Patent ID: 8100204

Claim:
A hydrostatic transmission mountable as a unit to a frame of a vehicle, the transmission comprising: a housing assembly having a pump portion, a motor portion, and a bridge portion between the pump and motor portions; a pump contained within the pump portion, the pump configured to be driven by an input shaft of the hydrostatic transmission; and a motor contained within the motor portion and connected to the pump via supply and return lines, the motor configured to drive an output shaft of the hydrostatic transmission; wherein the housing assembly includes a mounting surface for enabling the hydrostatic transmission to be secured to the frame such that the output shaft and motor portion of the housing assembly extend outwardly from the frame such that when the output shaft is connected to a wheel, the motor portion of the housing is at least partially received within the wheel; and wherein the input shaft and the output shaft extend generally perpendicular to one another from the housing assembly whereby when the transmission is mounted to the frame the input shaft is oriented on an underside of the transmission whereby a drive wheel can be mounted to the input shaft on a lower end thereof.