Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/559

 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rollers, .so that they can be pulled on and off tlu' truck chassis, and an inclined platform upon which the bodies arc withdrawn for loading.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.

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