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Abstract

A two-regime CVT for a tracked vehicle steered by differential movement of its tracks, comprising two ratio-varying units of the toroidal-race, rolling-traction type, which drive the vehicle without steer when their outputs are the same, but with steer when those outputs differ. Each such output is connected respectively by way of a steering epicyclic gear set to the drive of one of the tracks. According to one aspect of the invention the axes of the two variators and of the inputs from them to the two steering epicyclics are all coaxial, and may also be coaxial with the input to a third epicyclic gear set operable to change the transmission between its two regimes. Another aspect of the invention resides in a novel arrangement of the components of the two steering epicyclic gear sets in which in the first of the regimes the transmission input directly drives one input of each steering epicyclic, whereas in the second regime the transmission input is disconnected from them, but one of those inputs now becomes an output and drives the other input.

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First Claim