Patent ID: 6868932

Claim:
A vehicle drivetrain comprising: an engine having a PTO, power take-off, shaft; a first transmission below said engine and driven by said PTO shaft; a second transmission above said first transmission and horizontally adjacent said engine, said second transmission having an input driven by said first transmission, and an output providing vehicle propulsion; wherein: said PTO shaft extends vertically downwardly; said second transmission has a downwardly extending vertical input shaft; said first transmission is a constant velocity clutch continuously variable transmission, CVT, having a first pulley driven by said PTO shaft, a second pulley driving said input shaft of said second transmission, and a belt extending around said pulleys and driving said second pulley from said first pulley, said pulleys rotating in a horizontal plane; and comprising: a CVT mounting case housing said first and second pulleys, and wherein said engine and said second transmission are each mounted to said CVT mounting case at respective first and second mounting attachment locations precisely spaced and aligned to provide precise spacing of the centerlines of said PTO shaft and said input shaft of said second transmission and precise alignment of such shafts in parallelism; a power transfer device driven by said output of said second transmission to transfer power to propel the vehicle; wherein: said power transfer device comprises a pair of drive shafts driven in torque balancing counter-rotation, at least one of said drive shafts providing vehicle propulsion; and said power transfer device comprises a power transfer rotary drive member driven by said output of said second transmission, and comprising a transfer case housing said power transfer rotary drive member, wherein said transfer case is mounted to said second transmission, the first of said drive shafts is mounted to said transfer case in journaled relation, and the second of said drive shafts is mounted to said CVT mounting case in journaled relation.