Patent ID: 7247113

Claim:
A working vehicle comprising an HMT made up by the combination of an HST and a planetary gear unit, and a forward/rearward travel direction changing unit for changing the rotational direction of output of said HMT, said HMT and said forward/rearward travel direction changing unit being arranged in tandem in a power transmission path extending from a driving source to driving wheels, wherein said HST includes a hydraulic pump unit and a hydraulic motor unit, at least one of which being designated as being of a variable displacement type, a pump shaft being operatively connected with said driving source for driving said hydraulic pump unit and a motor shaft being driven by said hydraulic motor unit, wherein an HST variable output in both forward and reverse directions is outputted via said motor shaft; said HMT is designed to be held in a substantially output shutdown mode when said HST variable output is at a maximum level in either forward or reverse direction, and switched from said substantially output shutdown mode to a maximum output mode as said HST variable output is changed from said maximum output level in said either forward or reverse direction to a maximum output level in the opposite direction; said forward/rearward travel direction changing unit is designed to be selectively switched into a forward travel mode enabling transmission of said HMT variable output to said driving wheels with the rotational direction of said HMT variable output maintained in a forward direction, a rearward travel mode enabling transmission of said HMT variable output to said driving wheels with the rotational direction of said HMT variable output changed to a reverse direction, and a neutral mode shutting off said power transmission path; and said working vehicle is capable of selecting (a) a normal operation state, in which said forward/rearward travel direction changing unit is switched into respectively said forward travel mode, said rearward travel mode and said neutral mode when a traveling operation member is shifted into a forward travel position, a rearward travel position and a neutral position by a driver, or (b) a power neutral operation state, in which said forward/rearward travel direction changing unit is switched into respectively said forward travel mode and said rearward travel mode when said traveling operation member is shifted into said forward travel position and said rearward travel position by the driver, and switched into either said forward travel mode or said rearward travel mode when said traveling operation member is shifted to said neutral position.