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AssigneeJHC Ventures, L.P.
InventorsGregg M. Hoss, James E. Thompson, Thomas F. Johnson, Martin Kirbie, Andrew J. Speer, III
Estimating the term…
A dual use belly-dumping and end-dumping vehicle includes a frame mounted on wheels for transport and a pivotable hopper carried in the frame. The hopper is provided with angled side walls and end walls defining a top opening and a bottom opening. A pair of hopper bay doors are pivotably connected through a pair of pivot arms to the end walls of the hopper. The hopper bay doors have an inwardly pivoted position at which the hopper bay doors cover the bottom opening and an outwardly pivoted position at which the hopper doors pivot in opposite directions from each other to uncover at least part of the bottom opening. Each door of the pair of bay doors pivots about separated pivot points on the end walls, which pivot points are spaced apart from a center line of the hopper a predetermined distance which is less than one-half of the distance between the center line and each respective side wall. Each bay door has an interior surface with a radius of curvature approximately equal to the distance from the bottom opening to the pivot points, so that an imaginary vertical line from the pivot points to the hopper doors intersects the interior door surface at a point which is closer to the center line than it is to the side walls at the bottom hopper opening, thereby causing a greater proportion of the weight of granular material in the hopper to act to pivot each door inwardly to a closed position. A hydraulic actuating cylinder is attached between the actuator arms and is operatively connected to a controllable hydraulic pressure supply to selectably move the hopper bay doors between the inward closed position and the outward open position.
A hopper for holding granular material for transport in and for dumping from a dual use, belly-dumping and end-dumping vehicle, said hopper comprising:
A hopper for holding granular material for transport in and for dumping from a dual use, belly-dumping and end-dumping vehicle, said hopper comprising:
A hopper for holding granular material for transport in and for dumping from a dual use, belly-dumping and end-dumping vehicle, said hopper comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.