Material or article handling – Self-loading or unloading vehicles – With load-receiving portion – or significant section thereof,...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-30
2001-05-08
Bratlie, Steven A. (Department: 3652)
Material or article handling
Self-loading or unloading vehicles
With load-receiving portion, or significant section thereof,...
C414S470000, C414S537000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06227788
ABSTRACT:
This invention is in the field of transport trailers, and more particularly deals with a trailer or transport truck which can be used to transport swathers or other equipment of similar dimensions presenting similar transportation problems.
BACKGROUND
As economies of scale increase in agricultural and other operations, the use of larger or faster equipment by individual producers or custom operators to perform large amounts of processing increases. In the agricultural setting in particular, where tasks such as harvesting are carried out by a large or custom operator, safety, economy and speed of changeover between fields necessitates the rapid transport of equipment between working areas.
Self-propelled swathers and other similar equipment present a particular transportation problem. It is necessary to rapidly move them between fields by a trailer or some other similar means. The trailers are often difficult to load, or require elaborate mechanical measures to provide for a quickly loading trailer with rapidly deployable load-bearing ramps or the like.
With a wide unit such as a swather it is necessary either to remove the cutting table or wide working equipment and load it separately end to end on a trailer, and drive the propulsion unit onto a typical rear loading transport unit, for reattachment of the table or other parts at the next field, which is a labour intensive process, or alternatively it is necessary to load the entire unit end to end along the axis of the transport unit.
Several attempts have been made to provide transport trailers and equipment which allow for the rapid transport of swathers and other similar equipment end-to-end along the axis of a transport vehicle, with varying degrees of success. Where successful side-loading trailers have been built however they generally include an elaborate mechanical apparatus to tilt the loading deck of the trailer once the swather is loaded, or to tilt the deck down for unloading, or alternatively it is necessary to lift the unit in some way onto the load surface of such a flat deck unit. It would be preferable to provide a rapid side-loading apparatus for the carriage of such equipment that required no elaborate mechanical assistance for any tilting motion, and did not require any labour intensive activity to load the apparatus which in the past may have even included partial disassembly of the unit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the present invention to provide a side loading transport apparatus for swathers and the like which would allow for the rapid and simple loading and transport of equipment which has a wider frontal section than its depth.
The invention is a side loading apparatus to carry a wheeled vehicle in end-to-end orientation in relation to the road surface or transport vehicle. Said vehicle has a furthest forward wheel and a furthest rearward wheel, the distance between the axis of said furthest forward wheel and said furthest rearward wheel being the wheelbase of the wheeled vehicle. The path of each wheel or aligned set of wheels of said wheeled vehicle in the direction of travel of the wheeled vehicle is a wheel path.
The apparatus of the present invention itself comprises a transport having two side edges, the side edge thereof from which it is desired to load said wheeled vehicle being the loading edge and the other side edge being the far edge; a plurality of load-bearing ramps, each corresponding to a wheel path of said wheeled vehicle, hingably attached at a point along its length to the loading edge of the transport, perpendicular to said loading edge. The point of attachment of each load-bearing ramp to the loading edge of the transport is the hinge point of that ramp. The end of the load-bearing ramp to the outside of the loading edge and furthest from the far edge of the transport is the loading end of each load-bearing ramp, and the opposite end, past the hinge point and towards the far edge of the transport, is the far end of said load-bearing ramp.
The section of each load-bearing ramp between the hinge point and the loading end is the outboard section of said load-bearing ramp, and the section of said load-bearing ramp between the hinge point and the far end is the inboard section of said load-bearing ramp. The outboard section of each load-bearing ramp, whether it be collapsible or otherwise possible to shorten, will in its operating mode be at least as long as the wheel base of the wheeled vehicle to be carried by the apparatus.
Each load-bearing ramp can hingably move between a transport position resting on top of the side edges and a loading position wherein said load-bearing ramp is tilted down at its loading end to the ground. The movement of the weight of the wheeled vehicle between the outboard section and inboard section of the load-bearing ramp(s) tilts the load-bearing ramp(s) between their transport and loading positions.
By manufacturing the outboard section of each load-bearing ramp to be at least as long as the wheelbase of the wheeled vehicle to be loaded, all of the wheels of the wheeled vehicle will be engaged by one or another of the load-bearing ramp(s) before the weight of the wheeled vehicle moves across the loading edge of the transport onto the inboard sections of the load-bearing ramps and causes the tilting of the load-bearing ramp(s) into the transport position. The movement of the weight of the wheeled vehicle, even where the wheeled vehicle is weighted heavily at the front, will cause the tilted transport loading of the entire wheeled vehicle including the rearward end of the wheeled vehicle, even where the rearward end of the wheeled vehicle still remains on the outboard sections of one or more of the load-bearing ramps. This is different from attempts to produce side loading transports in the past which have involved the loading of the front end only of a swather or other similar piece of equipment, and the rear wheel(s) of the swather was allowed to ride on the road surface.
The apparatus of the present invention could be made flexible enough to accommodate wheeled vehicles of varying sizes or wheelbases by rendering the outboard section of the load-bearing ramps long enough to accommodate the longest possible wheelbase of a wheeled vehicle to be carried, and smaller vehicles would also be accommodated.
The outboard section of the load-bearing ramp(s) could also be rendered foldable so that it could be folded onto the inboard section of the ramp(s) for storage or movement of the transport apparatus of the present invention in an unloaded state.
Transport locks could also be added to the apparatus of the present invention which would be used to lock the load-bearing ramps into their transport position when the apparatus is loaded. Clamps or other types of locking mechanisms known in the art could be used.
The furthest forward and furthest rearward wheels of the wheeled vehicle might be substantially aligned in the same wheel path. This would be the case where a vehicle for example had four wheels, two rear wheels and two forward wheels, each of which pair of rearward and forward wheels were either directly aligned from front to back of the vehicle or were closely enough aligned that it made sense to define only a single wheel path with that pair of wheels, said wheel path then being defined by the outermost edge of the outermost wheel and the innermost edge of the innermost wheel, for loading onto the apparatus of the present invention using, in the case of the vehicle with two pairs of such wheels, two load-bearing ramps. Alternatively, the furthest forward and furthest rearward wheels of the wheeled vehicle might be in separate wheel paths and might each engage a separate load-bearing ramp.
Another improvement which could be made to the basic embodiments of the invention would be to add shock absorbing means which would have the effect of cushioning the movement of the load-bearing ramps between their respective transport and loading positions. One or more shock absorbers could be used. One or more shock absorbers might be attached to eac
Brown Keith
Esler Ken
Geoffrion Gerry
Harvey Brad
Peakman Ken
Bratlie Steven A.
Custom Build AG Industries Ltd.
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
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