Material or article handling – Self-loading or unloading vehicles – With load-receiving portion – or significant section thereof,...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-01
2001-01-30
Olszewski, Robert P. (Department: 3652)
Material or article handling
Self-loading or unloading vehicles
With load-receiving portion, or significant section thereof,...
C414S484000, C414S485000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179544
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to tilt trailers. More particularly, the present invention provides for deployable underride protection for such trailers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Tilt trailers are typically tiltable between a generally level bed, transport disposition for transporting a vehicle or other load disposed on the bed and a tilted load/unload disposition in which the bed is tilted with respect to a trailer frame and wherein a wheeled load, such as a vehicle, may be rolled onto or off of the bed at the rear of the trailer. There is a need in the industry for underride protection for tilt trailers when the trailers are in the transport disposition. Such underride protection disposed at the rear of the trailer is needed to prevent a vehicle that collides with the rear of the tilt trailer from underriding the trailer. In such a collision without underride protection, the colliding vehicle may slide under the trailer bed and the rear of the trailer bed may then impact the passenger compartment of the colliding vehicle, thereby causing injury to the occupants of the colliding vehicle. With underride protection, the front of the impacting vehicle remains in the proximity of the rear of the trailer, sparing the occupants from injury caused by intrusion of the rear of the trailer into the passenger compartment.
Underride protection in non-tiltable, fixed-bed trailers has long been provided, typically by a frame made of angle iron that depends from the rear of the bed of the trailer. Such protection is commonly seen on semi-type trailers. Such underride protection in non-tiltable trailers is typically permanently fixed in place.
A difficulty for tilt trailers is that any underride protection provided in the transport disposition must be withdrawn in some manner in order to provide for the tilting of the trailer bed in the load/unload disposition where the rear of the bed is in close proximity to the surface of the ground underlying the trailer. A fixed underride protection frame, such as provided on the aforementioned non-tiltable trailers, would prevent such tilting by coming into contact with the ground surface. Accordingly, there is a need of the industry for an underride protection for tilt trailers that is automatically deployed to provide underride protection when the trailer is in the transport disposition and is automatically retracted to permit tilting of the trailer bed as the trailer bed transitions from the transport disposition to the load/unload disposition.
Tilt trailers are typically lower to the ground in the transport disposition than semi-type trailers. This leads to a further difficulty for tilt trailers in that a depending underride protection (ramp) may drag on the ground surface over which the vehicle is passing, especially in rough or uneven areas. This puts an unwanted strain on the underride protector and may, in fact, seriously damage the underride protection. There is a need of the industry for an underride protector that is substantially insulated from such damage.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention substantially meets the aforementioned needs of the industry. The present invention utilizes a ramp that is pivotally coupled to the rear of the trailer bed to depend downward from the rear of the trailer bed when the trailer is in the transport disposition. In such disposition, the ramp functions as the underride protection. The ramp would be contacted by a vehicle colliding with the rear of the tiltable trailer and prevent the colliding vehicle from underriding the trailer. The ramp is preferably held in its depending disposition by the force of gravity and is disposed substantially transverse to the plane of the trailer bed. The ramp is restrained from rotating frontward and upward (thereby providing the desired underride protection), but is free to rotate upward and rearward toward the load/unload disposition. During forward motion of the vehicle when the ramp drags on an obstruction in the surface over which the vehicle is passing, the impact causes such upward and rearward rotation of the ramp, thereby preventing damage to the underride protector (ramp). After passing the obstruction, the force of gravity quickly returns the ramp to the depending disposition where the ramp is again braced to bear the force of a rear impact.
When the trailer is in transition from the transport disposition to the load/unload disposition, the ramp is automatically rotated upward and rearward and extended rearward from the rear of the trailer to function as a ramp. In the load/unload disposition, the rearward extended ramp provides transitional support for vehicles being loaded onto (or unloaded from) the trailer bed and the ground surface on which the trailer is resting.
The present invention is an improved automatic underride mechanism for a trailer, the trailer being translatable over a ground surface, the automatic underride mechanism includes a rotatable ramp being automatically shiftable between a ground engaging load/unload disposition when the tiltable bed is in the load/unload disposition and an underride protection disposition when the tiltable bed is in the transport disposition, the underride protection disposition being a disposition in which the ramp depends from a tiltable trailer bed, the ramp being rotatably disposable from the ramp underride protection disposition by rearward impact of the ramp with the ground surface, such displacement substantially preventing damage to the ramp by such impact.
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O'Connor Gerald J.
Olszewski Robert P.
Patterson Thuente Skaar & Christensen P.A.
Towmaster, Inc.
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