AU783478B2 - A nestable trailer - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Invention Title: .oad. i s Loqi.i c Linm11-{ Stephon Chorlca Harkor Stephen Charles Harker CULLEN CO., Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, 239 George Street, Brisbane, QId. 4000, Australia.

A Nestable Trailer Details of Associated Provisional Application: PR1721 27 November 2000 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: A NESTABLE TRAILER This invention relates to a trailer for use with a prime mover. In particular, the invention concerns trailers that are nestable and may be moved with a single prime mover.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Prime movers when coupled to trailers and the like (eg.

semitrailers) are commonly used to transport goods by road from one location to another. There are costs involved in operating and maintaining a transport truck, and these costs are not adequately recuperated when, for instance, goods are moved over large distances or to remote locations and the truck makes a significant leg of the journey empty. Some of the costs associated with running a truck with an empty trailer include the driver's wages, fuel consumption, and general wear and tear on the truck (eg. worn tyres).

One method of minimising operating costs is to tow trailers in tandem using a single prime mover. This method, however, has the disadvantage in that in some places this practice is prohibited.

Another method of minimising operating costs is to ship empty trailers by rail, and yet another method is to leave trailers at a remote location for future use. These methods, however, also have disadvantages. For 20 instance, it may not be desirable or possible to spare a trailer in peak season, and leaving a trailer at a remote location may entail the payment of storage fees. Moreover, shipping trailers by rail may not be an option if a train does not service the desired location.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION 25 It is an object of the invention to provide a trailer for use with a prime mover that minimises at least one of the disadvantages referred to above.

•SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a nestable trailer for use with a prime mover, said nestable trailer having a storage container and a wheeled chassis that is detachable from the container, wherein the container has a base, a roof, sidewalls, a doorway through which the container may be loaded, and a coupling arrangement for releasably coupling the container to a prime mover, wherein the container may contain at least one other trailer of the same kind as the nestable trailer but which has a smaller size container.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of transporting more than one nestable trailer from one location to another using a single primer mover, each said trailer having a wheeled chassis detachably attached to a differently sized storage container, said method comprising the step of loading a container of a first trailer with a smaller container and a detached wheeled chassis of at least a second trailer.

According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a nestable trailer system for use with a prime mover, said system comprising at least two trailers wherein each said trailer comprises a wheeled chassis detachably attached to a differently sized storage container, and wherein each said container has a base, a roof, sidewalls, a doorway through which the container may be loaded, and a coupling arrangement for releasably *coupling the container to a prime mover, wherein in use the container and the detached wheeled chassis of one said trailer are contained within the "container of the other said trailer.

20 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The doorway may be located between adjacent sidewalls at a rear end of the container. Preferably, the doorway has a pair of outwardly opening doors and each door is hinged to a region of the adjacent sidewall. More preferably, each said region of the adjacent sidewall is hinged to a remainder S* 25 of the sidewall and can open outwardly with a said door. This double-hinge arrangement enables the entire rear end of the container to be opened up for loading.

Preferably, the container is rectangular in shape and is longer than it is wide. If the container is to be refrigerated, a refrigeration unit may be attached to a front sidewall of the container. The base may also be insulated with insulating panels or sprayable insulating foam. Refrigeration units and means for insulating transport containers are well known in the art.

The container may be adapted for transportation by rail.

the base at more than one location. This type of coupling arrangement is well known in the art.

The container may have wheels or rollers that enable it to be moved over a surface or loaded onto a surface. Preferably, the wheels or rollers are mounted to the base of the container. Loading rollers are well known in the art. The rollers may be located at opposing ends of the base as well as at a mid-region of the base. The rollers may extend at least part way across the width of the base.

The container may have pockets for receiving the tines of fork lifts or other lifting equipment. The pockets may be recessed areas of the base or of the container sidewalls.

Preferably, the wheeled chassis has a framework and three pairs of wheels that are mounted to the framework. The wheeled chassis may have a bumper, mudguards/flaps, a tail light, air bags and any other contrivance normally associated with a flatbed trailer or semitrailer.

