AU689254B2

AU689254B2 - Spare tyre handling unit

Info

Publication number: AU689254B2
Application number: AU23388/95A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Bryan Mackay
Original assignee: BOORINGA SHIRE COUNCIL
Current assignee: Maranoa Regional Council
Priority date: 1994-10-07
Filing date: 1995-07-03
Publication date: 1998-03-26
Anticipated expiration: 2015-07-03
Also published as: AU2338895A

Description

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AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990

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Name of Applicant Actual Inventor(s) Address for Service Invention Title BOORINGA SHIRE COUNCIL BRYAN MACKAY GRANT ADAMS COMPANY, Patent Trade Mark Attorneys Level Santos House 215 Adelaide Street BRISBANE QLD 4000

AUSTRALIA

SPARE TYRE HANDLING UNIT Details of Associated Provisional Applications Numbers PM8653 The following statement is a full description of the invention including the best method of performing it known to me.

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THIS INVENTION relates to a spare tyre handling unit.

The unit is particularly suitable for, but not limited to, a spare tyre handling unit for earth moving machines such as graders, tyred loaders, tractors and the like.

Councils and mining companies often operate earth moving equipment large distances from their service and maintenance bases. On many of these machines, there is no provision to carry the spare tyre and an operator, if his machine suffers a tyre failure (eg., due to a puncture), cannot simply call up assistance (and a 10 replacement tyre) from the service centre, eg., 100-200km away.

It is an object to provide a spare tyre handling unit which 0 enables an earth moving machine or the like to carry a spare tyre.

S0: It is a preferred object to provide such a unit which can easily be mounted on the machine.

0 .0 15 It is a further preferred object to provide a unit which enables the tyres to be easily exchanged.

Other preferred objects will become apparent from the following description.

In a broad aspect, the present invention resides in a spare tyre handling unit for vehicles including: a support post (or base) mountable on a vertically movable tool bar on a vehicle; an arm hingedly mounted at or adjacent one end of the support post and having a wheel mounting means at or adjacent the other end; and a leg pivotally mounted on the arm; the arm movable between a raised wheel transport position and a lowered wheel mounting position; the leg operable to move the arm from the wheel mounting position to the wheel transport position; such that wl:. n the leg is suspended from the arm and is

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in engagement with a ground surface, the tool bar can be lowered to cause the leg to urge the arm to rotate relative to the support post to move the arm frono the wheel mounting position to the wheel transport position.

Preferably, the support post is mountable in a tool mounting socket on the tool bar.

Preferably, the tool bar forms part of the vehicle and is vertically movable on parallel links via a hydraulic ram.

Preferably, the arm has a side extension at the one end which is hingedly mounted on the support post and the one end of the arm has a pad supported by a complementary pad on the support post when the arm is in the wheel transport position.

The other end of the arm may be cranked to offset the wheel mounting means relative to the axis of the arm (and/or the hinge o 15 axis).

Preferably, the wheel mounting means is a substantially transverse bar fixed or rotatably mounted at the other end of the arm and provided with at least two bolts or studs engageable with the stud holes of the wheel.

Preferably, the leg has a ground engageable foot at its free end and the leg is pivotally connected to the side extension on the arm about a pivotal axis spaced from the hinge axis of the arm on the support post.

To enable the invention to be fully understood, a preferred embodiment will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: FIG 1 is a side view of the spare tyre handling unit in the wheel transport position; FIG 2 is a similar view showing the unit in the wheel demounting position; FIG 3 is a similar view which shows the unit prior to being moved to the wheel transport position by the leg; and FIG 4 is a similar view showing the unit moved to the wheel transport position by the leg.

ol: go: •o.

o• The earth moving machine 10, eg. a road grader, has a chassis 11 supported by four or six wheels 12 (all of which may be driven), each wheel 12 being fitted with a pneumatic tyre 13.

A tool bar 14, which may mount ripping tynes or other earth moving tools 15, is mounted on a mounting assembly 16 on the grader chassis 11 via a parallel link assembly 17 and is substantially vertically moveable by a hydraulic ram 18. At least one tool mounting socket 19 is provided adjacent one or both ends of the tool bar 14.

The tyre handling unit 20 has a support post 21 releasably mounted in the socket 19 and the post has a head 22 with a substantially horizontal support pad 23 15 and a substantially lateral extension 24. An arm 25 has a pair of side plates 26 welded to its lower end and the side plates are hingedly connected to the extension 24 on the support post 21 via a hinge pin 27 which is offset from the longitudinal axis of the arm 25. A pad 28 at the lower end of the arm is supported by the pad 23 on the support post 21 and the pads 23 and 28 are releasably secured by a locking bolt 29.

A wheel mounting plate 30 is rotatably mounted S• at the other end of the arm 25 via a pivot pin 31 and has a pair of studs 32 releasably engageable in the stud holes 33 of a wheel 12.

A leg 34, with a foot 35, is pivotally mounted to the side plates 26 via a pivot pin 36.

The operation of the unit will now be described.

FIG 1 shows the unit in the wheel transport position (with the tool bar 14 raised). (NB: The installation of the unit 20 does not prevent the operation of digging tynes 15 or other equipment fitted to the tool bar 14.) To replace a wheel 12 (and tyre 13) with the I I I wheel/tyre combination mounted on the unit 20, the locking bolt 29 is removed and the operator pushes the wheel and tyre away from machine 10 (ie. in the direction to the left of the drawing) and the arm pivots relative to the support post 21 about the hinge pin 27. The ram 18 is operated to lower the parallel linkage (and thereby the tool bar) until the tyre 13 rests on the ground.

