GB2268135A - A load carrying road vehicle. - Google Patents

Abstract

A load-carrying body is releasably securable to the chassis 20 of the road vehicle and has ground engaging retractable legs 30, 32, 34 with which hydraulic lifting rams 38 are detachably engageable. The rams 38 and the hydraulic power pack therefor may be provided as an independent mobile unit or may be carried by the road vehicle itself. The rams 38 are engaged with vertically telescopic parts of the legs for demounting the body from the vehicle and for remounting it back onto the vehicle. When demounted, the body is self-supportable by the legs whereby the rams and power pack 42 may be removed for use elsewhere. <IMAGE>

Description

Title: A Load Carrying Road Vehicle This invention relates to a road freight vehicle of the type having a load-carrying body demountably carried on a chassis of the vehicle.

There are many road freight systems currently in use most of which are subject to both national and international regulation particularly in respect of the gross vehicle weight. At the upper end of the load carrying range there are articulated tractor/trailer units wherein the forward end of a trailer is detachably engaged with the rearward end of a tractor for towing purposes, the trailer being disengageable from the tractor and supportable when disengaged by retractable legs carried on the forward end of the trailer. Such a trailer can be disengaged from the tractor at any desired location and, whilst so disengaged (or whilst still connected to the tractor) use is commonly made of a fork lift truck for loading or unloading the trailer.Thus a fork lift truck must usually be provided on site unless, as is sometimes the case, a lift truck is actually carried with the trailer so that it may be self-loaded or unloaded at any desired location. The weight of such a lift truck or any other form of lifting device carried on the trailer comprises part of the gross vehicle weight and thus detracts from the available payload of the vehicle.

It is also known to use rigid, i.e. non-articulated, vehicles wherein a load carrying platform or body is demountably carried on the vehicle chassis.

Such vehicles are generally smaller than articulated tractor-trailer units and are subject by regulation to lower gross vehicle weights than those approved for articulated vehicles. Such vehicles, e.g. of the four-axle type, are more manoeuvrable than articulated vehicles and are preferred for use by many operators particularly on difficult site locations. Such vehicles would present even greater advantages if the vehicle payload were to approach more closely the higher payload available to an articulated vehicle. At present, the actual usable payload capacity of such a rigid vehicle with a demountable body is lower than that which is theoretically available due to the carrying by the vehicle of means for mounting and demounting the load carrying body on and off the vehicle chassis.It is conventional practice for the vehicle to carry a hydraulic power pack and typically four hydraulically actuated rams mounted on the vehicle chassis for the purpose of lifting the load-carrying body upwards of the chassis whereby retractable legs on the body may be engaged with the ground and locked in position following which the vehicle can be driven away. The weight of such lifting equipment comprises part of the gross vehicle weight and thus detracts from the available payload of the vehicle.

An alternative form of lifting device is known for mounting and demounting containers onto and from road vehicles. Containers as used for international freight transportation are of a standard size and have standardized corner locking arrangements for securing the container to a vehicle and to provide means by which the container may be lifted; these corner arrangements are known generally as ISO-corners. Such containers are usually lifted onto and off the vehicle by an overhead lifting gantry at for example a container depot, the container then remaining on the vehicle for delivery to and unloading at the desired delivery location.However there is known a lifting arrangement for demounting and remounting a standard container from and onto a vehicle at any desired location wherein such device comprises a set of four synchrornsed screw jacks each having top and bottom means for engaging the ISO-corners of the container. I.e. at each corner of the container there is locatable a screw jack engageable with both the upper and lower ISO-corners of the container. With such an arrangement a container may be demounted from a vehicle by the screw jacks and then either left supported by the jacks or lowered to the ground at which time the jacks may be removed for use elsewhere.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a road vehicle and demountable load-carrying body therefor wherein the payload of the body is optimisable within the gross vehicle weight of the vehicle and body permitted by regulation.

