Winch For Snowmobiles

Abstract

Mounting a winch on a snowmobile which includes a frame, a variable driving pulley, a rotatable cam on the variable pulley and a motor to operate the variable driving pulley. The winch comprises a support which is rigidly connected to the frame of the snowmobile, a slidable table over the support, a drawing pulley mounted on the slidable table, a clutch to operatively connect the drawing pulley to the variable driving pulley, a cable which is windable around the drawing pulley and means to cause the slidable table to slide towards the variable driving pulley while operatively connecting the drawing pulley to the variable driving pulley and winding the cable around the drawing pulley.

Description

This invention relates to a winch for snowmobiles. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a device adapted to be mounted on a snowmobile, to be operated by the drive pulley, for enabling the snowmobile to be pulled out when it is stuck in deep snow or otherwise.

One of the main difficulties with snowmobiles, especially with those that are heavy and powerful, is that they will sometimes easily get stuck either because the layer of snow is too soft and at the same time too deep or because they have turned sideways and cannot be straightened for all sorts of reasons. This is especially the case if a driver is all alone and cannot be expected to meet somebody who will help him put the snowmobile back in running condition. This is the reason why this sport is usually practiced in group, because it is more enjoyable and there is no danger of being left alone with an inoperative vehicle if the latter becomes suddenly immobilised. However, snowmobiles are not exclusively used for enjoyment. These are useful machines which are often the only possible means of transportation from one place to the other. In these cases, the driver is often all alone and it is reasonable to assume that he should not run any risk of being left helpless away from people if something should cause his vehicle to become stuck. To this day, I am not aware that snowmobiles are provided with devices which can help a stranded driver.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome the above disadvantages.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a device which is mounted on a snowmobile to enable the latter to be pulled out of deep snow or otherwise.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a winch which can be operated to help a snowmobile driver in case of emergency.

These and other objects are made possible by mounting a winch on a snowmobile which includes a frame, a variable driving pulley, a rotatable cam on the variable pulley and a motor to operate the variable driving pulley. The winch comprises a support which is rigidly connected to the frame of the snowmobile, a slidable table over the support, a drawing pulley mounted on the slidable table, a clutch to operatively connect the drawing pulley to the variable driving pulley, a cable which is windable around the drawing pulley and means to cause the slidable table to slide towards the variable driving pulley while operatively connecting the drawing pulley to the variable driving pulley and winding the cable around the drawing pulley.

In the drawings which illustrate the invention,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a snowmobile which is in the position of being pulled out from deep snow by means of a device according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a device according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation view of a device according to the invention in which some of the parts are in section and others have been broken away to better illustrate the invention;

FIG. 4 is a partial view taken along line 4 -- 4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an end view taken on the lever side of the device illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3; and

FIG. 6 is a partial section view taken along line 6 -- 6 of FIG. 2.

Referring to the drawings the device illustrated will be seen to generally consist of a winch 1. The winch 1 first consists of a support 3 which is made of a plate in which both ends are formed with downwardly bent portions 5, 7 which are each terminated with respective outward flanges 9, 11, all in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 of the drawings. The flanges 9, 11 are each provided with a pair of holes (not shown) for inserting bolts 13, 15, 17 and the bolt not illustrated which is mounted in the rear portion of the flange 11. These four bolts are screwed in the frame 19 of the snowmobile 21 to rigidly connect the support 3 to the frame 19. In this manner, the winch 1 will appear to be mounted spacedly over the frame 19.

The winch 1 also comprises a sliding table 23 which is disposed over the support 3. In view of the fact that the means by which the sliding table 23 is mounted over the support 3 are associated with other elements which are combined with the sliding table 23, these means will be described in detail at a later stage.

The main element of the winch according to the illustrated invention is a drawing pulley 25 which is unitary with a shaft 27. The drawing pulley 25 includes wings 29 and 31 and the cable 33 will be seen to be windable around the drawing pulley 25 between the wings 29, 31. The shaft 27 comprises an end portion 35, a spacer portion 37 of longer diameter, a second spacer portion 39 also of longer diameter, a supporting portion 41 similar to end portion 35 and a third spacer portion 43. The shaft 27 is terminated by a transmission portion 45 which will be described more in details later.

Two shaft supports 47 and 49 are mounted on the sliding table 23. The exact shapes of these supports will be as illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawings. Shaft support 47 is a unitary machined part which is formed with a bore 51 and comprises a bushing 53 in which is received the end portion 35 of the shaft 27. Shaft support 47 is bolted over the top of the sliding table 23 by means of the bolts 55, 57 which also extend through the support 3. A spacer ring 59 is disposed around each bolt 55, 57 between the sliding table 23 and the support 3 to enable the sliding table to be spaced from the support 3 by a distance which is equal to the thickness of the spacer ring 59. The bolts 55, 57 extend through slots 61 (FIG. 4) provided in the support 3 and the shaft support 47 is finally held in place by means of the pair of hexagonal nuts 63, 65 for each bolts 55, 57.

