Wedge Type Trailer Body

Reference may be had to the patent to J. C. Bennett, U.S. Pat. No. 2,872,240 for "Trailer Van With Sloping Floor" as a disclosure of the prior art.

It has long been recognized that the trailer or semi-trailer body will have increased capacity if the floor is sloped to the rear while maintaining the roof in a horizontal plane. However, this type of body has heretofore proved costly to produce as it did not lend itself to mass production. The present body facilitates mass production by having an underframe structure supporting like side posts in right angle relation to the side rails thereof. An extruded aluminum top rail has a downwardly extending flange the lower edge of which is cut at an angle relative to the upper edge thereof whereby the lower edge is substantially parallel to the floor and to the top ends of the posts which are overlapped thereby. The door frame can be orientated parallel to the front wall and posts but preferably, as herein illustrated, is disposed at a right angle to the roof so as to be in a vertical plane which permits the doors to swing in the normal manner. The aforesaid construction readily lends itself to mass production.

FIG. 1 is a broken view in side elevation of a semi-trailer embodying features of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged broken sectional view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 1, taken on the line 2--2 thereof, and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2, taken on the line 3--3 thereof.

A semi-trailer 11 has a body 12 with a roof 13 disposed in a horizontal plane and an underframe 14 which slopes rearwardly providing greater head room within the body at the rear than at the forward end. The underframe 14 at the sides has an extruded aluminum bottom rail 15 secured thereto with a flange 20 extending upwardly to which the bottom ends of a plurality of posts 16 are secured, as by rivets 17. Smooth or corrugated alluminum sheets 18 are also riveted to the posts to form the outside walls of the body. The posts 16 are of U-shape in cross section having edge flanges to which the sheets and extruded side rails are riveted. The posts are disposed in parallel relation and at right angles to the underframing 14. The posts are of the same length so that the top edges will terminate on a line which is parallel to the floor or the underframing.

In accordance with the present invention, a top rail extrusion 19 has an upper edge or a rail portion 21 and a downwardly extending flange 22 of substantial width so that it can be cut on an angle, from the front to the rear, which conforms to the angle that the underframing is disposed relative to a horizontal plane.

The edge of the flange 22 overlaps the top edge of the posts and the side sheets 18, as illustrated at 23 where rivets 17 secure the sheets to the flange 22 and to the side flanges of the posts 16. The top rails 21 have cross members 24 applied thereacross to which the aluminum sheets 25 of the roof are bonded. Cross members 26 extend between the sides of the underframing 14 on which a floor 27 of conventional construction is supported. The inner face of the posts supports plywood paneling 28 which extend between projecting webs 29 of the posts to provide a smooth surface when secured thereto by rivets 31. A front wall 32 may be made of steel to provide strength thereto and to which the side wall sheets 18 are secured. The front wall is disposed at right angles to the underframing and parallel to the posts 16.

The parallel relation of the front wall and the posts and the right angle relation to the underframing 14 permits standard production methods for building a trailer body to be utilized yet the use of the roof rail extrusions 21 orientates the upper surface of the roof in a horizontal plane. A rear door frame 33 of conventional construction is secured at the rear end of the body to be disposed in a vertical plane at right angles to the plane of the roof.

From the foregoing it should be apparent that conventional construction methods can be employed. The underframing is conventional, the right angle relationship of the posts, which are of the same length, to the underframing is conventional, and the orientation of the front wall to the underframing is conventional. The extruded top rail with a wedge shaped flange, while different, attaches to the posts in the normal manner yet orientates the roof in a horizontal plane. The roof is conventionally secured to the cross members between the roof rails. The door frame is preferably attached at the rear end of the body so as to be normally orientated to the roof and to a horizontal plane.