Fork lift apparatus adapted to be coupled to a truck or trailer
AssigneeSamson Lift Technologies LLC
InventorsBaruch Parnes, Nachum Frankel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fork lift with retractably extendable loading prongs for lifting loads from either side of a vehicle. The fork lift includes a mechanism for displacing the prongs over and across the vehicle, which mechanism has front and rear transverse girders which can be rigidly secured to the vehicle's chassis. The mechanism further includes front and rear masts, sprocketed wheels mounted on the masts to move the front and rear masts reciprocally, and a longitudinal beam which is coupled to the masts. The longitudinal beam can move up and down. Front and rear uprights extend downwardly from the longitudinal beam. The prongs are retractably engaged to the bottom of the uprights and are moved with hydraulic pistons.
Claims19
A fork lift comprising retractably extendible loading prongs for lifting loads from either side of a vehicle, and a mechanism for displacing said prongs over and across said vehicle, said mechanism for displacing said prongs comprising:
- a front transverse girder and a rear transverse girder, said transverse girders adapted to be rigidly secured to a chassis of said vehicle;
- a front mast and a rear mast, each of said masts extending generally horizontally and having a top and a bottom;
- means for simultaneously reciprocating said front and rear masts at their bottoms along said front and rear girders, respectively;
- a longitudinal beam coupled to said front and rear masts;
- means for reciprocating said longitudinal beam in a downward-upward motion along said front and rear masts;
- and
- a front upright and a rear upright, each of said uprights extending downward from said horizontal beam, wherein at least one of said retractable extendible prongs extends from each of said uprights.
A method of lifting loads from either side of a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a fork lift that comprises
- a front transverse girder, and
- a rear transverse girder, said transverse girders adapted to be rigidly secured to a chassis of said vehicle,
- a front mast and a rear mast, each of said masts extending generally vertically and having a top and a bottom,
- means for simultaneously reciprocating said front and rear masts at their bottoms along said front and rear girders, respectively,
- a longitudinal beam coupled to said front and rear masts,
- means for reciprocating said longitudinal beam in a downward-upward motion along said front and rear masts,
- a front upright and a rear upright, each of said uprights extending downward from said longitudinal beam, and
- retractably extendable loading prongs, at least one of said retractably extendable prongs extends from each of said uprights and said prongs comprise split prongs adapted to lift two wheels of a car;
- rigidly securing said fork lift to said vehicle;
- horizontally extending the retractably extendable loading prongs over and across said vehicle;
- vertically lowering said prongs to the ground;
- positioning said prongs securely underneath a load to be lifted;
- vertically raising said prongs with the load;
- displacing said prongs with the load over and across said vehicle;
- and
- vertically lowering said prongs to rest the load on said vehicle.
A method of lifting vehicles having front wheels and rear wheels from either side of a second vehicle with a fork lift, the fork lift including at least one retractably extendible loading prong and a mechanism that displaces the at least one prong, the mechanism including a first transverse girder and a second transverse girder, a first mast having a top and a bottom and a second mast having a top and a bottom, a beam coupled to the masts, at least one member, having a first member and a second member, extending from the beam, a first sub-mechanism, and a second sub-mechanism, the at least one prong having a first split prong and a second split prong, the first split prong extends from the first member, the second split prong extends from the second member, the method comprising:
- securing the first and second girders to the vehicle;
- displacing the at least one prong over and across the vehicle with the mechanism;
- simultaneously reciprocating the first and second masts at their bottoms along the girders with the first sub-mechanism;
- reciprocating the beam along the first and second masts with the second sub-mechanism;
- and
- lifting the vehicle from either side of the second vehicle with the at least one prong by
- (i) engaging the first split prong and the front wheels at a first location and a second location;
- and
- (ii) engaging the second split prong and the rear wheels at a first location and a second location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.