A gearbox for a vehicle includes: a housing; first and second shafts extending parallel to one another; first transmission gears mounted to the first shaft; and second transmission gears mounted to the second shaft. The transmission gears are helical gears. The first transmission gears are in constant mesh with the second transmission gears to form a plurality of gear pairings engageable to operate the gearbox in different gears. A drive gear is mounted to an input shaft extending into the housing. The input shaft is operatively connected to an engine of the vehicle. A driven gear is mounted to the second shaft and is configured to engage the drive gear. The drive and driven gears are spur gears. A flexible driving member is configured to drivingly connect one of the first shaft and the second shaft to an output shaft. A snowmobile including a gearbox is also contemplated.

A switchback control apparatus for an industrial vehicle, includes a forward and reverse operating part, a forward and reverse position detector detecting a position of the forward and reverse operating part, a vehicle speed detector; and a shift control section shifting the transmission forcibly to a first speed stage and then, releasing the first speed stage of the transmission that is set forcibly when the forward and reverse operating part is shifted from the forward position to the reverse position or from the reverse position to the forward position by the forward and reverse position detector and a vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed detector greater is than or equal to a threshold value that is smaller than a shift-up vehicle speed for shifting the transmission from the first speed stage to a second speed stage.

A vehicle control apparatus including a torque transmission detecting part detecting a torque transmission state switched by a torque transmission switching part and a microprocessor configured to perform setting a target speed of an internal combustion engine in accordance with the torque transmission state detected by the torque transmission detecting part. The microprocessor is configured to perform the setting including increasing the target speed when a switch to the off-gear state is detected by the torque transmission detecting part after a switch instruction to an off-gear state the first is output by a first switch instruction part, while not increasing the target speed even when the switch to the off-gear state is detected by the torque transmission detecting part after a switch instruction to a reverse in-gear state or forward in-gear state is output by the second switch instruction part.

A control device of controlling a vehicle that includes an automatic transmission is provided with a control unit. The automatic transmission includes a power transmission mechanism with an engaging element, and a variator connected in series to the power transmission mechanism. The control unit of this device completes engagement of the engaging element after downshifting of the variator is completed when at least an accelerator pedal opening becomes not smaller than a predetermined opening, during neutral running control which brings the power transmission mechanism into a power shut-off state during running of the vehicle.

A method and associated apparatus for emergency stopping of a vehicle which has an electronic control unit (ECU) and speed sensors on each ground engaging wheel with other conventional components of a motor vehicle wherein once the apparatus for rapid stopping of a motor vehicle is activated, the brakes will stop the forward motion/rotation of each wheel and once the rotation of the tire is ceased the transmission is activated such that the tire will be driven in the reverse rotation until the vehicle is stopped, once the vehicle is stopped the transmission is placed into the original position or into park.

A control system for a transmission reverser, which includes an output shaft, an output gear, a reverse gear, a forward clutch, an input power clutch, a first reverse disconnect device, and a second reverse disconnect device, has one or more controllers with processing and memory architecture configured to execute control logic to control the transmission reverser in a start-up mode, a forward mode and a reverse mode. In the start-up mode, the one or more controllers command the input power clutch and the first reverse disconnect device to simultaneously engage momentarily to apply an engagement torque to the second reverse disconnect device.

A motor vehicle control system that includes a first user-operable transmission selector for selecting a transmission operating mode and a user-operable gear selector, such as paddle input controls. The gear selector is operable in a first functional mode to select between a plurality of forward direction gear ratios. The gear selector is also operable in a second functional mode to select between a forward direction and reverse direction. This allows a user to use the gear selector to control travel in forward and reverse directions.

A method and apparatus for evaluating the driving of a vehicle performing a journey on a road network is disclosed. The method comprises determining a fuel usage rate and an engine speed of a vehicle, and determining when the vehicle is coasting based upon at least one of the fuel usage rate and the engine speed of the vehicle. An acceleration of the vehicle, when the vehicle is determined to be coasting, is compared with a predetermined reference acceleration, and an application of braking during the coasting is determined based on the result of the comparison. A method and apparatus is also disclosed for determining a score indicative of the relative amount of time for which the vehicle is coasting without braking during a journey.

A control method of a variable speed electric motor system, which includes an electric device and a planetary gear transmission device, the control method includes: a step of accepting an instruction for a number of rotations of an output shaft; a step of calculating a number of rotations of a variable speed electric motor based on the number of rotations of the output shaft; a step of determining whether the calculated number of rotations of the variable speed electric motor is in an uncontrollable range; and a step of performing uncontrollable speed range operation for repeatedly and alternately performing a forward direction minimum rotation number instruction for driving the variable speed electric motor at a minimum number of rotations in a forward direction, and a reverse direction minimum rotation number instruction for driving the variable speed electric motor at a minimum number of rotations in a reverse direction.

A method and apparatus for providing an indication to a driver of a geared vehicle that the vehicle is not in an optimal gear is disclosed. The method comprises determining a current gear of the vehicle and determining a current speed of a drive unit of the vehicle. An indication is then provided to the driver of the vehicle that the vehicle is not in an optimal gear when: (i) the determined current speed of the drive unit is greater than a predetermined threshold; and (ii) the determined current gear of the vehicle is less than a maximum gear of the vehicle. A method and apparatus is also disclosed for determining a score indicative of the amount of time during a journey on a road network that a geared vehicle is driven in an optimal gear.