In accordance with the broadest aspect of the invention there is provided a road vehicle comprising an elongate chassis and an elongate loadcarrying body releasably securable to said chassis; ground-engaging retractable legs carried by said load-carrying body; and lifting means detachably engageable with each said leg whereby when said lifting means is engaged with each said leg said body may be temporarily supported by said lifting means with its base at a position above the vehicle chassis to enable the demounting and mounting of the load-carrying body from and onto said chassis, and whereby said load-carrying body may be supported relative to the ground by its said ground contacting legs when said body is demounted from said chassis and when said lifting means is disengaged from said legs.

A plurality of said lifting means may be stored together in a mobile unit whereby said lifting means may be readily brought to the location at which it is desired to mount the load carrying body onto, or demount it from, the vehicle chassis. Each said lifting means may comprise a screw jack but preferably comprises a fluid pressure operated ram assembly and said mobile unit conveniently includes a power pack for pressurizing all of such ram assemblies.

Preferably each said ram assembly is hydraulically powered by a hydraulic pump and reservoir comprising said power pack.

Alternatively said lifting means may be transportable on a said road vehicle. For example, an on-board hydraulic power pack may be pressurised from a power take-off from the vehicle engine and a plurality of hydraulic rams may be carried on the vehicle and removed therefrom when required for detachable engagement with the said legs of the load-carrying body.

Each said retractable leg of the load-carrying body may include a vertically extendable portion and each said lifting means may be engageable between one element of said portion and another element of the leg to permit vertical lifting or lowering of the load-carrying body by said lifting means. Each said leg conveniently also comprises a horizontally extendable portion projecting laterally outwardly of the load-carrying body, the upper end of said vertically extendable portion of each leg being mounted at or adjacent the outermost part of the horizontally extendable portion of said leg.

The vertically extendable portion which conveniently is telescopic may include a ground-engaging foot, and a lifting means is conveniently connectable between said foot and an upper part of the leg for imparting said vertical lifting or lowering of the load carrying body.

The load carrying body may comprise a platform body having longitudinally extending principal support members locatable on longitudinally extending chassis members of the vehicle. The platform body conveniently comprises at least two said principal support members, and a plurality of laterally extending deck members secured to said principal support members. The horizontally extendable portions of each said retractable leg, which conveniently are also telescopic, are conveniently secured to said platform body at positions underneath said deck members.

The principal support members and the deck members of the platform body conveniently each comprise an aluminium alloy extrusion. Thus there is provided a road vehicle having a relatively lightweight demountable load-carrying body, conveniently comprising an aluminium alloy platform body, with integral self-supporting retractable legs with which lifting means are detachably engageable. The lifting means are not necessarily carried by the vehicle but may be provided as a mobile unit at the site at which mounting and demounting of the load-carrying body is to take place.

The load-carrying body may comprise a flat bed, or may be curtain sided, or may be a box van and may be refrigerated, or may be of any suitable configuration to meet the requirements of the haulier.

Self-loading and unloading of the load-carrying body at any site is conveniently provided by a trailer carrying a lifting device such as a forklift truck, such trailer being towable with the said road vehicle. Such an arrangement provides a self-loading and unloading freight road vehicle system wherein the actual payload weight carried by the vehicle may be increased in comparison with the payload weights achievable by present designs of vehicle and load-carrying body within the same permitted gross vehicle weight.

Thus also in accordance with the invention there is provided a road freight vehicle system comprising a road vehicle having an elongate chassis; an elongate load-carrying body releasably securable to said chassis; ground engaging retractable legs carried by said load-carrying body; lifting means detachably engageable with each said leg whereby said body may be temporarily supported by said lifting means with its base at a position above the vehicle chassis to enable the demounting and mounting of the load-carrying body from and onto said chassis; and a trailer towable by said vehicle and carrying a lifting device thereon for on-site loading and unloading freight onto and from said load-carrying body.

The said system preferably also includes said lifting means in the form of a plurality of fluid pressure operated ram assemblies, a fluid pressure power pack and interconnecting hoses all transportable either in a mobile unit independently of the road vehicle or by the road vehicle itself.

