JPH07285479A - Four-wheeled vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease the number of part items, reduce the assembly man-hour, reducing the cost and improve the maintainability, etc. CONSTITUTION:In a four-wheeled vehicle covering a car body front part including partly a fuel tank 10 with a front fender 9, the front fender 9 is integrally molded in a shape wherein its side wall part 9c covers both side parts of the fuel tank 10, and a notched part 9d, where a handle and the fuel tank 10 are partly exposed, is formed in a top surface part 9b of the front fender 9. Since the front fender 9 is integrally molded by including a conventional top cover or side cover, decreasing a number of part items, reducing a cost of dies and reducing the assembly man-hour according to this decreasing a number of part items are realized, and reducing a cost of this four-wheeled vehicle can be attained. Since the notched part 9d is formed in the top surface part 9b of the front fender 9, even after the handle is built, the front fender 9 can be mounted/demounted in a condition with the handle left as built, so as to improve the maintainability of this four-wheeled vehicle.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a four-wheeled vehicle such as a buggy that travels on uneven terrain.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In such a four-wheel vehicle, a fuel tank is generally arranged above the engine and behind the steering wheel, and a front part of the vehicle body including a part of the fuel tank is made of resin. Covered by front fenders.

By the way, conventionally, the front fender has been constructed so as to exert its function by being combined with a top cover or a side cover which is a separate member.

[0004]

However, when the top cover or the like or the side cover is provided separately from the front fender as described above, the number of parts increases, the die cost thereof rises, and the assembling man-hours also increase. This will increase and increase the cost of the four-wheel vehicle.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to reduce the number of parts and the number of assembling steps by integrating the front fender.
It is to provide a four-wheel vehicle that can reduce costs.

Further, conventionally, a hole for a handle (steering shaft) to pass through is formed in the front fender, and once the handle (steering shaft) is inserted through the hole and the hole is assembled, the front fender is then removed. There is a problem that it becomes impossible to remove and attach, and maintainability is extremely poor.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a four-wheel vehicle with high maintainability.

In order to achieve the above object, a notch portion through which a steering wheel (steering shaft) penetrates is formed in the front fender, and after the steering wheel (steering shaft) has been assembled, the front fender is removed to move it in one direction ( For example, it may be configured such that it can be pulled out to the front of the vehicle body).

However, the following problems occur when the above configuration is adopted.

That is, in a four-wheeled vehicle having a structure in which the air cleaner duct is opened upward at the rear of the fuel tank, a water draining portion for preventing water from entering the air cleaner duct is conventionally provided with a front fender. Alternatively, although it is formed integrally with the top cover or the like, if the cutout portion is formed in the front fender as described above, there arises a problem that the draining portion cannot be formed in the front fender.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a four-wheel vehicle which can surely prevent water from entering the air cleaner duct by integrally forming a draining portion in the fuel tank. .

[0012]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object,
The invention according to claim 1 is a four-wheeled vehicle in which a fuel tank is arranged above the engine and behind the steering wheel, and a front part of the vehicle body including a part of the fuel tank is covered with a front fender. The front fender is integrally formed in a shape that covers both sides of the fuel tank, and a cutout portion that exposes a part of the handle and the fuel tank is formed in a top surface portion of the front fender.

The invention according to claim 2 is the above-mentioned claim 1.
In the invention described above, a draining portion for preventing water from entering an air cleaner duct that opens upward in the rear of the fuel tank is formed integrally with the fuel tank.

[0014]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the front fender is integrally formed by including the conventional top cover or side cover. Therefore, the number of parts and the die cost and the number of assembling steps are reduced. However, the cost of the four-wheel vehicle can be reduced.

According to the first aspect of the invention, since the notch exposing the handle is formed on the top surface of the front fender, the front fender can be removed without removing the handle even after the handle is assembled. Alternatively, the front fender that has been removed can be easily assembled in the reverse order of the removal, thereby significantly improving the maintainability of the four-wheel vehicle.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, in the case where the front fender cannot be provided with the water draining portion which has been conventionally formed because the front fender is provided with the notch portion in the first aspect of the invention. Even so,
Since the water draining portion is formed integrally with the fuel tank, the water draining portion reliably prevents the rainwater flowing along the fuel tank from entering the air cleaner duct.

[0017]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partial side view of a front portion of a four-wheel vehicle according to the present invention around a fuel tank, FIG. 2 is a partial plan view of the same, and FIG. Four
Is a partial perspective view of the same, and FIG. 5 is an overall side view of a four-wheel vehicle according to the present invention.

The four-wheeled vehicle 1 according to this embodiment is a buggy vehicle that travels on rough terrain, and its overall configuration is shown in FIG.

That is, the four-wheeled vehicle 1 has its front portion supported by a pair of left and right front wheels 2 and its rear portion movably supported by a pair of left and right rear wheels 3, respectively. The vehicle body frame 4 of the four-wheeled vehicle 1 is constructed in a pipe frame structure, which has a pair of left and right upper tubes 4a and down tubes 4b forming a substantially rectangular shape in a side view, and reinforcing between the tubes 4a and 4b. A frame 4c is installed.

