I always wanted a car with tank treads but one of the major problems is the weight of the track system and resulting bad ride quality.
Invert the Inductrack system by embedding the magnets for the Halbach arrays in a rubber belt, line the bottom of a car or ATV with the closed loop coils and add a suspension wheel at the front and back for use at slow speeds. You may also want to add a normal suspension to the coils to increase travel or to alter ground pressure for turning.
The advantage is a truly even ground pressure and I think a lower sprung weight and no flats. The maglev just replaces the air in the tires and allows for a longer thinner contact patch and probably less rolling friction.
I'm still working on how to keep the tracks from coming off.-- MisterQED, Nov 24 2007 If you just want to have a smooth ride and no flat tyres, have a normal tyre with magnets embedded in it, and make the centre of the wheel a powerfully repulsive (to the outer tyre) magnet. This would prevent flat tyres (assuming magnetic repulsion is as strong as you suggest).-- dbmag9, Nov 24 2007 I think this will ONLY work at low speeds, because centrifugal force will cause the treads become more circular.-- BJS, Nov 26 2007 Heh... great idea [+]-- xxobot, Nov 26 2007 [+], purely for "I'm still working on how to keep the tracks from coming off."-- Ned_Ludd, Nov 26 2007 the idea will be quite sussessful
i am so confident becase i have worked on it for two years. i have even made several models for magnetic suspension.
but i am still finding some better concepts for dynamic stability-- rohitchilli, Apr 16 2008 Okay - the wheels would be hovering inside the tracks? That's weird funny.-- elhigh, Apr 18 2008 A boy and his tank. Excellent read by the way-- Voice, Apr 19 2008 [rohitchilli] I understand your pent-up feelings. For trying to expound what you are trying to convey you flung your rant on me. Let me help you, friend. (BTW, that previous message you are irritated with is pointing to someone else, not the paranoid you.) Mad as underwater helicopter we are rotate.-- james_what, Apr 19 2008 <awaits posting of "Underwater Helicopter">-- wagster, Apr 20 2008 Who stole my car’s magnetic bearings in each of its four wheels, or my truck’s superconducting magnetic bearings in each of its six tires? Tell me! Or, was it you, [james_what] the plagiarist!? Maybe you sold them to [MisterQED]! Better you re-engineer it which I doubt you can't - your time runs out and I will find it out!... :-D :-D :-D :-)-- rotary, Apr 20 2008 I still don't quite understand how the tracks would move.-- ed, Apr 21 2008 It is up to your imagination, [ed]. I suggest you dream about track segments curling and straightening sequentially, while the wheels are just carried along. Let’s just wait for his idea to come along too. I need to study Inductrack first—the key is there.-- rotary, Apr 21 2008 I'm having a hard time understanding the power train. How does the energy get from the engine to the tracks?-- Ozone, Apr 21 2008 If you're using maglev to move the treads... don't really need tires, do you?-- starfyredragon, Oct 26 2009 utterly worthless idea.-- WcW, Oct 26 2009 [finishes reading annos above]
What the fuck just happened? That was like being brutally assaulted with a rubber chicken, I don't know how to feel.
Underwater hellicopters, plagiarism, nonexistent or imaginary rants.....-- Custardguts, Oct 26 2009 [BJS] Unfortunately, the maglev part of the Inductrack system only works once the speed of the vehicle is high enough. At low speeds, the effect of the halbach arrays interfering with the coils results in more induced friction than levitation. At low speeds, the vehicle would have to probably use a standard interface with the tracks that physically disengages from the track when speed increases. Preventing the track from becoming circular may be a matter of designing the tread such that the levitating force of the coils cause the tread to form to the terrain on the bottom; as the tread returns through the top of the loop, it would form a parabolic shape representative of a ballistic trajectory.-- toodles, Oct 28 2009 redundant: in sci-fi stories all future tanks are either anti-grav or maglev-tracked.-- FlyingToaster, Oct 28 2009 //utterly worthless idea// Well that's not completely true. This idea was a response to a noob who kept throwing out maglev suspension ideas as some kind of ultimate solution. This idea is proof of concept idea as I could get this to work, though I will agree the application would have to be very unique to see any benefit.-- MisterQED, Nov 01 2009 point taken. worthless rhetoric is acceptable.-- WcW, Nov 01 2009 random, halfbakery