Expansible and Retractable Vehicle Body

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the art of expanding and contracting vehicle bodies to accommodate road conditions and provide maximum cargo space. Specifically, the invention deals with a closed truck trailer having a top body or roof portion which is easily raised and lowered to vary the overall height of the trailer.

2. Prior Art

Numerous types of vehicle bodies with roof sections adapted to be raised or lowered are known in the art, as for example, in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:

These known constructions, however, require collapsible or flexible sidewalled roof sections which cannot be shifted without excessive friction, and do not afford access doors or tailgates which will completely open and completely close the doorway regardless of the adjusted height of the trailer. It would, therefore, be an improvement in the art to provide rigid, weather resistant truck trailer bodies which are easily expanded or retracted to afford maximum cargo space for a designated route and which provide maximum access to the cargo space regardless of its adjusted condition.

According to this invention, a road vehicle such as a truck trailer is formed with rigid telescoped top and bottom box-like body portions defining a completely closed cargo space with a full height access opening closed by a door which will operate under all adjusted height positions of the top body portion. The body portions have structural reinforcing ribs or frame members which provide guides or tracks facilitating the raising and lowering of the top body portion. The top and bottom portions preferably have outer skins and inner liners with the ribs therebetween, and lifting jacks, such as screw rods, are preferably provided in the space between the outer skin and inner liner. Anti-friction rollers can be provided to rid on the ribs to facilitate raising and lowering of the top or roof body portion. The lifting jacks can be controlled from a single source such as a crank. The bottom body portion provides the major cargo space and rises to a height which will clear the lowest overpass or viaduct along a roadway while the top or roof body can extend this height for 11/2, for example, to increase the cargo space on those routes where only higher overpasses and viaducts are encountered. As an example, the vehicle body may have a collapsed height of only about 12 feet and expanded height of about 13 feet 3 inches, although dimensions may be varied widely depending upon intended usage for the vehicle.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in the attached three sheets of drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the exterior of a vehicle trailer according to this invention showing its expanded condition in dotted lines.

FIG. 2 is an isometric phantom view of the mechanism for raising and lowering the top body or roof section of the vehicle of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a broken horizontal sectional view across the upper portion of the vehicle body.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view of a portion of the cargo door and track of the vehicle.

FIG. 5 is a transverse fragmentary sectional view along the line V--V of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary broken sectional view through one of the lifting jack areas of the vehicle.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view along the line VII--VII of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 7 but showing a modified guide arrangement .

In FIG. 1, the reference numeral 10 designates generally a closed truck cargo trailer with rigid side walls and roof. The trailer 10 has a main rectangular bottom body 11, a roof or hood 12 telescoped over the top of the body 11 and adapted to be raised to the dotted line position, a vertical lift rear door 13, conventional rear wheels 14 supporting the rear end of the trailer 10 and a conventional dolly jack 15 supporting the front end of the trailer when it is uncoupled from the tractor.

The main body 11 has a conventional floor base 16, upright outer walls 17 around the perimeter of the base 16, an inner line 18, and upright ribs 19 between the outer wall 17 and the liner 18 secured to the base 16 to provide a rigid frame.

The upper body 12 has a rigid flat roof 20 and a depending peripheral wall or skirt 21 telescoped over the body 11. A peripheral box beam 23 at the junction of the roof 20 and depending side wall 21 rigidifies the body 12 as shown in FIG. 6. Likewise, an interior peripheral beam 24 is provided at the top of the body 11 inside of the rib supported liner 18 to form a top band support for the ribs 19 and liner 18. The top body 12, like the bottom body 11 has upright reinforcing ribs 25 secured to the depending peripheral portion 21 and the box beam 23.

Some of the ribs 19 are transversely slotted receiving rollers 26 through the slots and providing bearings 27 for these rollers. The roller carrying ribs 19 as shown in FIG. 7, are arranged to straddle a pair of adjacent ribs 25 of the top body 12 so that the ribs 25 will ride on the rollers 26. As shown in FIG. 3, each side of the vehicle has three sets of rollers 26 and ribs 25, the front end has two such sets and the back end has one set of rollers on each side of a doorway 28 for the door 13.

As shown in FIG. 5, the roller carrying rib 19 at each side of the doorway has an upright box beam 29 riding thereon. Each beam 29 supports a vertical track 30. The door 13 is composed of the usual hinged together panel sections, each with rollers 31 riding in the tracks 30.

A nut 32 is mounted between adjacent ribs 25 as shown in FIG. 7, and is slidably guided by these ribs as it is raised and lowered by a screw rod 33. The nut, as shown in FIG. 6, has a hollow upper portion, and the upper end of the rod 33 carries a bearing 34 which rides on the inner wall of this hollow nut to provide a guide for the rod.

The lower end of each rod 33 is mounted in bearings 35 and projects into a box beam 36 of the floor section 16 where it has a bevelled gear 37 secured thereon and meshing with a gear 38 of a cross rod 39.

The nute 22 are secured to and depend from the box beam 23 of the body 12. As shown in FIG. 2, six nut and rod assemblies 32 and 33 are provided respectively at the four corners of the vehicle body 10 and at the mid-portion of each side wall of the body. The assemblies are transversely aligned and the cross rods 39 connect the bevel gears 38 of the aligned assemblies. A crank 40 is detachably connected to the outer end of the central rod 39 and is manually rotated to drive the rod. Rotation of the central rod 39 in turn drives sprockets 41 and 42 mounted thereon and connected by chains 43 and 44 to sprockets 45 and 46 on the end rods 39. The sprocket and chain arrangement is duplicated on both sides of the vehicle body. Rotation of the crank 40 thus simultaneously drives all of the screw rods 33 to raise or lower the nuts 32 threaded thereon, thereby raising and lowering the body 12.

As shown in FIG. 4, the vertical track 30 on each side of the doorway has an open top into which is telescoped the vertical leg of an arcuate track 47 carried by the body portion 12 and having a horizontal leg underlying the roof of the body 12 to support the door 13 in its opened condition. Instead of providing rollers 26 on the ribs 19 of the main body 11 to ride on the adjacent ribs 23 of the top body 12, as shown in FIG. 8, anti-friction pads 48 and 49 can be secured respectively to the adjacent ribs 19 and 25 to ride thereon and provide a low friction guide for the raising and lowering of the top body 12.

From the above descriptions, it will therefore be understood that this invention provides a closed cargo carrying truck trailer with a telescoped top body portion that can be easily raised and lowered from a single station, such as a crank attached to a drive rod mounted under the main body portion of the vehicle. It will further be understood that the ribs or reenforcing struts of telescoped top and bottom body portions of the vehicle provide guide tracks which will maintain the telescoped bodies in aligned operating position and will facilitate raising and lowering of the top body portion. The lifting mechanisms are protected from the weather being mounted between the outer and inner skin of the body with cross-rods and gearing mounted in box frames or the like underlying the floor of the main body.

Since the top body telescopes over the bottom body, and since the lifting mechanisms operate to center the top body around the upper end of the bottom body, a sealing boot such as 50, shown in FIG. 6, can be provided on the inner face of the depending peripheral wall 21 of the body 12 to ride on the outer skin of the bottom body 11.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the present invention.