Side wall construction for a cargo transporting and handling vehicle

Abstract

A cargo transporting and handling vehicle is disclosed, which facilitates unloading of cargo elements from and loading of cargo elements onto the vehicle at the various stops along a route. The vehicle has a body having a plurality of elongated guide members mounted on the floor thereof so as to provide a plurality of longitudinally extending paths for guiding the direction of movement of cargo elements on the floor. When the cargo elements are standard sized, 55 gallon drums, four, closely adjacent paths are provided. A lift gate at the rear of the body serves to facilitate the loading of filled drums onto the rear ends of the paths, and doors are provided on the sides of the body, adjacent the front end thereof, through which empty drums on the paths are unloaded. A gate is provided at the front end of each pair of paths to control the movement of drums on the paths and onto an unloading station adjacent each side door. Movement of the drums along the paths as the vehicle proceeds along its route is achieved by slanting the paths downwardly from the rear end toward the front end of the vehicle body. A diverting abutment at the front end of the inner pair of paths serves to channel drums moving forwardly on the paths laterally outwardly toward the unloading stations. A novel side wall construction is disclosed, wherein portions of the side walls are laterally outwardly displaced at particular locations so that the side walls can be positioned close to the drums and the overall width of the vehicle body minimized. The laterally outwardly displaced portions of the side walls also serve to increase their strength. A novel method of loading and unloading the drums from the vehicle body is also disclosed, whereby the driver of the vehicle does not have to get into the vehicle body during a loading or unloading operation.