Turning now to the shaft support 49, with particular reference to FIGS. 2, 3 and 5, it will be seen that it consists of upper and lower elements 67 and 69. In combination, when the upper element 67 is mounted over the lower element 69, the shaft support 49 will be seen to define a bore 71 in which there is a bushing 73 to receive the supporting portion 41 of the shaft 27. The shaft support 49 is made of the two elements 67 and 69 because otherwise it would be impossible to mount the supporting portion 41 inside the bore 71. The elements 67 and 69 are assembled together and the shaft support 49 is mounted over the sliding table 23 by means of bolts 75, 77 which extend all the way through both upper and lower elements 67 and 69, sliding table 23, support 3 and hooking blade 79. The purpose of the hooking blade 79 will be given more in details hereinafter. Bolts 75, 77 are tightened in the manner illustrated in FIG. 3 of the drawings by means of hexagonal nuts 75a and 75b between which is provided the hooking blade 79.

Similarly as for the case of the bolts 55, 57, the support 3 is also provided with slots 61 which inter alia will permit the bolts 75, 77 to extend through the support 3.

The reason for the presence of the slots 61 by means of which the bolts 55, 57, 75, 77 extend through the support will appear obvious: it will enable the sliding table 3 and everything which is mounted thereon including the drawing pulley 25 and shaft supports 47, 49 to slide with respect to the support 3 and in the axial direction of the slots. Reference is particularly made to FIGS. 4 and 6 of the drawings. Later on in this disclosure, we will describe the means by which the sliding table 23 is caused to slide with respect to the support 3.

For the present moment we will describe the means by which the drawing pulley can become operatively connected to the variable pulley 81 via the rotatable cam 83.

It has been said above that the shaft 27 inter alia comprises a transmission portion 45 which is located at one end if the shaft 27. The transmission portion 45 is circular and has the particular shape illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawings. The outer end of the transmission portion 45 has a central bore 84 the purpose of which is to locate the end of a bolt 85 and a hexagonal nut 87. An asbestos ring 89 is applied at the end of the transmission portion 45 by any known means and is prevented from rotating by means of the screw 91. The rotatable cam 83 comprises a frictional clutch asbestos disc 93 which is retained thereon by means of the bolt 85 and hexagonal nut 87 and is prevented from rotating by means of the screw 94. It will be realised that as the sliding table 23 is advanced by sliding towards the rotatable cam 83, the asbestos 89 will engage the frictional clutch asbestos disc 93 and the rotatable cam will cause the drawing pulley 25 to rotate.

We will now describe the device by means of which the sliding table 23 is caused to advance towards the rotatable cam and to retract from that position.

Referring to FIG. 2, it will be seen that on the upper face of the sliding table 23 there is a transverse rod 95 and that a similar transverse rod 97 appears at the underface of the support 3. In the inoperative position of device, i.e., when the sliding table 23 is exactly above the support 3, as shown in FIG. 2 of the drawings, the rods 95, 97 are aligned with respect to one another.

With particular reference to FIGS. 2 and 5 of the drawings, it will be seen that the device according to the invention also comprises a fork lever 101 which is formed with two legs 103, 105. At the lower ends of the legs 103, 105 there are suitable openings for inserting the ends of the rods 95, 97 and thus enabling to mount the fork lever 101 in upstanding position on the device according to the present invention, all in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 5 of the drawings. The two members forming the fork lever 101 are held together such as by rivets 107, 109, 111 or by any other known means. With particular reference to FIG. 3, it will be seen that the pair of rivets 109, 111 will also be used to hook control cable 113 in fixed position in the upper portion of the fork lever 101. The control cable 113 is connected to a hand control 115 in the usual manner and is of the type having an outer wrapping 117. Brackets 119 are provided whenever necessary for guiding the control cable from the fork lever 101, to the hand control 115.

Finally, there is a guiding sleeve 121 which is used to guide the cable 33 from the drawing pulley 25, through the frame 19, to any desired location. The last element of the device according to the invention is an extension spring 123 which is provided with hooks 125 and 127 at both ends thereof. Hook 125 is placed at the rear of hooking blade 79 and hook 127 is received in the opening 129 provided in the downwardly bent portion 5.

The operation of the winch 1 according to the invention is as follows.

