GB860338A - Road vehicle having vertically adjustable frame - Google Patents

Abstract

860,338. Vehicles with elevating bodies. THOMPSON TRAILER CORPORATION. June 29, 1959, No. 22288/59. Class 78 (4). [Also in Group XXV] The body 15, Fig. 1, of a road vehicle may be raised and lowered to positions respectively above and below that shown in Fig. 1. The front of the body is raised and lowered by a double-acting hydraulic piston-and-cylinder 23, 24, Fig. 3, which acts between cross-members 20, 26 attached respectively to the van body and the frame. Vertically-disposed channelmembers 21, 28 guide the movement of the front end of the body. Latch members 35, 36 lock the body in position for travelling on the road. These are hydraulically-urged into or out of engagement with the upper ends of vertical guide-members 28, which are attached to the frame, by a double-acting hydraulic piston and cylinder 42, 37a. The rear end of the body is hydraulically raised and lowered by a double-acting piston-and-cylinder 72, 73, Fig. 6. This acts between a portion 18 of the body and a trailing suspension arm 61 which is hinged to the body and carries wheels 17 on stub axles 60. The road wheels are supported in road-travelling position by a pin 84 urged into and out of engagement with the upper surface of a leaf-spring 80 by an hydraulic piston and cylinder 85. In a second embodiment a C- shaped spring 95, Fig. 8, is urged into and out of engagement with the rear end of a trailing arm 61 by an hydraulic piston-and-cylinder device 85. A semi-elliptic rear spring 80b, Fig. 10, may be provided for the rear suspensionarm 61, locked in position by a pin 84 as previously described. In a further embodiment, Fig. 12, a latch arm 195 is urged into and out of engagement with the rear end of leaf-spring 80. An hydraulic arrangement is illustrated and described which enables the front or the rear of the vehicle to be raised or lowered independently. Automatic means are provided for returning the body to road travelling position from its elevated position, engaging the latching devices, and releaving the hydraulic pressure on the hydraulic piston and cylinders which raise and lower the body.