The container may be attached to the wheeled chassis in any suitable way known to persons skilled in the art. For instance, the container may be attached to the wheeled chassis by way of the wheeled chassis having a pair of rails and the base having a pair of channels for receiving the 20 rails, and locking members may lock the rails within the channels. The channels may extend parallel to the longitudinal axis of the base and along a rear half of the base. The rails may extend along an upper part of the framework. The locking members may be pins that may be inserted through openings in the rails and the channels.

S 25 Alternatively, the container may be attached to the wheeled chassis by way of the chassis having pins and the base having suitably located openings for receiving the pins.

Preferably, two containers and three sets of detached wheeled chassis may be nested within a single container. If space permits, other 30 goods may be stored within the smallest of the containers as well.

Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a detailed side elevation view of a nestable trailer coupled to a prime mover, according to a first embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a top plan view of Figure 1 but with the prime mover shown in phantom; Figure 3 is a side elevation view of a wheeled chassis of the trailer of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a top plan view of Figure 3; Figure 5 is a bottom plan view of a container of the trailer of Figure 1; Figure 6 is a part side perspective view of the container of Figure shown in three different sizes (with dimensions indicated); Figure 7 is a part detailed side perspective view of the containers of Figure 6 when partly nested; Figure 8 is a side elevation and partly cross sectioned view of a nestable trailer, according to a second embodiment of the invention; Figure 9 is a rear end view of a container of the trailer of Figure 8; Figure 10 is a typical transverse cross sectional view of the container of Figure 9; Figure 11 is an end view of part of the container of Figure 9 and a region of the container is shown enlarged in a separate frame; 20 Figure 12 is a detailed bottom plan view of a part of the container of Figure 11 and some regions of the container are shown enlarged in separate frames; Figure 13 is a detailed side elevation view of part of the container of Figure 11 and some regions of the container are shown enlarged in separate frames; *Figure 14 is a top cross sectional view of the container of Figure 9 and a part of the container is shown enlarged in a separate frame; Figure 15 is a longitudinal cross sectional view of part of the Scontainer of Figure 9 and some regions of the container are shown enlarged in separate frames; ~Figure 16 is a part transverse cross sectional view of the container as shown in Figure 15 and a region of the container is shown enlarged in a separate frame; Figure 17 is a detailed side elevation view of a wheeled chassis of the trailer of Figure 8 and regions of the chassis are shown enlarged in separate frames; Figure 18 is a detailed end view of Figure 17; and Figure 19 is a detailed bottom plan view of Figure 17.

In all of the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like parts.

Figures 1 and 2 show a trailer 1 that is coupled to a prime mover 2.

The trailer 1 has a rectangular storage container 3 and a wheeled chassis 4.

The container 3 has a base 5, a roof 6, a front sidewall 7, part of a rear sidewall 8 and two other sidewalls 9. A refrigeration unit 10 is attached to the front sidewall 7. The rear sidewall 8 has a pair of outwardly opening lockable doors (not shown). A bumper 11 and tail light 12 are located at a rear end of the container 3. A kingpin 13 extends from the base 5 (shown in Figure and is used to couple the trailer 1 to a turntable 14 of the prime mover 2.

Figures 3 and 4 show the wheeled chassis 4 in greater detail. The chassis 15 has two beams 16, 17 that extend parallel to one another, and these beams 16, 17 are braced by crossbeams 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. Mounted to crossbeams 19, 20 and 21 are axles 23, 24, 25 that each support a pair of wheels 26. An aluminium or plastic guard 27 flanks each of the wheels 26.

:oi 20 The chassis 15 has locating pins 28 positioned above axles 23 and These pins 28 are used to releasably lock the container 3 to the chassis Figure 5 shows the base 5 of the container 3 in greater detail. The base 5 has twenty discernible areas, and these areas are either substantially raised or recessed. Each raised area is flanked by at least one recessed 25 area. The kingpin 13 is attached to an area of the base 5 that is raised. Two landing legs 29, 30 are attached to an area 31 of the base 5 that is recessed.

