Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
DOUB~E-DECK~R GOODS VE~lIC~E
~ he present invention relates to a vehicle -for
transporting goods, and in particular goods loaded on pallets,
or on castor-mounted trollies or containers, e.g. for supplying
supermarkets or o-ther stores.
When goods for transport are loaded onto pallets, or
onto castor trollies or contai~ers, the pallets or trollies
cannot be stacked on -top of each other for transport in a
vehicle, and so they are simply placed side by side on the
floor of the transport vehicle. Generally speaking, loaded
pallets or trollies on castors are not nearly as high as the
availa~le loading space in the vehicle, resulting in only a
small part of the vehicle's loading ~olume being used, and
hence reducing transport profitability.
To remed~ this drawback, double-decker transport
- vehicles have been proposed with two superposed loading decks.
HoweYer, the design and construction of such vehicles present
several problems which have not all been resolved.
Thus, in order to run on the roads and pass under
bridges, such vehicles must have an overall height that is less
than some fixed value (usually about 4.3 meters). It has been
observed that starting from a conventionally designed vehicle
(e.g. an articulated trailer) whose overall height that is less
than the said fixed value, and then adding an intermediate
horizontal deck to provide two superposed loading levels, one
obtains two levels neither of which has enough head-roo~ for
people to mQve about freely or to receive normally loaded
pallets or standard sized castor trollies (which are about 1.7
meters highJ, whence considerable difficulties in loading.
It has also been observed that in practice there is
little point in providing a double-decker goods vehicle with
two decks of differing head-room. Nor i9 there much point in
using lightly loaasd pallets or trollies of reduced height to
load a vehicle having two loading decks of reduced head-room;
this is because th,s loading itself is difficult and because of
the need to have a stock of non-standard trollies or
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cont~linel-s .
Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide
a goods vehicle, in particular a tr~iler for an articulated
vehicle, which avoids the above-nlentioned drawbacks and consider-
ably increases the profitability of transporting goods on palletsor on castor trollies or containers of standard height.
Preferred embodiments of the invention provide a
double-decker goods ve!hicle, both of whose decks can receive
normally loaded pallets and castor trollies or containers of
standard size.
In accordance with the invention there is provided
a double-decker goods vehicle co~rising a chassis, superposed
upper and Lower loading decks, a roof above ~he upper loading
deck, side walls and at least back wheels, each of the back
wheels being connected ~o the chassis by an independent wheel arm
which is mounted to pivot about a horizonatal shaft mounted on
the chassis and which i~; associated with suspension and damping
means provided between said arm and the chassis, the upper deck
having constant head-room extending over substantially the entire
loadable length of the vehicle, the lower deck being disposed at
substantially the same height above the ground as the centers of
the back wheels, both of said loading decks having substantially
the same useable head-room of about 1.75 meters and the overall
outside height of the vehicle being less than 4.30 meters and
being equal to about 4.2 meters.
Preferably, t:he chassis comprises at least one
~preferably two~ centra] longitudinal beams associated with
cross-members spanning t:he entire width of the vehicle, except
in between the wheel arches of the back wheels. Said wheel
arms may be rotatably mounted on some of said cross-members, or
on the longitudinal beams.
This arrangemerlt of thc .vehicle ch'assis makes it
possible to brlng the lower deck closer to the ground, and
hence reduce the overall height of the vehicle for a given
head-room above the decks.
An embodiment of the inven-tion is described by way of
example with refe~rence to the accompanying drawings in which:
~ igure 1 is a diagrammatic eleva-tion of a vehicle
embodying the in~ention;
- 10 Figure 2 is a partial diagrammatic elevation showing
the suspension o~ the back wheels; and
~ igure ~ is a plan view of the portion of the vehicle
shown in ~igure 2.
.
Figure 1 shows an articulated vehicle comprising a
trailer 10 with a raised front portion 11 for coupling to a
tractor 12 in conventional manner.
The back of the trailer 10 has doors 13 which extend
over the full height of the vehicle, i.e. between a lower
loading deck 15 and a roof. The doors may be double folding
doors7 or a roll-up door, etc., and a fold-up lifting platform
14 is provided for raising pallets or castor trollies or
containers from ground level upto one of two loading decks in
the trailer 10. The platform 14 can also be used for stacking
2~ pallets. In an a'lternative constructionp the back opening
could be closed in part by the platform 14 in its folded up
position, and in part by a fold-down flap folding down from the
roof~
The lower loading deck 15 is mounted on a chassis ~0
(see Figures 2 and ~) of the trailer 10 and extends from the
back of the vehic:Le up to the vicinity of its raised front
portion 11. The width of the lower deck 15 at floor level is
slightly reduced in between arches 16 for the back wheels. A
second, or upper, loading deck 17 i~ located half way up the
trailer 10 and ex1;ends over its entire length. l'here is a
loading volume of reduced head-room in the front portion of the
trailer 10, situa1;ed in between the upper deck '17 and the
~ 3~
raised front portion 11. This volume of reauced head-room is
arranged in the form of one or more compartments 18, and
preferably in the form of three refro~erated compartments for
transporting frozen foods, or fresh food tha-t needæ keeping
cool. The compartments 18 are provided wi-th side doors 19 :Eor
access from either side of the trailer.
