terranica expedition

Our new electric transmission uses two electric motors (one for each side) in a unit with reduction gears, as traction motors that drive the front impellers.

This drive scheme is applied due to the property of electric motors to create a maximum torque from 0 km/h, practically over the entire speed range.

This is usually used in electric transmissions of electric locomotives and mining dump trucks, which need to get off the ground and transport a huge mass of goods.

This property is unique for tracked ATVs, because the main obstacles in the form of overcoming steep slopes or going from floating to ice must be overcome with the maximum torque at the minimum speeds.

This cannot be done on conventional transmissions, because in them, in order to obtain traction torque, it is necessary to “spin up” the transmission.

Our electric transmission uses a gas engine generator of a lower power, which is used to charge the buffer battery. Its power is only needed to speed up the charging process. The generator charges the buffer battery solely as the current is used and automatically starts and turns off when necessary.

When charging, the engine immediately reaches the optimal operating mode and gives out the best efficiency due to the fact that it does acceleration, unwinding, idling, etc. This requires less fuel at comparable mileage to a conventional manual transmission. In combination with the ability to install additional fuel tanks, the autonomy of our tracked ATV has increased several times, which is very important in deserts, savannas, tundras, etc., where there is no charging and refuelling stations.

The new electric transmission is now even easier and more intuitive to drive. Similar to driving a car with an automatic transmission – one gas pedal and one brake pedal.

The difference in rotational speed of the traction motors depends on the steering wheel rotation sensor, and the forces are comparable to those of a conventional joystick.

In addition, we made it possible to rotate around the geometric axis of the ATV by rotating one track forward and the other backward.

The braking process is carried out directly by the electric motors, by creating a force directly on the shaft of the driving electric motor to recuperate energy back into the battery.

The parking brake remains classic – a brake disc with pads and a mechanical drive is installed directly on the shaft of the electric motor.

This solution made possible the placing of the entire brake system into the body and protecting it from dirt, water, ice and other types of aggressive impacts.

The body is made combined with the use of ship technologies – a welded aluminium boat, inside of which there is a metal power frame for electric transmission, covered with a single fiberglass part – a deck.

This design made it possible to make the body light and tough, and extremely easy to repair.

From the inside the entire body is covered with 30mm effective thermal insulation, which allows excellent heat retention.

Now our ATV has an important option – a hard top with hatches that can be folded up and hinged side doors that open in the opposite direction.

The new body implements the principle of easy access to the driver’s and front passenger’s seats and to the rear passenger seats by climbing and descending stairs, which is a great advantage for an amphibious tracked ATV.

Completely independent and short-stroke.

We abandoned the long-stroke suspension, which made it possible to exclude the tendency of the vehicle to spontaneous dropping of the caterpillar.

For added comfort we applied pneumatic track rollers with tubeless tires or with monolithic rubber filling for operating in harsh conditions (optional).

Suspension arms, drive wheel, guide and supporting rollers are made of heavy-duty polymer with high modulus of elasticity, light weight and give the car additional buoyancy due to low specific gravity.

The use of ultra-strong polymers in these units and parts and their properties to repel freezing from snow, made it possible to minimize freezing by snow and ice of the entire drive and suspension mechanism.

It is made collapsible into three parts – a track, a comb and a belt.

Now our caterpillar does not “get washed out” on the inclines, but it clings well to all types of surfaces due to the sharp edge of the polymer track.

The new caterpillar now has no holes for the drive sprocket and it rests on the supporting surface with its entire belt area.

The absence of “windows” for the classic sprocket on the caterpillar’s belt significantly increases its tensile strength and, as a consequence, the resource.

The tracks on all Terranica models from 2021 are only 600 mm wide.

The track’s shape, weight and traction on the drive wheel allow our vehicle to go out from floating onto ice surface, which is a huge achievement for any ATV.

In Terranica Expedition, a new type of engagement of the drive wheel with a caterpillar is organized, which eliminates the rapid wear as a result of friction of a polymer sprocket with a metal ratchet, ringing the caterpillar engagement window.

Now the engagement takes place by the method of interaction of transverse parts made of ultra-strong polymer on the drive wheel with a polymer ridge on the caterpillar.

Now the polymer interacts with the polymer and wears out minimally and this way eliminates cause of the rust.

A feature of Terranica EXPEDITION is the presence of additional displacement volumes in the caterpillar bypass, which create more confident overcoming of water obstacles due to improved stability.

Additional displacement is 1000 litres.

This allows overcoming of water obstacles, including waves.

The speed on the water has been increased due to the fact that the upper belt of the caterpillar has the surface position and does not “row” in the opposite direction when the caterpillar propeller rotates in the water.

The presence of sponsons has significantly increased the internal volume of the vehicle, allowing them to accommodate cargo compartments, fuel tanks and other equipment.

This propeller is widely used with modern military equipment and can significantly increase the speed of the vehicle, converting the idle kinetic energy of the water flow created by the tracked propeller into useful energy of the water flow directed in the opposite direction of movement.

In this way, when crossing water obstacles, you can do it without an additional outboard motor.

In our new model, we use materials and technologies that are widely used in the aviation industry – aluminium, high-alloy stainless steels, composites, conventional and ultra-strong polymers.

We managed to make the vehicle with the lowest weight and capabilities incomparable for such a weight, and the use of these materials allows us to overcome any extreme obstacles simultaneously in combination with all topological and climatic conditions.

Thanks to the use of polymers and composites, the weight of the new vehicle with a payload does not exceed 2500 kg, which, together with an increased base and a wide track, creates a minimum ground pressure in the range of 0.08 – 0.09 kg/cm2, which is comparable to the pressure on the supporting surface of classic snowmobile.

The use of electric motors made it possible to abandon unnecessary mechanical connections, which further facilitated the vehicle and made it possible to organize front-wheel drive and made the ideal weight distribution of the vehicle.

For tracked vehicles, this condition is the key, allowing you to overcome obstacles evenly leaning on a weak-bearing surface.