GB284548A - Improvements in road vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

284-548. North, O. D., Hugh, P. G., and Scammell Lorries, Ltd. July 16, 1927. Adjusting height of body from ground; suspending and mounting undercarriages; springs and wheels, arrangement of; equalizing load on wheels.-Relates to road vehicles in which the frame extends beneath the axles of the rear road wheels and is arranged to be lowered to the ground and detached from the rear wheel assembly so that the said wheel assembly may be rolled away. Movable plates are arranged at the rear of the vehicle to serve as loading and unloading ramps at the place normally occupied by the rear wheel assembly, the removal of the assembly permitting movement of the plates to the rampforming position. The invention is particularly described in connection with an articulated vehicle consisting of a four-wheeled tractor and a trailer supported at its front end on the tractor by a turntable having provision for allowing the rear end of the trailer frame to be lowered to the ground. The rear end of the trailer is supported on pairs of wheels 4 mounted on coaxial axles 5 beneath which pass the side members 6 of the trailer frame. Each axle 5 is mounted to rock on a longitudinal pivot 7 detachably engaging, at its front end, a bearing 8 pivoted at 9 in the frame member 6 which is of channel section. The rear end of the pivot 7 carries a bearing 10 formed on its upper surface with a hemispherical socket and on its lower end with a groove 17. The socket is detachably engaged by a ball 12 on a screw 13 working in a block 14 carried by a pair of links 15 pivoted on a pin 16 in the member 6, the bearing 10 being held between the ball 12 and pin 16 when the frame 6 is in the normal raised position. To lower the frame, the screw 13 is operated to raise the ball 12 away from the bearing 10, and when the frame reaches the ground a locking plate 19 is removed from an annular groove in the pivot 7 which may then be removed from its bearing 8 so that the wheels can be rolled away. The links 15 are swung down as shown in Fig. 3. Plates 22 hinged together and to the end of the trailer floor at 21 and normally supported by removable struts 23 to form a mud-guard, are then turned down on to the open topped channel members 6 to form ramps. The trailer frame may have a central portion extending between the two pairs of wheels and this portion may be yieldingly connected to the main portion. If a spring suspension is required, the pivots 9 may be spring mounted on the frame, or the bearings 8, 10 may be carried by a longitudinal spring connected near its centre to the axle 5, in which case the bearings may comprise cups formed on the ends of the spring and engaging a front ball on the frame and a rear ball on the screw.