GB398865A - Improvements in or relating to tractor-trailer couplings - Google Patents

Abstract

398,865. Transmitting-mechanism for brakes. KARRIER MOTORS, Ltd., CLAYTON, R. F., AVERNS, R. DEAN-, and MEEK, P., Karrier Works, St. Thomas' Road, Huddersfield. March 14, 1932, Nos. 7467 and 24994. [Class 103 (i).] A tractor-trailer coupling device comprises a drawbar 10 pivoted to the trailer turntable and provided with a pointed nose 17 adapted, as the tractor is backed into position, to ride up a ramp 16 thereon to encounter and pass between a pair of plate members 4, 5, slidably mounted on pillars on the tractor frame and pressed together by springs so as to engage undercut grooves 19 in the drawbar to effect tractive connection, uncoupling being effected by pressing the plates apart by means of a pair of cams 21 controlled from the driver's seat. A gap between the plates provides for entry of the nosepiece 17, the undercut grooves 19 enabling traction to be effected by either pull or push. The drawbar 10, which may be formed in two portions with a double acting spring buffer 37<1> interposed, is pivotally mounted on a shaft 11 extending between brackets 12 depending from the trailer turntable 13 and is normally supported in position to engage the ramp by a stirrup attachment 14 resting on an adjustable stop 15. Transmitting mechanism bringing the trailer brakes under the control of the tractor driver, as the vehicles are coupled up, comprises a rod 27 passing axially through the drawbar and coupled by a link 31 to an angle lever 32 adapted to raise a rod 321 passing through the pivot pin of the trailer turntable and connected to the brakes in known manner. The brakes are applied when the front end of the rod 27 is pressed by a lever 28 on the tractor operable through a connection 30 extending from the usual tractor brake actuating control in the driver's cab. When the vehicles are uncoupled a spring- pressed detent 35 housed in the drawbar drops into engagement with ratchet teeth 36 on the rod 27 to hold the trailer brakes " on," the detent being held out of action whilst the vehicles are coupled by a lever 34, the front end of which engages a projecting portion 4<1> on the slidable coupling plate 4. The first Provisional Specification describes a slightly modified arrangement wherein the plates 4, 5 are carried on pins extending upwards from an arched support with springs on the pins above and below the plates to press them together.