Amsted Industries Inc.

John W Kaim

Russell G Altherr

V Terrey Hawthorne

Horst T Kaufhold

Ronald D Golembiewski

Jeffrey M Ruback

Norman A Berg

A reduced weight fifth wheel generally mountable on a tractor for coupling between a tractor and a trailer, which fifth wheel has the approximately the same bearing surface area, a more continuous surface area by elimination of a lever-bar pin port in the bearing surface, thinner support ribs and smaller fillets, a shorter longitudinal length with a wider kingpin receiving slot for receipt of a trailer kingpin, with a locking-jaw mechanism having a redesigned lever-bar pin and pin-receiving port to enable reduction of the weight and to enhance production casting practices, which fifth wheel further encompasses lateral support ribs at the plate outer perimeter and rearward of the mounting brackets to define support pockets ahead of the engaging ramps to avoid lateral deflection and deformation of the plate at vertical loading.

Reduced weight fifth wheel assembly

A fifth wheel for trucks is disclosed. Such fifth wheels usually are mounted on truck tractors and receive kingpins that are mounted on truck trailers. An operating rod is provided to manually disengage the kingpin locking mechanism. In one embodiment the fifth wheel plate is mounted on bases with trunnion pins. The bases are secured to the truck tractor. Retaining pins are received in flanges and serve to block axial movement of the trunnion pins. The retaining pins are disposed parallel to the top surface of the plate and are perpendicular to the axes of the trunnion pins. The retaining pins and flanges may be spaced far enough below the fifth wheel support surface so that a misfed kingpin cannot contact them. Alternatively, or in addition, the retaining pins may be under a protector that extends over the length of the retaining pin to prevent a misfed kingpin from striking the retaining pins. In another embodiment the protector is sized and shaped to prevent a misfed kingpin from striking an extended operating rod of the fifth wheel assembly. The protector may be a convex shaped deflector that shifts the path of the misfed kingpin away from the operating arm, or may be shaped to catch the misfed kingpin. The same shape protector can serve both purposes of protecting the retaining pins and the operating arm. The outer edge of each protector is below the top surface of the fifth wheel plate.

Fifth wheel kingpin deflector and catcher

A reduced weight fifth wheel generally mountable on a tractor for coupling between a tractor and a trailer, which fifth wheel has the approximately the same bearing surface area, a more continuous surface area by elimination of a lever-bar pin port in the bearing surface, thinner support ribs and smaller fillets, a shorter longitudinal length with a wider kingpin receiving slot for receipt of a trailer kingpin, with a locking-jaw mechanism having a redesigned lever-bar pin and pin-receiving port to enable reduction of the weight and to enhance production casting practices.

An accessory fluid cylinder and cam apparatus mounted under a fifth wheel, which is both manually operable or energizable by a tractor air system to enable a driver to automatically and remotely release the safety latch and unlock the fifth wheel jaw to release a trailer king pin when the tractor parking brake is engaged.

Air operated fifth wheel

Truck tractors are connected to their trailers by fifth wheels and several companies manufacture fifth wheel assemblies. The tractors consist of a pair of longitudinally extending beams or rails to which the fifth wheel assemblies mount. Each fifth wheel manufacturer provides several types of fifth wheels, depending upon the type of trucking service being provided. Complicating the situation is the fact that the lateral spacing between the beams will differ. As a result of these variations, different types of mounting brackets have been developed to secure the fifth wheels to the trailer frames. The drop-over bracket fifth wheel mounting assembly consists of an L-shaped angle brace which complements and is slipped over the beam of the tractor; a bracket on its top connects to the fifth wheel. The flat plate method utilizes a thick, flat plate to span across and rest upon each of the beams; it also has a top side bracket. The drop-over method resists longitudinal loads very well but has been found to develop fatigue cracks as a result of lateral and lateral overturn loads. The flat plate method has proved to be a more costly, yet more effective method of preventing fatigue cracking. The present invention combines the positive features of each individual system into a single, and unitary lightweight cast mounting assembly, thereby providing structural homogeneousity which is resistant to fatigue cracking. Since the combined bracket mounts directly to the tractor beams, it can be used from tractor to tractor if necessary, with no concern for the lateral spacing between the beams of a particular tractor.

