double clutch gearbox for tanks?

goose

goose

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Can a double clutch gearbox as used modern sports cars be fitted to a MBT? The near intantanious gear change and lack of power-sapping tourque converter are atractive, but is it strong enough?
 
goose said:
Can a double clutch gearbox as used modern sports cars be fitted to a MBT? The near intantanious gear change and lack of power-sapping tourque converter are atractive, but is it strong enough?
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Most military vehicles, including armoured ones used double-declutching gearboxes until the 1970s. IIRC the Centurion driver had to double-declutch to change gears. I remember being trained to do so on Australian Army trucks in the early 1980s.
 
sorry-I ment twin clutch gear box! I have just read on the internet that they are now being fitted to trucks so it looks like they could be man enough after all.
 
The clutch is always a problem with heavy vehicles: clutch plates that can withstand a 1500 shp engine trying to move a 60-ton load need to be very large. A torque converter eliminates this problem.
 
The M1 Abrams already has a a locking clutch to bypass the torque converter in high speed operations.
 
These modern double-clutch gearboxes were originally developed for motorsports applications. In a racing car, the objective is to maximize the performance of the tires by expending the traction budget to the greatest extent possible. Minimal shifting intervals (on the order of of ~60ms) are required.


The duty cycle in an armored vehicle is very different, obviously, and shift times of 1000 ms are prefectly acceptable, and in fact, more comfortable in such a large vehicle. Given that modern torque-converter automatic transmissions are exceptionally reliable, there really isn't much incentive to adapt a new technology when the existing solution is both well-understood and quite durable in service.
 
A double clutch gearbox also needs more gears than one with a torque converter.
 
I have just watched a You Tube video of a new Volvo truck fitted with a twin clutch gearbox. The truck was very large and powerful, the advantages of the new gearbox are greater efficiency, ability to change gear going uphill, uninterrupted torque delivery and even quieter than other 'boxes. They seem to have cracked it. It is not a great step from a heavy truck to an armored vehicle. In addition I realise that the clutch size is an issue but I have found on the internet a type of twin clutch box that has moved the even gears clutch from the normal input side to the output side of the box. This is so it is not fighting for space with the even gear clutch and allows them to be bigger. Problem solved?
 

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