Other features of the invention will become apparent from the following description given herein solely by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a road vehicle and platform body in accordance with the invention showing also a trailer carrying a forklift truck for self-loading and unloading of the body; Figure 2 is a diagrammatic perspective view of the vehicle and platform body showing the platform body legs fully retracted both vertically and horizontally; Figure 3 is a diagrammatic perspective view showing the platform body demounted from the vehicle with the platform body legs extended both vertically and horizontally and with fluid pressure rams engaged with said legs and also showing a mobile power pack unit for said rams; and Figure 4 is a diagrammatic plan view of a road vehicle and platform body illustrating an alternative means of providing a power pack for the rams.

Referring to Figure 1 of the drawings there is shown, in diagrammatic outline, a conventional rigid heavy commercial road vehicle 10 having a demountable load-carrying platform body 12 in accordance with the invention and also including a towed trailer 14 having a forklift truck 16 for self-loading and unloading freight onto and from the platform body at any desired site. The road vehicle 10 and platform body 12 are shown in more detail in Figures 2 and 3 and, with reference to Figure 2, it will be seen that the platform body 12 comprises two principal elongate support members or runners 18 of channel section form each of which rests upon and is detachably secured to a respective elongate channel section chassis member 20 of the vehicle.The platform body further includes a plurality of channel section deck members or cross bearers 22 the outer extremities of which at each side of the body are secured to an elongate G-section chock rail 24. All of the component members of the platform body i.e. the main body runners 18, the cross bearers 22 and the chock rails 24 are formed as aluminium alloy extrusions. It will be appreciated that, for use, the upper surface of the platform body 12 comprises a plane boarded deck 26 supported on the cross bearers 22 as shown diagrammatically in Figure 1.

Below the cross bearers 22 there are provided a plurality, conveniently three, hollow steel box section support beams 28 for a plurality of retractable legs carried by the body. As will be seen from Figures 2 and 3, all of said beams 28 are parallel to one another and are located one adjacent each end of the body and one approximately centrally thereof, each of said beams extending at its outer ends to a position adjacent a respective chock rail 24. Each of said beams 28 provides one horizontally extending element of a horizontally extendable telescopic portion of a retractable leg, an inner horizontally extendable element 30 of each leg being of complementary box section form for snug telescopic sliding engagement within a support beam.

Each leg includes a vertically extendable telescopic portion comprising an outer upper box section element 32 secured at its upper end to the outermost part of the inner element 30 of the horizontal telescopic portion. A lower inner element 34 is telescopically slidable within the outer upper element 32 of the vertically extendable portion of the leg and said inner element carries a ground engaging foot 36 thereon at its lower end.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings all of said legs are fully retracted both vertically and horizontally. The horizontally extendable inner element 30 of the horizontal portion of each leg is lockable in position by a manually rotatable cam device (not illustrated) or any other suitable means such as for example a removable pin insertable in aligned apertures in the inner and outer elements 30 and 28 of the horizontal telescopic portion. The lower inner element 34 of the vertically telescopic portion of the leg is retainable in its upper retracted position as shown in Figures 1 and 2 by means of a pin 37 extending through aligned apertures 39 provided in the inner and outer elements 34 and 32 of the vertically extendable portion of the leg.This pin 37 is provided to engage through that face of the leg adjacent which the lifting device (as described below) is locatable whereby the lifting device cannot be positioned to extend the leg unless the pin 37 has been removed.

In Figure 3 of the drawings the load-carrying platform body 12 is shown demounted from the vehicle with all of the retractable legs extended both horizontally and vertically. In Figure 3 there is also shown another component part of the overall system comprising a plurality of lifting devices which, in the embodiment illustrated, each comprise a fluid pressure (e.g. hydraulic) operated ram assembly 38 engageable with each leg of the platform body. As illustrated, each said ram 38 is engaged between the ground engaging foot 36 and an abutment bracket 41 provided on the upper element 32, the ram assemblies being connected by hoses 40 to a mobile power pack unit 42 which may typically comprise a hydraulic pump and reservoir (not illustrated) for powering the hydraulic rams 38.