Mounting system for fifth wheels

An accessory fluid cylinder and cam apparatus mounted under a fifth wheel may be energized by a tractor compressed air system to enable a driver to automatically and remotely unlock the fifth wheel jaw to release a trailer king pin when the tractor parking brake is engaged.

Fifth wheel unlocking device with fluid powered redundancy

A fifth wheel assembly for tractors or other draft arrangement has a bearing plate with a lubricating plate, a peripheral wall with diametrically opposed notches extending above the bearing plate surface and a nonmetallic lubricating wear liner with diametrically opposed ears notchable with the notches to resist rotational motion by the liner, which liner extends above the peripheral wall and is secured against the bearing plate as a lubricating liner but retained within the bearing plate cavity against radially outward displacement by the peripheral wall.

Tractor fifth wheel with bearing plate lubricating liner

A railway vehicle drawbar slackless rotary dump arrangement having one end fixed against rotation to one railway vehicle and the other end connected to be rotatable in a second adjoining railway vehicle. Slack elimination is provided by a wedge at each connection. The rotatable connection includes a drawbar ball end held between concentric pulling blocks and follower block with a shim and cradle arrangement to maintain alignment of the concentric parts. Appurtenances are provided to the drawbar shank to simulate striker castings and interlocked E and F type couplers so as to accommodate the drawbar for use with indexing apparatus at the unloading site. Means are also incorporated to move cars in case of failure of system components.

Railway vehicle rotary drawbar arrangement

A slackless railcar connector system includes a gravity wedge shim that has a tail piece extending from the narrow edge of the sim through an aligning groove in a sill pocket casting, or the like. A biasing member may also be located adjacent the aligning groove to engage the tail piece.

Gravity wedge for slackless railcar connections

A railway coupler connection is provided for slackless arrangements wherein spacer lugs are provided between the coupler shank and the sill side castings to restrain lateral movement of the coupler member at about the draw key; and access ports are provided in a pocket casting to facilitate withdrawal of a wedge holding the coupler parts together whereby the parts may be disassembled.

Slackless railway coupler connection

An improved railway car striker assembly including a spring supported coupler carrier wherein the carrier has laterally extending lugs with chevron shaped bearing surfaces engageable with congruent surfaces on retainer plates to restrain longitudinal and lateral movement of the carrier.

Railway coupler carrier retention system

A railway coupler yoke assembly is provided. A yoke, draft gear and follower are assembled as a unit assembly and maintained as such by the installation of bands at various locations about the assembly. Such yoke assembly can then be shipped and stored as an assembly until the time of installation in a railway car. At such time, the bands are cut and the assembly is placed in the railway car.

Railway, coupler yoke, draft gear and follower assembly

This invention relates to a railway car coupler having an improved anticreep protection assembly so as to prevent inadvertent uncoupling during movement of the railway car along a track. The improvement comprises the provision of a chamfered locklift connector or a chamfered coupler structure that lies in the path of movement of the connector so that an anticreep prong of the connector may be free to engage with a front face ledge of the coupler head to provide positive anticreep protection against accidental unlocking of the coupler.

Bottom shelf coupler with anticreep protection means

A railway coupler connection is provided for use in a coupler shank-yoke or a drawbar-yoke configuration. Self adjusting slack reduction is provided by a wedge shaped shim or an angled follower block. Vertical and horizontal angling of the coupler connection is provided for by the curved shape of the contacting surfaces of the butt portion of the shank or drawbar and the follower block and the yoke.

A railroad car coupler includes a Type-E coupler head which contains a vertical lock chamber. Disposed in the chamber is a lock which may be raised from a lower locking position to an intermediate lockset position. At lockset, a knuckle pivotally carried by the coupler head may swing from a closed position to an open position. At lockset, the lock rests on a knuckle thrower of the coupler head with a lockset seat of the lock engaging a leg lock seat portion of the knuckle thrower. By forming the lockset seat of the lock on a selective lateral slope, the lock may be tilted toward a guard arm side of the coupler head. When the knuckle is swung toward its open position, a sufficient area of a tail portion of the knuckle passes under the lock to insure a proper pick-up of the lock to remove the lock from lockset.

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Chicago, IL, United States of America

John W Kaim