A steering pipe 5 is erected obliquely upward and rearward on the center line of the vehicle body frame 4 in the front portion of the vehicle body, and a steering wheel (not shown) is provided in the steering pipe 5. The shaft is rotatably inserted. A handle 6 is attached to the upper end of the steering shaft.

The steering operation of the steering wheel 6 steers the pair of left and right front wheels 2.
The front wheel 2 is rotatably supported by a front wheel shaft 7, and is suspended vertically by a front cushion 8 on a vehicle body frame 4. The front part of the vehicle body above the front wheels 2 is covered with a front fender 9 which is integrally molded with resin.

On the other hand, a fuel tank 10 is arranged at the upper center of the vehicle body, behind the steering pipe 5, and a seat 11 is arranged behind the fuel tank 10. The seat 11 is the upper tube 4a.
It is supported by a seat rail frame 4d extending from the rear of the vehicle body. A fuel cap 40 is screwed into a fuel inlet opening at the top of the fuel tank 10.

An engine 12 is disposed below the fuel tank 10 in the center of the vehicle body. The engine 12 is provided with a pair of left and right brackets 13 connected to the reinforcing frame 4c and the bracket 13. It is mounted and supported on the vehicle body frame 4 via a pair of left and right brackets 14 which are connected to the upper tube 4a.

The air cleaner 15 constituting the intake system of the engine 12 is disposed below the seat 11, and the air cleaner duct 16 connected to the air cleaner 15 is located behind the fuel tank 10 in the seat 11. The opening opens upward. Then, the air cleaner 15 is connected to the engine 12 via the carburetor 17.
It is connected to the intake side of.

The exhaust pipe 18 extending forward from the exhaust side of the engine 12 is folded back toward the right side of the vehicle body and then extends rearward of the vehicle body, and a muffler 19 is connected to the rear end thereof. There is.

On the other hand, behind the engine 12, there are an upper tube 4a and a down tube 4 of the vehicle body frame 4.
A front end of a rear arm 21 is pivotally attached to a pair of left and right rear arm brackets 20 connected to a connecting portion with b so as to be vertically swingable by a pivot shaft 22.
A pair of left and right rear wheels 3 is rotatably supported by a rear wheel shaft 23 at the rear end of the rear wheel 1. The rear arm 21 is suspended on the vehicle body frame 4 by a rear cushion 24.

The rear arm 21 has a pipe 21a arranged on the left side of the vehicle body.
A gear box 25 is connected to the rear end.

By the way, the four-wheel vehicle 1 according to this embodiment adopts a so-called shaft drive system as a drive system, and the output shaft 26 extending from the rear portion of the engine 12 toward the rear of the vehicle body is the rear arm 21. Is connected to one end of a drive shaft (not shown) inserted through the pipe 21a, and the other end of the drive shaft is connected to a bevel gear mechanism (not shown) housed in the gear box 25.

When the engine 12 is driven, the rotation of the output shaft 26 is transmitted to the drive shaft in the pipe 21a of the rear arm 21, and the rotation of the drive shaft is generated by the bevel gear mechanism in the gear box 25. The direction is converted by 90 ° and transmitted to the rear wheel shaft 23, and the rear wheel 3 is driven to rotate by the rotation of the rear wheel shaft 23, whereby the four-wheel vehicle 1 is caused to travel.

On the other hand, the rear cushion 24 is supported at its upper end by a shaft 28 on a pair of brackets 27 connected to the vehicle body frame 4, and at its lower end to a bracket 29 connected to the rear arm 21. Supported by.

The rear portion of the vehicle body above the rear wheel 3 is covered with a rear fender 31 which is integrally molded with resin.

Here, the structure around the fuel tank 10, which constitutes the gist of the present invention, particularly the structure of the front fender 9, will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

The front fender 9 is integrally formed of resin as described above, and as shown in FIG. 2, it includes a pair of left and right mudguard portions 9a for covering the upper portions of the pair of left and right front wheels 2, respectively. A central top surface portion 9b that integrally connects the pair of left and right mudguard portions 9a, and a pair of left and right side wall portions 9c that continuously extend rearward of the vehicle body (to the right in FIG. 2) from the mudguard portion 9a and the top surface portion 9b. It is composed by.

Thus, the front fender 9 has a point a (see FIG. 1) at the front, a point b (see FIG. 2) at the middle, and two points c and d (at the rear end) on the left and right sides. 2 and FIG. 3), they are respectively supported by the vehicle body frame 4 and the fuel tank 10 by bolts 32, and as shown in FIG. 2, the top surface portion 9b thereof faces rearward of the vehicle body (rightward in FIG. 2). A notch 9d having a substantially U shape in plan view is formed so as to open. The steering pipe 5 penetrates the cutout portion 9d and a part of the upper surface of the fuel tank 10 is exposed, and both side portions of the fuel tank 10 are covered by the side wall portions 9c of the front fender 9. There is.

