US1288432A - Self-trailing truck. - Google Patents

Description

S. L LONG. SELF TRAILINQ TRUCK. APPLICATION FILED MAR. I0. 1917.

Patented De a. 17,1918. 6 4 SHEETS-SHEET I.

S. L.-LONG. SELF TRAILING TRUCK.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 10. 1917.

Patented Dec. 17', 1918.

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APPLICATION FILED MAR. 10, 1917 1,288,432. 1 Patented Dec. 17, 1918.

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SELF TRAILING TRUCK.

APPLICATION FILED'MARJU, 1917.

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Patented De0.17,1918.,

UNITED STATES PATENT orrroii.

SIDNEY L. LONG, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, ASSIGNOR TO A. W. BENSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY,- OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, A CORPORA- TION MINNESOTA.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SIDNEY L. LONG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Self-Trailing Trucks; and I do hereby declare'the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to trailing trucks which, when connected in a train, will follow the same track whether the travel be on a straight line or on a curve, or tortuous line of travel.

Various difierent types of trailing trucks have hitherto been provided. Some thereof have had four Wheels, but usually they have had three wheels, two thereof being large laterally spaced axially alined main wheels and a centrally located caster wheel. The four-wheeled trucks are relatively expensive and heavy and do not trail as well as the three-wheeled trucks, and on the other hand, in the above noted three-wheeledtrucks, the caster wheels, in soft ground, plow up the earth, make the trucks hard running, that is, the draft heavy, and moreover, do not run in the same tracks as the main wheels, so that in running on 'rutformed roads, will not follow the ruts, but must run over the relatively rough crown of the road. I

I have reduced the draft of a train of trailing trucks to a minimum, provided a train of trucksihat will trail each other perfectly and even turn substantially square corners, and obtain other advantages, such as a reduction in cost of manufacture, by providing a train of two-wheeled trucks with vieldingly centered draw -bars arranged not only to produce the proper trailing action,

but to keep the truck bodies properly alined.

A train of these improved trucks illustrating the preferred embodiment of my invention, is shown in the accompanying drawings. wherein like characters indicate likeparts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings; 7 Figure 1 is a side elevationshowing a train of improved trucks;

Specification of Letters Patent.

SELF-TRAILING TRUCK.

Application filed March 10, 1917. Serial No. 153,871.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of one of the yielding drawbars, some parts being sectioned on the line 22 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line 33 of Fig. 4:, some parts being shown in full and some parts being broken away;

Fig. 4 is a transverse section taken approximately on the line 44 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a plan view showing one of the trucks on a larger scale than in Fig. 1, and showing alsO part of the drawbar and coupling of another car, some parts being sectioned on the line 55 of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a detail partly in. section and partly in side elevation showing two coupled drawbars;

Fig. 6 is an end elevation of the truck shown in Fig. 5;

- Fig. 7 is a plan view with. some parts sectioned and some parts broken away, showing the truck frame and draft yoke of the truck;

Fig. 8 is, a section on the line 88 0 Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a side elevation of one of the trucks;

Fig. 10 is a view corresponding to Fig. 3, but illustrating modified construction; and

Figs. 11 and 12 are transverse sections taken on the line 1112 of Fig. 10, but

illustratingdifferent positions of the draw bar.

Describing first the construction illustrated in Figs. 1 to 9, inclusive, each truck wise rigidly secured to hollow anchor heads 16. In this preferred arrangement, drawbar anchors 17 in the form. of disk-like hubs, are swiveled in the said heads 16, for rotary, or limited rotary movements on axes that are longitudinally central of the truck. Extended through angular openings in the anchor hubs 17 are short drawbars 18 that are capable of vertical oscillatory movements, and preferably also have limited endinward as permitted by the'anchor pins 19,

wise movements in the said hnbs'f'the connections between the .same being conveniently madeby transverse anchorpins 19 secured to the said hubs and extended through longitudinal slots 20 in said bars.

The inner endsof the drawbars 18 are connected to the inner ends otdiv'erging springs 21, the outerends of which are anchored to the truck frames 13. These springs 13 exert a force normally pulling the drawba-rs as far and furthermore, tend to hold the said drawbars in, or parallel to the plane of the. truck frame. The said drawbars are not permitted much, if any, lateral oscillation.

