontal direction, and its left end reaches the lower end position of the connecting rod 79 and is connected to the connecting rod 79 via a ball joint 83.

As described above, the battery supporting frame 17 is connected to the power unit via the connecting rod 79 and the lateral rod 82.
By connecting to the battery support frame 17, the lateral vibration of the battery support frame 17 can be suppressed, and accordingly, the battery support frame 17 itself can be made simple with low rigidity and small weight. The power unit 24 moves and swings as described above, but since the lateral rod 82 is connected to the projecting portion 80 and the connecting rod 79 via the ball joints 81 and 83, there is no problem.

A control box 84 and a fan chamber 85 are provided side by side in front of and behind the upper portion of the battery support frame 17. A control unit for controlling power supply to the electric motor 26 is housed in the control box 84, and a fan 86 is housed in the fan chamber 85. The discharge air from the fan 86 is sent into the electric motor 26 through an air passage 87, a part of which is indicated by a dotted line, to cool the electric motor 26, and then passes through the inside of the pipe material forming the battery support frame 17 to each battery box It flows through the inside of the battery 30 and reduces the hydrogen gas concentration around the battery 78.

[0043]

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, the shocking driving force in the front-rear direction generated during the gear shift operation is attenuated by the swing arm portion, and the shock is effectively prevented from being applied to the vehicle body frame. You can

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the battery supporting frame of the electric small vehicle can be made relatively simple with a relatively low rigidity and a small weight, so that the small vehicle can be easily electrified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall side view of a small vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a battery support frame.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a swing arm.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view of the power unit.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a shift device of the power unit.

6 is a sectional view taken along line VI-VI in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a partially enlarged detailed view of FIG. 1.

8 is a sectional view taken along the line VIII-VIII of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a side view of a front connecting link.

10 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XX of FIG.

11 is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 7.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... front wheel, 2 ... rear wheel, 3 ... seat, 4 ... rear body, 5 ...
Steering head, 6 ... front body, 7 ... floor, 8
… Body cover, 9… Roof, 10… Storage box, 11… Head pipe, 12… Body frame, 13… Front fork, 14… Handle, 15… Bracket, 16… Rolling joint,
17 ... Battery support frame, 18 ... Connecting piece, 19 ... Shaft hole, 20
… Boss part, 21… Pivot axis, 22… Swing arm, 23…
Bearing tube, 24 ... power unit, 25 ... mission case,
26 ... Electric motor, 27 ... Rear axle, 28 ... Rear cushion, 29 ... Damper device, 30 ... Battery box, 31 ... Main shaft, 32 ... Counter shaft, 33 ... Gear transmission, 34 ... Rotating shaft, 35 ... Damper rubber, 36 ... shift piece, 37 ... shifter, 38 ... shift drum, 39 ... small motor, 40 ... Geneva driven gear, 41 ...
Geneva drive gear, 42 ... Gear train, 43 ... Meshing groove, 44 ...
Mating pin, 45 ... Driving gear, 46 ... Driven gear, 47 ... Damper spring, 48 ... Bearing, 49 ... Differential gear device, 50, 51
… Connection link, 52… Mounting part, 53… Rubber bush, 54
… Link plate, 55… Cylindrical part, 56… Connecting pipe, 57… Circular hole, 58
… Pivot bolts, 59… Eccentric collars, 60… Nuts, 61… Gaps, 62… Rubber bushes, 63… Inner tubes, 64… Support shafts, 65… Stopper holding members, 66… Stopper rubbers, 67… Stoppers,
68 ... Spindle, 69 ... Rubber bush, 70 ... Spindle, 71 ... Tubular part, 72 ... Bolt hole, 73 ... Bolt, 74 ... Bracket, 75 ...
Rubber bush, 76, 77 ... Bracket, 78 ... Battery,
79 ... Connecting rod, 80 ... Protrusion, 81 ... Ball joint, 82 ...
Lateral rod, 83 ... Ball joint, 84 ... Control box, 85 ... Fan chamber, 86 ... Fan, 87 ... Blower, 88 ... Rotation sensor, 89 ... Position sensor.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A small vehicle in which a power unit including a prime mover and a transmission is mounted on a swing arm having a front portion pivotally attached to a body frame, and a rear axle is provided on the power unit, wherein the power unit is mounted on the swing arm.
A small vehicle characterized in that it is mounted via front and rear connecting links that form substantially parallel links with the power unit and swing arm. 2. A small vehicle according to claim 1, wherein a rear cushion is provided between the rear axle position of the power unit and the vehicle body frame. 3. The electric motor is used as the prime mover, and a battery support frame for supporting a battery for the electric motor is disposed above the power unit integrally with the vehicle body frame, and the battery support frame and the power unit are provided. The both ends are connected to the battery support frame and the power unit through ball joints, respectively, and are connected by lateral rods extending in the width direction of the vehicle body.
Small vehicle.