Towable road motor vehicle

摘要

A towable road motor vehicle including: at least three wheels, capable of driving the motor vehicle on a level road, distributed between two front and rear wheel trains of the motor vehicle; a chassis, including an articulation device, interposed between front and rear portions of the chassis and enabling the front portion to pivot, relative to the rear portion, to modify an articulation angle of the vehicle; front and rear hitches, respectively positioned at the front and rear of the motor vehicle, and a steering device, capable of modifying the steering angle of each wheel of the front train in response to a command by a driver of the vehicle, the steering device adapted to be actuated independently of the articulation device.

主权项

1. A towable road motor vehicle, comprising:
at least three wheels, capable of driving the motor vehicle on a flat road, distributed between a front set of wheels and a rear set of wheels of the motor vehicle; a chassis, including:
a front portion to which the front set of wheels is fixed;a rear portion to which the rear set of wheels is fixed;an articulation device disposed between the front and rear portions of the chassis, the articulation device allowing the front portion to pivot relative to the rear portion about an articulation axis normal to a rolling plane of the vehicle to modify an articulation angle of the vehicle, the rolling plane being defined as being the plane passing through areas of contact between the road and the wheels of the vehicle; a front hitch and a rear hitch situated at the front and at the rear, respectively, of the motor vehicle, the front hitch being movable, alternately, between:
a coupled position in which this front hitch cooperates with a rear hitch identical to the rear hitch of this vehicle and situated on another vehicle to couple these vehicles mechanically to each other with no degree of freedom in rotation in yaw and to align the front portion of this vehicle with the rear portion of the other vehicle, andan uncoupled position in which these vehicles are uncoupled from each other; the rear hitch being movable, alternately, between:
a coupled position, in which this rear hitch cooperates with a front hitch identical to the front hitch of this vehicle and situated on another vehicle to couple these vehicles mechanically to each other with no degree of freedom in rotation in yaw and to align the rear portion of this vehicle with the front portion of the other vehicle, andan uncoupled position in which these vehicles are uncoupled from each other; a steering device adapted, in response to a command from a driver of the vehicle, to modify the steering angle of each wheel of the front set of wheels, the steering device being adapted to be actuated independently of the articulation device, the steering device having a castor offset with an absolute value strictly less than one third of the shortest distance separating the articulation axis from a transverse axis of the front set of wheels when the transverse axis of the front set of wheels is parallel to a transverse axis of the rear set of wheels, the transverse axis of a set of wheels being defined as being:
the axis passing through the geometrical center of the area of contact between the road and the wheels of the set of wheels when that set of wheels includes more than one wheel and those wheels are not steered, andthe axis parallel to the rolling axis of a wheel and passing through the geometrical center of the area of contact between the road and that wheel if the set of wheels includes only that wheel and that wheel is not steered.