Patent ID: 7086490

Claim:
A tracked crawler vehicle comprising: a vehicle frame; at least one driving engine mounted on said vehicle frame; left and right crawler tracks respectively having smooth inner contact surfaces; plural drive and idler wheels including left and right front wheels and left and right rear wheels that are each respectively rotatably supported relative to said vehicle frame and are each respectively rotationally drivable by said at least one driving engine, wherein said left crawler track is carried and driven on said left front and rear wheels, said right crawler track is carried and driven on said right front and rear wheels, and said front and rear wheels have smooth drive surfaces which respectively contact said smooth inner contact surfaces and thereby are adapted to frictionally transmit a tractive force to a respective one of said crawler tracks carried and driven thereon; hydraulically actuatable multi-disk brakes respectively provided for each of said front and rear wheels; and a drive arrangement interposed and connected for drive power transmission between said at least one driving engine and said front and rear wheels so as to drive said front and rear wheels while avoiding slippage between said front and rear wheels and said crawler tracks, wherein said drive arrangement comprises first left and right hydraulically operating drive units respectively connected to said left and right front wheels.