Let us suppose that the snowmobile 21 is stuck in deep snow as illustrated in FIG. 1 of the drawings. The situation is serious enough that the driver 131 is unable all by himself to pull his vehicle 21 out of this awkward position. If the driver is a bit lucky there will be a tree 133 or other protuberances pointing above the ground in a close vicinity. While his winch 1 is in the position illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, i.e., in a position where the drawing pulley 25 is not operatively connected to the variable pulley 81 via the rotatable cam 83, and while the cable 33 is completely wound around the drawing pulley 25, he will take the end of the cable 33 and will bring it to tree 133. There, he will fixedly tie the end of the cable 33 to the tree. The driver will then come back to his vehicle as in FIG. 1 and the winch 1 will now be ready to operate to pull out the snowmobile 21 from deep snow.

While the motor (not shown) is running the hand control 115 will be operated in the direction indicated by the arrow 135. This will cause the control cable 113 to be pulled in the direction indicated by the arrow 137, and at the same time the fork lever 101 will pivot about its lower end, i.e., about rod 97: this is indicated by the arrow 139 in FIGS. 2 and 3. At the same time, the sliding table 23 which is engaged by the fork lever 101 by means of the rod 95 will advance towards the variable driving pulley 81 as indicated by the arrows 141 and 143. The asbestos ring 89 will engage the frictional clutch asbestos disc 93. As the variable driving pulley rotates in direction indicated by the arrow 145 this will cause the shaft 27 and the driving pulley 25 to rotate in the same direction while winding the cable 33 in the direction indicated by the arrow 147. This will force the snowmobile 21 to move towards the tree 133 and out of deep snow. When the vehicle 21 has reached a suitable location and it is believed that it can continue its travel, without difficulty, the hand control 135 is released and the extension spring 123 will retract to force the sliding table 23 and drawing pulley 25 into the non operating position illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawings. The driver will then untie the cable 3 from the tree 133 and will again operate the winch to completely wind the cable 33 around the drawing pulley 25. The extension spring will finally again retract the sliding table 23 in the position indicated in FIG. 3.

Claims

I claim:

1. In a snowmobile including a frame, a variable driving pulley, a rotatable cam provided on said variable driving pulley and a motor to operate said variable driving pulley, a winch which comprises:

a. a support which is rigidly connected to the frame of said snowmobile,

b. a slidable table over said support,

c. a drawing pulley mounted on said slidable table,

d. a clutch to operatively connect said drawing pulley to said variable driving pulley,

e. a cable windable around said drawing pulley,

f. means to cause said slidable table to slide towards said variable driving pulley and to operatively connect said drawing pulley via said clutch to said variable driving pulley while winding said cable around said cable around said drawing pulley.

2. In a snowmobile according to claim 1 wherein said support consists of a plate in which both ends are formed with downwardly bent portions each terminated with outward flanges to enable said support to be spacedly mounted over said frame.

3. In a snowmobile according to claim 2 wherein said drawing pulley is unitary with a shaft, said shaft including an end portion, a supporting portion and a transmission portion.

4. In a snowmobile according to claim 3, which comprises a first shaft support and a second shaft support, bolts to bolt said first and said second shaft supports on said slidable table, said end portion of said shaft received in said first shaft support, said supporting portion of said shaft received on said second shaft support.

5. In a snowmobile according to claim 4, wherein said drawing pulley includes wings to contain said cable when the latter has been wound around said drawing pulley, said shaft also includes a first spacer portion to space said first shaft support from one said wing and a second spacer portion to space the other wing from said second shaft support.

6. In a snowmobile according to claim 6, wherein said bolts used to bolt said first and said second shaft support also extend through said support which is rigidly connected to the frame of said snowmobile, said last named support provided with slots to receive said bolts and to permit sliding of said slidable table relative to said last named support, and a spacer ring around each said bolt between said slidable table and said last named support to spacedly mount said slidable table over said last named support.

7. In a snowmobile according to claim 6, wherein said shaft also comprises a transmission portion located opposite the end portion of said shaft, an asbestos ring applied to the end of said transmission portion and a frictional disc clutch retained by said rotatable cam said frictional disc clutch engageable by said asbestos ring upon sliding of said slidable table towards said rotatable cam.

8. In a snowmobile according to claim 7, which comprises a first transverse rod on the upper face of said slidable table and a second transverse rod on the underface of said support, said rods aligned with one another in the inoperative position of said winch, a fork lever formed with two legs, said legs engaged by both said rods, a control cable connecting the upper portion of said fork lever with a hand control provided on said snowmobile, an extension spring connected between said downwardly bent portion away from said transmission portion and a hooking blade provided underneath said table and retained by the bolts used to fix said second shaft support.