A Motor-Truck That Equals Two 



Two detachable bodies, resting on rollers, are pulled on and off the chassis over an inclined 

 platform. While the truck is delivering the contents of one the other is being loaded 



TWO dcinountablo bodies and a 

 novel inclined platform ha\e en- 

 abled a motor- truck owned by an 

 Eastern manufacturer of beds to do the 

 work of two vehicles. It was very nec- 

 essary when preparing to transport the 

 beds over the city streets or country 

 roads to pack them into the truck with the 

 greatest ctire in order to avoid scratch- 

 ing the enamel or other highly polished 

 surfaces during transit, and thus detract- 

 ing from their value. At first this pack- 

 ing and loading took so much time that 

 the truck was standing idle for long 

 periods. Then the truck owner devised 

 the loading and unloading scheme which 

 is shown in the accompaiu'ing sketch. 



The aijparatus consists of two de- 

 mountable bodies resting on rollers, .so 

 that they can be pulled on and off tlu' 

 truck chassis, and an inclined platform 

 upon which the bodies arc withdrawn 

 for loading. 



On the top of the platform which con- 

 sists merely of boards carried on support- 

 ing frames, are two sets of wedges, with 

 their thick ends at the center and their 

 tajiering ends at the ends of the platform. 

 The tops of these wedges are fitted with 

 channel irons to form troughs in which 

 the rollers on the bottoms of the truck- 



bodies are constrained to run when the 

 1)odies are removed. 



The truck arrives at the plant of the 

 manufacturer with its empty body and 

 backs up to the platform. The empty 

 body is pulled off the truck chassis and 

 upon the inclined wedges by means of a 

 rope hooked to the rear end and run 

 o\cr two pulleys to a drum under the 

 platform and operated by means of 

 gears and a small hand-crank. The body 

 is left in this [)osition to be loaded with 

 beds from the main loading-platform, 

 which is directly alongside of the plat- 

 form on which the bodies of the truck 

 are placed. 



The truck then backs up to the other 

 end of the platform, and the loaded body, 

 which has been filled with orders while 

 the goods in the empl\- body just placed 

 were being deli\ered, is pushed down the 

 inclined wtnlge upon the taick in the 

 re\erse manner. By the time this load 

 is deliveretl, the first body is again 

 loaded anfl ready to he pulled upon the 

 truck after it has again returned. Thus 

 the idle loading time of the truck is 

 l)racticalK- eliminated. 



When on the truck and ready for a 

 trip the body is held in place securely 

 b\- four folding hasps, two on each side. 



545 



