Vehicle with trussed box beam load supports

Abstract

A vehicle is structured for transporting heavy loads of unstable elongated items such as logs or heavy pipes and includes longitudinally spaced lateral members or "bunks" and vertical stakes at the ends of the bunks. Each of the bunks comprising an elongated steel beam having at least three spaced mutually perpendicular plates defining a hollow inside of the beam, preferably a box beam formed by welding together elongated plates. A number of trusses are placed in the hollow inside of the beam, at least some of which extend diagonally between spaced plates, especially the upper and lower plates. The trusses form triangular bracing structures with the plates for supporting the load on the beams at spaced points along the length of the vehicle. In a preferred arrangement, a center truss forms a medial triangular structure and at least two wing trusses form lateral triangular structures on each side of the center truss, and the beams are supported by longitudinal frame members of the vehicle in the area of the center truss. The center truss and wing trusses form triangles that abut proceeding from the center to the ends of the beams. The trusses have plates that are attached at plug welds to one or more of the external plates forming the box beam, namely having through holes that are filled when weld the truss to the plate from the outer surface of a plate forming the beam. The vertical stakes are also made from truss reinforced hollow beams, preferably with an upward taper, and can be integral with, attached to or received in pockets in the beams. The resulting vehicle maximizes load bearing strength and minimizes weight, thereby improving the vehicle load carrying capacity.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.