Rubber track wheels, as a practical weapon that can improve the passability and off-road performance of automobiles, have gradually increased in recent years. Although it cannot provide excellent high-speed driving performance, shock absorption comfort and fuel saving performance like traditional tires, it greatly improves the safety and all-terrain traffic capability of vehicles in extreme environments such as snow, mountain, and rainforest. And with the continuous development of related technologies, the rubber track products of civil vehicles are becoming more and more mature, and the wheel track quick replacement device greatly reduces the difficulty of installing tracks in civil vehicles, and even as simple as replacing the spare tire.
1 Development of rubber tracks
The origin of the rubber track wheel dates back to the 1960s, when Japan's ISEKI Inoseki Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. proposed the idea of replacing metal tracks with rubber tracks, and then ISEKI commissioned Bridgestone to create the first rubber track, which was successfully applied to rice harvesters. The application of rubber tracks greatly improves the terrain adaptability of various mechanical tools, which is less weight, more convenient to replace than metal tracks, and has less damage to paved roads. At present, Japan is one of the world's leading rubber track producers, leading in terms of product quality, specifications, market awareness and market share.
After decades of development, the overseas rubber track market has been highly developed, Japan, Europe and North America and other places have a huge rubber track market, widely used in military vehicles, agricultural operation machinery, lifting and transportation machinery, commercial entertainment vehicles, private household cars. The development of rubber tracks in mainland China began in the late 1980s, and a variety of rubber tracks were successfully developed in Hangzhou, Zhenjiang, Shenyang, Kaifeng and Shanghai, but due to the late start, they lagged behind the pace of world development, and the actual application coverage scenarios were not many, and they were still in a state of catching up.
Rubber track products were not replaceable products at first, but fixed equipment for special vehicles such as agricultural machinery and armored vehicles, and could not be replaced with wheels. Until the 1990s, wheel replacement wheels were born as an emerging technology, which once again expanded the application scenarios of rubber tracks and created feasibility for them to enter the civilian consumer market. Replaceable rubber track wheels are mainly divided into two types of structures, namely triangular type and grounding type, mainly composed of track drive sprockets, rubber tracks, load wheels, track anti-stranding devices, steel frame and internal suspension. Triangle tracks offer greater flexibility and convenience and are the most common type of off-road vehicle modification today.
2 Triangle rubber tracks – only 5% more pressurized than conventional wheels and 1.5 times more traction
The triangle rubber track wheel is composed of rubber tracks, base frame, drive assembly, tensioning mechanism, support wheel group, tensioning wheel (guide wheel) and other components, and the track surface has a rough rubber block pattern, which can increase the grounding friction of the vehicle. The support wheel group not only bears the mass of the vehicle, but also plays the role of conducting the track; the tensioning wheel and the tensioning mechanism are responsible for the tension of the track, providing pre-tensioning force for the track, preventing the occurrence of track off-wheeling, and if necessary, it can also bear the load role together with the guide wheel. The steering mechanism of the replaceable triangular track wheel remains basically unchanged, and it has the same steering capacity as the original vehicle, so the triangle track wheel can actually be regarded as another function tire.
Triangle rubber track wheels can be divided into separate types and integral types according to the assembly form and their own structure. Integral that is, the drive wheel, support frame and other structures have an interrelated relationship, after the drive wheel is assembled to the drive shaft at the end of the vehicle, the drive wheel follows the drive shaft rotation, and the load wheel train and the support frame can swing around the drive shaft with the undulation of the ground. Integral triangle rubber track wheels are simple to replace, highly modular, and have greater passability and adaptability when driving on uneven ground. The separated drive wheel and support frame are installed separately, the drive wheel is assembled with the drive shaft at the end of the vehicle and rotates with the drive shaft, the support frame is fixed on the support housing of the drive shaft, and the load wheel is hinged on the support frame, which can swing relative to the support frame, so although it is more independent and flexible, it also limits the swing range of the load wheel, which is not conducive to the vehicle driving on the rough road.
Compared with traditional rubber tires, the grounding pressure of the triangle rubber track wheel is only about 4%-5% of the traditional wheel, but the adhesion and traction are increased by nearly 1.5 times, and the minimum ground clearance of the vehicle is also greatly increased. The larger rubber track grounding area provides good ground adhesion for a vehicle to release performance more efficiently; a small grounding pressure allows the vehicle to have better passability when facing wet, soft and slippery road environments such as snow, desert and swamp; and a large ground clearance improves the passability and obstacle crossing ability.
At present, the brands of overseas research and development of triangle rubber track wheels mainly include Mattracks in the United States, Souzy in Canada, Camso in Canada and Zuidberg in the Netherlands. Among them, Mattracks produces the most prestigious rubber track wheels, which are lightweight and durable, simple to replace, and can complete the replacement of four tires in as little as 30 minutes, and can reach speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour on hard roads. Domestic triangle track wheel production companies mainly include Dezhou Liwei Machinery Co., Ltd., Shijiazhuang Zhuoqi Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., etc., for four-wheel drive family cars replaceable rubber track wheel products are also many, the price ranges from thousands of yuan to 10,000 yuan, depending on the quality.
3 Easy to install is like changing a spare tire
The replacement and installation of the V-track wheel is now a non-difficult task, and most of the V-track wheels can be directly connected to the drive wheel and the wheel drive axle through the connecting disc. The mounting hole of the drive wheel basically corresponds to the mounting hole of the original tire on the half shaft, which can be directly replaced like replacing the spare tire, without the need to weld the support device separately, and if there is a deviation, the connection device such as the flange can basically solve the problem. Grounded tracks are difficult to install on household vehicles due to structural characteristics, and professional modification factories need to be customized according to the characteristics of the vehicle structure, and if necessary, the chassis structure of the vehicle needs to be greatly modified.
If you want to experience the off-road thrill of rubber tracks, then the more convenient triangle track is the best choice. If you want to install triangular rubber tracks, it is best to have a hardcore model in the traditional sense, such as Ford Raptor, Toyota Tando, Isuzu D-MAX, Jeep Wrangler, Toyota Land Cruiser and so on. Hardcore models with non-load-bearing chassis have a more robust and reliable frame that can withstand the enormous torque of tracked wheels, while the chassis suspension system has enough room to fit the wide body of the triangular track wheels. Of course, not urban SUVs, cars and other products can also modify the tracks, considering the twist resistance of the frame, as well as the suspension system to raise the restrictions of modification, it is best to use special customized products.
4 More convenient external, variable tracks
If you think it's still too much trouble to replace the track wheels, AD Boivin from Canada offers another idea for modifications. The company has developed a car track called Track N Go, which is more convenient and fast to use, and can be installed in ten minutes by a single person. Track N Go is a set of external snow tracks, just place four tracks on the flat and open ground, and then drive the vehicle through the guide rail to drive the tire up, and then through the fixture fixed to the original wheel hub can be, no need to make special changes, power by the original car traditional system and tires to provide, like a pair of snow off-road boots for the car. The current price of this track is about 25,000 US dollars, equivalent to about 150,000 yuan.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) also has a more advanced technology, the "Deformable Track Wheel" (RWT), which can be freely switched between triangular track wheels and round wheels, making it a combination of prototype tires and triangle tracks. The RWT hub is composed of six identical mechanical structures, and by adjusting the angle of each mechanical structure individually, it can be switched between round wheels and triangular tracks, adapting to more than 95% of the all-terrain environment, and can be regarded as the ultimate advanced version of the AT tire. If this technology can eventually be converted to civilian use, it will greatly improve the overall performance of almost all civilian vehicles such as existing SUVs, sedans, off-road vehicles, and pickup trucks.
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