Although the rams illustrated are shown as single-acting rams it will be appreciated that they may comprise double-acting rams in which case additional hose connections would be required to the power pack 42.

Although not shown in the drawings, it will be appreciated that the platform body 12 is detachably securable to the vehicle chassis by any suitable securing means which may conventionally comprise an interlocking arrangement on the vehicle chassis 20 engageable with an ISO-corner fitting located on the undersurface of the body cross bearers 22. There may also be provided cooperating centering means on the under surface of the platform body and on the vehicle chassis for the purposes of correcting any minor misalignments between the platform body main body runners 18 and the vehicle chassis members 20 when the platform body is being remounted on the vehicle.

In use of the system described herein, a loaded road vehicle 10 towing its own forklift truck 16 substantially as shown in Figure 1 will deliver the freight to any desired site. During such transportation the retractable legs will of course be maintained in their fully retracted position both horizontally and vertically in the manner described above and as shown also in Figure 2. On arrival at the site the forklift truck trailer 14 is detached from the vehicle and the forklift truck 16 is run off the trailer ready for use. An on-site mobile power unit 42 is then brought to the vehicle, the releasable retaining means such as the pins will be withdrawn and the platform body legs manually extended horizontally and vertically until the ground engaging feet 36 contact the ground.Load-bearing means such as a releasable pin may then be inserted through a selected aperture 43 in the side face of the lower element 34 of each leg below the lower edge of the upper element 32 of the leg. A hydraulic ram 38 is then engaged between each ground engaging foot and the bracket on the vertical leg element 32 and the rams are powered to lift the platform body runners 18 vertically off the vehicle chassis members 20 after the ISO-corner connections have been released. When the platform body is clear of the vehicle chassis the vehicle may be driven away, and the body lowered by the rams until the lower edges of the upper leg elements 32 abut the load-bearing pins in the selected apertures 43 at which time the hydraulic rams and mobile power unit may be removed. The forklift truck may then be utilised to unload the freight from the platform body on site.

Thus the platform body may be left on site in a self-supporting condition at a height above the ground determined by the initial selection of the appropriate apertures 43 in which the load-bearing pins are located.

A reverse series of operations is utilised to remount the platform body onto the vehicle chassis. Thus the mobile power unit 42 will be returned to the platform body and the hydraulic rams 38 re-engaged one to each leg. The rams are pressurised to raise the platform body to a height at which the vehicle may be reversed under the platform body from the position shown in Figure 3 until the platform body runners 18 are aligned above the vehicle chassis members 20.

Hydraulic pressure to the ram assemblies 38 may then be released permitting lowering of the platform body to rest on the vehicle chassis and, as mentioned above, there may be provided centering means for correcting any minor misalignment which may be present. The ISO-corner locking arrangements are then re-actuated to secure the platform body to the vehicle chassis. The loadbearing pins are removed and the legs are then fully retracted both vertically and horizontally, and locked, so that the vehicle is then ready to drive away from the site with its trailer and forklift truck attached.

It will be appreciated that a road freight vehicle system as described above will enable a higher than usual payload to be carried by the load-carrying member proper i.e. by the platform body since such member is constructed wholly of an aluminium alloy and is therefore much lighter than the conventional steel demountable bodies presently in use. Such a road vehicle does not have to carry its own lifting means for mounting and demounting the load-carrying body onto and from the vehicle so that further weight reduction may be achieved in comparison with conventional demountable body assemblies. The nett result is that, while still remaining within the gross vehicle weight permitted by regulation, the actual payload is substantially increased.The use of a towed lifting device e.g. a forklift truck carried on a trailer, permits self-loading and unloading on site without affecting the payload achievable within the permitted gross vehicle weight regulation.