In the construction illustrated in Figs. 1 to 8, inclus'ive,the drawbars 18, at their outer ends, have forked heads 18, which,

when interlapped,-are adapted to be pivotally coupled together by coupling bolts 22 (see particularly Figs. 1, 5 and 5 These draw-bolts, at their lower ends, have nuts 22 and at their upper ends are provided with shoulders between which and the upper prong of the adjacent coupler head 18, a

short coiled spring 22 is interposed. When this nut-equipped bolt is tightened against the spring 22, the connected coupling bars of the two connected trucks will be capable of pivotal movement under,'however, considerable frictional resistance against movement. The amount of this friction may be varied, by variably tightening the nut on the bolt. and it serves to prevent undue lateral vibratory or pivotal movements of the connected drawbars. This its important,

especially in running down hill.

it should be further stated that the two coupled drawbars, when coupled, whilecapable or lateral pivotal movements, will have little, if any, vertical movement, one in respect to the other. Moreover, it should be noted that the coupling pins 22- (see Figs. 1 and 5) are located midway between the axes or the connected trucks. This is irnportant and is one of the features that makes the two-wheeled trucks self-trailing in traveling tortuous paths or curved cor-'-' ners. Also, this arrangement makes a train of connected trucks self-trailing when drawn in either direction, to-wit, either forward or backward, the terms"forward and backward being used for convenience only. The trucks may, of course, vary a grea deal in character, both as to size and design. in the drawings, trucks suitable for carrying sand or gravel,-for example, are illustrated, and hence, are provided with bore like bottoms :23, which would have suitable drop bottoms, not shown, nor necessary for the purposes of this case to consider.

in traveling a circle, for example, the coupling pins'22, which are the pivotal connections between the trucks, being midover rough roads than small wheels.

rat-lease way between the axles of the truck wheels,

will, as is evident, keep the axles pointed toward the center of the, circle being traveled, and hence, as is obvious, the corre-' sponding wheels of the several trucks must travel preciselythe same paths. The same Y principle applies when the train is travelingeither on a straight line, or in a tortuous line of travel.v In turning so-called square corners, the trucks do not, of course, make their turn at an abrupt angle, but theviwill approach such angle so closely that the train of truckswill very abruptly turn on '2. rectangular corner.

Tn traveling I a smooth road, the truck frames and the drawbars will, by the springs. 21, be held horizontal and'inalineinent, but in traveling a hilly read, such as illustrated in Fig. 1, for example, the said springs will yield and permit the drawbars to assume angular positions while holding the truckframes approximately- .ho'rizontal. The loads 'on the trucks being balanced on the wheels, no great force is required to maintain them in ahorizontal position or to restore them to horizontal position, in case they be temporarily tilted. The swivel con nection between the drawbars and the framesalso permits the truck wheels to adapt themselves to lateral irregularities in the roadand the springs 2l tend to restore the said I drawbars to their normal'rotary positions. Obviously, the above described'arrangement reduces the number of, whels abso lutely required for a trainot trucks,; to a, minimum.' It also not only 'permits,but, makes desirable, the use ot l arge wheels which, as it well know, will rum more eaiiy e large wheels, moreover, permit the load to be carried low down, and in many instances,

even below the axles'of the wheels, which latter construction reduces the tendency of the trucksto tilt.

Trains of trailing trucks of the character above described are highly serviceable'for numerous purposes. Not only are they well adapted for use in hauling sazidand gravel,

In the modified construction. of the am 7 bar shown in Figs. 10, 11 and 12', the said drawbar 18, at its intermediate portion, has upper and lower long tudinal grooves or depressions 2 2 that are engaged by the rounded heads f spring pressed bolts 25 working through the top and bottom plates of the anchor heads. In this arrangement also, the drawbars are permitted vertical osclllatory movements, limited endwise movement, and

limited axial rotary movements.

Figs. 10 and 11 show the drawbar in normal or neutral position and Fig. 12 shows Attached at one end to the ide end portions f the truck frames and having at their free ends, interlocking perforated couiling heads 27 adapted to be connected by bolts or keys 28, as shown in Fig.

In Fig. (3, these chains, being out of use, their free. ends are shown as coupled to hanger hooks 29 on the sides of the truck box From the above description, it will be understood that this invention relates particularly to trains of trailing trucks, made up of quite a large number of trucks, to-

wit, three or more. When one trailing truck is connected to an automobile, for instance, there is no difficult problem in maintaining the balance of a two-wheel trailer truck.

When, however, a large number of two- Wheel, trailing trucks are connected, other and many difiiculties are encountered. In running on undulating roads, the one truck will necessarily frequently be lower than the two trucks to which it is connected, and this r quires vertically yielding coupling devices. If these vertically yielding coupling devices are not made resilient that is, if spring elements of some form are not provided, which tend to keep the coupling devices vertically in normal 'or intermediate positions-then the two-Wheel trucks will topple over endwise, and an oscillatory lashing action in a vertical direction will be set up which will make the train uncontrollable.

