Dock leveler

A dock leveler sized to fit in a pit of a loading dock, comprising:

• a rear leg bracket disposed adjacent a rear wall of the pit, the rear leg bracket having a bottom portion attachable to a bottom surface of the pit;
• a lip keeper disposed at a forward edge of the pit, the lip keeper being spaced from and independently installable from the rear leg bracket without contacting structure which is coupled to the bottom portion of the rear leg bracket so as to create an environment having a substantially open area;
• a deck having a forward end and a rearward end, the rearward end being supported by the rear leg bracket, the forward end extending over the lip keeper;
• and,
• a lip pivotably attached to the forward end of the deck for disposal in the lip keeper when the deck is in a storage position.

A loading dock, comprising:

• a dock wall;
• a dock floor having a pit formed therein, the pit having a back wall, a first sidewall, a second sidewall, a pit floor, and an open front end formed in the dock wall, the pit floor comprising a front region, an intermediate region, and a rear region;
• a rear curb angle forming an intersection of the dock floor and the back wall;
• a front curb angle forming an intersection of the pit floor and the dock wall;
• and,
• a dock leveler having a fixed footprint on the pit floor that is created by independently introducing and fixing components in the front region of the pit floor without the components in the front region of the pit floor contacting structure which is coupled to components fixed in the rear region of the pit floor.