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Today, driving in driving rain, I found my tyres losing traction
as I drove up a mountain.
A fifth wheel, central to the vehicle and toothed to engage a
gear rack set into the road surface, would allow much better
traction up such daunting slopes, safely.
When retracted it could double
as a regenerative energy
storage device, seeing as how it would be a large, heavy
flywheel most of the time.
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A true furnicular uses two cars linked by a
cable, which balance one another. |
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This is actually a rack-and-pinion system. |
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The wheel wouldn't need to be heavy per se;
there just needs to be enough downforce
from the mass of the vehicle to keep it
engaged. |
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There would need to be a way of keeping the
vehicle exactly central on the rack. On cog
raiways, that's not a problem as the rack is
simply centred between the rails. |
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Could be done on a 4x4 with a gearbox rear
power takeoff port i.e. a Land Rover. |
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A narrow-gauge-to-cog railway once ran within a few dozen
yards of my house (pre-existing appeal); |
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and I generally love things that involve maximizing traction
while going up mountains and such; |
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and I love regenerative motors and flywheels and large
heavy mechanical devices; |
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and it seems like the sort of thing that would make a
unique and interesting noise... |
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It could be lighter, [8th], but that would detract from
the steampunk overkill factor I intended. |
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There was a Panhard armored car that had four rubber-
tired road wheels and four more cleated steel wheels that
dropped down between them for enhanced traction. I've
seen one somewhere. Bovington, maybe? |
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