Patent ID: RE38858

Claim:
A belt laying work vehicle comprising: a frame having opposed lateral sides; a pair of longitudinally separated wheel structures having radially outwardly facing outer peripheral surfaces and being mounted in supporting relation to said frame on each lateral side thereof and at least one of each pair including a driver; a pair of endless, inextensible belts each having opposite lateral sides and an interior surface and each being entrained about a respective pair of said wheel structures, a plurality of laterally extending grooves being disposed on one of said interior surface and said outer peripheral surface of each belt and entrained driver, respectively, for removing debris from therebetween; means for controllably tensioning and urging each belt's interior surface and said outer peripheral surface of the associated driver into frictional driven engagement; means for distributing a predetermined portion of the weight of said frame to the interior surface of each belt longitudinally between said wheel structures of each pair; means for rotating each of said drivers; guiding means including interengaging portions of said wheel structures and entraining belt for minimizing lateral movement of each belt relative to the respective entrained wheel structures and for radially localizing lateral engagement of each belt and the respective entrained driver to locations substantially adjacent said outer peripheral surface; and said driver wheel structure having a circumference which is maintained substantially constant during rotation and under driving load.