Patent ID: 7601095

Claim:
A vehicle comprising: an engine including a horizontal crankshaft extended in the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle; an accelerator for controlling a rotary speed of the engine; an axle; and a multi-speed transmission for transmitting power from the engine to the axle, the multi-speed transmission including: a first clutch having an input portion and an output portion, a second clutch having an input portion and an output portion, wherein each of the first and second clutches is selectively engaged to transmit power from the input portion thereof to the output portion thereof, or disengaged to isolate the output portion thereof from power of the input portion thereof, a first transmission shaft on which the first and second clutches are provided coaxially to each other, wherein the first transmission shaft receives power from the engine, and the input portions of the respective first and second clutches are fitted to the first transmission shaft so as to be rotatable integrally with the first transmission shaft, a second transmission shaft extended parallel to the first transmission shaft, an odd-numbered speed drive train for an odd-numbered speed level interposed between the output portion of the first clutch and the second transmission shaft, a third transmission shaft extended parallel to the first and second clutches, an even-numbered speed drive train for an even-numbered speed level interposed between the output portion of the second clutch and the third transmission shaft, and a fourth transmission shaft extended parallel to the first, second and third transmission shafts so as to output power to the axle, wherein both the odd-numbered and even-numbered speed drive trains are further extended to the fourth transmission shaft so as to have respective output ends on the fourth transmission shaft, wherein, in correspondence to operation of the accelerator and an actual speed of the axle, one of the first and second clutches is engaged and the other of the first and second clutches is disengaged so as to select either the odd-numbered speed drive train or the even-numbered speed drive train to transmit power from the first transmission shaft to the fourth transmission shaft, wherein, while the speed level of the multi-speed transmission is shifted between the odd-numbered speed level and the even-numbered speed level, the engagement process of the one of the first and second clutches is timely overlapped with the disengagement process of the other of the first and second clutches wherein the first, second, third and fourth transmission shafts are extended in the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle, wherein the first and fourth transmission shafts are juxtaposed in the lateral direction of the vehicle, and wherein the second and third transmission shafts are located between the first and fourth shafts in the lateral direction of the vehicle and are juxtaposed in the vertical direction of the vehicle.