EMERGENCY DRIVE FOR VEHICLES

• US 3,596,728 A
• Filed: 12/26/1968
• Issued: 08/03/1971
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1967
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Neville George Edgar
• Original Assignee: Neville George Edgar
• Inventors: NEVILLE GEORGE EDGAR
• Application Number:
  US04/786,970
• Time in Patent Office: 950 Days
• US Class Current: 180/24.12
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 17/34 for driving both front and rear wheels, e.g. four wheel drive vehicles arrangement or mounting of control devices for changing number of driven wheels B60K23/08
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 59/04 driven from propulsion unit on trailer

Abstract

In a vehicle having front and rear pairs of wheels, the two wheels at each side are connected at will by a roller arrangement acting as an idler. There may be a mechanical or hydraulic connection between the rollers at opposite sides of the vehicle, providing a differential lock. Alternatively, an emergency drive for a single pair of wheels is provided by hydraulically driven rollers movable into and out of engagement with the wheels.

Claims

1. A vehicle, having front and rear wheels at each side constituting a front pair and a rear pair of wheels, said vehicle carrying a coupling device for the two wheels at each side, the coupling device being displaceable relative to the wheels between an operative position in which it drivingly couples the two wheels together and an inoperative position in which it does not drivingly couple the two wheels, each of which coupling devices comprises two interconnected rollers having spaced-apart parallel axes which in the operative position drivingly engage the peripheries of the two wheels, and which in the inoperative position do not so engage the two wheels, and wherein each coupling device incorporates a hydraulic pump-motor coupled to its rollers, the output of each pump-motor being hydraulically connected to the input of the other pump-motor.

2. A vehicle according to claim 1, in which each coupling device is mounted to rock about an axis which is located between the axes of the front and rear wheels, in movement between its operative and inoperative positions.

3. A vehicle according to claim 2, in which, in the operative position of each coupling device, one of its rollers drivingly engages one of the two wheels above the axis of that wheel and the other roller drivingly engages the other wheel below the axis of that wheel.

4. A vehicle according to claim 2, wherein one roller of each device engages the front wheel of the associated two wheels below the axis of that front wheel and the other roller engages the rear of the associated two wheels above the axis of that rear wheel.

5. A vehicle according to claim 2 wherein the axis of each coupling device is stationery.