The legs 29, 30 are air-operated and may be folded between an extended ooooo position and a retracted position. In Figure 5, the legs 29, 30 are shown in the retracted position. Any of the recessed areas, (eg. as denoted by 0 numerals 32 and 33) may serve as forklift pockets.

o. Rollers 34-38 are mounted to the base 5 and these facilitate the moving of the container 3 across a surface or the loading of the container 3 onto a raised surface. The rollers 34-38 have nylon wear pads. When the I 7 landing legs 29, 30 have been retracted and the kingpin 13 has been detached from the base 5, the rollers 34-38 facilitate the loading of the container 3 into, say, a similar kind of container but of larger dimensions.

The base 5 has openings 39 that are positioned to receive the locating pins 28 of the chassis 15. The container 3 also has a locating point 41, 42, 43 at each corner of the base 5, and these points are standard features of most shipping containers.

The invention is particularly useful for transporting multiple trailers 1 from one location to another using a single prime mover. Figure 6 shows that the container 3a, 3b and 3c can be made in different sizes, and Figure 7 shows how the containers 3a, 3b, 3c may be nested within one another. In use, container 3a is lifted with a forklift and locked onto the wheeled chassis 4 and coupled to the prime mover 2, after temporarily extending the landing legs 29, 30. Containers 3b and 3c are then loaded into container 3a with the assistance of the loading rollers 34-38 (with the landing legs 29, 30 retracted and the kingpin 13 detached). Two sets of wheeled chassis 4 and two connecter dollies are then loaded into container 3c. The doors of container 3a are locked and the prime mover 2 is then driven to the second location. At the second location, containers 3b and 3c, the wheeled chassis 4 and the 20 connector dollies are unloaded from container 3a. Containers 3b and 3c may ""*either be stored detached from the wheeled chassis 4, or with the wheeled chassis 4 attached and with the landing legs 19, 20 extended. In this way, o.multiple trailers may be transported using a single truck. Alternately, one or 00 two wheeled chassis may be loaded into two or more nested containers and 25 the containers may be shipped by rail.

0 Figures 8 to 19 show a trailer 51 according to another embodiment of the invention. Like trailer 1, trailer 51 has a rectangular storage container 0 53 and a detachable wheeled chassis 54. The container 53 has a base 55, a roof 56, a front sidewall 57 and two sidewalls 59. The container 53 is a fairly 30 standard shipping container except with regard to features as pointed out below.

oo A non-standard feature is that the container 53 has a pair of specially designed lockable doors 58 between adjacent sidewalls 59 at a rear e 8 end of the container 53. The doors 58 open outwardly and each door 58 is hinged to a post 90 of the adjacent sidewall 59 with five hinges 91 (only some of which have been labelled). Each post 90 is further hinged with five hinges 92 to a remainder of the sidewall 59 and can open outwardly with the doors 58 (see Figure 12). This double-hinge arrangement enables the entire rear end of the container 53 to be opened up for loading. That is, the rear end of the container 53 does not have fixed side posts of a door jamb that would otherwise determine the width of the load that could be loaded into the container 53.

The container 53 has a kingpin 63 that is used to couple the trailer 1 to a turntable of the truck. Figures 14 and 15 show that the kingpin 63 is attachable to the base 55 at more than one location.

Figures 8, 14, 15 and 16 show that the base 55 has a plurality of Ibeams 65 that extend parallel to each other between floor panels 66, 67 of the base 55. Each end of an I-beam 65 has a plate 68 is that is fastened to a bottom rail of the container 53. The base 55 can further have sealing strips 69 if the base 55 is to contain foam insulation. The base 55 has other standard features of shipping containers including packers 100 (as seen in Figure 15) for determining the level of floor panel 66 and crossbraces 75 (as 20 seen in Figure 14). The container 53 further has retractable landing legs and *loading rollers, but these have not been illustrated in the drawings.

A unique feature of the container 53 is that it has two parallel extending pressed channels 80 that are used in attaching the chassis 54.

These channels 80 are secured to the I-beams 65 with gussets 81, as seen in 25 Figures 14 and 16.

