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US 6,086,074 AGranted
Steering lock system
AssigneeOshkosh Truck Corporation
InventorEric E. Braun
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeOshkosh Truck Corporation
InventorEric E. Braun
Estimating the term…
A steering lock mechanism for a steerable axle assembly. The mechanism includes a fluid-actuated pin mounted within a cylinder. The cylinder is carried by a plate attached to a steerable wheel end. The pin carried by the cylinder has a tapered end which engages a tapered hole. When these tapered components are in engagement, steering motion of the steerable wheel end is prevented. The mechanism has several significant features, one of which is a fail-safe design in which a mechanical spring urges the pin to assume an extended or locking position in the event of failure of the pneumatic actuating system. The mechanism is designed so that the pin will find the hole as the steered wheels sweep past the straight ahead position, in the event of a failure of the fluid actuation system used to retract the pin. A second feature is an adjustability afforded by 1) the pin being eccentrically mounted within a rotatable supporting cylinder; and 2) the tapered hole for receiving the pin being mounted in a slidable block which can be brought into alignment with the pin after the steerable wheels have been put into a straight ahead position.
A lock mechanism for controlling steering motion of wheels in an axle assembly having a pair of moveable wheel ends, the lock mechanism comprising a pin moveable between a first position and a second position, and a support having a hole for receiving said pin, said pin being carried by one of said moveable wheel ends and said support being carried by a fixed portion of said axle assembly, wherein said first position is one in which said pin is in engagement with said hole, and said second position is one in which said pin is withdrawn from said hole, and wherein said pin is actuated by a cylinder in which a spring urges said pin toward said first position whereby said pin is normally in said first position, and pressurized fluid urges said pin to said second position whereby forces exerted upon said pin by said spring are exceeded resulting in retraction of said pin from said hole.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.