Although the embodiment of the invention described herein with reference to Figures 1 to 3 contemplates the use of an on-site mobile power unit 42 it will be appreciated that in some circumstances it is not convenient to provide such a power unit on site. For example, if only occasional visits to a site are made by a road vehicle it may be found convenient to transport a power pack and lifting means with the vehicle. In Figure 4 there is illustrated diagrammatically an arrangement of a road vehicle wherein an on board power pack 44 may be pressurised from a power take-off 46 from the vehicle gearbox 48. Conveniently a control panel for the power pack 44 is located on the power pack at the side of the vehicle chassis and fixed conduits 50 distribute fluid around the chassis terminating in quick release sealable hydraulic couplings 52 whereby the hydraulic rams 38 may be connected thereto by flexible hoses 40 when required. When not in use the rams 38 and hoses 40 will of course be disconnected and may be conveniently stored at some appropriate location on the vehicle.

The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or the accompanying drawings, expressed in their specific forms or in terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for attaining the disclosed result, as appropriate, may, separately or in any combination of such features, be utilised for realising the invention in diverse forms thereof.

Claims (16)

1. A road vehicle comprising an elongate chassis and an elongate loadcarrying body releasably securable to said chassis; ground-engaging retractable legs carried by said load-carrying body; and lifting means detachably engageable with each said leg whereby when said lifting means is engaged with each said leg said body may be temporarily supported by said lifting means with its base at a position above the vehicle chassis to enable the demounting and mounting of the load-carrying body from and onto said chassis, and whereby said load-carrying body may be supported relative to the ground by its said ground contacting legs when said body is demounted from said chassis and when said lifting means is disengaged from said legs.

2. A road vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein each said leg comprises a vertically extendable portion and wherein a said lifting means is detachably engageable between one element of said portion and another element of the leg to impart said vertical lifting or lowering to said load-carrying body.

3. A road vehicle as claimed in claim 2 wherein a said lifting means is detachably engageable between first and second elements of said vertically extendable portion of each leg.

4. A road vehicle as claimed in either one of claims 2 or 3 wherein a said lifting means is detachably engageable at a lower end thereof with a groundengaging foot of said vertically extendable portion of each leg and is detachably engageable at an upper end thereof with an abutment portion of said leg.

5. A road vehicle as claimed in claim 4 wherein said abutment portion comprises a bracket member on an upper element of said vertically extendable portion of each leg, said foot being mounted on a lower element of said portion which is in telescopic engagement with said upper element.

6. A road vehicle as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 5 wherein loadbearing means is releasably engageable with each said vertically extendable portion of each leg whereby the load carrying body may be supported by said legs when demounted from the vehicle chassis and when the lifting means is disengaged from said legs.

7. A road vehicle as claimed in claim 6 wherein said load-bearing means comprises a support pin insertable into and withdrawable from an aperture in a lower element of said vertically extendable portion of each leg, said pin being abutted by an upper part of said leg to support the load-carrying body when it is demounted from the vehicle chassis and when the lifting means is disengaged from said leg.

8. A road vehicle as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 7 wherein retaining means is releasably engageable with said vertically extendable portion of each leg whereby vertical extension of said portion may be prevented.

9. A road vehicle as claimed in claim 8 wherein said retaining means comprises a pin insertable into and withdrawable from said portion of each leg.

10. A road vehicle as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 9 wherein each said leg comprises a horizontally extendable portion projecting laterally outwardly of the load-carrying body, the upper end of said vertically extendable portion of each said leg being mounted at or adjacent the outermost part of said horizontally extendable portion of the leg.

11. A road vehicle as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said lifting means comprises a plurality of fluid pressure operated ram assemblies each one of which is detachably engageable with a said leg.

12. A road freight vehicle system comprising a road vehicle as claimed in any one of the preceding claims and a trailer towable by said vehicle and carrying a lifting device thereon for on-site loading and unloading freight onto and from said load-carrying body.

13. A road freight vehicle system as claimed in claim 9 wherein said lifting means is transportable in a mobile unit independently of said road vehicle.

14. A road vehicle comprising an elongate chassis and an elongate loadcarrying body constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

15. A road freight vehicle system constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

16. Any novel feature or novel combination of features described herein and/or in the accompanying drawings.