Referring now to Figures 8 and 17 to 19, the wheeled chassis 54 has a framework having parallel extending beams 86, 87 that are braced by a lie..i plurality of crossbeams 88 (only some of which have been labelled). The chassis 54 has three pairs of wheels 82. The wheels 82 are mounted to the chassis 54 by way of suspension arms (not shown). Suspension arm mounting points are well known in the art and are shown at numeral 84 (only some of which have been labelled). Mountings for air bags are also well known in the art and are shown at numeral 85 (only some of which have been

A

9 labelled). A tail light assembly 61, 62 is attached to crossbeam 88.

A rail 89 extends along each of the beams 86, 87. The rails 89 are used in attaching the chassis 54 to the container 53. In order to attach the chassis 54 to the container 53, the rails 89 are received within the channels 80, and locking pins (not shown) are placed within openings 98 of the rails 89 and the channels Whilst the above has been given by way of illustrative example of the invention, many modifications and variations may be made thereto by persons skilled in the art without departing from the broad scope and ambit of the invention as herein set forth.

a o

Claims (22)

1. A nestable trailer system for use with a prime mover, said system comprising at least two trailers wherein each said trailer comprises a wheeled chassis detachably attached to a differently sized storage container, and wherein each said container has a base, a roof, sidewalls, a doorway through which the container may be loaded, and a coupling arrangement for releasably coupling the container to a prime mover, wherein in use the container and the detached wheeled chassis of one said trailer are contained within the container of the other said trailer.

2. The nestable trailer system of claim 1, wherein the doorway of each said container is located between adjacent sidewalls at a rear end of the container.

3. The nestable trailer system of claim 2, wherein the doorway has a 15 pair of outwardly opening doors and each door is hinged to a region of the adjacent sidewall.

4. The nestable trailer system of claim 3, wherein each said region of the adjacent sidewall is hinged to a remainder of the sidewall and may open outwardly with a said door.

5. The nestable trailer system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the coupling arrangement of each said container has a kingpin that may be coupled to a turntable of the prime mover, and the kingpin is attachable to the base at more than one location.

6. The nestable trailer system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein each said container further has retractable or removable landing legs that together with the wheeled chassis may hold the container up off the ground when the trailer is not coupled to the primer mover.

7. The nestable trailer system of claim 6, wherein the landing legs are attached to the base at a front end of the container and are retractable into a recessed area of the base.

8. The nestable trailer system of claim 6 or claim 7, wherein the landing legs may be extended and retracted manually, hydraulically or pneumatically. 11

9. The nestable trailer system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein each said trailer further has wheels or rollers mounted to the base of the container.

The nestable trailer system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein each said trailer further has a refrigeration unit attached to a front sidewall of the container.

11. The nestable trailer system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein each said container is rectangular in shape and is longer than it is wide.

12. The nestable trailer system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein each said container has pockets for receiving the tines of fork lifts.

13. The nestable trailer system of claim 12, wherein the pockets are recessed areas of the base or of the container sidewalls

14. The nestable trailer system of any one of the preceding claims, 15 wherein each said chassis comprises a framework and three pairs of wheels that are mounted to the framework.

The nestable trailer system of claim 14, wherein the wheels are mounted to the framework with a suspension arm and air bag arrangement.

16. The nestable trailer system of claim 15, wherein each said C container is attachable to the wheeled chassis by way of the wheeled chassis having a pair of rails and the base having a pair of channels for receiving the rails, and locking members may lock the rails within the channels.

17. The nestable trailer system of claim 16, wherein the channels °•extend parallel to the longitudinal axis of the base and along a rear half of the base.

18. The nestable trailer system of claim 16, wherein the rails extend along an upper part of the framework.

19. A method of transporting more than one nestable trailer from one location to another using a single primer mover, each said trailer comprising a wheeled chassis detachably attached to a differently sized storage container, said method comprising the step of loading a container of a first trailer with a smaller container and a detached wheeled chassis of at least a second trailer.

The method of claim 19, wherein the container of the first trailer is 12 used to contain two smaller containers and at least two sets of wheeled chassis.

21. A nestable trailer when used for the method of claim 19.

22. A nestable trailer substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Dated this 18 thday of July 2005 Stophon ChOrloc HGrkcreF Lo~ik-6cS Llmiied By his Patent Attorneys CULLEN CO. SEC C11 3C u *rev *06*