In the front fender 9, two mud-shaped ribs 9a-1 which are long in the vehicle front-rear direction (left-right direction in FIG. 2) are formed in each mudguard portion 9a, as shown in FIG. The rigidity of the mudguard portion 9a is enhanced by the ribs 9a-1, and the muddy water that is splashed up by the front wheels and adheres to the inner surface of the mudguard portion 9a flows along the ribs 9a-1 and falls.

On the other hand, as shown in detail in FIG. 4, the left and right sides of the rear end portion of the fuel tank 10 are attached to the bracket 33 connected to the upper tube 4a of the vehicle body frame 4 by the bolts 34. , The fuel tank 1
At the rear end portion of 0, a gate-shaped draining portion 10a is integrally formed, which is bridged between both mounting portions by the bolt 34 and has a high central portion.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the water draining portion 10a is positioned above the opening of the air cleaner duct 16 so as to cover substantially half of the opening portion, and water is dammed in the central portion thereof. A collar portion 10a-1 for stopping is integrally provided upright.

As shown in FIG. 3, the bottom plate 35 of the seat 11 has two draining plates 35a and 35b.
Are integrally formed so as to project downward, one drainer plate 35a is located above the drainer portion 10a formed integrally with the fuel tank 10, and the other drainer plate 35a is provided.
b is provided at a position separated from the opening of the air cleaner duct 16 rearward.

In the above, according to the present embodiment, the conventional top cover or side cover is abolished, and the front fender 9 is integrally formed including the conventional top cover or side cover. Therefore, the number of parts is reduced and It is possible to reduce the die cost and the assembly man-hours associated with
The cost can be reduced.

Further, since the steering pipe 5 penetrates through the top surface portion 9b of the front fender 9 and a cutout portion 9d for exposing a part of the fuel tank 10 is formed, even after the handle 6 is assembled. The front fender 9 can be removed and the front fender 9 can be pulled out to the front of the vehicle body without removing the handle 6, or the removed front fender 9 can be easily assembled in the reverse procedure of the removal, whereby the four-wheel vehicle The maintenance property of 1 is remarkably improved.

Further, according to the present embodiment, since the front fender 9 is provided with the cutout portion 9d, it is not possible to provide the water draining portion which is conventionally formed in the front fender 9, but the fuel tank 10 has the water draining portion 10a. Since the water is integrally formed, rainwater or the like flowing along the fuel tank 10 is distributed to the left and right by the water draining portion 10a as shown by an arrow in FIG. 4, and the invasion into the air cleaner duct 16 is reliably prevented. Further, the water flowing from the fuel tank 10 side along the bottom plate 35 of the seat 11 is cut by the water draining plate 35a formed on the bottom plate 35 and drops into the water draining portion 10a on the fuel tank 10 side to drop in the air cleaner duct 16 The muddy water or the like that is splashed up by the rear wheel 3 and flows upward along the bottom plate 35 is cut off by the water draining plate 35b to prevent it from entering the air cleaner duct 16.

[0043]

As is clear from the above description, according to the first aspect of the invention, the front fender has the integral structure including the conventional top cover or side cover, so that the number of parts is reduced and the mold associated therewith is formed. It is possible to reduce costs and man-hours for assembly, and to reduce costs of the four-wheel vehicle.

According to the first aspect of the invention, since the notch exposing the handle is formed on the top surface of the front fender, the front fender can be removed without removing the handle even after the handle is assembled. This is possible, or the removed front fender can be easily assembled in the reverse order of the removal, and the effect of significantly improving the maintainability of the four-wheel vehicle can be obtained.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, in the case where the front fender cannot be provided with the water draining portion conventionally formed because the front fender is provided with the notch portion in the first aspect of the invention. Even so,
Since the drainage portion is formed integrally with the fuel tank, it is possible to reliably prevent the rainwater flowing along the fuel tank from entering the air cleaner duct by the drainage portion.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial side view of a front portion of a four-wheel vehicle around a fuel tank according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial plan view of a front portion of a four-wheel vehicle around a fuel tank according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side cross-sectional view around a rear portion of a fuel tank showing a draining structure.

FIG. 4 is a partial perspective view around the rear part of the fuel tank showing the structure of the draining part.

FIG. 5 is an overall side view of a four-wheel vehicle according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Four-wheeled vehicle 6 Handle 9 Front fender 9a Mudguard section 9b Top surface section 9c Side wall section 9d Cutout section 10 Fuel tank 10a Draining section 12 Engine 16 Air cleaner duct

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A four-wheel vehicle in which a fuel tank is arranged above an engine and behind a handle, and a front part of a vehicle body including a part of the fuel tank is covered with a front fender, the front fender is A four-wheeled vehicle integrally formed in a shape covering both sides of the fuel tank, and a cutout portion that exposes a part of the handle and the fuel tank is formed in a top surface portion of the front fender. 2. The four-wheeled vehicle according to claim 1, wherein a draining portion for preventing water from entering an air cleaner duct that opens upward at the rear of the fuel tank is formed integrally with the fuel tank. vehicle.