Mechanical truck restraint

Abstract

A mechanical track restraint that can be mounted to a loading dock without any modification whatsoever to the loading dock or to the concrete pad that is poured in front of the loading dock on which a truck sits during the loading process. The mechanical track restraint can be bolted onto the dock, can be removed and replaced with another device, moved to another location easily and quickly, and can be installed and/or repaired quickly. The device includes a base having a pipe and angle irons welded to the pipe to hold the pipe in place. Fitted within the pipe is a dowel and a spring that coils about the dowel. Fitted over the dowel and spring combination is a holding tube which telescopes within the pipe. The pipe has a slot cut in the front of it so that a hook which is hingedly connected to the holding tube can extend out from the pipe and travel in an up and down direction to raise and lower the hook. Sleeves are welded to the holding tube and the hook includes pivot arms extending into the sleeves. Thus, the hook can be raised and lowered in response to the pressure of the spring unless the hook is pressed down and rotated into an "at rest" position. When the hook is rotated into an at rest position, it is clipped beneath a lock arm in an out of the way position to prevent injury to the device and to others passing near the device. An engagement tool is provided so that the hook can be pressed down against the pressure of the spring to release it from the locking arm, rotated into an active position and released so that the pressure of the spring will cause it to rise and engage the ICC bar on the rear of a track backed up to the dock.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.