Patent ID: 8863884

Claim:
A combination spine-type chassis and driver module in a four-wheel drive vehicle, said four-wheel drive vehicle having an engine and a transmission disposed aft of the engine and connected to be driven by the engine, said combination comprising: the chassis defining an open trough having two substantially straight flanks, the two flanks disposed opposed to each other closer together at the bottoms of the flanks than at the tops of the flanks, the top of one of the flanks defining one of the opposite sides of the open mouth of the trough, the top of the other one of the flanks defining the other one of the opposite sides of the mouth of the trough, the trough being configured to receive the transmission therein, the bottoms of the flanks of the trough defining an apex that defines an included angle of no more than 100°; the chassis having at least a air of chassis mounts, said chassis mounts being tubular, spaced apart from each other and axially aligned with each other along a mounting axis that is disposed adjacent the top of one of said flanks of said trough; the driver module having at least a pair of driver module mounts, each said driver module mount being spaced apart from the other driver module mount, each driver module mount being, disposed adjacent a respective one of the chassis mounts and axially aligned with and axially spaced apart from the respective chassis mount along the mount axis, each respective driver module mount and respective adjacent chassis mount being selectively connected by a removable pin permitting pivoting of said driver module relative to said chassis about said mounting axis; and wherein said driver module having a substantially flat underside selectively disposed across the mouth of the trough, wherein the substantially flat underside and the flanks of said trough selectively define a duct that houses the transmission aft of the engine for cooling the transmission.