GB1204064A - Improvements in, or relating to, commercial vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

1,204,064. Container traffic. ABELSON MOTORS Ltd. 16 June, 1969 [14 March, 1968], No. 12500/68. Heading B8Q. A road vehicle chassis, Fig. 1, has a pair of bellows 9, located above the rear axle, which raise a detachable stillage, Fig. 2, so that its legs 34 may be folded and unfolded during loading and unloading operations. The legs are as described in Specification 1,145,181. Safety means are provided on the chassis to prevent its withdrawal before the stillage legs have been moved to their operative position. The chassis is backed under the stillage until rollers 36 are vertically above a transverse member 38, and the bellows are inflated, through a nipple 17 and conduits 18, 22, thus raising a pivoted carriage 12, provided with rollers 16 which engage the stillage. The front 15 of the carriage 12 operates a valve to stop inflation of the bellows. With the front of the stillage raised by the inflated bellows the front legs are folded to inoperative position and the bellows are deflated. The front of the stillage is now supported by the rollers 36, Fig. 2, which run on beams 8 as the chassis is reversed again. Reversing continues until the rollers 36 engage noses 7 at which point the bellows are inflated again and the rear legs are folded. Spring-loaded plungers 39, Fig. 1, lock the stillage in position. When the chassis is being withdrawn from the stillage a safety bracket 31 abuts a bracket 37 at the front of the stillage thereby ensuring that the chassis cannot be withdrawn until the front legs are in their operative positions. Alternatively, the top 8 of the guides 4, 5, Fig. 1, may be formed with depressions which arrest the rollers 36 as the chassis is withdrawn but not as it is inserted. Fig. 4 shows a further safety device in which the stillage is engaged by a spring-loaded tongue 45 normally held in an inoperative position by a latch 47. The latter is automatically withdrawn by cams 53, 55 and links 52, 56, 57, 58 when the stillage is being set down but is held inoperative when the stillage is being loaded on to the chassis.