Apparatus for handling heavy loads

A transportation apparatus for transporting heavy loads in combination with a straddlefork lift truck having a body, a single set of steerable wheels carrying said body, at least two elevatable forks extending from said body in a primary direction of motion of the truck along a supporting surface and wheel means rotatably mounted near the distal ends of said forks for supporting said forks on said supporting surface, said transportation apparatus comprising

• a generally rectangular frame including longitudinal side members and first and second transverse end members adjacent opposite ends of said side members;
• means for supporting a load above said frame;
• first and second wheels;
• means for rotatably mounting said first and second wheels at opposite sides of said frame adjacent said first transverse end member with substantially coaxial axes of rotation;
• and
• said second transverse end member being spaced above the supporting surface a distance sufficient to permit insertion of said forks under said second transverse end member to a position in which the axes of rotation of said wheel means on said forks are so much closer to said coaxial axes of rotation of said first and second wheels than either of said axes of rotation are to said steerable wheels of said truck that said axes of rotation of said wheels and wheel means function as a single rotation axis,
• whereby when said forks are elevated, said end of said frame at said second transverse end member is lifted and said first and second wheels and said wheel means remain in contact with said supporting surface, so that said frame and the load thereon are supported at one end by said first and second wheels and said wheel means and at the other end by the steerable wheels carrying said body so that all of said supporting wheels and wheel means being pivotable about no more than two longitudinally spaced rotation axes.