The wheel is unbolted from the wheel mounting plate 30 and is replaced by the wheel with the damaged tyre. Hinge pin 36 is released to allow the arm 34 to swing down until the foot 35 rests on the ground as shown in FIG 2.

To return the arm 25 to the wheel transport position, the ram 18 is operated to raise the tool bar so that the leg 34 swings down until it is substantially vertical and its foot 35 rests on the ground. By lowering the tool bar 14 with the ram, the leg 34 causes the arm 25 to swing upwardly about the hinge pin 27 to the wheel transport position as shown in FIG 4. The leg 34 is then swung upwardly to its transport position as shown in FIG i. The hinge pin 27 (if provided as a bolt and nut) may be tightened and the locking bolt 29 installed).

It is preferred that both the hinge pin 27 and pivot pin 36 can be tightened to assist in maintaining the arm 25 and leg 34 in the transport position shown in FIG 1.

As the centre of gravity of the wheel 12/tyre 13 combination (coincident with the pivot pin 31) is offset relative to the hinge axis between the arm and the support post 21 (defined by the hinge pin 27), the arm 25 will tend to remain in the wheel transport position even when grader 10 encounters rough terrain, as the arm 25 must be moved "over centre" relative to the hinge pin 27 to enable the arm 25 to be moved to the l~ wheel de-mount position shown in FIG 2.

In a modified embodiment, the upper end of the arm may be cranked or bent to further increase the degree of offset of the centre of gravity of the wheel 12/tyre 13 combination relative to the hinge pin 27.

By mounting the unit on the tool bar 14 of the grader 10, and using the ram 18 to raise and lower the tool bar 14, a separate hydraulic ram is not required to move the arm 25 between its two positions, thereby saving costs. The tool bar 14 can also be raised and lowered relative to the ground to accommodate the different heights of the wheel mounting bar required for the spare wheel 12 with its inflated tyre 13 and (b) the wheel 12 removed from the grader 10 with its damaged tyre 13. It will be readily apparent to the skilled addressee that the spare wheel 12/tyre 13 combination can be easily dismounted from the unit 20 and rolled by the operator to replace the wheel 12, with the damaged tyre 13, on the grader If required, two of the units 20 may be provided for the grader, mounted at opposite ends of the tool bar 14, when the grader will be away in the service centre for an extended period.

SThe present invention provides a simple, efficient, yet inexpensive means for providing a spare wheel handling (and carrier) unit for machines and does not require additional expensive rams or control equipment.

Various changes and modifications may be made to the embodiments described and illustrated without departing from the scope of the present invention defined in the appended claims.

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Claims

1. A spare tyre handling unit for vehicles including: a support post (or base) mountable on a vertically movable tool bar on a vehicle; an arm hingedly mounted at or adjacent one end of the support post and having a wheel mounting means at or adjacent the other end; and a leg pivotally mounted on the arm; o ethe arm movable between a raised wheel transport 10 position and a lowered wheel mounting position; the leg operable to move the arm from the wheel S-mounting position to the wheel transport position; S• such that when the leg is suspended from the arm and is in engagement with a ground surface, the tool bar can be lowered to 15 cause the leg to urge the arm to rotate relative to the support post to move the arm from the wheel mounting position to the wheel transport position.

2. A handling unit as claimed in Claim 1 wherein: the support post is mountable in a tool mounting socket on the tool bar; and the tool bar forms part of the vehicle and is vertically movable on parallel links via a hydraulic ram.

3. A handling unit as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein: the arm has a side extension at one end which is hingedly mounted on the support post, and the one end of the arm has a pad supported by a complementary pad on the support post when the arm is in the wheel transport position.

4. A handling unit as claimed in Claim 3 wherein: the other end of the arm is cranked to offset the wheel mounting means relative to the axis of the arm (and/or the hinge axis). L I 8 A handling unit as claimed in Claim 3 or Claim 4 wherein: the wheel mounting means is a substantially transverse bar fixed or rotatably mounted at the other end of the arm and ih provided with at least two bolts or studs engageable with the stud holes of the wheel.

6. A handling unit as claimed in any one of Claims 3 to wherein: the leg has a ground engageable foot at its free end, and the leg is pivotally connected to the side extension on the arm about a :o 1: 0 pivotal axis spaced from the hinge axis of the arm on the support post. o• A spare tyre handling unit for vehicles substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

8. A vehicle including: a vertically movable tool bar mounted on the vehicle; v e15 ram means to raise and lower the tool bar relative to the vehicle; and a handling unit as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 7 mounted at or adjacent one end of the tool bar.

9. A vehicle as claimed in Claim 8 wherein: a second handling unit, as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 7, is mounted at or adjacent the other end of the tool bar. DATED this sixth day of January 1998. BOORINGA SHIRE COUNCIL, By its Patent Attorneys, FISHER ADAMS KELLY. ~IIBIIM a~n~ l-a~a~ 9 ABSTRACT A spare tyre handling unit (20) for a wheeled vehicle (10) has a support post (21) mounted on a vertically movable tool bar An arm (25) is hingedly mounted on the support post (21) and has a wheel mounting plate (32) at its free end to releasably mount a wheel/tyre combination (12, 13). A leg (34) is hingedly mounted on the arm (25) and is arranged to move the arm (25) from a lowered wheel mounting/de-mounting position to a raised (substantially vertical) wheel transport position, the leg (34) having a ground engaging foot (35) and pushing the arm (25) upwardly when the tool bar (14) is lowered. In the wheel transport position, the arm (26) is "over-centre" 15 relative to the hinge pin and the hinge pin (27) may be tightened to lock the arm (25) in position. i-