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Traction Products, Inc.
Weismann Marine, LLC.
July 1st, 2005
Last year during a visit concerning our military offshore programs, we were asked if we had any ATV experience. Of course we had, and a week later, a USSOCOM officer came to visit our facilities. Within days we got the job and started working on the vehicle above. As subcontracters, we were tasked with designing the complete drivetrain using the small 1 litre SMART Turbo Diesel Engine. Once the Military's desires were known, we designed and manufactured 3 complete drivetrains in 9 months from scratch.
The vehicle has 3 Weismann Offroad Lockers, one Weismann Center Locker between the front and rear wheels, a manually shifted Hi-Lo-Rev transfer case; and a push-button, computer controlled, electrically shifted 3 speed Weismann Quickshift transmission. Effectively, the vehicle has 3 speeds in Lo, Hi, and Reverse - 9 speeds in total. The back two wheels are designed to be removed within minutes to make the vehicle a 4x4 for scout missions.
All 3 Weismann Lockers housings are interchangeable in case of failure. Further the Locker and the Center Locker were employed in case of an axle failure. As it happened, the damper to the front wheels (not speced by us) kept failing and with the Center Locker, there was no slip or power loss to the front wheels, and the vehicle was able to finish initial testing both here and at the Military proving grounds with just rear wheel drive. Even with all 6 wheels Locker driving, there was not any understeer noticed. The Lockers and Transmission all feature drysump oil systems, with the Locker Housing containing 2 different built-in drysumps for the different mounting arrangements.
Initially the Smart Engine Control Unit (ECU) gave us fits, but were able to solicit the help of the people who designed the ECU, and in 2 short weeks, we were able to get the ECU to do what we wanted and we had the vehicle performing flawlessly around our makeshift test track (around the block)! The transmission controller (TCU) syncronizes each shift so the clutch is only used for launch and is foot operated.