Hence, it will be understood that both the vertically yielding action, and the springs, or a resilientmeans tending to keep the coupling devices vertically in intermediatepositions,-are of the utmost importance. The ver tically yielding action permits the truck to run on undulating roads and the springs, or resilientmeans, exerts sufiicient force to keep the truck bodies in approximate balance on the respective truck wheels, and if at time the truck bodies are thrown slightly from true balance on their wheels,

the springs will restore the same good balance in again running on level roads.

In this way, the truck bodies are kept in approximate balance n their wheels, that is, are prevented from rocking forward or rearward so as to throw the center of gravity of the load very materially from the vertical line of the axis of the wheels.

\Vhat I claim is:

l. A train of connected two-wheeled trucks. said trucks, at opposite ends, having projecting drawbars connected to the respective truck bodies so as to steer the same, but capable of vertical angular movements in respect to the truck bodies, and yieldingly held normally in verticalintermediate positions, so as to thereby hold the tru'clc bodies in substantial balance on the truck wheels, aid drawbars, approximately midway between the wheel axes of the connected trucks, being pivo'tally connected by coupling devices that permit relative horizontal angular movement of the pivotallv connected drawbars, to produce the trailing action, but hold the said connected drawbars for common vertical angular moven'ients.

2. A train of connected two-wheel trucks, said trucks, at opposite ends, having vertically yielding draw-bars pivotally connected intermediate of said trucks for com mon vertical angular movement, but having relatively pivotal lateral movement to produce the trailing action of the trucks, and springs yieldingly holding said draw-bars vertically in intermediate positions, the vertical yielding action of said draw-bars permitting the trucks to run on undulating roads, and said springs holding the truck bodies inapproximate balance on the re-. spective truck wheels.

3. A train of connected two-wheel trucks, said trucks, at opposite ends, having vertically yielding draw-bars, pivotally connected for common vertical angular movement. but having relatively pivotal lateral movement to produce the trailing action of the trucks, said draw-bars further being mounted for limited rotation on their longitudinal axis, and springs yieldingly holding jsaid draw-bars vertically and rotatively in normal intermediate positions, the yielding actions of said draw-bars permitting the trucks to run on undulating roads, and said springs holding the truck bodies in approximate balance on the respective truck wheels.

at. A train of connected two-wheel. trucks, said trucks, at their opposite ends, having vertically yielding draw-bars pivotally connected intermediate of said trucks for common vertical angular movements, but having relatively pivotal lateral movement to produce the trailing action of the trucks, said draw-bars further having limited axial movement and limited rotary movement on 'rcrti the r drew-hers in normal positions, the yiel olctions oi seiol' clreW-bars permittii g 1e trucks tor'un ori undulating roads,

one. '3 springs holding the truck bodies ie'te'balence on the respective 'i'JlTi C having two laterally vices approximately equitlistent from the Ulffifiltl wheel's, said coupling-device's never e vertical yielniing action and being resili 1 lielclnormally in vertically'in terzner positions said coupling devices treiling truck, halving two leterally specefi'vtheelekerrying its entire load, e'ncl piovicletl with front and rear coupling '(levices approximately equidistant from '-the time of said'wheels sei'cl coupling devices having a vertical yielding action lan'cl bemg resiliei-itly held normally in vertically inter-- mediate gositions, said coupling devices further having a resilient limited rotary movement, and resilient llmitecl' ax al l movement,

7 ii truce L its axis one springsyielclingly holclliilg carrying its entire load, aiicl' provided .Wlllli II'GIH, LI1C-.'1'&T coupling cle rig: e resilient limited rotary rear "with swi'veleml anchor hubs, clr'ew hare hubs fox-limited vertical oscillatory movements in respect thereto and .for limiting rotary movements i3l1QI'6Wltl1,, and for-111ml;-

ecl enclwise movements therethrough andv springs rielclingly drawing said drawbars inwe-rxi e' cl' normally holding the same vcrtically centered, the seid'clrawbersat their 'imtermedilately' fulcr'umecl in said' anchor axis of said Wheels, said coupling devices 'ha vinge vertical yielding actionencl being resiliently held normally in vertically inter- 'ni"ediatepositions, and 'edjusteble frictional means applied to said coupling devices and: yieldingly holding the same against lateral pivotal movements.-

' In testimony whereof I afiix' signature presence of two Witnesses. 7

SIDNEY L. LC NG seer BERNICE l fireeimg

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