A ~cfrlqerat~r unit 20 is mounted on the front of
the trailer 10, subs-tantially at the same level as the
r~rïgeratea compartments 18, and is arranged to be powered
either from the tractor 12, or from an electricity generator
set 21 mounted at t;he upper front end of the trailer. It is
also possible to arrange for the re~ri~rator unit 20 to be
directly connectab]e to a mains power point.
~ikewise, the lift platform 14 is powered by the
generator set 21 OI' by any other appropriate means.
The loading decks 15 and 17 are made up o-f steel
sheets surrounded by sheet steel kicking boards occupying a
certain height from the loading deck. The inside surfaces o~
the side walls of t;he trailer are fitted wi-th a system of
horizontal rails having wheeled or slidable runners mounted
thereon. Ihe runners are ~itted with means for locking them to
the rails and they have straps for stowing the goods during
transport.
'rhe overall height of the trailer 10 above the ground
is 4?0 meters, andi the useable head-room in each loading
volume above the decks 15 and 17 is about 1.75 meters, thereby
leaving room for a man to move upright and to load castor-
mounted trollies and containers of standard size, i.e~ about
1.70 meters high. In the example shown in ~igure 1, the
trailer 10 is 13 meters long overall and can transport a useful
load of 23 tonnes (i.e. metric tons) for a total laden weight
of 32 tonnes.
Reference is now made to ~igures 2 and 3, which show
the connection between the back wheels and the chassis in
diagrammatic form, together with a portion o-f the chassis
structure.
Ihe main components of the vehicle chassis--30 are two
central longitudinal beams 31, e.g. I-section béamsJ which run
parallel to the longitudinal axis 32 o~ the vehicle and which
are a few -tens of cen-timeters apar-t from each o-ther. The
longitudinal beams 31 extend horizontally over the entire
length o~ the lower deck 15, i.e. from the back o~ the vehicle
upto the raised front portion 11. Two cen-tral longitudinal
beams are also pro~ided in the raised fron-t por-tion 11,
extending horizontally ~rom the ~ront o~ the trailer 10 to the
back of the raised front portion 11.
~he chassis 30 ~urther includes horizontal cross
members (only one of which 33 is visible in Figure 3) which are
supported by the longitudinal beams and which extend over the
entire width o~ the vehicle except ~or -the portion in between
the wheel arches 1ti. In a preferred embodiment of the vehicle,
the cross ~embers (e.g. 33) pass through the central beams 30.
In the example shown, the vehicle has four back
wheels 34, each mounted on an independant wheel arm 35. ~ach
wheel arm 35 is pivoted about a horizontal sha~t 36 fixed to
the chassis 30 and is free to move in a substantially vertical
plane parallel to tihe longitudinal axis 32 of the vehicle. ~or
example, the front end of each arm may be mounted to pivot
about the shaft 36 held in a fork 37 itself mounted on one of
the cross members (e.g.33) and/or one of the beams 31. In
conventional manneI, the back end of each wheel arm 35 bears a
horizontal spindle 38 on which one of the wheels 34 is mounted
to rotate.
Suspension means 40 are mounted between the back end
of each wheel arm 55 and the chassis 30. The suspension means
40 include damping means, preferably of the pneumatic or hydro-
pne~atic type, and advantageously the suspension and dampingmeans are arranged to be o~ a controlled adjustable heigh-t so
that the chassis 3t) can be kept at a constant height above the
ground both when loaded and when empty.
~he use of independant wheel arms 35 and suspension
and damping means ~0 makes it possible to do without the
transversal axles -that pass undernea-th the chassis o~ a
conventional trailer -to support its back wheels. The present
cha~3sis 30 can -thus be at a lower level between the back wheel~3
34, and it i~3 fea~3:ible -for it to be lowered down to
substantially the Level o:E the axes about the wheels rotate,
or under this level, thereby enabling the overall height of the vehicle
above l:he ground-to be reduced.
